• Opening: President Laura Bock: Pledge of Allegiance, Four-Way Test, Patriotic Song
• Virtue Reading: Beauty, read by Theresa Vold
• Invocation: Ellie Holmquist
• Club Announcements
  • End of April marks the opening of the Rotary Camp for the year!
  • May 5^th Cinco de Mayo! Celebration/Recognition being planned
  • Rotary hosted Red Cross Blood Drive at River Valley Church
  • May – Adopt a Highway cleanup-date and time TBD
  • June 3-7 will be Meals on Wheels deliveries
  • Thursday June 6^th – Safe Summer Kick-off at North Alexander Park. Looking for Rotary member’s participation and some fun idea to interact with kids at the event!
  • Big 9 Choir Select Concert- Friday May 3^rd.  More details on volunteer opportunities will be coming.
  • May 4^th- Celebration of Clubs in Hudson WI.  $20/person, details on the district website.
  • April 26^th there will be Purse/Yeti Bingo at Boxers.  Also, another Bingo opportunity on Mother’s Day.  Boxers also has a great breakfast worth checking out!
  • Cindy Yerington’s mother recently passed away.  Please keep Cindy and her family in your thoughts and prayers. 
• Help Wanted: New Member Mentors (see Kurt Halverson), Sgt at Arms (see Kay Hoaglin)- still in need of help during the summer
•  
• Rotarian re-classification speech this week:  Happy Birthday to Murray Hanson!  Murray celebrated his birthday April 3^rd and his 31 years in Rotary on April 7^th.  He gave an update talking about how he has been an Optometrist for 36 years, enjoys time with his 4 grandkids, celebrating 30 years of marriage, and has downsized and moved to town.  He also shared a picture of himself and a slide, both of which were from his classification speech when he joined Rotary in 1994!  Really good job on your presentation and congratulations on all of your accomplishments Murray!
•  
• Fellowship: led by Mary Ellen Bondhus
  • Each table had to answer a question about fun facts involving the state of Minnesota! 
  • Brandon Gliem thanked everyone who helped out at the EID celebration this morning at FHS, also reminded everyone of the Safe-Summer Kickoff event June 6^th.  Would like to have Rotarians help with a fun event for kids.
  • Dick Huston asked that everyone keep Dan Little and his family in your thoughts and prayers over the recent loss of his mother.  Dan visited our club recently and has a long relationship with Dr. Huston.
  • Jan Kjergaard had fun helping with Cotton Candy at the EID this AM.
  • Kurt expressed his appreciation for all Murray does for Rotary and congratulated him.
  • Greg mentioned how he and his wife are enjoying watching the Red Sox!
  • Murray – spoke about long time relationship with Dr. Huston – friendly banter ensued between the two.
  • Rod Mahler provided an update on Bob Speckhals; he is out of the hospital and has moved to a place in Owatonna to further recover.
  • Paul LaRoche, Gail Kaderlik, Kay and Dick all congratulated Murray and welcomed our guests!

• Dr. Huston is looking for volunteers to sky dive in Baldwin Wisconsin for Rotary
• Contact him if you are interested

• A past president will lead our meeting on April 3^rd!
  • Laura will be vacationing that week!

• The EID celebration will be on April 12^th at Faribault High School
• Still looking for students for camp RYLA leadership camp April 19-23 in St Croix County Wisconsin
• Rotary camp will be opening at the end of April
  • Grab your weed whippers and lawnmowers!
• Looking to plan a Cinco De Mayo celebration recognition is being planned on May 5^th
• There will be an Adopt our Highway clean-up as soon as winter is officially out of here!
• June 3-7^th will be Meals on Wheels for our club

• You can become a member of the foundation for $25
• You can elect to have money donated each year, or each month throughout the year
• Money given to the foundation benefits large projects, including the recent water and soccer projects in Cambodia
• George shared two poems with the group

• There was an increase in the popularity in paper tabs for this month, bingo was also popular
• Large amounts were paid for taxes and an overall monthly revenue of just over $4,000 in revenue

