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

 

 

Chad Pew and Peaches Lynch were our greeters and Chad introduced guests:

Ronna Boril introduced Jens Boril

Paulann Doan introduced Darren Divine from Casper College.

Bill DeGraeve introduced Erin Essary;

John Griffith introduced Mary Koernig from the NIC;

Mike Ward introduced Kylee Stupak;

Mike McIntosh introduced Junior Santos;

 

Dennis Lower treated us to a good chuckle and then Gary Pehrson had us in singing “America The Beautiful” accompanied by Brenda Peters on the piano.

 

 

Bill Degraeve awarded Vickie Diamond her Paul Harris Fellow Pin and certificate.

Barry Johnson announced that the motorcycle and car rally to Logan UT will be August 14-16 and will help raise money for the international project through the games they will play along the way. President John asked all of those who are going to please stand and also all that participated in the Golf tournament to stand.

Brian Deurloo asked who sold all of their tickets to raise their hand and reminded us that we need to get them sold. Also anyone who is donating a prize please get those turned in so that we can get everything printed up and ready. He said that anyone who can go Tuesday night 5-7 to the Farmers Market to sell tickets please do so. Brian also let us know that there are signup sheets going around for helping at the Duck Derby so please sign up to help.

Dave announced that we are sorting and numbering ducks tonight at 5:00 at Crossroads so please show up so we can get it done as quickly as possible.

Paulann Doane has Duck Derby posters if you would like one to hang up get them from her.

Deb Theriault announced that we have a group of Brazilians coming in for a Rotarian Friendship exchange with District 4600 from Brazil. We have 11 people coming in 5 singles and 3 couples for September 17-19 and we will need host homes for two nights and help feeding and getting them to other places. We will need someone to get them from the Lander area to Casper then from Casper towards Nebraska.  Anyone interested in hosting please let Deb know.

Richard Schwahn let us know that our newest exchange student from Belgium will be arriving Thursday August 20 at 4:30 at the Airport and we would like to have as many as possible be there to welcome her.

 

Kevin Hawley who was originally sponsored by Josh Bake, who moved away, received his blue badge today and Sandy Widmer graciously stepped in to be his faux sponsor.

 

Steven Schnell introduced himself to us today; Steven is the executive director of The Science Zone. He was raised in Oregon and had a passion for chemistry and science and spent most of his time in his chemistry lab in the garage. He also had a passion for scouting and was awarded his Eagle Scout before leaving Oregon. Then he moved to Reno and was involved in HS theater and then graduated from UN in Reno with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and information systems. After college he took a few months off and traveled around the world to about 30 different countries. Upon returning he worked in Real Estate with his father for a while then went to work as a systems analyst at a big company and really liked that but due to a downturn was laid off. So he then took some time off to go to Patagonia for a month or so and upon returning he discovered that his girlfriend had taken a job in Casper at the Montessori School, so he moved here to join her. When he got here he joined the board at the Science Zone and then got the job as Director. Before taking over he went to California and scaled Mount Shasta and had some more outdoor fun. He lives in downtown Casper with his Girlfriend and their two dogs. His parents still live in Reno and his sister lives in Oregon with her husband and two daughters.

 

District Governor Ken Small was our guest speaker today; he is here today with his wife Joan. Ken said that they are just getting started on the tour of the District and they are enjoying it all and are impressed with our club and the scope of our work. He then handed Lori Klatt $20 for a Duck Ticket as she got to him first. He said that the Polio program with RI is really being successful and said that Africa has been Polio free for over a year. About three years ago Nigeria had a backslide but they now have been Polio free for over a year. This leaves Afghanistan and Pakistan to go and the directors of the World Health Organization and Rotary laboratories think that by December we will have ended the transmission of wild Polio in the world. Rotary started in 1984 to be a primary advocate of ending Polio and it has been a very successful project. This is a huge accomplishment to wipe out Polio. He is very impressed with the Duck Derby and how we use the funds for the community. He let us know that RI is moving into the digital data world and is collecting information from all of the clubs and entering it into the data base, this information includes man hours, money raised, community projects completed, youth exchange, RYLA and so forth. He suggests that our club is a natural for the Presidential Citation if we will get our information input so that they can see all that we do. He let us know that there are about 50 Rotary fellowships, like Skiers, Bikers, Sailing, and Mountain Bikers etc. These are things that you can travel and do with other Rotarians. There is also a fellowship for home exchanges if you would like to do that for travel. He thanked us for doing the Rotary friendship exchange and encouraged us to continue to participate in these. He then talked about the state of the District. Membership in the District last year was essentially flat, a little over 80 people joined and we lost a little over 80. We are net down by about 200 from our goal at the end of this year so keep pushing; our club has a goal of adding eleven members so continue to invite visitors. Rotary in North America is not growing like it is around the world so we need some more good Rotarians. District giving, the members of the District contributed $570,000 to the annual fund which is shared 50/50 with the district after 3 years so that it can be used for grants and projects for the clubs. He encouraged us to continue to raise funds and contribute to RI and to the community. While doing the fundraising outside of Rotary we can also raise awareness of Rotary and what we do. He encouraged us to save the date for next year District Conference which will be opening the Lodge at Jackson Lake and will coincide with the 100^th anniversary of the National Park Service. There will be some great seminars and breakout sessions and speakers along with free time to enjoy the area. He also invited all to attend the Rotary assembly on October 3 at Little America in Cheyenne, and will have a lot of good topics and information for all. He then took questions and let us know that we have 3088 Rotarians and 52 or 54 clubs depending on a couple of clubs in Colorado and what will happen there. He also said that there is no plan for a program after Polio and we will continue to focus on Polio for the next three years to make sure it is eradicated. Thank you Ken for the great visit.

 

President John Starnes adjourned the meeting at 1:19 with the ring of the bell, reminding us that next week we are back at the Parkway Plaza and the program will be about the Rose Parade.