Minutes from April 30th, 2018

Posted by Mike McIntosh
The Casper Rotary Club
 
 
This week's meeting will be held:
Monday, May 7th, 2018
at the Ramkota Hotel and Conference Center
800 N. Poplar St.
Casper, WY  82601
 
Greeters:
Mike Ward
Rob Ratliff
 
Inspiration:
Rob Ratliff
 
Program: David Park - CNFR
__________
 
 
Rotary Club of Casper, WY
Meeting Summary
04/30/2018
 
President Richard Schwahn called the meeting to order promptly at 12:31, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.  
                                                                                        
Inspiration, Pledge, 4-Way Test:
Kendra Ziler
 
Greeters:
Kendra Ziler was our greeter today and she introduced the members who brought guests:
  • Visiting Rotarians today were Helen Bishop (Jackson Supper Club), and Linda Blackstone (Highlands Ranch CO);
  • Lynn Lockhart introduced Allison (The Blind Guy);
  • Bill Pierce introduced Carter Napier (City of Casper);
  • Casey Allison introduced Starla Atkinson (online marketing);
  • Phillip Rael introduced Charles Schoenwolf’s guest Selina Hoflund (Speaker, Coach, Author);
  • Lisa Scroggins introduced her husband Al Scroggins (Retired), and guest Ryan Jackson MD (Physician and Medical School Dean);
  • Eric Easton introduced the Mom and Grandmother of our student of the month, Nevdi Moreno and Rocio Linch.
 
Rotary Flag Exchange:
Lisa Scroggin’s guest Dr. Ryan Jackson exchanged Club flags with President Schwahn; he brought us a flag from Willemstad Curacao. He then gave a brief biography, he is from Casper and has traveled the world as a physician where he has learned to be fluent in seven languages. He is currently living in Curacao where he is the dean of the medical school.
 
Song:
Mark Owens had us all stand and sing “My Country Tis of Thee.”
 
President Schwahn did a Rotary TidBit about how Rotary recognizes the club for giving by individuals.
 
Family of Rotary:
  • Liz Becher let us know that Robin Mundell lost her husband Rodney this past week so a card is going around for her. The funeral services will be July 27th at the Oregon Trail Cemetery and she will let us know more as that date approaches, our thoughts and prayers are with Robin and family.
  • Lynn Lockhart let us know that Robin Broumley took Martha Rakestraw to Denver and Martha hopefully is getting a new leg while she is down there so please remember her in your thoughts and prayers.
Rotarians of the Week:
  • Guy DeWitt nominated John Jorgensen for being named the Boy’s and Girl’s Club recipient of the year.
  • Randy Hein nominated Mike Stepp his business Donnell’s Candies was named small business of the year from the Chamber of Commerce.
  • Dick Shamley nominated Susan Griffith for being nominated by her students as one of the teachers highly spoken of by her students.
Student of the Month:
Today we heard from Aracely Moreno, student of the month from Roosevelt HS. A bi-lingual student who spoke to us in Spanish and English which was a great treat. She is an outstanding young lady with big plans for the future.
 
