Posted by Jeff Benson on Dec 12, 2017
Dave Hoel (returning from a week long ski trip with no broken bones) opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.  Mary Ann Bawden provided the invocation.
 
Our visitors today were: Brady Welch and Margaret Ann Thompson (our representatives at Camp Enterprise), John Laliberte from PeaceMakers MN and Nicole Ulrich, from Benedictine Health Center at Innsbruck (Nicole has applied for membership in our club).
 
President Gerry Tietz invited our Camp Enterprise representatives to say a few words about their experience at the three-day camp, which is  jointly sponsored by District 5959 and 5960, and offers nearly 120 high school students the opportunity to participate in leadership activities focusing on the Free Enterprise System.
 
First up was Margaret Ann Thompson.  Margaret Ann is a senior at Irondale who hopes to pursue a career as a linguist or ambassador.  Margaret Ann learned a lot from the speakers, mentors and the group entrepreneurship activity.  Her business venture was a Digital Personal Training company and she served as its C.O.O.  Margaret Ann would like to return to the camp as a mentor in the future. She repeatedly thanked us for the opportunity which she would not otherwise be able to afford.
 
Next up was Brady Welch, also an Irondale senior.  Brady is looking at possible careers as an entrepreneur or as an actuary and hopes to study at Drake University.  Brady was impressed by the friendly attitude of everyone involved in the camp.  Brady’s business venture was a company that rented powered bicycles or Segways to millennials living in large U.S. cities.  Brady was the General Counsel for his business.  Brady also thanked us for the scholarship and our support for the program.  Find out more about Camp Enterprise by clicking here.  Margaret Ann and Brady are shown with Ed James, below.
 
 
Cindy introduced John Laliberte, from the anti-bullying group, PeaceMaker Minnesota.  John was present to announce PeaceMaker’s cribbage tournament fundraiser on April 29th, 5:30 PM at Adagio’s Pizza Factory in New Brighton.  For more information, click here. On behalf of the club, Cindy Carlson presented a $250 check to PeaceMaker (see below).
 
Beverly was able to join us today after a recent surgery.  Welcome back Beverly!
 
Our speaker today was new member Dennis Connolly.  Dennis was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, but raised in Minnetonka, MN and attended Hopkins High School, graduating in 1969.  1976 was a landmark year for Dennis.  He married his wife of 41 years, Debbie, moved to New Brighton so he could join the Lake Johanna Fire Department, and the FDA Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act was amended to include Medical Devices (this would become important later in his life).  After taking a variety of college courses at the University of Minnesota while working many jobs to keep out of debt, he finally earned a BS from the College of Biological Sciences in 1979.  He worked at 3M for a while before deciding to attend medical school and got his MD in 1986.  As a Resident at North Memorial Hospital, working 120 hours a week for very low wages, Dennis decided to use his medical expertise to build a career in the corporate world.  He joined Medtronic to work in clinical evaluation and regulatory affairs until his retirement.  Like many of us, Dennis couldn’t stay retired and soon found himself back at Medtronic as a contractor working on regulatory affairs (FDA approval) in the Neuromodulation Division. Dennis talked about the extensive process for FDA approval of Class III medical devices.  Unlike some other countries, the U.S. requires “reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness based on scientific research” for premarket approval (PMA) of medical devices and even the slightest change in a medical device also must meet stringent approval guidelines.  The downside is that the total FDA fee for each of these approvals is over $600,000.  The implantable neuromodulation technologies that Dennis is currently working on involve deep brain electrical stimulation, targeted drug delivery systems, gastric stimulation systems, sacral nerve neuromodulation systems and spinal cord stimulation systems.  These systems are used to treat Parkinson’s, epilepsy, essential tremor, dystonia, O.C.D., and many other problems.  Dennis and Dave are pictured below.