No guests or makeups for July 9 meeting.

ROTARIANS IN THE NEWS

The Press Citizen featured an article on Jim Swaim who will be retiring from UAY in August.  Randy Willman also noted that HD Hoover recently wrote two opinion articles, one on the UI art museum and the other on the issue of closing elementary schools.  A scholarship winner from West was also mentioned in the paper which included a good word for Rotary.

Deb Dunkhase passed around the list of program chairs.  Liz Nichols took June, but there is still the month of May to fill.  See Deb if you’re interested.

Elaine asked that each member check directory information and get back to her with corrections.

Nenu Piragine and the Ockenfels mentioned that for next year’s Rotary International convention in Sydney, Australia, there will be a large contingency from District 6000.  Plans are already in the works so check with the Ockenfels if you are interested in attending.

Casey Cook mentioned that Nenu Piragine and Vernette Knapp will take on social event planning for 2013/14. Liz Nichols volunteered to be Elaine Shalla’s assistant on club secretarial duties.  We are still looking for an assistant for Gary Haymond for the treasurer duties.

AM Rotary will celebrate its 25th anniversary on January 14 and there will be a big celebration, probably an evening dinner-dance.  The planning committee includes Brad Langguth, Deb Galbraith, Deb Pullen Van Aucken, Tom and Ann Langenfeld, Dave Parsons (who will chair), Nenu Piragine and Vernette Knapp.

Larry Freeman has announced that he will be retiring from Rotary because of his heavy travel schedule.  He has been a Rotarian for 25 years and a member of the AM club for the past 11 years.  We wish Larry happy travels! 

Roger Christian said we’d also need to find a new volunteer to take Larry’s place doing one week of dishwashing per month.  See Roger if you can take this club service activity on.

PROGRAM

Casey Cook asked several new members to talk a little about themselves.

Tom Langenfeld:  Tom and Ann met the first time when he was teaching high school in Storm Lake and Ann was one of his students.  About 3 ½ years later when Ann was home from college they met again in a local gym and started dating. 

Tom grew up in Olwein and vividly remembers the day in 1968 when Olwein and Charles City were badly damaged in an F5 tornado.  The tornado wiped out the south side of his high school.  The whole summer was involved with cleaning up after the storm. 

What Tom especially enjoys about Rotary is having a good breakfast and volunteering for Rotary sponsored projects.  He was first introduced to Rotary when his daughter, Katy, volunteered to go to Xicotepec and found it life-changing.  Later Katy was awarded a Rotary grant for her university engineering project, Bridges for Prosperity, to build bridges in remote Nicaraguan villages.

Tom is the director for test development for the Workforce/ Work Keys program at ACT.  His unit builds tests, puts forms together and publishes materials for the program, then assesses feedback on the program. 

Shelby Colwell:  Shelby drives in from Cedar Rapids every Tuesday morning.  She works for the Boy Scouts and has an office in Cedar Rapids where she particularly likes working with volunteers.

Shelby grew up in Hudson by Cedar Falls.  She got involved with the Boy Scouts by chance after working  a year with Americorps during flood recovery.  A family friend took her resume and the job at Boy Scouts came up shortly after that. 

Shelby loves to hike, camp and play golf.  She just got back from an Estes Park, CO camping trip.  Perhaps her favorite camping spot was on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Shelby is engaged to be married to a young man who works for Boy Scouts in Wisconsin.  They are currently trying to decide where to live after they are married.  (We vote for here!)

Deb Ockenfels:  Deb has always had special relationships with animals—not always good ones.  Years ago their son had an iguana who lived 13 ½ years and weighted more than the dog.  The iguana rode on Deb’s shoulder to the vet one time to get its claws trimmed. The iguana took one look at the vet’s assistant and managed to take a bite out of Deb’s face.  A lady who came in to the vet’s office while Deb was bleeding away in the waiting room asked why she’d come to a vet to get stitched up.

Right now the Ockenfels household consists of 3 horses, a barn cat, and 2 house cats, and a fish tank.  (And John and Deb, of course.)  Deb says all the animals are doing fine, but a lot of the farm equipment is breaking down.

Deb grew up in Oxford, IA.  One fond memory is that during the summer her grandmother would live with them and Deb would ride her horse bareback around town while her mom and grandmother would walk.

Deb met John when she was still in a playpen. His dad and Deb’s mom worked for John’s uncle in a freight office.  John would come down with his dad on occasion and they would see each other in the trucking company office.  It took many years before they would start dating, but they had a wedding date set only 3 weeks after they started dating.

Casey will do  “what jazzes you up” with the remaining new members at a later meeting.

Liz Nichols, Note taker