The Wagner Rotary Club convened Wednesday September 8, with one special guest in attendance. William Woods accompanied his mother to the meeting. William went around to each table and fist bumped and shook hands to the delight of all the members.

Pastor Bill Herrmann gave a prayer of thankfulness for the beautiful day and the food to nourish our bodies as we go about being Rotarians serving our Wagner community.

Rotarian Laurie Kidd instructed the members in how to do a round robin singing of Row Row your Boat with the words of Roll Along, Roll Along Rotary. The first round went well but Group 1 failed to start correctly with the second verse which confused everyone. We made up for our failure by singing the first and fourth verses of America.

Rotarian Ken Cotton delivered his Membership Minute by talking about The Secretariat.

Many Rotarians consider the Secretariat simply another name for the RI World Headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, USQ. It is much more. While it does include the entire World Headquarters, the Secretariat encompasses five hundred individuals working to make Rotary International run smoothy and effectively. The term describes the entire operations of the General Secretary and his staff. The Secretariat includes all eight Rotary Service Centers formerly called Branch Offices around the world, all the staff serving in those centers, as well as all staff assigned to The Rotary Foundation. Its sole purpose is to serve the clubs, districts, and administrative officers of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation RI World Headquarters, in a building called One Rotary Center in Evanston, is the headquarters of the Secretariat.

Sergeant at Arms Jerry Weber had a pleasant surprise for the Rotarians. He alleviated all fines because Labor Day was so great; but he finally levied a $1 fine to each member because nobody was telling on each other today.

Lucky Bryan Slaba received a chance at winning the Queen of Hearts and he was not disappointed when he drew an Ace of Hearts as there was only $17 in the drawing pot.

Secretary/Treasurer Craig Krsnak presented the winning check to Kathe Henke who had drawn the Queen of Hearts at last week’s meeting. The Brunsing team had two misses for a total of seven; and the Woods attendance team had no absences for a total of four misses.

President Slaba announced that he would be gone next week and President Elect Brunsing would be conducting the meeting. Kathe Henke would be picking up the meals at Two Spurs.

Rotarian/Pastor Bill Herrmann was his own program for the day. This was his first time to present a program, so he began by talking about himself and how he wound up in Wagner, South Dakota. Bill was born and raised on a farm between Norfollk and Battle Creek Nebraska. He had two older sisters. He received his elementary education in a one room schoolhouse which was eventually closed, and he followed his sisters to town to a Lutheran Parochial school and eventually graduated high school from Norfolk Senior High which had about four hundred students. He went to Nebraska Technical School and learned a carpentry trade. He built houses for years, met and married his wife Emily who works at James Drug. They have two children who live in the Omaha & Council Bluffs area. They have seven grandchildren.

Bill took over the farm from his father and for several years did his best but eventually applied for and received a rural mail carrier position which he held for 13 years. He was in line for receiving his own rural route and was an active member of the Postmasters Association. Bill also was an advocate for situations that arose within the Association.

All during this time he and his wife became involved in their local Lutheran Church, he became an Elder, Vice President for 3 years and then President of their Council. Their church had two pastors, but one answered a Call and then he helped from time to time at their Sunday Services.

He felt a gentle nudging from time to time from God and when Bill and his wife realized they were going to be empty nesters, his dad passed away. He became involved in the Missouri Synod ministry which supported small churches that have no pastor. Eventually he was put on a fast track of going through seminary, finishing some college credits which were mandatory; and going right into serving as a pastor for a church. Bill first answered a Call to a small church in Amherst, Nebraska, population 277 people, for six years and eventually answered a Call to St. Johns Lutheran Church in Fairfax, South Dakota. Bill is now in his third year in Wagner’s St. John Lutheran.

After his introduction Bill surprised the Rotarians by dividing the room into two sections—two teams—and proceeded to give the teams a quiz on the Bible. If you saw the Lutheran float going through the Labor Day Parade, you noticed they were handing out Bibles. They received a Harvest Award and were given 220 Bibles to pass out to the crowd.

The results of the Bible Quiz were Jordan Weber’s Team on the North side of the Club house 3 points; and the Slaba Team on the South Side 5 points.

We adjourned in our usual fashion.

NOTE: Here are two topics everyone should watch on You Tube. These were left out of our minutes last week. Operation Underground Railroad and Operation Toussaint. Please watch these on www.youtube.com