Thanks for this opportunity to serve!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As in life, my Rotary year as your president seemed to fly by. We set out to accomplish a full agenda.

Allow me to do a quick “refresh.”

 

Membership. A lot of effort was created to get our membership engine running. We made some progress. Signed up some outstanding new members. Does it seem possible that Dave Arneson was our first new member in 2016-17? We lost some good folks to retirement, career changes and relocations. Chad Olson, Angie Baldwin, Lynette Fagerberg, John Luse, Albert Yngve. And the passing of Rotary friends like Ralph Eide two weeks ago. Several of our new members are now on our new board including Becky Bakken and Derek Reise. Look for them to make valuable contributions to our club in communications and program services. Welcome: Dave Arneson, Mike Iverson, Derek Reise, Becky Bakken, and Mike Harcey… We look forward to having Krista Danner and her Park Nicollet Health Services team join us in July along with Brian Miller, AAA Minneapolis.

 

Communications, social media, website. We had some interruptions to the goals we had in this area this past year. Our communications chair, Brad Meier, relocated back to Owatonna last fall. We participated in a ClubRunner training session. Eric Anderson has worked on some design changes including action photos and a sense of vibrancy to our web site. Derek Reise has pledged to move this effort forward with enhancements to our web site, ClubRunner training to our membership and social media engagement. More to come!

 

Programs. Our College Possible High School Mentoring Program continues to be a highlight for our club in terms of serving youth. The monthly meetings provided Rotarians the opportunity to meet and share insights with high school juniors and seniors who have college in their plans. Of course it was wonderful to present 10 scholarships last month, too.  Our Winter Fun Day event was another success working with the Park & Rec Department and presenting a check to the city which will support summer programs this year.

 

KEYS. Kudos to Anna Mae and St. Louis Park Rotarians who make-up the majority of board members for our new teen homelessness program “Keeping Every Youth Safe.” Thanks to all who are contributing to the successful launching of this important new club initiative. Hopefully this program can experience positive growth and influence change for the community much like Children First has done over the past 20 plus years.

 

Rotary Foundation. Thanks to all who contributed in the 100^th year of The Rotary Foundation (TRF). As Elmer has shared with us, our club was an early-on leader in the Polio Plus Campaign 30 years ago. Billions of dollars have been raised to fight for the eradication of polio. Including 17 new cases recently discovered in Syria, there are 22 reported live cases of polio in the 2016-17 Rotary years. Rotary and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have agreed to extend and increase our financial commitment to polio eradication. Starting July 1, Rotary will commit to raising $50 million per year for the global effort to end polio. The Gates Foundation will increase its 2-to-1 matching funds up to $100 million per year over the next three years. In total, Rotary will commit $150 million for polio eradication which will be matched with up to an additional $300 million from the Gates Foundation for a total of $450 million. And Canada has honored Rotary by committing $100 million to mark the 100^-year anniversary of TRF. Thanks to everyone in the club who stepped up last August 1 and since then to support our Polio Eradication Campaign. And our ANNUAL FUND efforts. Mark Hegstrom, outgoing DG reported at the changing of the guard ceremony last Thursday that the district was within $47,000 of reaching its goal this year.

 

Policy Changes. Our board has had discussions on corporate membership policy matters to include 3 different areas: organizational membership, co-worker membership and spouse membership. Initial board feedback has been positive to the latest proposed changes as drafted by Steve Solbrack. Thanks, Steve.  The club will soon be updated on this matter.

 

Events. Our club had the opportunity to host a 5950/5960 combined district meeting with Jennifer Jones representing Zones 28/29 as our special speaker. 150 Rotarians and guests attended the November 2016 event at the DoubleTree. Thanks to those who helped support this special event. And thanks to Jim Brimeyer and Anna Mae for your leadership on our Poinsettia Sales Fundraiser late last fall and to all Rotarians who helped sell poinsettias as a fundraiser for our club. And to the many Rotarians who came out in January to celebrate Winter Fun Day in the Park.

 

International. While efforts to launch a maternal child health transportation project was deemed not eligible for a global grant because it didn’t meet the eligibility requirements, Steve Solbrack is working on an alternative plan to tap into global funds to serve a qualifying Maternal Child Health project in the future. Congrats to Steve and the many Rotarians from our club and the district who supported the global humanitarian project. Congratulations to Amal Gani on her global scholarship for the upcoming academic year as she’ll be studying in the Netherlands and to Denny Morrow for his leadership and support, too.

 

Moving Forward. Thanks to all Rotarians for your commitment to Rotary and our theme this year of “Rotary Serving Humanity.” We continue to serve humanity at the local level and the global level. I hope you’ll join me in supporting Mark Ihrke as our new club president as we continue the work of Rotary International and St. Louis Park Rotary Club.