The Arden Hills Shoreview Rotary Club had a very successful year under the leadership of Kent Peterson. Kudos and special thanks to Kent for his efforts and leadership over the past 12 months. Among other duties Kent will be filling the role of Public Relations coordinator.
Our club will continue to focus on membership. With your help, my goal is to have us to 34 during the cycle. That can be accomplished by maintaining interesting and relevant programs and your help in asking community minded people to join. Thanks to Joe Ziskovsky for arranging a great group of speakers for July. We will have a local Shoreview historian and a National Park Superintendent among others.
We also hope to increase community service activities, continue to offer leadership learning opportunities for high school students and expand our short term summer student exchange to at least two students in 2019.
International Service Director Bob Freed and others are working on a great humanitarian project to fund a sewing school in India. And we continue to need to focus on supporting the Rotary Foundation.
A great team is hard at work arranging the Taste of the Hops. Don’t forget to tell folks that tickets may be purchased on line at www.tasteofthehops.com
Finally I ask that we all look to have some fun along the way in our activities during the year. Our two most popular “fun” raising activities are the Taste of the Hops and the Christmas Party. Wouldn’t it be neat to carry some “fun” raising to the other months of the year?
This lists shows people responsible to be the "Greeter" for the day, and also to begin the morning. If you are unable to be the Greeter on the assigned day please trade with someone and let me know about the change.
After many years as Director of Community Service, I am pleased to pass the baton to Paul McCreight. New leadership iOS always beneficial. I will certainly support his efforts and continue past activities. Paul- its all yours!
The Club welcomed prospective member Charlie Oltman and Jacob, who is the son of new Club member Al Ramos. Club President Kent Peterson presented the new member information to Al Ramos.
The guest speakers included Chris McArdle, Jessica Martinez and Katie Castille from the Salvation Army. Chris indicated that the Salvation Army was founded by William Booth and began operations in the Twin Cities in 1886. Their mission is to meet human needs without discrimination. They now operate in 128 different nations. In the Twin Cities they currently have 8 centers. They operate shelters, and food shelves and work to provide basic needs including food, housing, health care and employment to people. They operate the Harbor Lights shelter in Minneapolis that houses up to 400 people each night. They also provide some after school services to youth and operate the Northwoods Camp in Finlayson.
Chris noted that Rotary's bell ringing had earned more than $15,000 since 2006 and that activity typically brings in between $30-$60 per hour. Jessica Martinez, who serves as an ordained minister, then discussed her experiences with the Salvation Army.
We had a rare event today - our scheduled speaker did not show up for some reason, despite multiple confirmations. However President Kent ensured that our time was well spent, covering several topics from the previous day's Board meeting. Bill Klumpp covered one topic which is a goal to have all members complete the background check required by Rotary for any member having regular contact with youth. Although we don't have a lot of this type of activity right now, it is a good goal to ensure we are covered. It is a short process that can be done through our district's website: www.rotary5960.org. Bill Kiehnbaum addressed another topic which is a plan to acquire an inexpensive laptop that can be stored in the safe at Shore96. He also noted that we will look for several volunteers to become familiar with the equipment. Hopefully these steps will ensure that we do not continue to experience periodic "AV failures" when our guest speakers bring equipment that doesn't mesh with the setup at Shore96.
The Club welcomed frequent visiting Rotarian Ron Hughes from the Excelsior Club. Kent Peterson announced, with some delight, that it was the last meeting of the Rotary year and his service as President of the club.
The guest speaker was Club member Mark Stange, discussing his service in the Navy and more specifically how the Navy handles the naming of the different ships in their fleet. Mark indicated that he retired after serving for 21 years in the Navy as a captain. He noted that the Navy had named its battleships after States, Cruisers after big cities, Destroyers after heroes, AirCraft Carriers after ships of the past, and submarines after fish. He provided some background on the cost of making some of the ships and then focused his presentation by reviewing various ships named after the State and major cities in Minnesota.
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