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Rotary Club of Casper WY
Meeting Summary
02/23/2015
President Bill DeGraeve called the meeting to order at 12:30 welcoming all Rotarians and guests to Rotary. Today is the 110th anniversary of Rotary and Charles Schoenwolf knew that and won a prize.
Inspiration, Pledge, 4-Way Test:
Stephanie Reid
Greeters:
Guy DeWitt and Connie Brezik were our greeters and Connie introduced guests:
Robin Mundell introduced Alaina Stedillie;
Lauren Griffith introduced Lynette Boatright;
Jim Porter introduced Ray Pacheco;
Tucker Laprade introduced Matt Myers;
Martha Rakestraw introduced Tom Moseley, Jim Wetzel, and Brown Ewing;
Connie introduced our visiting Rotarian Dennis Jack;
Eric Easton introduced the family members of our SOM, Mark and Becky Broderick, Donnavan Self, and Dustin Boss.
Susan Griffith introduced Interact Students, Taylor Wilcox, Annicka Hoover, Chi-Yian Dalton, and Bri Nichols;
Song and merriment:
Pinky Ellis was not here so Steve Loftin treated us to a good chuckle that Pinky left with him, and then Gary Pehrson led us in singing “God Bless America”
New Member Induction:
Ray Pacheco, sponsored by Jim Porter was inducted into the club today.
Students of the month:
We had Kelli Broderick from Roosevelt HS class of 2015 speak to us today, outstanding young lady.
Club Announcements:
Brian Deurlooamofficial Duck Commander, let us know that the Duck Derby will be held on August 22, 2015. He also told us that August 17, 2017 there will be a solar eclipse in Casper and we are expecting an influx of around 50,000 people into Casper that week. This year there will be a contest of food truck vendors in conjunction with the Duck Derby. Brian is looking for volunteers to help with committees for this year, please let him know if you can help. He also let us know that we have to sell the tickets this year, we need to take it seriously and get them sold.
Craig Valdez announced that they are looking for participants for young RYLA, which is for seventh graders, so if you know anyone that would like to participate please let him know. The camps will be July 26th and August 2nd in Colorado.
Lauren Griffith let us know that she wants to put together a committee to find ways to better engage the younger members, she then asked for volunteers to help her put together some ideas and work on this. About 10 people volunteered and Lauren will be contacting them to have a meeting.
Program:
John Starnes introduced our speaker today, Police Chief Jim Wetzel. Jim has a very impressive resume of accomplishments with the military and the police department. Jim let us know a little more about his background and told us that the experience he gained in the military prepared him quite well to become the Chief of Police here in Casper. He spoke with us about the evolution of Law Enforcement and how he does not see that evolution as the militarization of Law Enforcement. In reality the military type actions were adopted from LAPD SWAT and used then in the military and a lot of what he did in the military was adopted from Law Enforcement and used in the Military. Since 9/11 there has been a lot of sharing of information and education between the military and Law Enforcement. In the military they have refined and improved on those techniques to suit what they use them for. The now refined techniques can now be brought back to Law Enforcement and be better used than what they were before they were refined. We have seen an expansion of expectations of Law Enforcement over the last few years, it is not just a reactionary job anymore, and they must be proactive and form partnerships with people in the community to help alleviate problems before they occur. Some of the challenges he has encountered are things like department leadership development to get them to better understand and act on the newer expectations of the job. Also recruitment of new officers and what they should be looking for in an officer, they are not like the type of officers from years ago, and they must be able to do what is expected now and be more technological savvy than before and know how to understand and navigate the more complex environment of Law Enforcement. With his background he is more able to integrate the things he learned in the military and special operations world and put them to work in the Law Enforcement world. These are things that help them build relationships and partnerships with other members of the community to create safer communities. There are certain principles that he has put to use in his job, people are better than hardware, quality is better than quantity, Law Enforcement can’t be mass produced, non-police partnerships are required to properly do the job. He shared with us some of the things that the officers need to pay attention to rather than just going and arresting the bad guys. He showed us the Three Chessboards theory that he has applied to Law Enforcement which helps show the more involved ways of Law Enforcement and helps show the officers how much more in depth their jobs now are. By using all of his experience and knowledge he is much better able to run an effective department. Great information and enjoyed by all. He then opened the floor to questions and answered a question about speed traps and the strategy. He let us know that his philosophy is to get people to pay attention to how they drive and to change bad behaviors. He agreed to stay after to answer any additional questions anyone may have.
President Bill DeGraeve adjourned the meeting at 1:33 with the ring of the bell, reminding us that next week we are meeting once again at the Petroleum Club and our program will be the Wyoming Game and Fish Crime Lab.
“Light Up Rotary”
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