I am the chair of our fundraising committee. The members are: Michael Anuta, Bill Kiehnbaum, Bill Klumpp, Paul McCreight and John Suzukida. We have met three times so far and will meet again on the 22nd. I plan to report to the Board on June 13 and to the membership shortly thereafter. We are going to begin to approach craft beer brewers in the next few months. If you have any connection with a craft beer brewer, please let someone on the committee know.
As I complete my final month as your president, I want to thank everyone for all their support throughout my term and especially for everyone’s efforts in the following:
11:00 - 4:00 Golf Tournament to End Polio at "The meadows at Mystic Lake."
5:00-8:00 Welcome Reception with food stations, salad bar & cash bar. meet, greet & network with other Rotarians.
Friday, May 13
Friday Morning Session: 7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast Buffet
8:00 - 9:00 Ross Bernstein "The Champion's Code: Bringing Life Lessons from Sports to Business
9:15 - 10:15 Breakout 1
10:30-11:00 Breakout 2
9:00-4:00 Hall of Friendship
9:00-6:30 Photo booth during breaks & Happy Hour
Friday Afternoon Session:
11:45-1:15 Chris Heeter "Pulling the same direction: What sled dogs have to teach us about teamwork and leadership"
1:30-2:30 Breakout 3
2:45-3:45 Breakout 4
4:00-5:00 Breakout 5
Business Meetings 5950 & 5960
Friday Evening Event:
5:00-6:00 Youth Exchange Country Fair
5:00-6:30 Happy Hour: appetizers & cash bar
Entertainment by the Jazz Cats
6:30-9:00 Celebration Dinner
Youth Exchange Flag Presentation
Youth Exchange Speaker:
Barbara Nieviadonski
Entertainment by Comedian Stevie Ray
Golf Tournament to End Polio,
The Meadows at Mystic Lake is a nationally acclaimed public golf course offering a unique, challenging, and scenic golf experience in Prior Lake, Minnesota. With waterfalls, native plants, and statuary, it’s a destination on its own, only enhanced by all the great events planned for the district conference. Proceeds from the tournament go to Polio Plus to help get this thing done!
The cost of the golf tournament is $150 with a shotgun start at 11:00 AM. The tournament offers two formats including ‘play your own ball’ or ’scramble’ depending on your skill level. A brief program and awards will immediately follow the tournament. We will be done in time to join everyone at the District Conference Welcome Reception big buffet starting at 5:00 PM.
Ross Bernstein, inspirational speaker and best-selling author of almost 50 books, will share insights from his book, The Champion's Code." Bringing Life Lessons from Sports to Business. Click Here for more information.
Breakouts Extraordinaire: Choose from 30+ topics focused on Rotary, technology, health & wellness, business and celebrating life.
Stevie Ray, co-founder and excutive director of Stevie Ray's Improv Company, will entertain and remind us to give the gift of laughter in our everyday lives. Click Here for more information.
Done-in-A-Day Service Project: You can help cut, iron, sew, and assemble parts for 450 feminine hygiene kits for Days for Girls during any breakout session. Join or sponsor a sew-a-thon in advance to prepare materials. Click Herefor more information.
Chris Heeter with her dog, Tuu Weh, founder of The Wild Institute, believes "Being Wild at work means having the courage to bring the gift of who you are to what you do. That means showing up whole, creative, free, engaged, connected, and bold"
Hall of Friendship, will showcase great ideas that you can use in your community. For more information, contact Greg Krauska, gkrauska@hotmail.com or (612) 801-7821.
Visit the Photo Booth, open during breaks and happy hour to take your souvenir photos.
Rotary Youth Exchange, Country Fair and Flag Presentation.
Happy Hour Entertainment: The Jazz Cats Facebook Link:
Membership needs to be on everyone's mind all of the time. At our meeting on March 29, the speaker was asked when he is going to join Rotary. This was an excellent question. I followed up with the speaker by sending hmn some information on Rotary. Ken Hola is going to follow up with him in person to invite him to join. Let's hope our efforts are successful. It is little things like this that will increase our membership. Another small thing is to wear your Rotary pin and be ready to answer the inevitable question you will get about Rotary.
As mentioned before, the District had more grant requests than monies available. After everyone made their oral presentations, the committee decided to fund all at lower levels, so our $2865 for the pre-school literacy items in the new Shoreview Library was reduced to $2035. Even this amount is subject to approval by Rotary International – about a month out.
