Minutes for June 27,2016

 

Club President John Starnes called the meeting to order at 12:25 welcoming all Rotarians and guests to Rotary.

 

 

Bert Toews and Troy Mack were our greeters and Bert introduced guests:

Richard Schwahn introduced his Father-in-Law Jolm Skinner, his wife Michelle Schwahn and his daughter and our outbound exchange student Madeline Schwahn;

Mary Koernig introduced Lisa Scroggins (Director of NC Public Library);

John Starnes introduced Chris Potter (Hilltop Bank) and visiting Rotarian from Five Trails Michael Glickman;

Jim Ruble introduced his wife Ann Ruble, also a visiting Rotarian from Reveille Club:

Charles Schoenwolf introduced Rick Vaughn who has access to lots of beer (Western Distributing);

Dale Bohren introduced Jeff Edgens (new Dean of UW Casper);

Liz Becher introduced our District Governor Elect Barb Redder, who will be our new District Governor four days hence;

 

Dennis Lower treated us to a good chuckle and then Gary Pehrson had us in singing “The Star Spangled Banner” in honor of next Monday being Independence Day. He then led us in singing Happy Birthday to Lori Klatt.

 

Jim Limes shared a senior moment with us today at the request of Bill Schilling. Jim said that last Saturday he was walking through the store and saw the greeting cards and immediately thought “oh no my brother’s birthday is on the 27^th I better send him a card.” So he got the card and rushed home to put his traditional penny in the card and get his brother’s address. Then he ran to the downtown mailbox and realized that the mail had already been picked up so it wouldn’t go out until Monday so he dropped the card in the mail anyway and then had an epiphany, his brother’s birthday is August 27 not June 27^th.

 

Steve Loftin let us know that Rotarian Dick Shamley’s wife, Wilma, passed away over the weekend, our thoughts and prayers go out to Dick and family.

President John announced that Rotarians Jack Swanson, Denise Pugh and Brown Ewing have children in the Casper Children’s Choral and they were all in the newspaper this past week.

Bob Auflick let us know that Scott Skavedahl’s daughter won the High School golf tournament this weekend by 15 strokes, she is the defending State Champion and is headed off to the State Tournament. 

 

Mary Koernig nominated Lori Klatt for all of her hard work on the Nicfest and for having a successful weekend.

Martha Rakestraw nominated Mary Koernig for all of her hard work at the Nicfest as well.

Jim Ruble nominated Ann Ladd and her family for taking Elise to the lake before she headed home and also Brad Cundy for donating the phone Elise used while staying here. He said that they had to pry the phone from her hands as she was in line to go through security at the airport. He also let us know that Elise made it home safe and sound.

Dale Bohren nominated Bert Toews as today is his last day at work before retiring tomorrow.

Liz Becher nominated the Rotarians who were able to attend the passing of the gavel party this last Friday between our past DG and our new DG. She nominated Charles Schoenwolf, Dennis Jack and his wife Diana, Dick Shamley, and Dennis Lower who was also called upon for some merriment.

Deb Theriault nominated Jim and Ann Ruble for the great going away party they had for Elise last Thursday night.

Sheryl Foland nominated Peaches Lynch for her help in getting to the right places to take care of her changing of her vehicle license and DL.

 

 

Today is the changing of the gavel from President John Starnes to President Elect Jim Ruble. We started with Susan Thomas awarding the 2015-2016 U.S. Senator Craig Thomas award. This award is based on integrity, doing something larger than self, sharing knowledge and skills, using common sense and military service. This year’s recipient has all of these qualifications. He was born in 1921 in Braintree Massachusetts, six boys and two girls in his family and he is now the patriarch of his family. He was in the Army Aircorp in WWII and he never really talked about the war like so many others of his generation. He went to Washington D.C on the Wyoming honor flight and there he began to open up just a little bit as he heard others begin to share their stories. He was stationed in Glenrock at the bombing range during the war for a period of time. That is where he met and married the love of his life, Missy, they have five children and he is just a touch shy of being married to Missy for 70 years. He opened his business, industrial electric company and then eventually retired. He and Missy always loved the water so he became the commodore of a boat club and then he turned to tug boats, starting with a small one then a larger one and bought a truck to pull his camper and his tugboat. He then eventually traded that for an RV. He taught Sunday School at Saint Mark’s and was the senior warden of the vestry. Susan said that she has watched him for some time and is struck by his willingness to get things done, he is gentle tough and has great strength and the ability to lead by example. He is a giver and a solid man. These qualities and his desire to serve are what make Red Nickerson the best choice to be the recipient for this year’s award. Congratulations Red.

 

President John Starnes then began awarding his awards and recognizing everyone’s hard work for the closing of his year as our club President. He started with thanking the crew that works every Monday to make sure the room is ready with the flag, P.A. system, badges and everything we need, Dennis Gazdiewich, Tony Valdez, Tom Bromley, Percy Anderson and Bill Mortimer.

Next he thanked the group that takes care of the logistics of the meeting and keep things running smoothly; Mike McIntosh taking minutes every week, Liz Becher she makes sure that John does his job, Deb Theriault takes care of the greeters and invocators, Gary Pehrson leads the singing, Dennis Lower for his jokes, Jim Ruble for taking care of the program, Lori Klatt the club secretary making sure all of the paperwork side is taken care of, Dick Jay club treasurer, Martha Rakestraw and Eric Easton for taking care of the students of the month, and Tucker Laprade for his role.

