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Keith Olson offered our invocation with special prayers for John MacFarlane and his family on the death of his wife, Eunice. Dave Johnson introduced our Student Guests from the High School, Alex Jensen and Grant Askerson, both seniors and on the basketball team. Alex's parents are Jan and Jeremy and he is also involved in football and track, with intentions of attending Colorado State and pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. Grant's parents are Jeff and Gina and he is on the tennis team and in the choir; he will be attending U.N.D. next fall.  Zack Stach said we still needed some volunteers to work the speech tournament this coming Saturday, the 28th, particularly toward the end of the event. We also need three to four Rotarians to fill bags at the United Way on the 31st, starting at about 9:00 a.m. The election of our 2023-24 leadership group was conducted and the following were elected: Zack Stach, President; Katie Johnson, President-elect; Kathy Austvold, Secretary; Brian Tjaden, Treasurer; Ken Harty, Past President; and Mark Bring and Lisa McFarland, Board members. Also elected to a two-year term on the Fergus Falls Rotary Foundation Board was Katie Johnson. The election was proceeded by a Rotary Minute quiz and those assembled answered one of three questions based on the articles in the January Rotary magazine correctly. President Ken was the first to brag, telling us that 2023 as the 150th anniversary of The Daily Journal, originally founded by A.J. Underwood. Keith Olson reported he missed last week because he travelled to Billings, Montana and assisted Todd McGovern's brother in distributing 130 hot meals for the local Salvation Army. Pete Wasberg put in a good amount to aknowledge our speaker, who is a former neighbor to Pete. Katie Johnson told us of the Cancer Center's open house later that day to celebrate some new, cutting-edge enhancements. Jamie Larson concluded the brags by commenting on one of our Rotary Minute questions that had to do with the 100 million plus cell phones discarded annually in the United States, afraid his family is responsible for a good share of those. Bonnie Denzel introduced our guest speaker, Josh Nelson from Lakes Country Service Cooperative ("LCSC"). He is the director of its educational programs but recently added a new hobby (?), purchasing a resort and four fishing boats in Alaska. LCSC's Executive Director is Jeremy Kovash and Hal Leland was a longtime member of its Boards of Directors. (Hal had very nice things to say about LCSC at the end of Josh's remarks.) Josh thanked one of our student guests, Alex, for protecting Josh's son during the football season.  It was in the mid-1970's that the State legislature established nine service cooperatives throughout Minnesota. State funding was eliminated in the 1980's, causing all of the cooperatives to become entrepreneurial. Of the cooperatives, ours has the second most employees, with 140 at headquarters and 20 more at offices in Alexandria, on the Moorhead State campus, and at a building out by Tag-Up. LCSC serves the nine counties of Clay, Becker, Wilkin, Otter Tail, Douglas, Grant, Traverse, Stevens and Pope. It advocates for strong communities through service and leadership and offers 60 different programs, including insurance and wellness programs, technology services, cooperative purchasing services, health and safety services, etc., to its 160 members. Those members include 34 school districts and 14 private schools (there are 34,000 students in its region) that receive support and training as well as direct services to their students. ECSU was successful in influencing the legislature to create an alternative pathway to become a teacher through work-based learning. LCSC has also made it possible for its schools to provide education to what now numbers 84 students who require what is called "Setting 4" teaching because they cannot function in a normal classroom environment; this was accomplished by hiring 14 different teachers in three different locations to work with these children; Josh called it the most rewarding and difficult program he has been involved with starting. There is still a big need in the area of special education and that will be a subject of greater focus by LCSC going forward. |
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