As you may know, the new Rotary International President D. K. Lee is from Korea. He has been working for many months to form a Korean Rotary club in the Chicago North Shore area. In fact, there are already recruited 21 members with the eventual goal of 40 charter members. There are two similar clubs in California.

Three District 6440 Rotary clubs were asked to sponsor this new club, namely, a) the Rotary Club of Northbrook, the largest Rotary club in District 6440 with a great Rotary spirit, b) Evanston Light House (RI headquarters is located within the boundaries of the Evanston Light House boundaries), and the Skokie Valley Rotary club (Skokie). What a tremendous honor for District 6440 and our club. At the RI convention and since then, I have spoken with Governor Pam Kerr, Carlos Früm (District 6440’s Membership Chair), and the president-elects of the two other clubs about this.

I recently attended a  dinner meeting with the potential members of the new club. Among others attending was Mike Yesner, the Governor Kerr’s Special Representative to this new club, Anne Searles (Evanston Light House President) and Mark Kaushal (Skokie Valley President). The special guest was D. K. Lee, RI International President, and his wife. He was very active during the meeting in providing advice and counsel to the members of this newest District 6440 Rotary club. At the meeting the group, with some assistance from Mike Yesner, they developed the name of their club. They will be the “Chicagoland Korean Rotary Club of Northbrook.” They hope to be chartered on July 10, 2008. They will be a morning club, meeting on Mondays at a hotel in Northbrook. Their charter night celebration is yet to be scheduled but is likely to occur sometime in late August.

The sponsoring club responsibilities will be will be shared by all three clubs. RI headquarters has assigned a special Korean staff member, Howard Chang, to assist in the new club’s development. Governor Kerr has required some of the new club’s officers/board members to attend a regular Rotary meeting at all three sponsoring clubs. The first opportunity for them to visit our club would be our July 8th meeting.

The Chicagoland Korean Rotary Club’s new club president, Dr. Sung Wun Kim, attended our installation dinner together with other prospective members.

I hope that you will be sure to find the opportunity to welcome Dr. Kim at our July 8th regular Rotary meeting.

Jim