Addison Rotary Meeting
July 29, 2008

Members present:

The meeting opened with America , the Pledge, Rotary Motto, prayer and lunch.

Cal George made the following announcements:

Rotary scholarship winner Alejandra Vivanco picked up her scholarship check. She will be our guest at next week's meeting.

Birthday/anniversary announcements will be resumed. This tradition includes singing and fines.

Community Days is next weekend, August 8-10. Volunteers are still needed for the booth that is being shared with District 4, District 4 Foundation and District 88. Many more volunteers are needed to help in the beer tent on Sunday, August 10 from 2-10pm. Rotarians will be able to sell Split the Pot tickets in the beer tent. Don Weiss applied for the raffle permit. Contact Diane at 630-458-2429 to sign up to volunteer.

Cal introduced Mike Slevnik, the District Governor for Rotary District 6450. Slevnick has been a Rotarian since 1990 and, as District Governor, is here to help our club. As membership chair for the past two years, he's happy to share ideas and information to help build the club's membership.

•  Members should wear their pins at all times and be ready to share information about Rotary when asked.

•  Grants are available. If a club holds a membership event, matching funds up to $200 are available.

•  Use free publicity opportunities. Send photos and information to local newspapers to share the good work that Rotary does.

•  Guests come to Rotary for friendship, food and the speaker, but they stay because of the service aspect of the club. Active clubs are successful club.

Slevnik spoke about Rotary International's president, D.K. Lee, whose goal is to have Rotary's 33,000 clubs come together to reduce child mortality by addressing the issues of health, hunger, water management and literacy. Slevnik urges clubs to continue with their projects, but to work on customizing them around children.

Slevnik requests support of the following projects:

•  Easter Seals – wants Rotary wing or garden as part of Autism school at 13 th and Damen. Sox outing profits will go toward this.

•  Special Olympics

•  VOSH (Volunteer Optometric to Serve Humanity) gets eyewear to developing countries. Clubs can help by collecting old eyeglasses.

•  Family Shelters – Clubs can help by donating cell phones or making financial contributions

•  Feeding Children Worldwide - $500 contribution can purchase 2160 nutritious meals, targeting an area across the border in Mexico .

New committees have been formed to educate members on what Rotary is and to increase membership. Programs on ‘ABCs of Rotary' are available to clubs.

Members can list their business on BIZNET on Rotary website for $60/year.

District conference will be held at the Abbey in Lake Geneva . Conference will be kicked off on the last Wednesday in April by an event in Burr Ridge. One of the speakers at the conference will be Carolyn Jones, the first female trustee of Rotary Foundation.

Rotary license plate request forms are available. These do not obligate members to purchase a plate, they are just a request to the governor to authorize a Rotary plate.

The District Governor 104 Challenge awards points for activities. Slevnik encourage members to take up the challenge and win a Rotary 104 pin.

Meeting adjourned at 1:25 p.m.