At 12:15 pm on September 11th, President John Chandler called the meeting to order at the Intercontinental Hotel. Susan O’Neil led the group with “Taps” given that today is the 17th anniversary of the tragic events in New York City, Washington DC and Shanksville, PA. Bill Given was prepared to accompany the group on the piano, but it was not working today. Laurie Murphy provided the inspirational minute with the Pledge of Allegiance and a poem about events on 9/11. Scott Van introduced visiting Rotarians and guests at the meeting. James Grayson was the greeter and Linda Mulhern, the scribe for this meeting.
A number of announcements were made for upcoming events, including the Rotary Happy Hour at Summit Brewery on 9/13 between 4-7 pm, the September 25th meeting for our official club photo, the Rotary Foundation get together on November 10th at the Inwood Oaks Event Center and last of all, the Rose sale, which will close this week and paperwork needs to go to Jodi. Please sell roses to friends and co-workers at $20 a dozen. The roses will be delivered on 9/27 to the Van warehouse and the club will need help with deliveries on that day as well. Contact Valdi Stefanson for information if you can help with rose deliveries. The money raised goes to many of our projects including Camp RYLA, Youth Exchange, the Education Award to middle school students and the flower gardens.
There were many happy dollars collected including Bill Collins who realized recently that both an aunt and uncle had had polio and the power of Rotary to try to eliminate the disease, Carla Hauge talked about all of the well wishes for her father after his recent surgery and cancer treatment and John Chandler who got lost in the BWCA, survived behind the wheel with his son, watched the US Open and ate too much at the State Fair.
Jim Kosmo introduced Dave Therkelsen. He has known Dave for many years as a reporter and with the Red Cross (and as a former St Paul Rotarian). Jay Pfaender invited him to speak about the survival of the United Way based on a recent article in the press.
Dave spoke about the idea of a federated giving and the United Way as a great idea in the twentieth century. It was an idea that employers could give the option to employees to give a little with every paycheck. Charitable giving would allow non-profits to put their attention on their mission rather than fund raising and the United Way would evaluate the accomplishments for those groups receiving funding. At its peak, United Way was able to raise 4 billion dollars nationally and 102 million locally in the Twin Cities. Changes have occurred over the last 40 years though. Individuals could direct their contributions to a specific group rather than to the community as a whole, the large and medium employers are not participating as much and have also let other groups ask for donations from their employees and many of businesses that were downtown have gone elsewhere.
As can be noted income growth did not occur and more people have held back money to keep up with the lack of growth in wages. Corporate leaders were not as involved as well and the internet has provided opportunities for individuals to make contributions to specialized groups.
Approximately $400 billion is donated annually. Dave wanted to point out that people need to look at realistic goals for non-profits. He asked that we not look at how small the overhead is, if the organization is starving itself to be effective. The infrastructure is important to any non-profit organization. He used the Red Cross as a good example because through the hospital paid fees for blood, they can conduit effective training; they are able to track blood products and the results, all with safety in mind. He said that any non-profit should consider working with a $10 million operating budget to be effective. The results are most important, not how low the overhead is for the group.
The United Way along with any non-profit will need to adapt as well as plan to be successful in the future.
President John presented a certificate to Dave Therkelsen donating money to the Read for Me program in his name as a speaker to the club. The club membership recited the “Four Way Test” and the meeting was adjourned at 1:12 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Mulhern
Scribe