Notes from September 25, 2025 by Mike Saville
President Cara called the membership to order with a strike of the bell shortly after noon and invited Dave Hartman to start us off with the invocation. Arnold Oliver then led us in the pledge to the flag which we followed by the singing of “This Land is Your Land”. We then greeted each other in rotary fashion.
Sara Sorge and Judy Koetter came forward to recognize our September Birthdays; Dave Hartman, David Adams, Carla Dowlen, James Hughes, Noel Filer, Doug Kunkle and Jeremy Woodward. Those in attendance received a special baked goods treat from Sara and Judy. Several of the tasty treats remained which Cara auctioned off to the membership.
Noros Martin then introduced his wife, Dee Ann who was visiting us today. Richard Boyd introduced his son, Weston who is visiting from Fort Collins, Colorado. We also found out it was a special day for Weston who was celebrating his 51st birthday today. Jeff Spoeri introduced two guests from MSU; Barry Macha, General Counsel and Chris Stovall, the VP of Administration and Finance.
The Member Spotlight was next and Will Goodner introduced Jeff Spoeri to share some information about himself with the membership. Jeff serves as VP for Advancement at MSU and Executive Director of the MSU Foundation. Jeff explained that he’s had three careers; first starting out as a teacher then he decided to go to law school and practiced law for 2 years and then transitioned to Advancement Work which he said encompasses fund raising and alumni relations. He spent most of his career at schools in Florida before moving to Wichita Falls and starting at MSU in February of this year. And two interesting things we didn’t know about Jeff is that he’s a choral singer and has sung backup for Andrea Bocelli, Debbie Reynold and Doc Severinson and is a 5-time Jeopardy champion.
Then it was time for the Brag Bucket with Noros again drumming up brags from the members. This week Judy Koetter highlighted the assistance she was given when she had vehicle issues, Braden Wood told the group his company is looking for a bookkeeper if anyone knows of someone; Brycen bragged on his brother for being named the Class 2A coach of the week and Will reminded the members of the upcoming Habitat for Humanity Golf Tournament on Oct 6t;h and that his son went into the end zone with a touchdown at last week’s game. Andy shared he went to the Dallas Stars pre-season game, and his 6-year-old grandchild was shown on the Jumbo-Tron. Norris’ wife DeeAnn announced their daughter-in-law was declared cancer-free this past week.
For announcements, Cara reported she had taken our exchange student, Pauli, to New Braunfels on her birthday weekend. Pauli attended several classes on safety and youth protection to help her here in the U.S. and then Cara took her to the Texas Hill Country Drive Through Safari and Natural Bridge Caverns and then completed the day with some zip-lining and a ropes course.
Cara also reported the high school band student we supported with donations is fully funded for the London Band Trip. After our donation, the school reached out to the Kiwanis Club to see if they would make up the difference and they did.
Cara reminded everyone the Membership Drive / challenge against Noros and Alan Donaldson starts next week, 1 Oct 2025. Remember the challenge is to see who can bring in more members; Noros and Alan or the rest of the membership.
Braden Wood told the membership it was time to start thinking about the Outstanding Citizen of the Year and he appealed to the members to nominate someone for the prestigious award. Nomination forms were scattered about on each table.
Josh then introduced our speaker for the day, Dr Stacia Haynie, President of MSU, to give us an update on all things going on with the maroon and gold. Dr Haynie is from Henriette and graduated from MSU and then spent the next 33 years at LSU before having the opportunity to return to her alma mater in Wichita Falls. She started her presentation by giving a little background on MSU that was started in 1922 as a Junior College and grew for the next 99 years until it became a member of the Texas Tech University (TTU) System in 2021. Its mission is to empower students and the community through a commitment to academic excellence, personal growth and a culture of lifelong learning, inquiry and innovation. She said the Fall 2025 enrollment was encouraging as they have 973 first-time full-time students – a record for the institution; although she indicated the challenge will be to retain those first-time students. She described the demographics for the current year as 48% being first generation undergraduates, 83% Texas residents, and 46% receiving some type of financial assistance. Interestingly, over 40% of the students choose to major in Health Science and Human Services with the next highest category being Business at slightly over 16%.
Dr Haynie indicated the University is building a partnership with Sheppard Air Force Base through a Military Education Center that will be a one-stop shop to support military-connected students and dependents. The center started construction in June of this year. She then went on to describe the economic impact of MSU to the local community with over 3,000 total jobs created and $329M+ in gross economic output which is a little over 6% of the Wichita Falls economy. For comparison, Sheppard AFB is responsible for over 34% of the local economy. Finally, she said the school is excited about the prospects of a new multi-use athletic facility to be constructed as part of the City’s revitalization of Sikes Mall.
Cara thanked Dr Haynie for the presentation and told her that our speaker’s gift of a donation to the Wichita Falls ISD Foundation would be made in her name.
Before closing Cara brought Josh back to the podium for a check presentation to Ms Alexis McDonald, representing Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Wichita County. Alexis thanked the club for its support and then Cara closed the meeting with the Four-Way Test.