President Linda Gerber called the meeting to order, and Keith Banks started us off with our Statement of Purpose. He then presented his Thought for the Day: “Can we keep the party going?” He used it to reflect on the great Taste of Evanston event, with Rotarians collaborating and working and sacrificing for months to make it successful. How do we bottle that joy and keep it going?

 

 

Ann Searles, Sunshine Lady, reports that John Heimbaugh, a charter member of the club, is not doing well. Ann has his address if some might like to send good wishes. Linc Janus is in the ICU. They are trying to find out what is wrong. We need to keep him in our thoughts and prayers.

 

Helen Oloroso added that Sam Lovering is struggling and his wife, Joan, is further deteriorating.

 

Kelly Fidei is part of the International Federation of Rotarian Musicians which meets every Saturday at noon for an hour. Everyone is welcome. It’s a choir, and they sing on mute, so don’t worry about your voice. They sing a lot of songs from the Rotary songbook and other places, in various languages, including Zulu. There are people there from Italy, India, France, Ethiopia, the Netherlands, etc., making it particularly fun.

 

Katherine Peterson announced that there is a final event for the “See My Story” exhibition at Perspective Gallery on Wednesday night. They are very pleased with the increased interest due to being highlighted by our Rotary Club. Also look for emailed details of a flash fellowship coming up this Saturday.

 

Sue Bova: The International Service Committee will meet next Monday, Sept. 27, at 7:15 a.m. Send Sue an email if you’d like to join and aren’t currently a member.

 

 

Steve Goranson thanked all who participated in the Evanston Lighthouse beach cleanup last Saturday, especially Ann and John Searles, who were the registrars. Eighteen people showed up.

 

Clarence Weaver boasted the help he got from Bruce Baumberger while he was away, and thanked all Rotarians who helped by the power of presence at Taste of Evanston. His family were also amazed. And congratulations to Rebeca Mendoza and Keith Banks for joining the club.

 

 

Bruce Baumberger shared a slide show and video of the successful Taste of Evanston event that was held on Sunday, Sept. 19. President Linda encouraged committee members to elaborate on what was most memorable to them. You can view the slideshow here: https://1drv.ms/p/s!ApqrQQXFMs2LhZMoPBVDdtqNomuqgw?e=ISgftp and there’s a bit of a narration.

 

Troy Perkins filmed via drone, which gave us a unique perspective on the grounds and new layout. Our Rotary International President-elect Jennifer Jones and her husband Nick Krayacich attended as volunteers. Thirty fantastic, generous restaurants, wineshops, and breweries donated their wares.

 

Rebeca Mendoza arranged for beautiful tres leches cakes from Sweet Temptations, and Rebeca supplied the images for the frosting. Two Rotarian owners, Clarence Weaver and Elio Romero, were there. Clarence and his wife, Wendy, served ice cream cones to a never-ending line of enthusiastic customers.

 

Sandy Chen, owner of Koi, always supports Taste of Evanston and the community above and beyond. Elio, chef-owner of Alcove (previously Chef’s Station) is a long-time staunch supporter of Rotary and the Taste of Evanston. Shannon Sudduth is the owner of Noir d’Ebene. Sandeep Ghaey is the generous owner of Vinic Wine Co., in conversation with Jennifer’s husband Nick and Larry Singer, the president of the board of the Evanston Community Foundation, invited by Bryant Wallace.

 

Many District level Rotarians attended. MaLu Simon told us about an encounter that Linda Bouvilam and Michael Merdinger had with someone who wanted to come in, didn’t have the necessary credentials, and was becoming irate. MaLu went to get him some food, and spotted Jennifer and Nick. She asked them to interact with him and help out.

 

Jennifer made him feel heard, listened to, and respected. The picture speaks for itself. The man was Javier, one of the subjects in the Perspectives Gallery “See My Story” show. Jim McGuire does so much behind-the-scenes work with all of the graphics, signs, etc. Ann Weatherhead and MaLu did an outstanding job with decorations. Ann is also the liaison with the beneficiaries.

