President Katie Johnson called on Tim Hunt to offer our invocation. There was a Rotary Minute Plus Quiz based on the July Rotary Magazine with two of three questions answered correctly. A thank you note from the Fergus Falls Public Library was circulated for the children's books donated to it. Deb Maertens was just back from the Central Lakes Rotary Youth Exchange gathering with news that the 15-year-old student from Guatemala will not be our exchange student (Central States felt she was too young) and that instead we will share Sara, an Italian student, with Sunrise Rotary; she is into math, science and music. President Katie announced the resignation of Randy Kempfer from the Club. She also told us that at a Board meeting the previous Monday a decision was made to support Pete's Trees, an effort to add trees to our golf course in memory of long-time member Peter Wasberg, with each dollar given by a member matched by the club (up to $2,500), hopefully reaching a total of $5,000. Checks should be made payable to "Pete's Trees" and given to Brian Tjaden before the end of this month. For brags and fines, Steve Austvold said that within 30 minutes of the end of our last meeting he talked to two people about possibly joining our club; Tim Hunt contributed for missing a couple meetings; Keith Olson talked about his youngest son turning 30, planning to host cousin camp at the end of the month for his and Kim's children's children, and the group Men of Note getting back together; this writer used his brag card to say he appreciated the fact Steve Andrew's wife was coming home for good, thinking that may help to get Steve to smile a bit more; Brian Tjaden said he was out fishing and caught a four pound walleye and then, just the prior Monday, his pontoon was flipped in a storm but there was only damage to the motor; and John MacFarland thanked the club for its support of Pete's Trees.
Our program was Brian Tjaden who gave a thorough and well-supported PowerPoint on our club's finances. Two of his slides laying out this past Rotary year's operating and fundraising budget are shown below; if you want to review the full presentation it has been saved on this ClubRunner site. Our budget for the 2026-27 year is going from an average of $480 a member to $532, with total revenues expected to be 61% from dues, 29% from meals and 10% from brags. A big thanks to Brian for all the time and effort he continues to put in as Treasurer of our club.
