Hello, fellow Rotarians! At the Rotary Leadership Institute a few months ago, I met the President of the Omaha Morning Rotary Club, Mary Donovan. Mary and I reconnected at the District meeting. Since the Omaha Morning Club is about the same size as us and also meets in the morning, Mary and I thought our two clubs could do some joint activities. This possibility will be one our club topic of conversation this week. Everyone, please come with your thoughts and suggestions. See you Thursday!
Minutes for the August 2, 2018 meeting of the Rotary Club of Western Douglas County.
The meeting was opened by President Judy asking for Richard Krueger to give the invocation and lead us in the pledge of allegiance
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Treasurer Rita reported a bank balance of $6,355.67 US.
Jim Tomanek reported that 140 back packs will be filled tonight (Aug 2)
President Judy reported that the District meeting in Lincoln was awesome, with presentations on sex trafficking including a report on a “mother” who was trafficking her several daughters.Judy encouraged attendance at the family event at Werner Park
Neil reported difficulties with speakers and the need for a vga to USB adapter.Neil also conducted a profitable fine collections.
President Judy dazzled us with trivia about the early days of Rotary which was founded in Chicago.
Speaker of the Day
Tod Ringenberg gave us a presentation on his Princess Lines Cruise to Alaska. A summary of Tod's presentation written by Tod is shown in separate section of bulletin.
Richard Krueger was the winner of a golf ball, color to be determined.
Tod Ringenberg gave a presentation on his 2-week trip to Alaska, to include the wilderness areas of the Alaskan interior (Fairbanks and Denali), followed by a 1,700 mile cruise from Anchorage (Whittier) to Vancouver, Canada.
Areas of interest included Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley) the tallest mountain in North America (20,320’), a trip to British Columbia on a restored 1900’s narrow-gauge train, an abandoned Alaskan gold mine near the Trans-Alaskan oil pipeline, salmon fishing in the Ketchikan area and whale-watching in Juneau bay. Juneau has about 35,000 residents and is the only state capital in the nation that is accessible only by plane or boat.
Fairbanks (vacation starting point) is often referred to being a part of the Arctic desert, because of its arid climate and extreme temperatures (- 65 degrees below zero) and lack of rain and snowfall. Fairbanks has a very short growing season (50 days) but because the sun shines for nearly 20 hours a day, their vegetables and flowers grow to extreme portions. Resort chefs often have their own gardens, maintained by hotel interns and students from the University of Alaska.
Rivers in the Fairbanks areas are often used for roads in the winter. Because Alaska has over 100,000 lakes connected by numerous rivers, there are few bridges in the remote areas. Drivers use the lakes and rivers as short-cuts to downtown Fairbanks. The first sign of spring in Fairbanks is often considered the date that a car plunges through the ice!
Visited the training facility for sled dogs for the famous Iditarod Sled Dog Race (1,000-mile race). The dogs often train by pulling an ATV around a track … actual training on snow involves relocating to more remote areas of Alaska.
Princess Cruise lines owns the entire range of accommodations (wilderness lodges, restaurants, cruise buses, dome-liner express trains and cruise ships themselves). Excursions along the way were privately owned but were closely monitored by the cruise lines. Many of the tour stop-off points were at town that had a population of only about 1,000 – this quickly increases to over 12,000 every time a new group of cruise ships arrive at port.
Tourist season in Alaska is generally from May to September … most wait-staffs are from the Russian states or eastern Europe (in Fairbanks) but cruise ship staffs are from all over the world.
Good Morning Fellow Presidents of the Omaha and Lincoln Metro Areas,
I would like to personally invite you and members of your clubs to join us for a Metro Luncheon on October 4th to hear from Bill Moos, the Director of Athletics at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. We were very fortunate to be able to get Bill, a gifted and highly desired speaker, to address our club during the football season and wanted to share the opportunity with all of you.
The Metro Luncheon is a 40 year tradition designed to bring our clubs together for fellowship and a terrific speaker. I know that some of you probably have programs booked for that day but please try to rearrange your schedules if possible to join us for this magnificent event. We will meet at Anthony’s Steakhouse, one block South of 72nd and I-80 in Omaha, on 10.04.2018 from 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM. A plated lunch will be served and is included in the $25 admission cost.
Our executive director Jennifer will be reaching out to your executive directors about the process for reserving seats for this event sometime later this week. If you have any questions please feel free to relay them back to me.
I have Tripp Sutter the Big 10 football referee will be the speaker on the August 23, and Judy has Jared Bakewell to talk about human trafficking on August 30th so we are set for August.
Jim Tomanek has scheduled Rob King from St. Marks church in Valley to speak at Rotary on September 13th. Rob will show pictures and tell us about his mission trip to Tanzania.
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