Rotary Club of Casper WY
Meeting Summary
09/30/2019
President John Griffith called the meeting to order promptly at 12:27, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.
Inspiration, Pledge, 4-Way Test:
Ann Ruble
Greeters:
Megan Miller and Chastidy Fox were our greeters today and Megan introduced the members who brought guests:
- Steve Higginson introduced Jackie Hotle (Retired CU CEO);
- Jim Grenfell introduced Laurissa Miller (WHN);
- Mike Kemper introduced his wife Sabrina Foreman (CAEDA);
- Chastidy Greenwood introduced her daughter Brianna;
- Martha Rakestraw introduced the friends and family of our SOM;
- Cori Burton introduced Natalie Betcher (Jonah Wealth Management), and also Cameron Ross (Visit Casper);
Song and Merriment:
Gary Pehrson led us in singing Happy Birthday to Deb Theriault and the Cowboy Joe;
Family of Rotary:
President John let us know that Dan O’Dell’s mom passed away this past weekend and services will be Saturday.
Lisa Scroggins let us know that their son Tom is headed to Iraq with a private contractor.
Ann Ruble announced that her and Jim are celebrating 15 years of marriage.
Erin Helms announced that Lynette Boatwright’s mom passed away last week.
Rotarians of the Week:
Cori Burton nominated Jim Ruble, Chad Nelson, and Kyle Gamroth for participating in this year’s Dancing With the Stars of Casper.
Liz Becher nominated all of those who participated in the Platte River Revival on Saturday, Jesse Glasgow, Anthony Martinez, Gary Pehrson, Glenn Januska, Dusty Johnson, Mark Owens, Connie Brezik, Matt Snyder, Chastidy Greenwood, Miamie Sleep, Nicole Tholson, Katie Caldwell Burchett, Vickery Hall, and Dick Shamley.
Kendra Ziler nominated those who attended and participated in the event at the Event Center.
Vickery Hall nominated Mark Owens for his work with the Hospice Octoberfest.
Announcements:
President John reminded us that the survey was sent out so please take that survey today. He also said District Assembly is this Saturday.
Dusty Johnson announced that this Wednesday October 2 at 5:30 we will be packing the food packs for the children in Nicaragua. We need lots of volunteers so please plan on being there and sign up so they know how many to plan for with the Pizza dinner afterwards.
Steve Loftin announced that next week is the week for food packing at the Food Bank of The Rockies so we will need some volunteers for that.
Jim Anderson let us know that the annual Rotarian Bird Hunt will be Saturday October 12th at Riverbend. There will be clay pigeon shooting as well as Pheasants to shoot. All Rotarians and Friends and Family are invited.
Membership:
Sabrina Foreman was inducted into our club today, sponsored by Mike Kemper. Welcome aboard, we look forward to having you in our club.
Eric Schlidt, sponsored by Kevin Murphy, gave us his classification talk today. He said that he is passionate about changing and evolving and bettering himself as well as experiencing new things around the World. He has been to six of the seven continents and really enjoys traveling. He likes to hunt and fish when he has time. He works for CAEDA and really enjoys his work there. He is also an Associate Director for UW, he teaches at the University remotely. He graduated from UW and is working on his MBA. He wants to be an active participant in Rotary and in the community.
Student of the Month:
We had our first Student of the Month from Roosevelt High School, Ethan D’arcy, who also attended RYLA.
Program (Leadership Wyoming):
President Elect Lisa Scroggins introduced our speakers today, District Governor Elect Bill Schilling and Mandy Fabel from Leadership Wyoming. Bill gave us a brief history of Leadership Wyoming, he first recognized Linda Walsh as the backbone of Leadership Wyoming. In 1996 the state of the economy in WY was in a bad way. There was a big conference and a guy from Atlanta came to WY and said that we had a leadership problem and a lackluster attitude towards economic development. That got a lot of people upset and excited but it was very correct. Bill had conversations with Howard Benson from Georgia who had been involved in the Nation’s first State wide leadership program in Georgia and before that in the creation of Leadership Atlanta. The economic conditions in Atlanta and Georgia have blossomed due to his efforts. Bill felt that the leadership program should be pursued for Wyoming. So they had a retreat with the Wyoming Business Alliance and a commitment was made in the summer of 1998 to try and create a Leadership Program. BY December of 1998 they were having conversations with people in Colorado and by the next winter they has an agreement between the Business Alliance and UW to create a program and by December of 1999 he was putting together the program to begin the next June. They did a lot of research by looking at other programs in other states and as they progressed they saw that some of those programs were great at addressing the what and the how but lacked in the area of why and doing things today that will impact tomorrow. So in Leadership Wyoming they latched onto this and used it as a key component of Leadership Wyoming. Today there are over 800 graduates of the program and if you go to virtually any state board or committee you will find a graduate along with several elected officials. Bill was happy to find Mandy to take his place in leading the program. He also stated that there are many Rotarians that are Graduates and supporters and gave a special shout out to Tom Thorson and The McMurry Foundation for their support.
Mandy then took over and thanked Bill for all of his work. She again recognized everyone in the room who is a graduate or has a family member or employee who is a graduate. In the class there are eight sessions that run from August to May and they meet in different communities to discuss the different challenges and opportunities affecting our State. The class has 44-48 Wyoming leaders that go through a highly competitive process to become a member of the class. As they go to each community they get to know the communities, the State, the issues and each other through this process. One of the things they changed over the last couple of years is the curriculum that they teach. First part is “Know Yourself” where you learn more about yourself and how you have changed and who you have become. The second piece is “Challenge Yourself” they want the class members to challenge themselves to grow and tell them they will be challenged in some way during this class. She told a story about herself and how she was challenged during a rock climb outside of Lander and how that helped her to change. In the program everyone is willing to help each other learn new things and stretch themselves to learn more. Next is “Know Wyoming” where they learn about the State and the communities and the Industries that all make up Wyoming. They expose them to the legislature and how everything fits together as people and as part of the State of Wyoming. She told us about a young lady of 11 years of age, Madeline Elton, who was the Mayor of her class for WyoTown at the Boys and Girls Club who was their keynote speaker at their Graduation. She did an amazing job as Keynote speaker. She shared this “I learned that when you work with other people you need to understand them and they you, working together means staying on task, getting things done and thinking about problems and solutions from various perspectives.”
This is what Leadership Wyoming tries to teach, that you need to look at things from other people’s perspectives. The last part is “Lead Wyoming” they very intentionally chose an action for the final pillar so that they can step up and do something to lead, could be something small like an increase in responsibility at work or something larger like running for a public office. The goal is for them to have the tools to be able to step into the greater leadership roles. She said that our current State Auditor, Kristi Racines was going through the Leadership Wyoming class the year she was considering running for State Auditor. She stated that the program gave her the boost of confidence and the network to campaign and win this office. Mandy said that we have a problem in our world today where people surround themselves with things and people that already support our viewpoints and ideas rather than learning and supporting others who may have different viewpoints than we do. We need to challenge each other and learn more from each other and these classes do a great job to help people find a way forward. Leadership Wyoming unites people who represent the differing opinions and passions and who have a commitment to Wyoming. She closed with a quote that she tweaked, “to be individually and collectively obsessed with what is good for Wyoming” is what Leadership Wyoming is after. She said that tuition is $3,000 as well as travel costs but they have scholarships available for those who may have problems with the cost and the scholarship application is a separate application than the class application.
President John Griffith concluded the meeting at 1:22 letting us know that next week we will be back at the Ramkota and we will have Krishna Murthy speaking to us about End Polio Now.
“Use Rotary to connect your world”
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