Nils Friberg opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Jason Miller offered an invocation.
Gerry Tietz introduced the leadership team for his 2017-18 term as NBMV Rotary President:
-Beverly Aplikowski – Gerry’s Co-President
-Mary Ann Bawden – Secretary
-John Ordway – Treasurer
-Bob Barmore – Director of Club Administration
-Glenna Dibrell – Communications Director
-Jason Miller – Rotary Foundation Director
-Jason Slama – Service Projects Director
-Todd Kruse – Membership Direc tor
-Paul Fournier – Past President
-John Risdall – Past President
The leadership Team is shown below except for Bob Barmore, who arrived just after the photo.
Both Garry Johnson and Paul Fournier are celebrating their birthdays this week. Paul noted that this birthday was his 83rd.
Many, many thanks went out to Bev Aplikowski for hosting a great Holiday party. Many thanks as well to all the Rotarians who helped to make the party such a big success. A special thank you to Bev’s niece, Jenny, and Jenny’s daughter, Jordan, who also played a big part.
Margaret Johnson hopes to enlist our help in contacting potential sponsors for the Gold Plate Dinner. We should all be thinking about companies or individuals that might consider sponsoring the dinner. Please contact Margaret with any ideas.
Last week Glenna Dibrell asked each of us to consider asking our favorite restaurants to consider donating a gift card to our Gold Plate Dinner. If the restaurant can’t donate, Glenna suggested that we consider donating ourselves. Jim Kadechka was the first to take up the torch, presenting his gift card to Glenna today.
Nils Friberg had the honor of presenting Gerry Tietz with his Paul Harris Fellow +3 pin. This signifies at least $4,000 in contributions to the Rotary Foundation. Nice work, Gerry!
Mark your calendars with a venue change for our February 14th (Valentine’s Day) club meeting. John Risdall will host a brisket dinner for Rotarians and spouses at Risdall Advertising’s new office. Stay tuned for more information.
Todd Kruse reported on the Rotary District 5960 Mid-Term meeting. He attended sessions on Youth Exchange and Membership Development. One plan to come out of the meeting is a Bowling Event to promote the Gold Plate Dinner and membership growth. Details will be available soon. Another idea for membership growth is to start a Breakfast Rotary Club to make Rotary possible for people who can’t attend a noon meeting. Todd also asked us to consider attending the 5960 District Conference on April 28-29 in St. Paul.
Jason Slama introduced our speaker, Sam Thompson. Sam is an Edina Noon Rotarian and serves as its Youth Services Director. Sam was here to talk to us about Camp Enterprise. Camp Enterprise is an extensive three-day camp offering up to 120 high school students the opportunity to participate in leadership activities focusing on the free enterprise system. The 3 day entrepreneurship experience introduces students to the free enterprise system by presenting groups of 6-8 students with the challenge of imagining a new business, planning it and, finally, presenting the business idea to a panel of judges, ala the Shark Tank TV show. Each team has a volunteer business mentor to advise them as they develop and present their business plan. Groups with exceptional business plans are eligible for $1,000 scholarships. Although every group can’t win a scholarship, all groups benefit by building self-confidence and by networking with business leaders. As you can imagine, volunteers are critical to the success of the program. About 80 Rotarians donate time in a variety of roles. Business mentors, venture capitalists, marketing professionals and essay readers work very hard to make Camp Enterprise a great introduction to entrepreneurship for the next generation of business leaders. Sam and Jason are shown below.