 

Bruce Baumberger is the miracle-man problem solver. Hal Gerber, Linda’s husband, is a knowledgeable, hard-working volunteer. Jennifer Jones made supportive remarks. Ann Weatherhead talked about the important work and moving remarks from Sue Loellbach and Keith Banks representing our beneficiary organizations. More photos will be coming.

 

Linda called on some participants to tell us their most memorable moments. Helen’s most memorable moment was how generous our club members were. Rebeca’s was about being out in the community and bringing members of her community to experience something new. Don Gwinn’s was watching people come into the entrance with expectations of a good time, greeting people; clearly, it’s become a top event for many people in Evanston, they appreciate that we had it again, and it has a life of its own.

 

 Bryant Wallace liked hearing people talk about learning about new restaurants. He told a story about how Michael, a high school student from the Officer and a Gentleman Academy who wants to be an engineer, enjoyed following Troy Perkins while he filmed with his drone.

 

 

 

 

 

Jean Saunders introduced Dr. Brennan, a business coach who works with professional services providers to focus their time and energy to grow their practices profitably. At heart, she is an educator and encourager. Linda’s career has spanned management and engineering positions at Philip Morris, IBM, the Quaker Oats Company, and the Coca-Cola Company; consulting in dozens of industries, and teaching leadership, management, and strategy to audiences from undergraduates to executives.

 

A seasoned professional and creative problem solver, she is a widely published author. She completed her PhD from Northwestern University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and her bachelor’s from the Georgia Institute of Technology. A Six Sigma Black Belt, she earned her professional engineering license in Georgia and has been a certified Project Management Professional. She and her husband live in Evanston with their menagerie. Linda is a voracious reader, avid cruciverbalist, and enthusiastic pickleball player.

 

When Linda and her husband moved to Evanston a year ago, she became a business coach. Her husband attended Taste of Evanston and had an awesome time.

 

The idea of doing more with less can resonate in many ways. Doing more with less started as a coping mechanism for Linda and has turned into a calling. She had a chaotic childhood, and organizing her closet was a soothing behavior. She coped by being systematic and organized.

 

Linda described the idea of margin, and running out of margin. She believes in integrating all aspects of our lives, including self-care, and leaving margins. Feeling overwhelmed can be from a lack of margin. Margin is the difference between our load and our limit. If you don’t have margins, your quality of life suffers.

 

To do more with less you need to improve your Throughput. Throughput is the rate at which you get things done – how long it takes to translate inputs like time into outputs like a successful Taste event. Throughput is how you get to more. Getting rid of waste is how we get to less – anything that doesn’t add value is waste.

 

One of Linda’s favorite quotes is by the late Peter Drucker: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

 

Linda recently published a book about doing more with less through a fictional story whose main character is Victoria. She’s a powerful executive with a lot of skills – and she’s in Purgatory. God has challenged her to do more with less. He wants her to fix the overcrowding of Purgatory by baby-boomers.

 

One way to increase Throughput (here efficiently getting baby boomers out of Purgatory) is to use Poka-yokes, a Japanese term for fail safes - guides to prevent mistakes and encourage correct processes. Victoria introduced a pacing mechanism to get them to pick up their pace. Checklists can be a great tool for this. Putting your phone in your shoes can help you remember to bring them when you leave, for example.

 

The 5S method is one way to reduce waste: Sort – Straighten -  Shine -  Systematize -  Standardize. For a fundraiser this could be a project plan, or a supplies list. At home the kitchen is the perfect place to impose this sort of order.

 

 

 

Linda Brennan, former Rotarian for 16 years, today’s speaker

Brien Johnson, guest of Ann Searles visiting again

 

 

Hillary Hufford-Tucker, September 24

Barb Miles, September 27

 

 

Chip Uchtman, 20 years