The Spoke

Meeting Minutes

Meeting called to order by President Ron.

Guests

Our speaker today, Ben Bauer, and a friend with him, Josh Reimnitz, with Breakthrough.

Invocation

Invocation by Rebecca; In honor of Randy Carlisle in town, she read some motivating words from her song, “Hold Out Your Hand”.

Pledge

Everyone.

4-Way Test

Everyone.

International Theme

Unite for Good. 

Paul Harris Awards

None this week.

Announcements

Beth Y. - tells us of her taking over the Visioning Program, previously run by Don. She has a small committee now, but anyone is welcome to participate.

Chris R - the Mtka State of the City is today from 4:00-6:30 at the Mtka City Offices. Our club bartenders are providing, actually selling beverages, from which our club will earn some Foundation funds. Show up, have a beer, and support Rebecca as the new Mayor. 
Bill; there WILL be another club gathering at The Bear Cave on May 5th. It’s our annual way to talk about Rotary and our club, invite friends who might be interested in joining us. 

Bob H. - the Blood Drive is around the corner, on Friday, March 6 here in our meeting room. We are quite SHORT of signups as of today, but Jerald will be sending LOTS of employees to donate.  We still need at least 30. Please sign-up as you see on the recent email, and ASK others to join us. Every pint donated helps save 3 recipients. It’s VERY important with the current blood shortage.

Jerald - The Polar Plunge is also soon, on March 15. We have 11 or 12 plungers, and 5 sponsors who will donate $50 for each plunger. Consider joining the sponsor list, or at least 1 or 2 of your favorite jumpers.

Caitlin Mack is here today from the Polar Plunge; They raised $6 million in 2025, with 22,000 plungers. Our club success so far has been terrific; We raised $25,777 last year, up $9,000 over 2024. Also, the National Special Olympics will be in Minnesota in 2027. Thousands of athletes will be competing in over 30 different games. 10,000 volunteers are needed for this event. Perhaps our club, and other Rotarians, can make a strong presence at the Games. 

New Member Induction      

Rotary Minute

None this week.

Raffle

Char M. has the ticket, but the odds are low with a new deck. No Joker, the pot grows!

Foundation Award Checks or Thank Yous

Mason and Allie are here today to accept [on behalf of the Engineers Without Borders chapter at the University of Minnesota - Ed.] a club foundation grant of $2000. Their current project is a multi-year effort in Guatemala for their water distribution. Thank you, Mark Magney, for your long-time following of this group. 

Happy Bucks

Frank B. - heading to Washington D.C. for the National CARE Conference

Annika -  returned from their honeymoon in The Bahamas

Rebecca S. - the State of the City tonight, her first as Mayor of Mtka. She’s happy to be the leader as such a stable community as Mtka. She wants Rotarians to attend, and have some pizza and a beer. 

Beth Y. - happy for working with Visioning, for trends in school on teaching trades, auto, electrical, and her Rosy Daze band will have video release on March 28 in St. Paul. All Rotarians invited. Off to Hawaii.

Jennifer S.  for being our new member Cathy’s mentor, and getting a good friend in the process. 

Char M. - she’ll have grandchildren Jumping on Mar 15, including Kalie
Ryan; was in Phoenix for 6 days, spending some $ on jewelry. 

Bob H. - announced that he is a grandfather again, 3rd grandson Louis Jon born on Feb 22. 

Ron U. - happy that Mary is home from the hospital. Her nurse was Jennifer’s daughter, Rachel.

Program  

Vocational by one of our new members, Andy Luce.

Andy was practically born to be a pilot. His father was an engineer and pilot, and he says Andy was probably in a plane while in diapers. There was never any question what he would do for a living. He had to deliver papers and bag groceries to pay for his flying lessons, but he got his private license at age 17. 

Andy wanted to attend the Air Force academy, but went to North Dakota instead. He worked his way up through many airplane models, and entered the pilot world through small regional airlines. He had several stories about different planes, and described the basics of flight and instruments. 

He finally caught on with Delta, which he describes as the best in many ways. He has been a left seat full pilot for many years, and has reached a seniority level as a Line Pilot. He will alternate at management level, supervising the issues of many departments at Delta. For 11 weeks, he’ll be on Emergency Duty and on call. He has always flown civilian, not military, and has flown corporate, charter, and cargo duties. 

He described the differences how technology has improved flight safety, and how Delta has always been known for its meteorologists. ‘Just follow the red tail” has been a saying in airplane flight. 

Thanks for a very interesting story, Andy, and the inside things we never see when flying.

Adjournment

Submitted by Bob H.

Member Submissions

From Frank B. - 

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From Mike S. -