The April 5th Wagner Rotary Club was brought to order by President Rachel Woods ringing the bell and giving a warm welcome to all present. Pastor/Rotarian Bill Heermann led the group in prayer. He gave thanks for the Holy Week that all Christians are experiencing, and asked for hope as we all continue to struggle with the long winter weather.

Song Leader Gerrit Juffer was ready to go with the music of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

Rotarian Ken Cotton devoted his Membership Minute to reviewing the rules for non-attendance. The Rotary Club Constitution specifies three conditions under which a Rotarian’s membership will automatically be terminated for non-attendance: Failure to attend or make up four consecutive club meetings, failure to attend or make up 60 percent of club meetings in a six month period and failure to attend at least 30 percent of the meetings of one’s own club in each six month period. Under any of these three cases, a member will lose Rotary membership unless the club Board of Directors has previously consented to excuse such failure for good and sufficient reason.

Being present at club meetings is one of the most basic obligations a member accepts upon joining a Rotary club. When a member is absent the entire club loses the personal association with that member. All Rotarians know the consequences of non-attendance so it clearly becomes a conscious decision by a Rotarian to withdraw from the club when he fails to fulfill the attendance requirements.

The Sergeant at Arms returned and was laughing as he made his way to the podium. The very first fine went to his Dad, Jerry Weber for trying to bribe Jordan with a Snickers bar; Next up was Jeff Doom for $3 for being such a “book reading” person; another $3 for his comment about Linda Soukup’s hair; and $3 to Linda for trying to explain her hair; $2 to Gerrit Juffer for not matching his shirt/vest/ pants; $2 to Bryan Slaba for his official help recently; $2 to Craig Krsnak and Rachel Woods at the front table for dressing alike with Platte Panther colors. Jordan offer a $5 Happy Fine for his recent trip into warm weather; a $2 fine to everyone in the club for not showing up after last week’s meeting to help transfer aluminum cans into the trailer which resulted in Rotarian Bill Heermann paying a $5 Happy Fine on the spot for fining everyone. It should be noted that Rotarian Bill Frei showed up and it took them hours to transfer all the cans.

The Henke’s continued their lucky streak by having the winning number and Jerry tried to get the Queen but she remained hidden. He lost $363.00 by drawing the seven clubs.

Secretary/Treasurer Krsnak announced that we have started our final quarter for attendance. Jordan’s team had zero misses today,(about time) and Jamie’s team had one miss!

In other business President Woods read a thank you letter from all the Senior parents who were guests at our Scholar Recognition event last week. A discussion ensued about cleaning up our portion of the road ditches, which our club has done for many years now. Our responsibility is east of Wagner about where you turn to go to Avon. A tentative date of April 12th or April 19th was the consensus depending upon the weather, the moisture in the ditches, and the amount of new growth. Green patches of grass are beginning to appear.

Rotarian Jeff Doom was the program for the day, and he gave a “magazine report” instead of a book report. All Rotarians across the world receive a monthly magazine which reports all the things that are happening around the globe in Rotary clubs. He spoke about the Polio Plus effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan which are the two countries that resist attempts to eradicate Polio. There has been mental health addressed for those who are handicapped in Uganda; a water purification plant was built by a club in another country where several Paul Harris scrolls, and other memorabilia was discovered when digging commenced.

Doom also talked about a book he is currently reading “The Winter Fortress” which was about Germany developing an atomic bomb after they invaded and conquered Norway in WWII. He will report on that sometime in the future.

The meeting was adjourned with our Four Way Test. Of the things we think, say, or do: Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned? Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?