“You are not your struggles. You are the survivor who keeps moving forward in spite of them.” – Lori Deschene – Author

“You’re never too important to be nice to people.” – Jon Batiste – Singer-Songwriter

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive.” – Maya Angelou – 1928-2014 – Poet-Singer-Activist

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(Notes provided by Lisa Crane)

Instead of a typical reflection, Ed Perry passed out old newsletters from 25+ years ago. He also reminded us that Jerry lead the charge to deliver our newsletter by email.  Thanks Ed!

We received a thank you note from our Parkland scholarship award recipient.

We received a thank you from Michele Olsen for our donation to Shelterbox.

Nominations for board members and committee chairs are open. The following slate of leaders was announced:
*Ata Durakin as President
*Lisa Crane as President elect
*Jerry Payonek as Secretary
*Tod Satterthwaite as Treasurer

While we are almost to the halfway mark of the current Rotary year, Charlie the Terrible insists he still has much more in store for the club during his reign.

Robb provided an update on the club’s annual Fruit Sale. We will keep the same price of $30 per case.  Sola Gratia farms will be this year’s beneficiary.

We will take fruit sale orders on November 11 and 18^th at the Urbana Farmer’s Market (8am-12pm).  Robb is looking for another volunteer on the 11^th, and Jerry would like another volunteer to help on the 18^th. 

Oktay provided Fruit Sale flyers.  Check your email.

We are, against all odds, still in 2^nd place in the football picking game.  Cary deserves a major award for guiding our club to such sustained success. 

Nov 9 – Doors open at 5:30pm, dinner served at 6:30pm, program at 7pm – CU Sunrise Anniversary Party at City View 

Dec 21 CU Sunrise Christmas Party & White Elephant gift exchange

SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES 

Nov 5 (7am) CU Special Recreation 5K cupcake Fundraiser

Nov 14 (3-4:30pm) Assemble winter kits at United Way (our grant)

Dec 2  (9-11am) Salt & Light 1819 Philo Rd Urbana

Dec 9 (10am-7pm) Salvation Army Bell Ringing

Dec 16 (8:30-noon) Crisis Nursery Holiday shop @ Orpheum

Bucket bucks

November – Chez Veteran’s Center at UIUC

December – Storybrook Project for Incarcerated Parents & Families

SPEAKER

Tom Ulen introduced this week’s speaker, Dr. Dan Simons, Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois. Dr. Simons leads the visual cognition lab.  His research explores the limits of awareness and memory and the reasons why we often are unaware of those limits and the implications of such limits.

He is the author, along with Dr. Chris Chabris, of the new book Nobody’s Fool.  It was noted that $8.8 billion are lost each year due to fraud. There is a basic scam called the Grandparents scam where a caller seeking money calls an older adult and poses as a grandchild in need of money. 

Dr. Simons described how once in a while we can all be fooled by something.  One example given was General James Mattis who was fooled by Elizabeth Holmes’ claims regarding her biotech startup. 

Anyone looking to deceive us wants us to focus on one thing while they change something else.  The focus is on our cognitive tendencies. Hooks are types of info to pull us in.  Consistency is another tendency.

Not all scams are for the elderly. Bernie Madoff used the idea of something safe as his scam. He did not promise huge gains on investments.  Rather, he showed continuous gains that upon careful inspection were indeed too good to be true.

Scams only have to reach a small number people to keep scammers going. Usually if something sounds too good to be true… it usually is. However, it may look just good enough to others.

He recommended setting up a secret word or code with your family to determine if someone calling is indeed who they claim to be.

—

—

UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee members listed in parentheses)

November 9^th – no morning meeting – Anniversary Dinner at 5:30pm at CityView

November 16^th – Tom Porter, former UIUC Men’s Wrestling Coach and Associate Athletic Director, will discuss changes in Division 1 Athletics (Joe)

November 23^rd – Turkey Day – no morning meeting

November 30^th – No morning meeting (5^th Thursday)

December 7^th – Dr. Beth Conerty, Associate Director of Business Development – IBRL & RIO for iFAB Tech Hub, and Carly McCrory-McKay, Executive Director – Champaign County Economic Development Corporation, will discuss the iFAB Tech Hub (Mary)

December 14^th – TBD (Michael)

December 21^st – CUSR Holiday Party

December 28^th – TBD (Cary)

January 4^th – TBD (Joe)

January 11^th – TBD (Lisa)

January 18^th – TBD (Mary

January 25^th – TBD (Michael)

February 1^st – TBD

February 8^th – TBD (Tom)

February 15^th – TBD (Cary)

UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS

December 1 – Larry Johnson

December 29 – Jerry Payonk