Volunteer, Think, Change the World.

Ongoing: Weekday lunch socials

If you work in the Loop and would like to get together with fellow Rotaractors and friends for lunch once in a while, please email sebastian@rotaractchicago.org to become added to the lunch-mailing-list.

NEXT FORMAL MEETING: Wednesday, January 25: (7 p.m. until ca. 8:45 p.m.)!!!

We are proud to be able to welcome Doug Fitzgerald, Executive VP of Marketing & Communications for RR Donnelley.

Where? The Board Room on the 5th floor, at 65 W. Jackson of the Union League Club of Chicago (the UCL has a business casual dress code!!).

BIO:  If you happen into the Graduate Library at the University of Illinois in Urbana, you'll see a hallway lined with bronze tablets, on which are inscribed the names of those who have been graduated with highest academic honors. Stop at the 1976 tablet and you'll see the name Douglas Fitzgerald.

What luck for Doug that another guy with his name graduated the same year and studied so hard! 

Doug did manage to graduate from Illinois, albeit without having his name on a tablet.  He later received an MBA from Northwestern University.  His business career has been in sales, training, marketing and communications.  Today he serves as Executive Vice President, Marketing & Communications at RR Donnelley, a $10 billion global provider of products and services used in communications.

Wednesday, January 25 - Post-Meeting Social at Brando’s Speakeasy

Take a short walk with the group immediately after Wednesday’s meeting to this fun bar. They have good drink specials and karaoke in an intimate and comfortable environment.

Located at 343 South Dearborn.

Saturday, January 28: Deborah's Place – 11:45 a.m to 1:00 p.m.

For the past 25 years, Deborah’s Place has worked to break the cycle of homelessness through compassionate, innovative, and award-winning programs. Through your help we can support women through their journeys from homelessness to permanent supportive housing with comprehensive services. Your involvement helps the women of Deborah’s Place achieve their goals of stable housing, sustainable income, and greater self-determination. We will be doing various tasks here ranging from serving food to socializing.  Please contact Jon Watson at service@rotaractchicago.org.

We will meet for together afterward at a local restaurant for food and/or drinks.

Deborah's Place is located at 1530 N Sedgwick, right next to the Brown Line Sedgwick stop

Saturday, Feb 4: Chicago Public Schools Academic Decathlon - (A shift TBD between 6:00am - 10:00pm)

The Academic Decathlon is an annual, nationwide competition that promotes academic excellence through teamwork by students of all achievement levels. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) participates by organizing two citywide competitions to advance teams to the state and national competitions. This year‘s topic being “Age of Empire“, the upcoming season will include 30 CPS high schools competing in areas from Art to Economics. 

By supervising, facilitating, or judging during the tournaments, we can help challenge students through multidisciplinary learning. In other words, the students can acquire life-skills that can be utilized indefinitely! There will be several different opportunities throughout the day to volunteer at this event. Please contact us at service@rotaractchicago.org or at jon@rotaractchicago.org for more information, times, and to sign up for the event. The CPS Academic Decathlon will take place at the Whitney Young Magnet School.

Location: 211 S. Laflin St., close to the Blue Line Racine stop

Saturday, February 18: Wells High School - 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Wells High School is the Chicago Public School that serves the Cabrini Green neighborhood, as well as parts of Humboldt Park. The average student does not have an adult in their life, and they are in a critical make or break moment in their life.  As serving as positive adult influences, we can help these students as they transition from high school to college or the work force.

Plan on meeting at the Wells Social Room at 11 a.m. Our plan is to divide the students up by their needs and then begin working with them. Students' needs will vary from ACT prep, to college application help, to resume building, to just talking about life. Please RSVP to Jon Watson at service@rotaractchicago.org  if you plan on coming.

Lunch will follow.

Wells HS is located at 936 N Ashland Ave. close to the Division Blue Line stop.

Wednesday, February 22 at 7 p.m.: The next Rotaract club meeting

We are very proud and it will be a distinct honor to welcome welcome John Hewko, the CEO and General Secretary of Rotary International. GS Hewko leads a diverse staff of almost 800 at Rotary International’s World Headquarters in Evanston and its international offices and he is responsible for revenues exceeding $400 million. GS Hewko has a very impressive resume and it will be a unique opportunity to listen to GS Hewko and to have some discussions with him regarding professional development as well as the future and importance of Rotaract within the Rotary family.