Announcements:
  • Jim Porter announced that the motorcycle ride will be happening this summer and he sent out emails to those he knows ride and if you did not get the email and are interested let him know. It is going to be the weekend of July 21-22.
  • Vickery Hall invited everyone to the Tony K award event tomorrow night from 5:30-7:30 at the Lyric. The WCF started the Tony K awards to honor people in the community for leadership in the non-profit sector. This year the honoree is Marcia Patton who has made a great difference in our community.
  • Hal Hutchinson announced that the Highway cleanup is May 24th 5:30 -7:30 and Nic Hill will be providing food, and John Griffith wants to do a social right afterwards. If you missed the sign-up sheets call Hal.
  • Jim Anderson announced that Greg Brondos set the date for the annual bike ride into Teton National Park for May 19th and 20th so mark your calendar and come join the fun, it is an event for families so please plan on attending. Sign-up sheets are on the table.
  • Bill Schilling announced that next Monday the new restroom will be installed at Rotary Park in the lower parking lot. Friday and Saturday 11th-12th we will have another Eagle Scout Project with the installation of picnic tables and benches, he needs some volunteers to help, he then voluntold some members who will be there to spearhead the work those two days.
  • Angela Emery announced that Saturday May 19th from 9-12 will be the annual Platte River Trail cleanup and she would like our club to adopt the area from Rotary Park down to just past the intersection of Garden Creek road and Casper Mountain Road. We feel this would be a great project for us to get behind so please let her know if you can be there to help. We will have sign-up sheets next week.
  • Peaches announced that the Golf Tournament flyers are on the table, it will be in July in honor of Anthony’s birthday. They are looking for volunteers as well as Sponsors so please get with her to sign up for either or both. They are looking to make a lot more money for our International service project this year.
Program (Natrona County Restorative Justice):
President Elect Dick Jay introduced our speaker, Jen Minor, from Natrona County Restorative Justice and the Casper PD. Jen started by telling us that Restorative Justice is not a cookie cutter one size fits all program, it is a broader philosophy and a different way of looking at crime and conflict. She showed us a video clip that spoke more about the concept which you can see on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N3LihLvfa0. The philosophy has three components, the community, the victim, and the offender, and it gives voice to all affected parties to resolve the conflicts and restore justice and find a solution for all involved. In Casper they use conferencing as the tool to accomplish this. In the traditional Justice system we ask who did it, what laws were broken, and what punishment will be doled out. With restorative Justice instead of focusing on what law was broken they look first at who was harmed by these actions and is there more than just the direct victim. There is always a ripple effect on the families, friends, and communities of the victims and Restorative Justice does its best to give them a voice as well. They talk about what needs to be done to restore the damages to everyone involved including the victims and perpetrators. They do not force anyone to participate but they are invited to participate in the process. They just started about two years ago with the Natrona County RJ non-profit and began with a symposium to look at all of the different aspects. After the symposium they got back together and drafted a pilot program where they partnered with the DA’s office through the single point of entry team that reviews juvenile offenders and decide where the offender will be sent for court etc. they started with Juvenile offenders from this team for the pilot program. When they get a referral from this team they then contact all involved to see if they want to participate in RJ. They trained 14 Police Officers in the RJ conference model that they are using so that they can be aware of offenders who may fit this program. The conference model is used in lieu of prosecution if they successfully participate and complete all of the steps. It is pre-court and everyone is screened to see if the process will work and if everyone involved will participate. The next step is a preconference where they visit with the offender to get them ready by identifying the harm and see if they accept accountability etc. and see how the offender can restore the harm done in order to prepare for the conference phase. They also speak with the victims to see what they think the offender can do to fix the harm done. The conference model then moves to having a conference with all of the defendants and their support as well as two members of the community to voice the impact on the community, a member of law enforcement to voice the impact of the crime on the law enforcement, the victims and their support as well as facilitators, so sometimes it can be a very large group of people involved in the conference. At the final conference they follow a script, let the offender go first with his story, what he did, who he impacted and how. Then they open it for questions so they try to prepare the offender to give as much detail as possible so that it is less uncomfortable when the questions begin. Then they go around the room and let everyone else voice the impact on them starting with the victim. During this the offender has to be listening and take ownership. Then everyone puts in their ideas on what the offender can do to make it right and learn from the mistakes they have made, to bring Justice to the situation. They then come up with a RJ contract with a deadline for when the offender has to complete all of the steps in the contract. The offender goes home and has to complete the contract, if they do not complete the contract by the deadline then they are sent back to the DA’s office to be sent to court and be dealt with through the regular criminal justice system. If they do complete the contract then the charges are dropped. So far through April they had 18 referrals, three were denied, 15 were accepted, 13 made it to their final conferences, 6 completed the contracts and so far they have only had one that failed to complete and was returned to the DA. They have trained and certified community members and facilitators to volunteer for the conferences who are volunteers. RJ has been around the country since the 70’s but is new to Natrona County, it has been used all over the country in schools, prisons etc. and has been found to be very useful. Fremont County School District uses RJ for offenders in the schools. She added that not every crime is right for this program, it is only for certain crimes. So far the offenders they have worked with have been juveniles but adult offenders can also participate if the crime fits the program.
 
President Richard Schwahn concluded the meeting at 1:31 letting us know that next week we will be back at the Ramkota and our speaker will be the National Finals Rodeo.