Wagner Rotary Club met Wednesday, June 22 with President Bryan Slaba announcing that he has only two meetings left to preside over. Honored guests were Christina Ymker courtesy of Bechen & Company.

Rotarian Bill Heermann offered a prayer of thanks for our community, our fellowship, and for direction in serving the Wagner area.

Pastor/Rotarian Laurie Kidd took her place at the piano for the last time. She will be leaving Wagner for a pastor assignment in Hettinger, North Dakota next week. We sang “In the Good Old Summertime,” “Be A Friend,” and by unanimous request from the membership “For SHE’S a Jolly Good Fellow.” We are going to miss her so much for so many reasons.

Rotarian Ken Cotton ensured that he will be fined heavily next week as he was responsible for bringing the food and was the program chairperson for the day and he notified President Slaba of his absence at an extremely late date! So, President Slaba gave a Membership Minute on Women in Rotary.

Until 1989, the Constitution and Bylaws of Rotary International stated that Rotary club membership was for males only. In 1978 the Rotary Club of Duarte, California, invited three women to become members. The RI board withdrew the charter of that club for violation of the Rotary International Constitution. The club brought suit against RI claiming a violation of a state civil rights law which prevents discrimination of any form in business establishments or public accommodations.

The appeals court and the California Supreme Court supported the Duarte position that Rotary could not remove the Club’s charter merely for inducting women into the club.

The United States Supreme Court upheld the California court indicating that Rotary clubs do have a “business purpose” and are in some ways public-type organizations. This action in 1987 allowed women to become Rotarians in any jurisdiction having similar “public accommodation” statutes.

The RI constitutional change was made at the 1989 Council on Legislation, with a vote to eliminate the “male only” provision for all of Rotary.

The Assistant Sergeant at Arms, Jordan Weber levied the following fines:

$5 each to Bill Frei and Jeff Doom for not listening to the Treasurer’s report at the last meeting; $Bryan Slaba $2 for doing the Sergeant at Arms business; $1 to Jeff Doom and Jerry Henke for stealing a candy bar; $2 to Bill Frei for not having a charger for his golf cart and causing all kinds of mayhem at the golf course last week; $2 to Jordan Weber for golfing on “ladies night”; $3 to Jamie Soukup for his fiasco trip to Vermillion only to turn around and go back home for his daughters week of clothing and returning to Vermillion; $2 to Jerry Henke for complaining about singing a third song; $2 to Jeff Doom for sounding like his father.. Jeff Doom offered a Happy Fine of $10 for his granddaughter coming to visit him

No one was able to find the Queen of Hearts again, so the amount has spiked to $622.00, and the Sec/Treasurer Krsnak declared the attendance race officially over with Brunsings Team having twenty-four misses for the quarter to the Woods Team only having eleven misses.

Business matters were the passing out of the new Attendance Team members, and Rotarians Slaba and Woods will be getting together to finalize details for the 2022-2023 Rotary Year which will officially start on July 6th.

Rotarian Jerry Henke introduced a fundraiser for the club. We will be selling Butternut trees soon. Yes, butternut trees. Not butternut squash. A price was determined and there will be additional information on this project in the paper soon. You will be able to purchase a tree for $20.00 from any of the Rotarians. A full list of Rotarians and detailed information will be forthcoming.

Our Rotary Mission and other details for the next year were also discussed.