Where: Room TBD, at 65 W. Jackson of the Union League Club of Chicago (the UCL has a business casual dress code!!).

Please find John Hewko's resume at the end of this newsletter or at http://www.rotary.org/en/aboutus/rotaryleadership/secretariat/pages/ridefault.aspx.

Thursday, February 23: Rotary’s 107^th Birthday Party – 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The board would like to celebrate together with all of you and the Rotarians of our sponsoring club Rotary/One's 107th Birthday Party.

6:00 - 7:00 Reception
7:00 - 9:00 Dinner 

The event is US$ 35.00 per person (all inducted Chicago Rotaractors who have paid their dues get $10.00 off!!!) plus cash bar.

Join us for an enjoyable evening of good food, friends, and some birthday fun!! 

Please RSVP to sebastian@rotaractchicago.org whom you can also contact if you have any questions. Registration closes on Sunday evening of Feb 19.

Where? Gaylord Chicago (Fine Indian Cuisine), 100 E Walton St, Chicago.

Saturday, February 25: Deborah's Place – 11:45 a.m to 1:00 p.m.

Please see the explanation for the January 28^th event.

Other events and information

Ladder-Up

As our dreaded tax month approaches, the more nervous people become. Ladder up has been providing families and individuals with financial resources since 1994. It is basically a financial assistance program. Ladder up recruits and trains over a 1000 volunteers every year to aid in this process. They provide services from tax preparation to help in completing FAFSA forms. Volunteers would not need tax or finance experience as training will be provided.

Volunteer opportunities are as follows:

• In tax roles: Tax preparer ( training required)
• Quality reviewer ( training required)
• In non-tax roles: screener (training required)
• translator (no training)
• site assistant ( no training)
• technology assistant ( no training)

If you have any questions about the program or about site times and venues please feel free to contact: Kiara-Jade Simon or Jon Watson:  service@rotaratchicago.org

SAVE THE DATES:

Friday, May 18 - Sunday, May 20:              Rotaract District Conference at the Blue Harbor Resort on Lake Michigan, located in Sheboygan, WI

Bio of John Hewko for February 22nd meeting:

John Hewko is the general secretary and CEO of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation, managing one of the world’s largest global humanitarian service organizations, with 34,000 clubs throughout the world. With fiscal year 2010 annual revenues exceeding US$400 million, Rotary and its Foundation support 1.2 million Rotary club members in their volunteer efforts to serve their local and global communities.

From 2004 to 2009, Hewko was vice president for operations and compact development for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. government agency established in 2004 to deliver foreign assistance to the world’s poorest countries. At MCC, he was the principal United States negotiator for foreign assistance agreements to 26 countries in Africa, Asia, South America, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union. During his tenure, he completed the negotiation of assistance agreements totaling $6.3 billion to 18 countries for infrastructure, agriculture, water and sanitation, health, and education projects.

Prior to joining MCC, Hewko was an international partner with the law firm Baker & McKenzie (B&M), specializing in international corporate transactions in emerging markets. He helped establish the firm’s Moscow office and was the managing partner of its offices in Kyiv and Prague.

While working in Ukraine in the early 1990s, Hewko assisted the working group that prepared the initial draft of the new Ukrainian post-Soviet constitution and was a charter member of the first Rotary club in Kyiv.

Hewko has been a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has published papers and articles in leading U.S. and international publications, and he has spoken extensively on political and business issues dealing with the former Soviet Union, Central Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

Hewko holds a law degree from Harvard University, a master’s in modern history from Oxford University (where he studied as a Marshall Scholar), and a bachelor’s in government and Soviet studies from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, USA. He speaks five languages besides English: Czech, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

As general secretary/CEO, Hewko leads a diverse staff of almost 800 at Rotary International’s World Headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, USA, and international offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina; São Paulo, Brazil; Zurich, Switzerland; New Delhi, India; Seoul, Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and Parramatta (Sydney), Australia.

He and his wife, Margarita, live in Evanston. John is a Paul Harris Fellow and a member of the Rotary Club of Kyiv in Ukraine.