October 12th, 2017 Newsletter

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ― Martin Luther King, Jr. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
(Notes provided by Allan Penwell)

We welcomed Mary Kay Smith to our club last week. She is married to Charlie Smith who officially became a member a week ago. Both are former members of the Mahomet and Champaign West Rotary Clubs. Mary Kay is a student admissions advisor at Parkland and has been employed there since 1998. Mary Kay and Charlie have two children who are in college. Here are some tidbits of interesting things about them. Mary Kay rafted down the Grand Canyon. Charlie wrestled at the U of I and coached Cody Abbot’s boys in wrestling.

World Polio Day is October 24th. Rotary billboards will be around town, and Rotarians will be soliciting donations for polio on Randolph at the Channel 3 location. If you buzz by there, please donate.

Bucket money for October is for the National Forest Foundation. This donation will not only go to a good cause, but it will also help meet the RI President’s goal of Rotarians planting one tree for every member in their club.

The emergency men’s shelter will need volunteers and snack contributions when it opens this winter. More later.

In spite of the Florida storms, there will be a fruit sale this year. Prices will have to increase from $25 to $27 per case. Our goal is 100% participation and net $7,000 after expenses. The beneficiary of this year’s fruit sale is Courage Connection.

There is a board vacancy for president-elect, and we need one of our members to fill this position. Our club had an excellent board waiting for someone to chair for the 2018-2019 Rotary year. The position does not take that much time and members jump in to help. Contact Bob.

There is a food repack at EIFB at 5:30 pm on October 24th. Sign up with Adam.

PROGRAM

Our speaker last week was Scott Bennett who is the state senator of the Illinois 52nd District. Scott is a Rotarian and was president of the Urbana Rotary Club. He is an attorney and worked in the States Attorney office in Champaign County before getting elected. Scott comes from a farm family in Gibson City and still helps out in farming.

Scott made comments about changes in local and state trends in jobs and demographics and their effect on communities. In his district, Rantoul is still working through issues of the Air Force base closing, and the elimination of good paying union jobs has affected Danville.

The financial crisis created by overspending/underfunding of the Illinois government is significant. Illinois universities have had to raise tuition to make up for the lack of state funding, and Illinois students can go out of state and pay less tuition. This is in addition to shifting populations away from rural areas to Chicago that changes the demographic landscape. As a result of these factors, student populations have decreased which may mean a conversation about closing one or two of the universities and community colleges.

Scott also commented on bills owed by the state. A typical level of bills is around $5b which means payment in 60 days to vendors which most can live with. The level of bills is now around $7b so it creates significant problems with anyone doing business with the state. In addition, the state is paying 12% interest on this debt which compounds the problem. Hopefully the tax increase will give some relief.

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE (with program committee member responsible listed in parentheses)

October 19th – Laurie Matheson, Director, University of Illinois Press (Phyllis)

October 26th – Rick Davidson, District Global Grants Chair, will discuss a vocational exchange between Indiana and Jamaica (Mary)

November 2nd – Derek Fultz, Director of Facilities, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, UIUC will discuss the renovation of the Natural History Building (Phyllis)

November 9th – Kari May, Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center (Mary)

November 16th – Adelaide Aime, Executive Director, RACES