The Sycamore Rotary Club was saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Robert I. Smith on Tuesday, October 13th; he died in hospice care after a brief illness.

 

R.I. Smith was one of the longest-serving members of the Sycamore Rotary Club, and a pillar of the community in a number of areas; he was a Past District Governor for Rotary District 6420, and participated in a number of local and regional Rotary efforts until the very end.

 

The Sycamore Rotary Club extends its condolences to the family of R.I. Smith.  The family is asking for any photographs of Bob in action with Rotary; anyone with photos should send them to Barry Schrader, who will relay them to the family.

 

For a complete obituary, go to this link

 

 

Every day, the Hon. Robbin Stuckert faces a bond call in her courtroom and has just a few minutes to decide whether a defendant is eligible for bond, and what it should be set at.  She says judges often have little to go on when making these decisions...but DeKalb County is taking steps to help out, and bond reform across the country could assist further.

 

Stuckert is a former member of the Sycamore Rotary Club, and in December will begin service as chief judge for the 23rd Circuit.  She told Rotarians that personnel from Court Services now take time to test and interview each defendant, and assess how much of a risk they pose; this, along with mandated procedures that all judges follow, help her to decide how to fairly set bond...balancing the defendant's rights with the safety of the community.

 

She notes that an individual's economic situation can vary; persons with means can usually afford 10% of a $100,000 bond, while poorer suspects may stay in custody because they can't come up with $500 on a $5,000 bond.  And those who stay in custody suffer loss of employment, housing and family, with devastating effects on their loved ones -- and that's while the presumption of innocence is in effect.  And she says that studies have demonstrated that there's no correlation between how much a defendant can pay to meet bond, and the likelihood that they'll show up in court.

 

Judge Stuckert also discussed plans for the county's drug rehabilitation home for men; right now, the county has had to hire an architect to determine whether the house is ADA compliant...and will examine that architect's report, to determine what changes if any will be needed before the house can be put to use.

 

The DeKalb Rotary Club is inviting all area Rotarians, and anyone interested in Rotary, to a Happy Hour at Fatty's Pub and Grille.

 

It will be on Friday, November 13th from 4:30 to 6:30 in Fatty's back room; all are welcome to attend for an informal gathering of Rotarians.

 

 

The Rotary Board has instituted a new policy concerning member e-mails, in order to get around a problem with company servers blocking messages.

 

Recently, our Rotarians were asked to let us know if they had had trouble receiving the electronic version of The Spoke; after a complaint, and analysis of messages sent via the website, we discovered that some Rotarians had their messages blocked by company servers.

 

Each of these Rotarians had given us a work-related address; company servers often treat mass e-mailings as spam, and filter them out -- thus, The Spoke kept getting rejected.  We solved the problem by having the affected members give us a personal address to send their e-mails to, instead of a business address.

 

So henceforth, new members will be asked to provide a personal e-mail account for us to use.  Current members who are having no problems receiving The Spoke may keep their current address, regardless of its origin; but if you should change your e-mail address for some reason, please be sure to give us a personal account to replace it with, so that your receipt of The Spoke and other Rotary Club mailings may continue uninterrupted.