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This heading for an article has been used once before. This week's Rotary Minute Quiz will include the following question: Was it used in a) 2020; b) 2021; c) 2022 or d) 2023? August 7th Meeting: Assistant District (AG) Governor Blake Carlson joined us with District Governor (DG) Kay Perries and her spouse, Dan. Kathy A. offered our invocation. President Katie told us Ryan W. celebrated his birthday the day prior to our meeting and we were reminded that our Exchange Student, Candi, will arrive on the 18th of this month. We quickly launched into brags and fines, with Mary P. leading off by paying a scooter buck and to thank Brian T., Jamie L. and Keith O. for their leadership on our peach fundraiser. Keith O. told us how his son and daughter-in-law are heading to Minneapolis, leaving their jobs, to prepare for an induced birth of granddaughter Nora on August 23rd, followed two days later by open heart surgery to fix Nora's transposed great arteries. Our prayers should be with the Olson family; we may find Keith a little less available as he will he holding down his storefront without help for a while. DG Kay contributed a happy dollar and Deb M. put in for Kay's visit and for missing our prior meeting; later Deb also reported that our grant application for the school project in Bolivia had received approval from the District. (It is a $24,350 project, with our club giving $5,000, $7,175 from other clubs in the District and $12,175 in World Community Service funds raised by the District collecting $15 a year from each Rotarian in the District.) AG Blake told us it was good to visit our club again and said he was an international travel partner with Deb. M. Dave J. paid a self-imposed fine for forgetting he was to greet. President Katie thanked Ken H. for covering our meeting the prior week and to tell us her daughter had arrived in Boise, Colorado to start her job at Albertsons. There was a Rotary Minute Quiz on DG Perries based on the biography that appeared for her in last week's e-Rounds. All three questions were answered correctly. First time ever, I believe, for answering all the questions on a bio for a visiting District Governor correctly! DG Kay has embraced RI President Stephanie Urchick's theme for the year, "The Magic of Rotary," noting it nicely compliments the two preceding themes, "Create Hope in the World" and "Imagine Rotary." Kay remembered her start with Rotary when, as a high school student, she received one of 350 $100 scholarships given by the Elgin, Illinois Rotary Club, which also gave each student a folder about Rotary and wrote a letter of appreciation to each student's parents. Kay and Dan have hosted two exchange students, one from Iceland and one from Norway, having traveled to Iceland for that exchange student's wedding. Kay also led a Group Study Exchange Team, consisting of five non-Rotarians, to Iceland, recalling being met at the airport after an all-night flight by a non-English speaking group, feeling the "scariest" she has ever felt. The reason she joined Rotary in the first place, however, was because her employer, Herbergers, told her to do so and to be involved in it. As to deciding to seek her current post, Kay said two Past District Governors, Rick Bricker and Gary Nolte, put the bug in her ear. She now feels it is time for her to give back to Rotary what she and her family have been given by it over the years. Our District has 62 clubs and two Rotaract clubs, stretching over an expanse 1,100 miles across. Rotary International's goal this year is for each District to add 100 members, which would mean 1.69 members per each club. Kay said she is more concerned, however, about keeping the members we have in Rotary. During her presentation Kay asked different members of our club some questions, including what you like about our club, with Keith O. responding the comradery, fellowship and common goals we share. Rotary's vision statement, "Together people create change," embodies this. Kay told us of sitting with a woman from Ukraine in the Friendship Hall at the Rotary International Convention in Singapore, perceiving pain in her face, Kay asked how she was, and her response was she did not know if when she goes home her house will still be standing. When in Chicago for DG training, a visit was made to the home of Rotary founder Paul Harris, where the front window looks out on adjoining Lake Michigan; as they were leaving, another incoming DG challenged them all to pick up a seed on the ground, saying it could be used as a reminder that Paul Harris planted a seed and we should always be doing so in our communities. Kay concluded by asking, "where will Rotary take you?" and saying that each one of us can grasp the magic.  August 14, 2024 Meeting: Jamie L. offered the invocation and also led us in singing, with President Katie saying after the latter that she hopes all of us feel "lighter in our hearts" as she does after we sing, albeit less frequently now. Guest included Ryon W.'s son Austin and Steve's wife Mung, the latter returning to New York this coming Tuesday. President Katie announced board meetings this year will be on the second Monday of each month from noon to 1:00 p.m. and held virtually; if anyone wants to attend, let her know and she will provide the Google Meets info needed to join. At the time of the meeting, Brian T. reported that there were 66 lugs of peaches for which we have not identified buyers, and some will be donated to the food shelf and Salvation Army, with other suggestions solicited for ways to dispose of the rest. Ryan W. rose to initiate brags and fines, noting they were in South Carolina the prior week to see Austin graduate from basic training and that Austin received the Soldier of Cycle award for his company of 190 and that only five of a total 1000 soldiers in the class received it; Austin is heading off to UND to start his schooling there. Hal L. paid for missing two meetings, noting he was absent the prior week because he suffered a tumble and had to get some x-rays taken but nothing was broken; he also was proud of his daughters helping to sell and deliver 20 lugs of peaches. Mark B. contributed both for missing a couple meetings and in honor of Austin W., who played hockey with Mark's son. Holly W. fined herself for missing last week's meeting and Dean M. did likewise for a couple meetings, also noting that he had collected all his peach money from customers except family members. Jamie L. told us he missed last week as he and wife Angie were cruising the Rhine; he also thanked Brian T. and Keith O. for handling the peaches in his absence. President Katie added that Jamie was celebrating a birthday the week of the meeting. Tim H. then contributed to honor Ryan's son, for missing last week and to regretfully report the death of Tim's sister. This writer paid in for not making it to work at the peach stand as he had signed up to do, not getting the Rounds out for last week and to say he was happy that daughter Laurel Kilde is unopposed in her seeking to serve the fourth ward on the City Council. Steve A. then bragged that he and Mung had attended a car show in Vergas and toured Otter Tail County and that, on this coming Monday, they are closing on a lake lot. Finally, Kathy A. alerted Cody O. (who was attending virtually with Deb M. and Pete W.) that he should probably fine himself next week for not being at the front desk and greeting at the meeting as scheduled. Mark B. introduced our speaker, Jason Weiers, from Otter Tail Power Company, who is the manager of its transmission project development team. He graduated from NDSU (not UND) and he started out by reminding us that in August of 2003 the northeast U.S. experienced a blackout that impacted 55 million people, taking down a load of approximately 23,000 megawatts, and lasting anywhere from two hours to four days. To improve the grid's reliability, regional organizations have been put in place that act somewhat like an air controller, but for electric transmission lines. The group Otter Tail Power belongs to is called the Midcontinent Independent System Operator or "MISO." MISO began work on a long-range transmission plan in 2020. In 2022 it approved 18 new multi-value transmission projects with an estimated cost of $10.3 billion. Two involve Otter Tail's territory, with lines proposed from Jamestown to Ellendale and from Big Stone to Alexandria (and on to the Iron Range). OTP's is about 1½% of the total load for MISO, so that is its share of the cost for all the projects. The benefits far exceed the cost to the company, however, by increasing transmission capacity, reducing transmission congestion, ensuring electric reliability, increasing resilience to extreme weather conditions, creating jobs, etc. The Jamestown-Ellendale line will be 85 to 90 miles long, with existing substations being expanding, and will double capacity at a cost of $440 million; the project is expected to be completed in 2028. The project from the Big Stone south substation to Alexandria will be 95 to 100 miles long and the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will ultimately decide which of two proposed routes will be used. |
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