We gathered at Union Pizza and President Ken brought us to order with the Pledge of Allegiance, Pete Wasberg offering our invocation and then we all recited The Four Way Test. Dean Monke introduced our student guests from the High School, all seniors. They were Cyntreya Lockett, daughter of Megan and Antonio Butler who is involved in basketball, synchronized swimming and tennis; Megan Tossett, daughter of Karmen and Mike who participates in soccer and track and plans on attending NDSU next year to obtain a degree in exercise science; and Tyra Skjeret, daughter of Matt and Jenny, involved with soccer and hockey (as well as coaching 8th and 9th graders) and is heading off to Concordia next September.  Zack Stach reported on a successful year of bell ringing, thanks to volunteers Dave Johnson, Katie Johnson, Steve Leitte, Hal Leland, Lisa McFarland, Mary Pettit, Zack, Brian Tjaden and Pete Wasberg. We raised $3,100 when Rotarians were ringing the bell, which worked out to around $125 an hour, our highest total since 2017 (I hope I got that right, but Anthony can correct me if I did not). We discussed moving to the Salvation Army starting today and also the possibility of resuming singing. It was pointed out that the piano may be in need of tuning and a couple members present suggested limiting it to one time a month. The Board will discuss. There was a Rotary Minute Christmas Math Quiz where the questions were way too complicated without taking notes and using a calculator -- shame on the teacher! Brags and fines started out with a hefty contribution from Dave Johnson celebrating getting beyond the shortest day of the year (in terms of sunlight, not hours). Anthony was happy everyone had Salvation Army on their minds while Buzz Lundeen contributed for his necessary, extended absence from meetings while recovering from knee replacement surgery. Mark Bring paid for work travels that resulted in him missing the last two meetings and Steve Leitte celebrated the efforts if the Otters' girl basketball team. Wally Cole reported, inter alia (a Latin term meaning among other things which lawyers use to try to impress people) that he and Marci had gone down to Bethel College to see their first grandchild graduate. Speaking of lawyers, Keith Olson made some nasty remark about this writer's hourly billable rate, but he obviously had his more expensive attorneys in mind. Katie Johnson finished it off with a contribution celebrating the academic achievements of her children, with her son passing a difficult engineering test and her daughter achieving a 4.0. We then had our own Keith Olson lead us in Christmas carols, finishing with Auld Lang Syne and We Wish You a Merry Christmas to bring our meeting to a conclusion. |
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