Patty Kline's classification talk

     In Rotary the classification talk is the one opportunity a member has to talk about themselves without paying “Happy Dollars”. At the regular meeting, Club Assembly on May 31^st new member Patty Kline gave her classification talk.  It is where we find out more about the life of a new member.

     Patty is from Casselton, ND and achieved her Bachelor of Social Work at the University of North Dakota.  For sixteen years she worked for the Richland County Social Services and then became a manager for several Essentia family practices.  Subsequently she came to the North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS) working with their College Outreach and becoming Dean of that Department.

     College outreach is about Train ND, an agency started by the ND legislature in 1999 that seeks to provide training sites in the state to create an effective workforce.  They do this by filling industry’s needs upgrading or training their existing employees.  NDSCS is one of several colleges in the state that participate with Train ND.  Training can include basic to high end information technology, welding, OSHA training (particularly in the western part of the state), business practice and many other skills.  It is a department that they run more like a business than an academic institution and can tailor training to a specific industry or employer’s needs.  While their focus is North Dakota they also market their services to Minnesota and South Dakota.  They have two full time instructors but many part-time that they co-opt for specific needs of specific employers.

     While her work takes her all over the state and outside the state Patty has felt the need to better connect with her local community.  Rotary’s relatively new (a few Council on Legislations ago) attendance rules allow that so she was open to being recruited.  She lives in Wahpeton with her two children.