• Jan ***** was inducted into the club as a formal member
• Jan ***** is a retired schoolteacher

• Kristen Gleason 
  • is doing well and has been with her partner (David Connelly) for 18 months!
  • She is cancer-free and is excited to begin to fill her bucket now that she has time to do so
• Emily Nesvold
  • Proud to be a Faribault Rotarian even though she has a Northfield address
• Jacob Kohl
  • Since his classification speech he moved to Faribault, had their daughter Genevive and is still working at the Faribault funeral home
•  
• Pastor Greg
  • Offering a service at Faribault Senior Living this Sunday and next Sunday

• Guest Speaker Delia Denis: MN Green Corps and Rice County Environmental Services was introduced by Laura.  Delia is Laura’s niece and is a great advocate for the environment.  She is still in the process of attending college.
•  
  • Delia gave a very detailed presentation with facts and stats for food waste that occurs around the world and locally.  She detailed how food waste is affecting Rice County, climate change, and provided ways food waste can be reduced/prevented.  One fact she mentioned was that 50% of our landfill waste is edible food.  She provided tips of making food lists before shopping, meal planning, only buying what is needed, making the most of your food, knowing expiration dates, and more.   She also wanted everyone to consider donating food, using composts, giving food to animals, and more.   Delia answered all questions afterwards and was commended on a great presentation.

• E-tabs retreated from last month’s record sales to a more normal $101K but any month the century mark in volume is cleared is a sign of favorable demand
  • However, whether it was a successful month is driven by probabilities/chance and that also was an average performance with a gross profit margin of 17.4% for $18K in gross profits
    • For those curious, when e-tab gross profit margins exceed 20% in a month is when things become real exciting for FRYS in terms of profits.
• Shifting gears to paper tabs, total sales were $51K with a record-breaking gross profit margin of 24.6% for gross profits of $13K
  • Curious as to what the prior margin of record was? A few months ago that was established at 23.94% in September 2023 on sales of $58K for gross profits of $14K
  • For the last twelve months, paper tabs have averaged $58K in monthly sales, but the last four months have averaged only $45K so the large profit margins are very much welcomed given the softer demand
• The other new record established in January 2024 was Bingo sales at $18K, surpassing the prior record of $16K established also in September 2023 as well as March 2023.
  • Congrats to the winner of the Bingo jackpots as Bingo’s gross-profits were $2K on 9% margin
  • For context, Bingo margins are generally north of 15% so when single digits come across the wire that is an indication of a jackpot going home
• While FRYS established two records in the month, net income was far away from such accomplishment, posting a net loss of $(1K) for the month à what caused the loss? The annual charitable gambling audit by the CPA, which is due to FRYS’ sales exceeding $750K
  • Total cost for the 2024 audit was $11,200, up from last year’s $10K
  • Looking forward, the MN Gambling Control Board changed requirements for charitable gambling audits in the coming year as e-tab sales will be excluded from the calculation of $750K in revenue, which will make a nail bitter for FRYS whether above or below as paper tab sales for the 2022/2023 campaign were …..$737K, so maybe the recent reduction in paper tab demand is positive?
• FRYS just completed its first compliance review by the MN Gambling Control Board, which culminated in a four-hour site visit at Boxers where all of FRYS’ shortcomings were unearthed…except there were not that many shortcomings
  • The individuals from the control board were satisfied with FRYS’ processes, procedures and operation – especially given that this was the first time the regulators have applied a microscope to the organization and have not benefited from wisdom and insights gained in prior examinations

• $250 CGMade Easy
• $3,500 Inventory
• $2,800 Gambling Team Compensation
• $12,000 MPeters Revenue Share
• $1,000 City of Faribault
• $7,000 Boxers
• $2,500 Misc. (Bingo team comp, pursues, coolers, etc..)
  • Total $31,850
    • On a motion by Laura Bock & seconded by Dr. Dick Huston, FRYS membership approved expenses for March 2024

R. Gordon R. McInally

President 2023-24

February 2024

I am enthused and encouraged by your embrace of mental health initiatives throughout the Rotary world. More than 1,000 of you have responded so far to an ongoing survey by the Rotary Action Group on Mental Health Initiatives, offering your feedback on what Rotary can do to improve the personal well-being of members.

