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This will serve as catch up for the last two meetings. Our only guest on January 31st was Kate Bjorge, the Foundation Development Director at Lake Region Healthcare Foundation, and she talked to us about Giving Hearts Day, which was Thursday, February 8th. Holly Wilson, a Rotarian in Willmar, was visiting on the 7th, as she has now taken a job at Interstate Engineering here in Fergus Falls, with her husband the new superintendent of schools in Underwood. On the 7th, Brian T. told us only 49 tickets have been sold to the performance by James Wedgwood at The Center for the Arts on February 24, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. so we are a long way from even our breakeven point; Brian also mentioned James may be interested in joining a Rotary club. Zack reported on the 31st that there was less action than last year at the concession stand we staffed for the Rotary Speech Tournament at the High School on January 27th, but we still raised about $600 for the speech team. There was a Rotary Minute Quiz on the 31st, and three out of three questions were answered correctly, possibly because the same questions had originally been asked on January 3rd, when only one of three was answered correctly. Our student guests on the 7th were from M State, both on the basketball team. Diamond McGill is a freshman and the team's best defender; he is from Fargo and hopes to pursue a career in social work. M.K. Kambalo is a sophomore hailing from Sioux Falls and is the team's leading scoring, averaging 16 points a game. (M.K. and Diamond, left to right below.)  There were a lot of brags and fines the past two weeks: Hal L. apologized for missing his shift at the speech tourney's concession stand because he was dealing with snow/water coming off his house roof; Ken Harty said they had James Wedgwood at The Daily Journal and invited about 23 fourth graders from Cleveland over and they laughed a lot; great photos were taken and his performance will be a subject of a Daily Journal article; this writer bragged about the team made up of Lois, two others and him finishing the 500-piece jigsaw puzzle at the St. Paul Winter Carnival contest for the first time in under two hours; Josh B. talked about attending a preaching seminar in Chicago; Lois J. told us that while competing in the jigsaw puzzle contest at the St. Paul Depot, she found out train tickets to and from Chicago cost $140; Kathy A. will miss a couple meetings as she is leaving for India; John M. talked about an article in the Fargo Forum about a program called M3 Moorhead Minds Matter (an outgrowth of a suicide by a young hockey player) of which one of his granddaughter's is the executive director; this writer reported that Minneapolis has been awarded the Rotary International Convention in 2029; Keith O., joining virtually, told us John's granddaughter and the charitable organization she works for were also the subject of a WDAY interview he saw; Mary P. paid for missing a meeting and to tell us she made a meeting of Fergus Sunrise Rotary and Kent Mattson was the speaker; she also talked about a wall board they maintain (at her office?) where everyone's volunteer efforts are shown with stick-ums; Buzz L. said he was proud their business employs this year's Snow Ball Queen, Audrey Bowman; Katie J. paid because she had to leave early while Matt S. paid for missing the prior week; Zack told us his daughter was going to be one of 40 cast members in the seventh-grade musical and her role is playing a seven-foot tall Norwegian guy -- she is 4'11"; Brian T. related a story that helped convince him sometimes attorneys do come in handy (thank you!); and Wally C. also bragged about Zack's daughter, Wally's granddaughter being in the play. Program on Jan. 31st: Derik Tysdal from Otter Tail Power spoke to us, introduced by Lisa M. He is the Manager of Advanced Concepts and gave us a background on the mission and values held by the Company. It serves over 133,000 customers in 422 communities with 6,348 miles of transmission lines and 8,413 miles of distribution lines. Its average cost per kilowatt hour to residential customers is $10.97 compared to the state's $14.95, while for residential customers it is $10.18 compared to $12.32 statewide. Derik was born in Battle Lake and his father was a lineman for the company. His father's job saw moves to Crookston and Erskine. Derik attended college in Alexandria, learning about maintaining radio systems in airplanes and his first job in that field took him to Fargo. He then took a job at OTP working with its radios and towers, running its communications. He also was a volunteer with the Fergus Falls Fire Department for 11 years and then the Battle Lake Department for nine years, running it for five. He and his wife live in Battle Lake and have three children. Derik has been employed at OTP for 18 years, running its control center and taking his current position last July 1. He is now in charge of getting its Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) up and running, which is a $55 million project. For the 117 years of the company's existence, it has sent someone out to read meters every month. Other companies moved in the direction of AMI about 20 years ago, but it did not make sense for OTP do so at that time because of its large service area and smaller customer base. AMI is an integrated system of advanced meters, a communication network and a data management system that enables two-way communications between OTP and its customers. It will eliminate the need to read over 180,000 meters every month and allow faster response times to outages and more visibility to a customer's energy use. Right now, OTP receives over one million alarms a year. When it is about time for the new meter to be installed, customers will get a two-week advance mailed notice and will get a door-knob-notice of the installation at the time of the work. The installation is being handled by a separate company and it will start at the south end of the company's territory (in about two weeks) and move north. The new meters will likely be installed in Fergus in the fall or close to the end of the year. Customers can opt out of the new meter, but there will be a charge if they choose to do so. Program on Feb. 7th: Joshua Bowyer gave his Classification Talk. He has been an officer for the Salvation Army (SA) for three years but has been part of it all his life. Joshua was born in 1994 in Rockford, Illinois and his family attended a SA church in Rockford with over 200 members. There were no social service programs at the church so to him the SA was his church and that was it. A lot of retired officers came into his life, providing a strong influence. Joshua's family our seventh generation Salvationists, going back to England in 1865 and then migrating to Canada and down to the U.S. In Rockford, Joshua participated in youth band, a character-building program, taught Sunday School and attended summer camps. Two sisters came along and there were job issues for his father at one point, so his family ended up living in a house SA owned. Josh's parents became SA officers five years ago, just became captains, and work at a SA rehabilitation center in Rockford. Joshua told us SA has an amazing musical history. His growing-up church had a band that played every Sunday and he learned how to play music and conduct. He played in the band in Chicago when he went to seminary and plays the tuba. Joshua said the hardest thing for him to give up when he took this job was participating in a band but said he will be back teaching at music camp this summer. Josh went into seminary in 2018 with 22 other classmates; it is located one block from Wrigley Field. He described his wife, Darby, as supersmart helping him get through math at seminary. The two of them are responsible for our local SA. They have a three-year-old, a one-year-old and a third is expected in April. With the SA you never know when you are going to move and every location is different, with local leadership given a lot of freedom to do what the community needs. In Fergus Falls, that includes a feeding program for both the adult public and youth. Ricki reported that in January they served over 1,200 meals. Youth programs include character building, Bible Study, game nights (Felicia is their new Youth Coordinator). The afterschool programs are really important, helping the kids with their homework and getting them enthused. Joshua is also planning music lessons for adults and children. Anthony started SA gaming and it continues, with both video and table-top games; a concession stand raises money for SA's World Services. The plan is to have gaming competitions with other SA locations. Other social services offered locally, headed by Carol as Social Services Director, include EDS (Emergency Disaster Services) and the Thrift Stores in Fergus Falls and Henning. In January the unit served 119 individuals and 20 households. Anyone can volunteer to help with EDS where SA brings a canteen to local fires or other disasters and serves both the persons affected and the emergency responders. The biggest program for the Division is Pathway of Hope, which is run by Breanna; it is at a more personal level and its goal is to help families become self-sustaining. Its success rate is improving. Last year they served 42 families and so far this year they have been involved with 17. Joshua said first, and foremost, however, SA is a church and everything it does is motivated by the love of God. Joshua concluded by stating he was pleased to be invited into Rotary and said he encouraged people to approach him with advice or ideas as he is looking to our wisdom as well going forward. |
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