Today we welcomed speaker Steve Yoch. Steve is a North Oaks resident -- lawyer by day specializing in real estate law; author by night, having written a biographical novel entitled "Becoming George Washington". Steve shared highlights of the fascinating life of the father of our country, including the truth behind the famous cherry tree and false teeth stories. Despite a less-than-ideal childhood with a distant father who died when he was only 11 and a mother who never forgave him for leaving the farm, Washington rose to great heights quickly. By age 22, he was in charge of the entire Virginia militia. He had no military training and actually caused the French/Indian war by leading a slaughter at Ft. Duquesne, but he emerged a hero and was the second most famous/popular figure of the time, second only to Ben Franklin. His energy, bravery, passion and self-confidence allowed him to ultimately lead the American revolution and become a founding father of a new republic. Yoch is married, with two teen-aged sons. He clearly has passion for this subject and, as he put it, "slept very little for a year" in order to make this book a reality.
After welcoming visiting Rotarian Ron Hughes, and having Secretary Paul challenge us with a trivia quiz (it turns out Alfred Hitchcock did not have a belly button.....), we heard from speakers Janelle Wampler and Warren Poole on the subject of the Roseville Area Senior Program. This program, which is part of Roseville School District's Community Education, was established in 1974 and has more than 50 enrichment classes and activities for seniors. Over 2,200 people were served last year, with combined attendance of over 12,000. There are no geographic restrictions, therefore anyone over the age of 55 can participate. Examples are groups/classes for bridge, chess, driver refresher training, an investment club, health and wellness, dancing, mens' discussion group and religious studies. The "Flaming Spoon Cafe" offers lunch every day Monday-Friday at their Fairview Community Center on County Road B and Fairview Ave. Certain essential services such as Meals on Wheels, transportation and services coordination are only available to school district residents who are age 60 or older and/or certified disabled adults.
We had no reason to "beware the ides of March" today. In fact, Mark Stange helped us get into the St. Paddy's Day spirit with an invocation that was part prayer / part Irish drinking song, dressed for the part in a celtic sweater and jaunty plaid beret! Our speaker, John Noltner, was similarly inspiring. John is a local freelance photographer who has specialized in both corporate settings and travel photography. He has used these skills to launch a multimedia engagement program he calls "A Peace Of My Mind", meant to help organizations foster dialog and reflection around issues related to conflict resolution and peace. Rotary is a natural fit for this topic, hence his presentation to a number of Rotary clubs in the area. In this project he has interviewed people around the country who have made peace in a variety of everyday ways. He has woven their thoughts and images into a photography exhibit which has been presented at schools and other public settings around the country. His program also offers facilitated discussion groups, keynote presentations, teaching guides and an award-winning book.
The Club welcomed visiting Rotarian Colleen Jorgenson from the Golden, Colorado club. There were several announcements including the planned Feed my Starving Children event that would be held on May 3rd, The Northeast Youth and Family Services Leadership Luncheon planned on May 4th, the Rotary District Conference on May 12-13 at Mystic Lake Hotel and Conference Center, and serving meals at Ronald McDonald house on Friday, May 13th.
The guest speaker was Club member Blake Huffman discussing the timely topic of use of social media. He noted that the use of social media is growing rapidly and about 56% of people have at least one profile on either Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or other social media sites. Many people have more than one. This percentage is even higher among younger generations. He noted that there are now more than 58 million tweets per day that are posted to Twitter and it is rapidly becoming how people obtain their news. Social media is able to capture events in real time and get them out to the world immediately.
He also cautioned club members about the use of social media since anything that is placed out on the internet is typically there forever and you can't take it back. Some of the guidelines he tries to use in the use of social media include:
The guest speaker was Courtney Harrness, Executive Director at the Shoreview YMCA. Courtney indicated that he and his wife (who is also an employee of the YMCA in White Bear Lake) moved here from a YMCA in San Diego. He was a member of the Old Mission Rotary Club in San Diego. Prior to that he worked at a YMCA in the Boston area. He now lives in White Bear Lake.
He has worked at the Shoreview YMCA since October. He is very excited about the YMCA, which has more than 10,000 members. He noted that the YMCA's of Minneapolis and St. Paul merged several years ago and it is now one of the largest YMCA regions in the country. In addition to providing outstanding fitness and swim benefits for members, the YMCA also is responsible for the before and after school programs at nine sites for the Mounds View School District. This program serves more than 500 children. They also operate a free after school program for at risk youth at the Montreal Courts apartment project in Little Canada. As a non-profit, the YMCA does offer scholarships (financial assistance) to more than 400 adults and families. Courtney indicated that he looks forward to staying active within the community.
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Ross Bernstein, inspirational speaker and best-selling author of almost 50 books, will share insights from his book, The Champion's Code." Bringing Life Lessons from Sports to Business. 
and remind us to give the gift of laughter in our everyday lives. 
during any breakout session. Join or sponsor a sew-a-thon in advance to prepare materials. 
Institute
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