Libertyville Sunrise Rotary Bulletin September 20, 2023

 

Written by Patrick Hart

 

Rich Babjak opened the meeting this week, with a prayer, a pledge, and Dennis Kratohwil leading us in singing “I’m Just a Cheeseburger in Paradise.”

 

 

Eliot Pinsel bragged that he is going skydiving and that his son who is finishing law school was offered a job as a prosecutor.

 

Scott Hezner bragged that his daughter got married, following the example of her parents who have just celebrated thirty-nine years of wedded bliss.

 

Rich Babjak bragged that he traveled to Tampa where he saw the Bears play.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Jim Curtis is celebrating a birthday this week. 

 

Kim Smith announced a volleyball tournament on Saturday, September 23 at Crossroads to benefit the American Heart Association. Contact Kim if you are interested.

 

Howard Jaffe is looking for volunteers to man the USO beer tent from 8 to 10 p.m. this week on Thursday, September 21.

 

As we prepare for our fundraiser Tucker Olson is requesting that club members with contacts at local companies pass on this information to him, so he can approach these entities with requests that they support our event.  Meanwhile Howard Jaffe mentioned that George Wendt has appeared in a video promoting the event which we can use to market our fundraiser.  

 

Our fall highway cleanup has been scheduled for Saturday morning October 14.  Meet at 7:00 a.m. at the southeast corner of Butterfield and 137 with a smile on your face and a determination in your soul to do a good deed for Good Old Mother Earth.

 

Our president advised us that the club is looking at holding some of our meetings in the evening, to see how this time goes over.  Details to follow.

 

Eliot Pinsel stepped in as a last minute substitute to oversee fun and frolics with a quiz on classic rock, which some of our members knew a lot about.

 

Our speaker this week was Angela Walker District 6440 Membership Chair. 

 

Angela believes that the Libertyville Sunrise Rotary Club is a very dynamic club.  We are welcoming, we have good attendance at our meetings, and we engage in lots of activities.  However, like all of Rotary we need to grow.

 

Rotary has been on a downward trend on membership for five years.  The organization has lost thirty precent of its membership, which is typical of all service organizations these days.

 

If we are going to turn this around we especially need to attract younger members, and this she believes requires us to make revisions to adapt to the changing environment.  She cited the possibility of holding evening meetings which our president announced today is a good example of such a change. Changing meeting places can also prove helpful, or you could try only meeting every other week.

 

Angela also pointed out that the first year or two of membership are the ones in which the most people quit, and she says we should take this as a sign that we need to get new members more involved,  We should also strive to assure that they feel we are listening to what they have to say.  

 

This week we had $23.00 in our itsy bitsy teeny weeny raffle, while the big bucks have grown to $492.00 with only 37 cards left. John McDonald won the quick pot, while Jon Robb stumbled on the finish line, as he attempted to take home the huge overflowing pile of cash.  And just think we only have to wait another seven days for another exciting raffle. 

 

Every problem is an opportunity in disguise.    John Adams