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UPCOMING SCHEDULE

December 3rd – Danda Beard and David Thiel, WILL

December 10th – Pat Connolly, Urbana Police Chief, will discuss targeted deterrence strategies as they relate to the shootings in Urbana-Champaign

December 17th – No morning meeting; evening Holiday Party to be held at Jen Shelby’s house

December 24th – Christmas Eve, no meeting

December 31st – New Year’s Eve, no meeting

January 7th – Randy Hauser, Horticulture and Natural Areas Supervisor, Champaign Park District, will discuss Spring garden planning

January 14th – Andrew Ferguson, son of Robin Ferguson, will speak about his experience as an RYE in Poland

January 21st – TBD

January 28th – TBD

February 4th – Dr. Matthew Winters, Associate Professor of Political Science, UIUC, will present What Works in International Development: The Latest Evidence

February 11th – TBD

February 18th – Ray Cunningham will discuss North Korea

“This world of ours… must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.” ― Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.” ― Aristotle

ANNOUNCEMENTS
(notes provided by the erudite Mary Hodson)

There will be no meeting on Thanksgiving.

Late fruit orders will be accepted prior to Thanksgiving.  Robb said all he wants for Christmas is to get orders before Monday, 11/23/15.

Our holiday pot luck will be held on December 17 at the home of Jennifer Shelby.  Hold on to your hats!

PROGRAM

Mary introduced Dr. Jennifer Robbennolt, the Alice Curtis Campbell Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology with the University of Illinois College of Law.   Jennifer, a Montana native, was number one in her Law class at the University of Nebraska where she also earned a MA and PhD in Social Psychology.    At the University of Illinois, she has co-taught classes with Tom Ulen.

Jennifer’s special areas of focus are behavioral ethics in the practice of law, decision making of lawyers, judges and jurors, negotiations and the role of apologies in negotiations.

We tend to blame ethical lapses on “a few bad apples”, but psychology is more complicated than that, according to Dr. Robbennolt.  Various aspects of psychology make us all more vulnerable than we realize.   We all have ethical blind spots.  We tend to think of ourselves as more fair and ethical than others.   The term for this phenomenon is “ego centrism”.   We also have a positive view of our own abilities and contributions.    We don’t usually recognize that we conflate what is fair with what is in our own interest.    This is true of lawyers, too, once they have clients.     If we think that we are fair and unbiased, we aren’t going to worry too much that our decisions are fair.  If we are overconfident, we are also likely to overreach.

Jennifer also pointed out that we are not very good at predicting our own future responses because we don’t plan for the degree and duration of an emotional reaction.  When we think ahead, we think of our ideal self, but in the moment we respond to pressure and may respond less than truthfully.  She also talked about “ethical fading”.  When we are making decisions, the possible ethical outcomes often fade in the background.  Why don’t we recognize them?  We have mechanisms to reconcile our behavior with our positive views of ourselves.   We “forget” what we did.   And we make less ethical decisions when we are tired.

So, what to do?   Make decisions when you are not tired.   Be aware of ethical pressures and think ahead of consequences.  Be specific in anticipating behavior.  Anticipate the pressures and how you are going to handle them.   Afterwards, ask yourself, “What are the questions that I don’t want to answer and how can I do so without lying?”

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE

November 26th – Thanksgiving, no meeting

December 3rd – Danda Beard and David Thiel, WILL

December 10th – Pat Connolly, Urbana Police Chief, will discuss targeted deterrence strategies as they relate to the shootings in Urbana-Champaign

December 17th – TBD

December 24th – Christmas Eve, no meeting

December 31st – New Year’s Eve, no meeting

January 7th – Randy Hauser, Horticulture and Natural Areas Supervisor, Champaign Park District, will discuss Spring garden planning

January 14th – Andrew Ferguson, son of Robin Ferguson, will speak about his experience as an RYE in Poland

January 21st – TBD

January 28th – TBD

February 4th – Dr. Matthew Winters, Associate Professor of Political Science, UIUC, will present What Works in International Development: The Latest Evidence

February 11th – TBD

February 18th – Ray Cunningham will discuss North Korea

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” ― Michelangelo

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(Notes provided by Allan Penwell)

We have two new Paul Harris Fellow! Reuben presented Carey Woolard and Paul Conforti with their Paul Harris Awards.  Congratulations to both.  Reuben announced that we are going to be a 100% Paul Harris club with details to follow.  As a reminder, you don’t have to donate $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation as a Paul Harris Fellow to become a Sustainer.  A PHF Sustainer is a Rotarian who donates $100 annually to the Foundation.  So far in this Rotary year, there are only 7 sustainers.

Rob Patton cracked the whip on fruit sales.  All orders should be in by November 18^th.

Carey announced the Christmas party will be held at Jen’s house on December 17^th in the evening.  Should be fun!  Put it on your calendars.

