President Dick Jay called the meeting to order promptly at 12:22, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.

Peaches Linch was our greeter today and she introduced the members who brought guests:

Gary Pehrson led us in singing “God Bless America”

Deb Theriault continued reading some history of the club from 1941-1943, more great stuff that happened here at the start of WWII.

Brook Kaufman, CEO of Visit Casper, announced that they will be deploying a survey to help them with destination development and has asked that all Rotarians respond to this survey that they will be sending out to our club members.

Senator Enzi spoke to us for a few moments and let us know that he likes to concentrate on the small businesses especially in our State.

Kevin Murphy let us know that Paul Wilhelm’s Father, Ron, passed away Easter Morning.

Brad Cundy let us know that his wife Jan has been suffering from a kidney infection but is finally doing better and he thanked us for all of the thoughts and prayers on their behalf.

Chastidy Fox announced that today is her parents’ 41^st Anniversary.

Charlie Shopp nominated Kyle Gamroth for his great job being the emcee for the Hunting With Heroes Banquet on Saturday night.

Dan O’Dell nominated several Rotarians for their help and support at the Iris Clubhouses’ Thankful Thursday fundraiser last week where they raise over six thousand dollars. Those Rotarians were: Kodi Merschat, Susan Thomas, Charles Schoenwolf, John Jorgensen, John Griffith, Taylor Schwahn, Richard Schwahn, Mike Stepp, and Mike Brown;

Mike Stepp nominated Chastidy Fox for being the Easter Bunny and raising money for Mimi’s House.

Jim Porter nominated Dale Bohren for the great spread about Rotary in the Sunday Paper, he also nominated Richard and Taylor Schwahn for the great article they participated in that appeared in this morning’s Trib.

Brian Deurloo nominated Barry Johnson for all of his work in getting the Centennial Gutter Bins in place last Thursday.

Ryan Jay sponsored by Dick Jay and Ben Winckler sponsored by Lynette Boatright were inducted into the club today. Welcome aboard!!

Kendra Ziler was awarded her Blue Badge today, way to go Kendra!!!!

President Dick Jay reminded us that the District Conference is coming up soon so you need to get registered for that and for the Hotel rooms. Contact Windy Allen at Dave True’s office for the Hotel.

Velma Corson announced that due to the storms in Mozambique her non-profit is working with the Rotary club over there to help with recovery and if anyone would like to help with that please let her know.

Joe MacGuire announced that June 1 is the Young Eagle’s event at the airport and 30 days prior to that the Ford Trimotor airplane will be here giving rides so all are welcome to the events.

Mandy George announced that there are fliers on the tables for the Golf Tournament in July and they are still in need of sponsors and teams to play.

Mike Stepp announced that he has a sign-up sheet going around for the Duck Derby in need of prizes also.

Hal Hutchinson announced that on Thursday June 13 at 5:30 we will be doing the highway cleanup so set that date aside and he will have a sign-up sheet next week.

Doug McLaughlin announced that this weekend Art 321 will be having their annual Gala event, tickets are $45 per person $80 per couple so get in touch with him for tickets.

Barry Johnson announced that next Monday the Mayor will be at our meeting to proclaim Rotary Day, he also reminded us to get our RSVP in for our Gala ASAP and if you need one let him know as they have a few extras.

No SOM today

Ann Ruble gave her classification talk today, she just thought she was done. She has been the director at the Nic for the past 2.5 years. She was born in Illinois and moved to Iowa when she was two years old. She went to Kent State University on swimming and academic scholarships. She had two interests one of which was political campaign management and there were only two schools with that program at the time and Kent was one of them, her other interest was industrial relations. She was able to intern with the Governor of Ohio and the Governor of Kentucky. She went into campaign management as her first career. She discovered that in that field she was always looking for a job. She took a Temp job with Ethel Corporation and they hired her full time in the chemicals division. Eighteen months later they spun off the Chemicals division and she applied for a job in that new company and got her first job in corporate communications. She moved around to some other companies and joined Rotary 20 years ago and eventually moved back to Louisiana doing public relations for many companies and then ended up opening her own company. With two little boys they decided to make a family change and they ended up moving to Casper. She has done a lot of work with non-profits and ended up at the Nic. They have two boys, Jacob 11 and Jimmy in 7^th grade. This is her 4^th Rotary club and she says it will be her last.

President Dick Jay then awarded Ann her blue badge and he also awarded Carter Napier his blue badge. 

John Griffith introduced our speaker today, Shawn Reese from the Wyoming Business Council. The Business Council is the economic development council for the State. Shawn said that we are in a time of change and things are happening in economic development. He said that being a rural State we have different challenges in different areas of the State but we also have opportunity. As markets and technology changes we can’t predict what those changes will be but we know that change will happen. Economic and business development is only one piece of solving Wyoming’s problems. Economic development and workforce development go hand in hand. Education and workforce development have not been going hand in hand and there is often a communication breakdown as far as what education we need for our workforce to develop into what we need. The Legislature has shown a willingness to invest in Wyoming’s future and they want to know that we are getting a return on these investments. When it comes to economic development there are a lot of players throughout the State that are making momentum in their own ways but they are each focused on their specific areas. Our State economy is based on Energy and to a lesser extent on tourism and agriculture. He stated that we have some very important sectors that are underrepresented in Wyoming, professional services sector as well as manufacturing, when compared to other states. There has been a lot of work put into improving our economic development. He spoke about Endow and the Business Council. Endow put together a 20 year plan for diversification to help improve the economy in Wyoming. Traditionally economic development has not looked at the big picture like Endow is doing. We need to fix the big picture and be better linked to the big picture. Endow came up with five economic pillars and said that we need to focus on those, natural resources and energy, tourism and outdoor recreation, agriculture, advanced manufacturing, and knowledge and creative economy (professional services). We also need to focus on infrastructure, entrepreneurship, and do a better job of bridging economic development, workforce development, and education. The Council has been working on a goal that the Governor has set for educational attainment that, by the year 2025 he wants to see 67% of Wyomingites having some sort of advanced degree or industrial certification. So we need to listen to industry to find their needs for education and training for the short term as well as the long term. They have also been working to bring broadband to the smaller towns that are underserved when it comes to broadband services. Entrepreneurship they are also working to help new businesses be more successful. The business council will be getting more involved in things like supply chains, logistics and innovation, adding value to our core industries that mean so much to Wyoming. They have worked with Visit Casper to develop a video for the core frontline workers in the tourism industry to help them better speak to the great things about Wyoming to their customers. By expanding and adding value to our base industries they will be growing and activating the underrepresented sectors that we need to grow. They want to do better in all areas of the economy and leverage their partners in order to better all industries in the State. He then opened up the floor to questions. He said that they hope to see existing businesses expand into other markets in order to develop some of the underserved areas of the economy.

 

President Dick Jay concluded the meeting at 1:28 letting us know that next week we will be back at the Ramkota with State Superintendent of Education Jillian Balow as our guest speaker.

 

“Be the Inspiration”