1. Herb Hillman and his crew consisting of Bob Jacobs, Roger Kirgues, Jessican Pearson, and Heather Mader did not receive proper recognition for their fantastic lunch on July 31.  Herb's lunch is one that everyone looks forward to every year. 

 

2. As for lunch on August 7th, we of course must thank the crew of Karl Hertz, Ellen MacFarlane, Jim Ott, and Greg Huffman in support of their head chef Sam Azinger.  The shrimp and steak skewers were pretty good, but we probably won't invite Sam to cook again next year (please note the author if you're confused as to how a Rotarian could write something like that). 

 

3. Chinooks outing was another success and a great time.  It's so nice to have a relaxing night out with the club to enjoy a ballgame.  

 

4. Family Night scheduled for August 21, then back to Ozaukee Country Club.  Please be prepared to provide a head count the Shelley at the meeting tomorrow for how many guests will be attending (no charge for guests). If you won't be at the meeting I'm sure Shelley would appreciate an email. 

Rotary loves welcoming new members with the character necessary to be a Rotarian.  Kathleen Schneider is a physician working in hospice and palliative care and also serves the City of Mequon as the Alderperson for the 7th District.  We welcome Kathleen and look forward to getting to know her better. Featured with Rotarian Dan Gannon and President Tim Vertz.

Thiensville Village President Van Mobley and Administrator Dianne Robertson, both fellow Rotarians provide an update on the things that are happening in Thiensville.  A need for volunteer firefighters, an expiring TIF, and a visit from a member of President Trump's cabinet. The quote of the week from the off the cuff Village President is "send us money and we will spend it wisely." Thanks Van and Dianne for a very informative discussion about what's happening in Thiensville. 

Rotary welcomes Elisabeth Bu, Rotary sponsored foreign exchange studied from Germany.  We look forward to getting to know Elisabeth over the course of the next year.  Thank you to Bob Blazich from the AM club (and so much more) for bringing Elisabeth to the meeting.

Thank you to Atty. Maureen O'Leary for presenting on the 2017 tax law changes and the impact the changes may have on charitable giving. Maureen highlighted the changes to the tax law, including the increased standard deduction and limits on the State and Local Tax deduction, and how less people may itemize their deductions (including charitable deductions) as a result.  Maureen additionally provided shared some strategies for maximizing tax deductions by using Qualified Charitable Distributions to satisfy IRA Required Minimum Distributions, or by "Bunching" to increase charitable giving in a single year and itemizing your deductions for that year, while taking the standard deduction for other years.  

 

Of course, no presentation from an attorney (or subsequent story written by an attorney) would be complete without the disclaimer that nothing in the presentation (or subsequent story about the presentation) should be construed as tax or legal advice nor does it create an attorney-client relationship.  You should consult your attorney and tax adviser regarding your personal situation.  If you missed the presentation but are interested in reading about it, please email me at sazinger@willmslaw and I would be happy to send you a copy of the Powerpoint.  

 

Congratulation to Ellen Macfarlane on receipt of her 5th Paul Harris Award. Thank you Ellen for your dedication to Rotary and all that Rotary stands for. 

 

One of our newest Rotarians, Heather Mader gave a thumbnail presentation at Tuesday's meeting. It is always a pleasure to learn a little about our new members. We look forward to hearing from Nick in just a few weeks. 

 

Rotary Club welcomes back Russell Brown, seen receiving his pin in the first image. Russell is pictured twice in the second image, first being being inducted into the Club, and second standing on a tractor in the photograph of Rotary Park first being built.  Russell attended Tuesday's meetings with his 3 grandchildren. It's great to have Russell back. 

 

I shop regularly on Amazon, and now have an excuse better than convenience and better prices.  If instead of logging in at amazon.com you log in at smile.amazon.com, Amazon will donate a small percentage of the proceeds to a charity of your choice.  It's pretty simple to set up and, if everyone participates and tells their friends, has the potential to raise a great amount for our club foundation. 

 

Here's the steps:

 

1. Log in at smile.amazon.com or just google Amazon Smile.

 

2. On the "Your Account" drop down list search for "Your AmazonSmile" and click.

 

3. On the right hand side under "Your current charity" click "Change charity."

 

4. Search for "Thiensville Mequon Rotary" and select Thiensville Mequon Rotary Foundation, Inc. as your charity. 

 

5. Every time you make a purchase on Amazon, use the smile.amazon.com website and a percentage of certain purchase items will be donated to the Foundation.    

I'm new at this, so I don't know know that I'm getting all of my facts right.  But here's how I understand the facts:

 

Our club goal for Foundation contributions from July 2017 to July 2018 is $5,500.

Our total contributions for the year is $3,550 (plus my measly $25.00 contribution today)

 

If I'm reading the reports correctly (which I acknowledge I may not be) the full $3,550 in contributions came from 5 members! Thank you to those 5!

I mentioned my measly contribution, because I would like to encourage a whole lot more measly contributions. It took me less than 2 minutes to make my contribution (it was easier than ordering a pizza).

 

So why can't we all take two minutes to make a small (medium or large) contribution?  Here's the link: https://www.rotary.org/en/donate. If you need help, give me a call and I'll come over. 

 

While you're at it. Go ahead and make that a monthly, quarterly, or yearly contribution. Admittedly, this will add 4-6 seconds to the process, but will save you 2 minutes every month, quarter, or year, plus the headache of remembering.  Further, if everybody signs up for monthly, quarterly, or yearly contributions, I won't post stories like this all the time (which I reserve the right to do).

 

Together, we can blow this goal out of the water! 

 

As an aside, and without board authorization, I will personally give a pat on the back to anyone who makes a contribution before the end of June.