The top suggestions are illuminating. Rotary members are asking for more fellowship, camaraderie, conversation, cohesiveness, and connection. They also want more recognition, validation, and integration. They are seeking more service opportunities, and they want more wellness activities, including mental health speakers, awareness efforts, and education.  

Our members not only appreciate the greater focus on mental health, but they also believe that making more of the Rotary experience will materially improve their lives. I find it interesting that members are not asking anything dramatically new of their club — rather they want more of what we do best. For example, connection can be improved during meetings simply by assigning seating once each month to encourage people to speak with someone new.

Here are some great ways that we can help achieve these results and make Rotary more appealing to those considering membership. First, we need to acknowledge the importance of increasing belonging in our clubs and to encourage Rotary members to make the most of every opportunity for new and stronger connections. Public health experts worldwide are concerned about increasing levels of loneliness — the U.S. surgeon general has even declared it an epidemic. Mental health experts agree that finding groups and clubs around common hobbies and interests is a strong way to create greater connectedness. This is what Rotary is all about. We need to make sure all of our members are fully engaged and that our communities are better aware of this inherent strength.

Second, if your club has found new ways to build connection, please share your stories with us at mindhealth@rotary.org so we can make them more broadly known within the Rotary world. Your good ideas might inspire others. Post your service project stories on Rotary Showcase.

And finally, I encourage you to share feedback from surveys like this with your club and bring forward your own ideas to improve your club experience and meet your peers’ expectations. The journey we have begun is about more than mental health. It is about taking advantage of the full strength of our wonderful organization and helping all members feel that they are part of a community that cares deeply about their personal well-being.

Everything you do to strengthen connections in Rotary, with each other and the people we serve, also helps improve mental health. And everything we do to improve mental health helps strengthen those connections. Let’s continue this virtuous cycle.

• Opening: President Laura Bock: Pledge of Allegiance, Four-Way Test, Patriotic Song “You’re a Grand Ole Flag”
• Virtue Reading: Love, read by Kymn Anderson
• Invocation: Guest Todd Finney – reading and song in Dakota with translations
• Help Wanted: Membership Committee, Strive Committee, New Member Mentors (see Kurt), Sgt at Arms (see Kay), and District Level DEI Committee seeks a representative from Faribault Rotary club.
• Club Announcements
  • Thursday February 15^th, STRIVE essay review 3-430 at the Hometown Federal Credit Union – see Greg Ciesluk
  • Monday February 19^th is Rotary Awareness Day at the Capital.  It goes from 9a-1p.  Register online at Rotary District 5960 website.
  • Sunday March 10^th will be the 2024 Strive Banquet.  It will be at 5pm at the INN at Shattuck.  Plan to attend, RSVP will be needed as it gets closer
  • Camp RYLA Leadership Camp April 19-23 in St. Croix - Hudson WI – please start recruiting students, high school juniors and sophomores.  This is at no cost for the students.
• Fun with Kurt and Natalie – the two newlyweds participated in a Newlywed Shoe Game to test their knowledge of each other.  They were questioned by Murray and Laura. 
• Guest Introductions: 
  • Laura introduced her two guests, one being her father Ben and the other their friend Marvin Tatge.
  • Brandon Gliem introduced his guest Elizabeth from the United Way
  • David Nichols introduced his guest Jenna Nelson whom works at the Historical Society
  • Guest Todd Finney introduced himself and his good friend Earl who was attending with him today.
• Birthday Wishes to George Wickstrom whom turned 94 today!  Attendees sang him Happy Birthday

• Company started in 1865
• The mill has been serving the US Military since it started
• Currently the mill is under contract with the US Navy and MLB teams to provide blankets
• The mill is one of only 2 companies in the US that make everything on site
• Recently the mill opened retail stores in the Twin Cities and in other states
• The new focus of the mill is to focus on exceptional customer service