Rotary Golf tournament, Anthony Martinez, Peaches Lynch, and Sandy Widmer, The Rotary Motorcycle ride, Barry Johnson, Jim Porter and Doug McLaughlin; Highway Cleanup, Hal Hutchinson; Annual Rotary Christmas Party Denise Prugh; Rotary Board members, Jim Ruble, Bill DeGraeve, Brian Deurloo, Susan Griffith, Heidi Foy, Eric Easton, Lori Klatt, Dick Jay, Richard Schwahn and Tara Short; Duck Derby, Brian Deurloo and Dave Elmer; District Conference registration, Dave True and his assistant Wendi; Annual Pheasant hunt, Bill Mortimer and Jim Anderson; our club foundation, Dick Wimbish; Guy Dewitt for always bringing water to our events to keep us all hydrated; Photographers at all the club meetings and events, Victoria Ziton, Stephen Schnell, Dave Elmer, Tucker LaPrade, Mary Koernig, Nicole Tholson and Brown Ewing; Learners in the classroom Dave McNulty.

 We have many new members that have joined, they are: Jeff Johnson, Donovan McComb, Deanna Frey, Casey Allison, Mary Bates, Tim Chenoweth, Sheryl Foland, Caryn Luberto, V.H. McDonald, Robert Doane, Dale Bohren, Geg Dixson, Michel Skaf, Nicole Tholson, Daniel White, Darren Divine, Erin Essary, Fred Feth, Brett Johnson, Lynn Lockhart, Mary Koernig, and Chandra Ortiz welcome to our club.

John apologized if he missed anyone and thanked all of us for helping and for allowing him to be the president this past year.

John then started passing out his awards; he started with the Ken Kurtz award which is presented annually to the outstanding committee chairman that raises the bar, this Rotarian started with the club in October 2010 and always sits in John’s favorite spot in the back of the room. He always makes sure that the guest badges are worn properly and because of his love for Rotary combined with his love of golf he has been in charge of the annual golf tournament since its inception in 2011, this award goes to Anthony Martinez, great job Anthony.

The next award is the distinguished service award which is awarded to a member that has shown unwavering and dedicated service to our club, sometimes it is for a specific project and sometimes it is for a role they play from week to week. This Rotarian always sits towards the front and laughs at most of John’s jokes no matter what and he always nods and grins so he is a good barometer. He has adjusted at times to the club minutes needing done sooner than possible some weeks and he always says no problem I can get it done. He joined the club in 2009, and John said he didn’t want to ruin this for Charlie Shopp but this Rotarian also plays Santa at our annual Christmas party (Sorry Charlie, Santa isn’t real). This year’s award goes to Mike McIntosh, congratulations.

The next award is for rookie Rotarian of the Year, it goes to a newish member of our club, who has helped with club projects, attended club socials and often brings guests to our club meetings. He coordinated the blood drive last fall and never gave up with the complications. He is always positive and supportive of club events, you can always count on him to be there, the recipient this year is Dennis Jack.

The service above self award is presented to a member who has answered the call of duty for our club. This year’s recipient joined the club in 2003, and every Monday we can count on him to lead us in song and when he is not here we don’t know what to do. He even leads us in singing Cowboy Joe even though UW is not his favorite team; this year’s award goes to Gary Pehrson, congratulations.

Bill Pierce stood and recognized everyone that worked with him on Rotary cares and thanked them for their service; Don Harris, Ronna Boril, Jim Ellison and Dusty Johnson.

John let us know that this past year was a wonderful experience and allowed him to be himself and he enjoyed it very much. He then turned the club over to our new club president Jim Ruble.

 

Jim Ruble stood and presented three gifts to John, first he handed him the banner that usually hangs on the pulpit, the second one was his Gold badge so he is officially a gold badger. The third gift was a token of appreciation, a fancy new tie; because everyone always waited to see what tie John would be wearing. Jim then turned time over to A.G. Liz Becher.

A.G. Liz Becher commended John for a phenomenal year and let us know that he led us to a Silver Presidential Citation which is a very difficult thing to do, congratulations. She then presented John with a gift.

Jim then presented us our 2016-2017 Board of Directors; PE Richard Schwahn, treasurer Sheryl Foland, Secretary Lori Klatt, Dick Jay the foundation avenue of Service, Tara Short membership, Brian Deurloo service projects, Ronna Boril club administration, Denise Prugh youth services and Tucker LaPrade public relations. Thank you all for your service.

Jim thanked us for this opportunity and said he will do his best this coming year to run the club and fill those big shoes of those who have gone before him. He introduced the theme for this year which is “Rotary serving humanity” he then hung the new banner like a good engineer. He stated that he was able to meet the new RI President John Germ and John told him something that really stuck with him, he said we have a big challenge this year with everything going on in the world and we need to celebrate our similarities instead of arguing about our differences, so Jim challenged us to focus on celebrating our similarities. He also commented that this year will be a year with many thins close to home with the RI President being in TN and our DG Barb Redder being here in Casper at the Five Trails club and our very own ADG Liz Becher being in our club. We will also have the District conference here in Casper next year and the RI conference will be in Atlanta Georgia June 10-14 of 2017. We have 4 new board members for our club, we have a lot of new Rotarians as well so we have great opportunity in our club this year with lots of new people with new ideas. We will be finishing our Rotary Park project this year so we will need to be looking for the next project. We have the centennial coming up in 2019 which we will need to continue to prepare for. Jim has decided to go through a club visioning exercise this year to help us envision where we will be going with the club. He has set us some pretty high goals and details will follow. At the board retreat a few weeks ago they talked about what needs to happen to hit these goals and do what needs done in the upcoming year and they decided that we need to engage all of the new members as well as the old so that we can make things happen.

 

 

President Jim Ruble adjourned the meeting at 1:15 with the ring of the bell, reminding us that next week is Independence Day so there will be no meeting and the following week July 11 we will be back at the Parkway and our new PE Richard Schwahn will have the program about Rabies.