Speakers

The Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln (CFLL) is accredited by the Council on Foundations and is the community foundation for Sangamon and surrounding counties, including Cass, Christian, Logan, Macoupin, Menard, Montgomery and Morgan. Community foundations are tax-exempt public charities serving thousands of people who share a common interest—improving the quality of life in their area.  The CFLL helps individuals, families, businesses and organizations create permanent charitable funds to support causes within our region and beyond. The foundation invests and administers these funds.

John Stremsterfer is a Springfield native and holds a B.A. degree from Illinois College.  He came to CFLL from the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) where he worked for the University of Illinois Foundation. He is a past-chair of the board of Leadership Springfield and currently serves on the board of the Citizens Club of Springfield.  In 2014 he received the Young Alumnus Award from his alma mater, Illinois College.  John lives in Springfield with his wife Trina and children Ileana, Dean and Cora.

Tonight is our monthly social night.  This gives us chance to get to know each other a little better and to greet and welcome any guests who might attend.  Remember to bring some cash as Sgt. at Arms Randy Erford will be holding our regular 50/50 drawing and passing the bucket for Brag A Bucks, both of which help fund our local college scholarship program.

The month of April that you are requesting is a very special month for Autism and their families as it is National Autism month.  Local ASCI Board members Barry Tobias and Mary Pelich will give us some insights regarding autism and how families cope with the challenges it presents.

Will's comment will cover several topics.  He will speak about RMU and it's mission in the community.  Will also has some exciting ideas and goals for getting high school students who are at risk for not continuing education after high school to be exposed to a university setting with training sessions they will be attracted to.  The sessions are free to anyone, but the ultimate goal is to get more high school students involved.  Don't miss this chance to hear about one of our local colleges.

The five Springfield Rotary Clubs will join together for their annual joint gathering.  In addition to celebrating Rotary in Springfield we will have as our special guest Major General Mark A. Pillar USAF (Retired).  Mark is a Rotarian from Columbus Indiana.  His presentation will be about on of the most memorable and terrible days in our history.

On September 11, 2001 Pillar was a brigadier general taking part in a homeland security exercise at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska, when he was unexpectedly summoned to watch events unfold from the East Coast on a large-screen television.  President George W. Bush arrived at Offutt later that day from Florida, Pillar found himself helping to field questions in conference calls with such leaders as Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.  Mark will tell his story of the events of that day and provide us with an inside view of how our leaders handled the crisis our nation faced that day.

 

 

 

President Dave Fowler and President Elect Vicki Megginson has asked member Clarice Ford to lead a discussion of how we view the current situation in our club and how we can make it stronger for the future.  This will be an important evening dealing with club plans and operations.  Please plan on attending this important meeting so you can participate.