The featured speaker at this meeting was Pat Barron on the topic of "Sound Money."
 

 

 

 

The meeting was called to order by the president, Mark Patton.

Following the opening, sergeant-at-arms, Jack Cameron announced nine make-ups.

Announcements:

--The Dance for Humanity sponsored by Interact will be held at Old Brick Feb. 15

--Dues notices have been emailed

--Dist. 6000 has been invited to answer phones for the March Festival for IPTV: contact John Ockenfels

--March 28 the Bowling for Kids, sponsored by Big Brothers and Sisters needs bowlers and donations;  contact Mark Patton

--The District Grant Writing Seminar will be held in West Branch on February 28; register with Carolyn Scharff (see the District 6000 email newsletter)

--Community Grant Recipients Reception will be held in the Kirkwood Room from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 26; prepay $20 a person, BYOB, hors d’oeuvres prepared by Valerie Martin

Guests Ryan Dye and Paul Nichols were introduced.

Casey Cook reported for Rotary World in a Minute, that Burundi a small landlocked country in southeast Africa is one of the poorest and hungriest nations in the world.  With a long history of violence between the peoples there and in neighboring Rwanda, this nation needs more than the four Rotary clubs in the country to find peace among its people.

Frank Juvan introduced Pat Barron, a fellow Rotarian, to speak on the concept, “Sound Money.”  Pat is a professional bank consultant, and has taught courses at the University of Iowa and elsewhere.

He showed a brief excerpt from the film, Stalag 17, and his analogies to the ”market place” in that concentration camp environment provided an understandable basis for his discussion of topics such as:

            1.  money arises from the market place

            2.  characteristics of the a medium of exchange

            3.  limits of the barter system

            4.  problem of divisibility and inherent value/gold standard

            5.  political causes of hyperinflation

After a question/answer session, Mark informed the speaker that a book would be donated to a school in Iowa City in his name.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:00.  The grant recipients’ reception committee met following the meeting.