President Bill DeGraeve called the meeting to order at 12:31 welcoming all Rotarians and guests to Rotary.

 

 

Stephanie Reid and Crystal MacGuire were our greeters and Stephanie introduced guests:

Steve Shive introduced Frank Moody;

Brian Deurloo introduced Thea True-Wells;

Chad Nelson introduced Steven Schnell;

Susie McMurry introduced Katie Adrians and Chandra Ortiz;

Stan Lowe introduced Ruth Selden- Sturgill, and then he thanked us all for the wonderful deluge of Birthday cards he received this past week;

Robin Mundell introduced Jennifer Forsberg, Alaine Stedille, and Dan Cantine;

Stephanie introduced our visiting Rotarian from Five Trails, Lynn Lockhart and our exchange student Giulia Barbin; she then recognized Chaz Farnum for being back.

 

With the absence of Dennis Lower, Walt Nolte started us off with a chuckle then Gary Pehrson led us in singing “Red River Valley” accompanied by Brenda Peters, welcome back Brenda.

 

Susan Griffith announced that John and Lauren are expecting a new Rotarian in October.

Sandy Widmer announced that she is a mimi for the third time with a new Granddaughter born last week.

President Bill announced that Dennis Lower is at home from the hospital but he is doing better, once he gets these health problems taken care of he will then have heart surgery sometime in June, he will let us know if he needs anything and hopes to be here as often as he can between now and the surgery. In Dennis’ absence Jim Anderson agreed to take care of finding someone to do the joke.

 

Eric Easton nominated Lori Klatt for the concert at the Nic on Friday.

George Bryce nominated John Jorgensen for his award at the Child Development Center. He also nominated John Starnes for his work at the CDC.

Hal Hutchinson nominated all of the Rotarians that helped with the highway cleanup on Saturday: Mark Owens, Steve Demonkos and Granddaughter, Brown Ewing and his son, Rick Diamond, Dick Shamley, Guy DeWitt, Dennis Jack, Lori Klatt, John Jorgenson, Dave Elmer, Bob Auflick, Jim Grenfell, George Bryce, Jason DeWitt and his wife and daughter, Denise Prugh and her sons, John Griffith, Lauren Griffith and Beau, Lynette Boatwright, Stephanie Reid, Charlie Shopp, Liz Becher, and Rotaract Christine Vencill. President Bill then had Hal present 4-way test coins to the parents of those who had family members help.

President Bill exchanged Club Flags with our exchange student, Giulia.

 

President Bill reminded us of District conference coming up at the Marriott in Fort Collins June 18-20; he then let us know that there is a flyer on each table with upcoming events so please look at that.

 

President Bill brought the annual meeting to order at 12:54, we started by reviewing and approving the minutes from last meeting. We then had the treasurer’s report from Dick Jay followed by the nominating report from Liz Becher. Liz let us know that the Board of Directors nominated two people to fill the two open slots, Tara Short and Brian Deurloo and also Richard Schwahn was nominated as President Elect Nominee. President Bill then held a vote to accept these nominations and they were accepted unanimously. President Bill then gave us a short update on the Rotary Park project letting us know that we are in the 2^nd year of our 3 year fiscal plan. He then opened it up for questions. It was moved that we close the annual meeting and we adjourned the meeting at 1:05.

 

John Starnes introduced our speakers today, State Senator Jim Anderson, Representative Tim Stubson standing in for Senator Drew Perkins, and Representative Tom Lockhart. Tom started us off by telling is of the goals that they set in the house and how he graded them on accomplishing their goals. First goal was to build and diversify the economy of the state which he gave them a B+, second was to promote excellence in the Wyoming School System, B, third balance the investing and savings, he gave them an A. Controlling the growth of government, A. Solve Wyoming problems with Wyoming solutions another A. He has a lot of data to back up his grades if anyone would like to see the data. He then gave us a short report on the improvement to the environment over the past few years since the implementation of Earth Day. Tim Stubson then spoke to us; he spoke about the budget sessions as he serves on the joint appropriations committee. This was not a budget session but there are always budget things to work on. They received a supplemental budget and the next day they got predictions that showed that the current budget was going to have a $223 million shortfall so they had to focus on fixing that first. They did a review and found money that was not used in other things and brought it over to take care of the shortfall. They then took care of the proposed supplemental budget. Jim Anderson then addressed us and let us know that the joint appropriations committee works very hard and they did a commendable job this year. He told us that the City and County funding was a big issue and the Senate increased their budgets from $135 million to $175 million then in the supplemental budget they added an additional $8 million. The hospice group asked to be able to do respite care so a bill was introduced and passed so that at any hospice they are now able to do respite care. They also passed a bill to help with the workers compensation rating system so that if there is an accident caused primarily by a third party the business will not receive a ding to their WC rating. John Starnes then asked questions submitted earlier by club members. First he asked, “in light of your vote against dual language immersion educational support, please explain if you are against the program and if you see the program shaping the future of our economy.” Representative Stubson said that the bill did not come over to the house side from the Senate but that he is very for the program and how the expenses for the program are minimal. He said that they put together a grant program so that there are no barriers to any school district that wants to implement the program. He hopes that the bill is improved and re-submitted next year. John then asked “What percent of new money went to UW versus other programs?” Jim Anderson said that there are three levels of spending, the first is things that there is money for, the second is fairly certain and the third will be taken care of if the return on investments is high enough to warrant the expenditures. He said that the first level had no spending for UW. There are some things for them in the other levels and in the regular budget is where they got the majority of their money. Representative Stubson added that when there was a chance for matching funds from other places they tried to pass those funding needs so that the money could be matched and we would get double the advantage from the money. John then asked the panel to stay after the meeting to answer the other questions that we were unable to get to.

 

Tara Short, Mike McIntosh and Giulia announced the Brazilian International Dinner that will be held May 9^th Saturday please put it on your calendars and plan to attend to help Giulia raise money for her year-end trip. There will be authentic Brazilian food cooked by authentic Brazilians so it will be the best international exchange student dinner to date. Please sign up online or call or email Tara or Mike. Come hungry with plenty of money in your pockets.

Brian Deurloo announced that we are in need of more sponsors for the Duck Derby so if anyone has any ideas please let him know.

Lauren Griffith, our club representative for Rotaract, announced that the meeting for all of those who want to help improve our club for the younger members will be held at Boticceli’s at noon on Wednesday. Jim Anderson reminded us of the Jackson bike ride on Saturday May 16^th and encouraged all to attend. Jim Fowler reminded us of the new member orientation Thursday evening 5:30-7:00 at his home.

 

President Bill DeGraeve adjourned the meeting at 1:35 with the ring of the bell, reminding us that next week we are meeting once again at the Parkway Plaza.

 

The highway clean-up for our 2 mile stretch of highway by the airport was Saturday, 4/25. 30 Rotarians filled 35 bags in just over an hour.
Rotarians Jason DeWitt, Guy DeWitt, and George Bryce volunteered with Christine Vencill, Rotaract, along this stretch of highway.