PROGRAM

Guy Fraker, who is an acknowledged Lincoln scholar and publisher, was our speaker at last week’s meeting.  He lives in Bloomington and recently retired after a 52-year career as an attorney.  His interest in Lincoln began in 1948, and he has been a Lincoln speaker on numerous occasions and has taught OLLI classes in Champaign.

Guy discussed his book, Lincoln’s Ladder to the Presidency, The Eighth Judicial Circuit, which can be purchased on Amazon along with two of his other books.

Each spring and fall, Lincoln traveled to as many as fourteen county seats in the Eighth Judicial Circuit to appear in consecutive court sessions over a ten to twelve-week period in the spring and fall. The Circuit included county seats Bloomington, Lincoln, Springfield, Mt. Pulaski, Urbana, Danville, Monticello, Paris, Shelbyville, Sullivan, Taylorville, and Decatur.  Lincoln was the consummate networker and came to know attorneys, businessmen, and attorneys in all of these towns as he traveled.  Later this was the groundwork for him to become president.

In 1860 at the Chicago Republican Convention, Lincoln was nominated as the party’s choice for president.  At the time, cities in the Eighth Circuit had a great presence as Chicago had yet to achieve its growth.  David Davis from Bloomington organized attorneys and politicians to get Lincoln nominated, and it was Lincoln’s popularity in the Eight Circuit that did the trick.  Lincoln eventually became president and saved the nation.  Guy argues that the Civil War was not over slavery or states’ rights.  Rather, it was simply that the majority should rule, and that the northern states had more votes than southern states when it came to issues that revolved around the Civil War.

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE

November 19th – Professor Jennifer Robbennolt of the UIUC College of Law will present Behavioral Ethics in the Practice of Law

November 26th – Thanksgiving, no meeting

December 3rd – Danda Beard and David Thiel, WILL

December 10th – TBD

December 17th – TBD

December 24th – Christmas Eve, no meeting

December 31st – New Year’s Eve, no meeting

January 7th – TBD

Feb 5 – Dr. Matthew Winters, Associate Professor of Political Science, UIUC, will present What Works in International Development: The Latest Evidence

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”  ― Winston Churchill

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” ― Ernest Hemingway

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(notes provided by the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut, Eddie Perry)

Let the Fruit Sale Begin!  Our club’s chief fruit head (Robb) kicked off our annual fruit sale fundraiser with the following information: Our goal this year is $9,000 with the sale price of $25 per case of oranges and/or grapefruits. That breaks down to each member selling 20 cases of fruit at an average profit of $11/case. Cash contributions are also suggested. This is our club’s fundraiser so sales and contributions are needed. Money collected this year will be donated to CASA and the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen.

Oktay will have a flyer available for placing orders and Lou will be sending out the annual email sales pitch.

All the orders to be turned in by November 18 and the fruit is be delivered the second week of December.

Our club’s Spelling Bee team members, Jen, Rob and Billy have been in training this last week and the club expressed our well wishes and encouragement for the team.

PROGRAM

Tod introduced Brenda Koenig who presented information on the C-U Folk & Roots Festival. Brenda received a BA from Indiana University, her teaching certificate from DePaul University and her Masters in Fine Arts from George Mason university. She is the director and founder of the C-U Folk and Roots Festival and also is currently a Research Assistant /Communications Specialist with the University of Illinois and included among her numerous awards, she is a 2015 ACE award winner and fiddle player extraordinaire.

The C-U Folk and Roots Festival is an annual event taking place this weekend in downtown Urbana showcasing national and regional talent in folk and roots music, dance and the spoken word. The festival features 30 workshops, jams, dancing, singing, with demonstrations and more than 50 live performances. This year the performances include bluegrass, jazz, jug band, Cajun, folk rock, Sea Shanties, Juda dance and ragtime to name just a few.

Paul Asoro, Cedric Watson, Anne Shimojima, Marion Jacobson are some of the big names that will be part of this festival. This is family entertainment with almost half of the performance being free of charge. The activities are scattered through out Urbana. locations include the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Landmark Hotel’s ballroom and library, Iron Post, Rose Bowl, Busy Bank, Urbana free Library, Strawberry Fields, Common Ground and Community Center for the Arts.

C-U Folk and Roots Festival is a non-profit organization with volunteer help and also presents year round programing to support and promote folk arts in Central Illinois. For more information please see www.cufolkandroots.org/.

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UPCOMING SCHEDULE

November 12th – Guy Fraker, attorney and Lincoln scholar

November 19th – Professor Jennifer Robbennolt of the UIUC College of Law will present Behavioral Ethics in the Practice of Law

November 26th – Thanksgiving, no meeting

December 3rd – Danda Beard and David Thiel, WILL

December 10th – TBD

December 17th – TBD

December 24th – Christmas Eve, no meeting

December 31st – New Year’s Eve, no meeting

January 7th – TBD

Feb 5 – Dr. Matthew Winters, Associate Professor of Political Science, UIUC, will present What Works in International Development: The Latest Evidence