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Zack offered our invocation, President Ken let us know that we had one member, Deb, joining via Zoom, and this writer did a Rotary Minute based on articles in the June Rotary magazine, with two for three answered correctly. Zack passed around a sign-up sheet to volunteer at Salvation Army on Thursdays from 11:30 to 12:30, helping in the kitchen; Matt and Wally have both done so now and report the work is not backbreaking. A volunteer sheet to help during Shop, Move's Groove will be passed around at our next meeting. Brian reminded us to use up our expiring Brag and Fine cards and took a count of those who raised their hand to buy another one for our new Rotary year. It was also noted that last week's e-Rounds incorrectly reported our tour of Tag-Up was offered by Kurt Werner when it was actually his twin-brother Chris. When we got to Brags & Fines, we all got a little nervous when Matt put in U.S. legal tender with Andrew Jackson pictured only because he missed the prior week's meeting to take his kids to Valley Fair. Did the stakes for missing just go up? Keith finished off the last four punches on his card by telling us they hosted the first and last annual cousin camp for seven grandchildren the previous Friday and Saturday, which made him think it was something like negotiating with terrorists. Tim Hunt paid for missing the last two meetings and just finding out that all four sons and their families are coming to Fergus Falls at the same time in September, bringing them all together for the first time in 17 years. Bob paid to remind everyone to sell their Lucky Duck Derby tickets and to thank Ken for his leadership this past year. John followed that up with another Andrew Jackson for seeing how dog food was being made in Delano the prior week (which he said was not unlike being at our meeting) and also to thank Ken for his efforts. Lois talked about the answer to one of our Rotary Minute questions, Todd Bol, who was a Hudson, Wisconsin Rotarian that created the first Little Free Library. Mark also contributed for missing our prior meeting and Jamie thanked Ken for a great year. Keith also told us of meeting a new UND graduate who just joined Otter Tail Power; her name is Sydney and he met her on the shooting range, saying she can really shoot. Finally, Ken punched out five spots on his brag card for the honor of leading our club this past year. Ken proceeded to give our program, saying the year went super-fast and that it was his pleasure to work with everyone to make our club stronger. He said our members volunteer for everything and that we were all working in the same direction, which was great. He thanked members of the year's Executive Committee, including Zack, Kathy, Brian, Katie, Dean, Mark and Bob. Commenting on Rotary International President Jennifer Jones' 22-23 theme of Imagine Rotary, Ken said he tried to and we all need to think about our future and what it holds. He used as an example Ryan Welle setting us on our goal to raise funds for the Splash Pad going back to his year as President in 2015-16. Even though the year saw us hold meetings at Bethel Church, Union Pizza, and finally at the Salvation Army, our meetings went on without interruption, except for a couple inevitable snow days when Salvation Army was not serving lunches. He highlighted many of our excellent programs and how they served to inform us about a person, a place, a business or an event. Each program enlightened us. Ken thanked Zack for always having some service opportunity scheduled, Mark for getting us our membership recruitment posters, and the City for breaking ground for the Splash Pad. He talked about where we are at in membership, he having set a goal of growing from 31 to 35 members and ending the year at 30. He also noted how membership has been steadily declining, with 44 members in 2017-18, 41 in 18-19, 36 in 19-20, 33 in 20-21 and 31 in 21-22. He knows we can find good people to join Rotary and we just have to keep making the effort. Ken concluded by again thanking the Board and all members for the honor of serving our club as president this past year.  Incoming Presidente Zack Stach Taking the Gavel from Outgoing President Ken Harty |
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