If you ever had the privilege to attend a Rotary International Convention, you had the opportunity to drink the Rotary ‘Kool-Aid’. Participation in the District’s Conference of Clubs (previously known as District Conference) provides you another opportunity to learn more about Rotary and catch the excitement. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to attend a few of both events.
Unless you have participated in an International Convention, it is hard to explain the excitement that comes along with it. Try to imagine sharing the experience with up to 40,000 other Rotarians, people of a like mind, sharing your interest in fellowship and service. My wife and I look forward to the annual convention and use it as an opportunity for a vacation. There are also great speakers. Some of the more famous that I can recall were Ted Turner, Mia Farrow (a polio survivor), Jane Goodall, Dolly Parton (literacy advocate, Ashton Kutcher (human trafficking activist), Queen Noor of Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, and Bill Gates.
Due to the pandemic, this year’s convention, scheduled for Taipei, will be virtual. While not the same as rubbing shoulders with thousand of Rotarians from across the globe, it is an inexpensive way for you to experience some of the great speakers. There is a registration fee of $49. Look for an email later this month with details
Let’s plan on a road trip in 2022 when the convention will be held in Houston. I know you may not want to visit Houston in June but the event will be great. Future convention locations are Melbourne, Australia (2023), Singapore (2024), and Calgary (2025). Mark your calendars.
District Governor Nominee Patricia McClease from the Greater Rochester Rotary Club joined our meeting today to congratulate us on the multiple awards received recently for our giving to the Rotary Foundation during the last fiscal year and to help launch the District's "Share The Love" campaign during February. Our speaker was Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. Choi first visited us a number of years ago, soon after helping to establish "Safe Harbor" rules in 2011 which ended prosecution of under-age individuals caught up in sex trafficking. As we know, Rotary International now has a global focus on ending sex trafficking, especially of minors. Choi was a leader in this even before RI's involvement and he noted the impact that Rotary's involvement will bring to this. His remarks today were a "look back" at what has been accomplished since 2011. Annual funding of programs to rescue and assist victims has grown from zero to over $13 million. And the age of victims considered under age for this purpose has expanded to age 24. Minnesota was one of the first states to offer these safe harbor rules back in 2011. Now over 50% of states offer some version of it. Ours continues to be unusual in that it includes funding for services to support victims in their recovery.
Today's meeting was a "Club Assembly", in which we discussed club priorities and activities in lieu of having an outside speaker. President Glenn led the discussion, which centered around the results of our last club visioning session done over two years ago and our progress against strategies identified at that time. It was noted that we have made good progress in a number of areas. We have made significant improvement in how we proceed when new members join the club. We are providing much improved orientation and doing more to ensure that new members can quickly become active. We have also done well in partnering with other community organizations - most notably with our leadership of the Community Covid Relief Fund. Our public profile has been enhanced but there is much more we can do. There was quite a bit of discussion as to specific actions we can take to further our progress in this area. Improving our public image will help with our other big area of need which is to further membership growth.
Shoreview resident Paul Gardner joined our meeting today. Gardner was a state legislator in 2008, when Minnesota's voters passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution to protect the state's water and park resources and to preserve our arts and cultural heritage. He has now become the administrator of the Minnesota Clean Water Council, which was formed to oversee the water related activities funded by the Legacy Amendment. As we have learned from prior presenters at our meetings, there are many layers of water governance in MN. This council has 17 members representing the many bodies working to protect our water sources from pollution. Only 15% of pollution entering our waters are due to point sources like industrial dumping. 85% of pollution is the accumulated result of many small sources of sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus, which makes the work very challenging. Cleaning up water involves testing, training and working with landowners to act. The Council's goals are stated in simple terms: 67% of state waters should be "fishable" by 2034 and 64% of waters should be "swimmable" by that date. We currently stand at 61% fishable and 70% swimmable, so progress has been impressive.
Today's "Member Minute" came from Mark Stange. Mark touched on many aspects of his background; some highlights include his time at Northwestern University where he majored in "math and football", his 28-year time in the Naval Reserve and his 22 years working in IT at United Healthcare. Mayor Sandy Martin has referred to him as the "father of Shoreview's bike and trail ways system" and he has the distinction of maintaining 100% meeting attendance over his 20+ year membership in our Rotary Club.
Our speaker was Jill Funck, Sr. Global Manager of Learning and Development at H.B. Fuller, which is headquartered locally in Vadnais Heights. H.B. Fuller is the global market leader in adhesives. The company had undergone a major reorganization just before the pandemic hit, and they have managed to thrive during this challenging time. They have a commitment to making more environmentally sustainable products and they have evolved during this time to offering new work options to employees. Their staff members can now be either site based, working from home or a hybrid of these options.
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