At 12:05 pm , Jay Pfaender introduced from the podium all of the old and new directors and committee members for the Rotary board. Everyone was introduced to the club with great applause. The Star Spangled Banner was led by Tom, with the Mouldy Figs, who had accompanied the board members on their march to front of the room. Michael-jon Pease reminded members of the legislation that has occurred recently to make marriage available to all people in his invocation. Chuck Whitaker introduced visiting Rotarians and guests of Rotarians. Cindy Shiely and Sherry Howe were the greeters and Linda Mulhern, the scribe for this meeting. 
President Jerry asked that get well cards to be sent to Bob Jones, who had been in an accident and punctured his lung and Jim Field for his recent hip replacement. Dan McKeown introduced the members of the St Paul Foundation, including Jim Kosmo, Carla Hauge, Randy Kroll, Doug Bruce, John Guthmann, Sarah Kolar and Chuck Whitaker. Past Presidents were also introduced including Chuck Whitaker, Bill Foley, Carolyn Brusseau, Chuck Field, Alan Ruvelson, Jerry Meigs, John Andrews, John Guthmann, Jim Kosmo, Doug Bruce, Tom Farnham, Al Zdrazil and Doug Hartford. It was also noted that Jerry Meigs has been a Rotary member for 52 years. Pins were given to all of the outgoing directors and board members, including Todd Nicholson, Linda Mulhern, Jason DeKeuster, Chuck Whitaker, Chuck Stanfuss, Dave Dominick, Susan Spiers, Dion Powers, Christian Weinhagen and Kristin Montpetit.
President Jerry had some outgoing remarks about the motto this year of “Making a Difference”. Our membership has declined from 132 to 129, but we also lost 4 senior members this year, including Howard Guthmann, Robert Knox, Ron Phillippo and John Jerry. We were able to raise over $9000 with the rose sale and over $9000 from the holiday auction which brought in over $19,000 for the St Paul Foundation along with contributions of $22,000 to Rotary International. We awarded our 8th Second Century Scholarship to a St Paul student going to Bard College. Eighty three students participated at Camp RYLA and 5 students were outbound as Rotary Exchange students in Japan, Spain, France and two in Italy. We distributed 3300 dictionaries to 3rd graders in the St Paul school district and celebrated the achievements of 106 middle school students who were able to overcome obstacles and provide service to their schools and communities. We packed over 47,000 meals for Feed my Starving Children. Last of all, we planted 150 trees in Como Park. As a club we can make a difference for the community while making it fulfilling and fun for the members. President Jerry gave the gavel to the new president, John Chandler and in turn President John gave a plaque to Jerry to attach his gavel to, for his service over the past year.
Al Zdrazil introduced our new president. John Chandler originally started with Rotary in the Lakeville/Farmington club and joined the St Paul club in 2005. He has 2 Paul Harris awards and an Elmer Anderson award. He traveled to Nagasaki along with other members to present the statue of peace to the city. John recently traveled to Toronto for the Rotary convention and most importantly was willing to step in as president after Trixie Goldberg resigned in order to take a job in Phoenix.
President John introduced the new directors which included Chuck Stanfuss - secretary, Steve Gerber - treasurer, Laurie Murphy – sergeant at arms and Al Adrazil – director emeritus. The board was also introduced which included current members, Corey Edmunds, Jean Vukas- Roberts, Chad Roberts, Sherry Howe, Deb Katzmark and Valdi Stefanson. New directors are the following: Bob Cardinal, Bill Collins, Susan O’Neil, Cindy Shiely, Elyssa Weber and Lindsay Weier.
President John as the incoming president wanted to first of all introduce himself by comparing himself to Bo Aylin with a new “Johnbo-meter”, there will be count during the year as to how many times they are mixed up at meetings because of the number of times they have been mixed up by members previously. John is from Kinder, Louisiana, known as the “Crossroads to Everywhere”. It is a small town on the western side of the state. He was adopted and was first introduced to Rotary because they met at the church in his town. Shortly after college, he lost his home to fire and had to decide what he wanted to do and he moved north to Minnesota. He met his wife Pam at Sweeneys in St Paul and they got married, but the question came about if she would be willing to return to Louisiana with him…the furthest she was willing to go south was Mendota Heights They were not able to buy a house right away and lived in an apartment, which was a new life experience for the couple. Soon, their first child Thomas was born. Thomas plays with the Sibley Band and is a boy scout. Their second son, Eli is in middle school and loves baseball. Their youngest is Charlotte, who is 11 and likes to dance. John enjoys tennis and running. He is on the West St Paul school board and loves to follow the Fighting Tigers football team from Louisiana. He is also a 20 year veteran. Last of all, he wanted to point out the various times, when we all want to say “hold my beer”, but to use the term “Lagniappe” instead where we help one another in times of need.
The motto for this Rotary year is “Be the inspiration”. The RI president asked that we learn to work with Rotaract, social media and grow younger members as leaders within each club. Our local governor asked that we be audacious and inspirational while having fun as a Rotarians. John talked to a number of older clubs around the country about their membership and how to recruit. He found that millennials will be 75% of the workforce shortly and we need to look to this group when recruiting new members for the club. We need to spread the word about the club, increase the member/guest experience at meetings, we should all make up at another club, do something extra, lead with conviction, full commitment and challenge the norm, all items are included in the book “Factfulness”. President John noted that Doug Bruce brought in 2 ½ members (he is sharing the beer with another member), so he received a “sponsor” pin. Members with 5, 10, 20, 40 and 50 years of service were all recognized, along with new members this year.
President John wanted to thank everyone for their help with his quick entry as the new president and also thank everyone for everything they will do while he is president.
The Rotary 4-way test was recited and the meeting was adjourned at 1:06 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Mulhern
Scribe