Jeff Benson opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation.
Jeff noted that we are the proud owners of a quality dual wireless microphone system that should eliminate many of the problems we had with the previous system. Please bear with him as he tweaks the system.
President Gerry Tietz was lamenting his recent visit to an over-zealous barber that left him with precious little hair to protect his head from our brutally cold weather. In response, John Marg-Patton showed off his returning hair.
We have received thank you notes from our Camp Enterprise students, Brady Welch and Margaret Ann Thompson.
Ed James reminded us of the Harvest Pack Event on Wednesday Jan 10th, 4PM, in the Irondale cafeteria. We hope to pack 21,800 meals with the help of the Irondale student body. The Lions and Eagles aren’t able to participate in this event so it’s all hands on deck to make this goal a reality. See you there.
This Friday at 6PM we’ll be gathering at Beverly Aplikowski’s home for our annual holiday party. Remember to bring a white elephant if you want to participate in the gift exchange. No food is needed. Beverly’s address is 1443 Bussard Court, Arden Hills.
Cor Wilson announced that next week’s (Jan. 16th) meeting will be off-site at CTV North Suburbs. Watch your email for sign up information.
Our January 30th club meeting will be a club assembly. You should already have received an email from Gerry with Director and Committee Chair responsibilities for that meeting.
President Gerry proudly presented John Ordway with his Paul Harris Fellowship+4 (above), signifying contributions to the Rotary Foundation exceeding $5,000. Way to go, John!
Ed James distributed a list of items needed by Life Prep Academy as they prepare to house 16 homeless high school students in their Spring Lake Park school. Click here to go to the LPA website and scroll down to find the list of needs.
Mary Stewart announced, on Cindy Carlson’s behalf, that we have received photos of our sponsored Remember Niger students, Maman and Charifa (below).
John Marg-Patton said that you should have received an email with the Gold Plate Dinner brochure for the April 13th Gala. Members have been organized into teams who will compete for sales supremacy and some awesome prizes. Your team leader should be contacting you soon to plot your sales strategy.
Gerry Tietz announced that Ed James will be our Rotary Youth Exchange officer and Mark Lampman will serve as our Exchange Counselor. New member Paul Jacobsen will apply to host an exchange student for the 2018-2019 Rotary year. Great news!
Jeff Benson introduced our speaker, Jason Hunt. Prior to becoming a speaker and leadership trainer, Jason spent 15 years in education, teaching social studies, ESL and also serving as a principal in Owatonna. He has a Masters in Leadership from the University of Minnesota and is certified by the John Maxwell Leadership Institute. A year and a half ago he started Eye Squared Leadership Consulting, and leadership was the topic of today’s presentation.
Jason described the biggest gap in life “is the one between what we know and what we actually do”. Minimizing this gap is the cornerstone of Jason’s leadership consulting business. Leaders often bump up against what Jason describes as the “Leadership Lid”, which is essentially a cap on their leadership capacity. Unfortunately, that leader’s organization is also capped by its leader’s limitations. He also said that leaders aren’t leaders unless they have followers and that leadership has nothing to do with titles. For Jason, leadership is about influencing others for a positive impact. In order to master this influential style of leadership, he believes that the following five practices are essential:
- Give people your time
- Give people your “ears”
- Give Praise (and recognition)
- Give responsibility (trust)
- Give confidence
In other words you have to “give up” in order to “go up”. Check out Jason’s website here. Jason and Jeff are pictured below.
We presented the staff of the Exchange, pictured below, with a gift to thank them for the wonderful food and service this past year.
