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President Rachel Woods brought the Wagner Rotary Club to order on Wednesday, June 28th with her final ringing of the Rotary Bell. This marked the end of our Rotary Calendar 2022-2023 year. Pastor/ Rotarian Bill Heermann gave a prayer of thanks for the day, the food, and the fellowship and asked for guidance for all Rotarians as they go about their work in the community.

There were no guests attending so members sang the first two verses of The Battle Hymn of the Republic in honor of our upcoming Fourth of July holiday.

Membership Minute Chairman Ken Cotton informed the club about the earliest days of Rotary when members referred to each other on a first-name basis. Personal friendships are the cornerstones of Rotary, so it was natural that many clubs adopted the practice of setting aside formal titles like, Doctor, Professor, Mister, the Honorable, or Sir and just called each other by their first names.

In a few areas, such as Europe, members use a more formal style in addressing each other. In Asia the practice is to assign each new Rotarian a humorous nickname that relates to some personal characteristic or describes the member’s business or profession. Nicknames are a source of good-natured fun and fellowship. The spirit of personal friendship is the initial step that opens doors to all other opportunities for service.

Sergeant at Arms Jordan Weber took the podium with a question. Who is going to go to Hairball? That cost Rachel Woods, Amanda Bechen, Bill and Patty Frei $2 each; $2 to Jamie Soukup for parking on the wrong side of the street; $2 to Jeff Doom for being late; $2 to Jerry Henke for ratting on Jeff; $2 to Bill who had his wife call in his special meal; $2 each to Bill Heermann, Scott McAdaragh, Ken Cotton, and Craig Krsnak for being so quiet; and $2 to everyone else for being so noisy; $2 went to Rachel Woods for it being her last meeting as President. Happy Fines came from Linda Soukup--$4 for marrying off a granddaughter over the weekend; $5 from the Henke’s for being Parade Marshalls at the upcoming Fourth of July Parade in Pickstown.

Jamie Soukup let out a big whoop! When he learned he had the lucky ticket. Jamie has not had a chance to draw the Queen of Hearts in four years. He only pulled the eight spades from the deck and lost $134.00.

The attendance race might be decided by make-ups. The Soukup Team has 11 misses, and the Weber Team has 14 misses with three members absent for the day.

Program Chairman Linda Soukup introduced her program which was Neil Von Eschen from the Charles Mix County Historical Society. The museum is in Wagner on the North Side of Highway 46 and sits right next to the National Guard Armory in East Wagner. He brought several items of interest to the meeting for viewing. There was a book listing the names of all those who originally settled in the county; an old telephone book from 1959; a certificate showing the establishment of Charles Mix County in the late 1800’s; and several photographs of buildings of interest in early Wagner; the old school building, the early Wagner Fire Department; and a picture of Greenwood in its early days. He also brought a framed picture of the original founders of the Historical Society.

The museum and grounds need several repairs. The older historic buildings need shingles, some need new siding, and the main building has a problem with the old spray on insulation falling from the ceiling on to all the exhibits, which requires a lot of cleanup.

The Historical Society needs new funding. The City of Wagner has donated $500 for many years and Charles Mix County donated $5,000.00. The County also established a Jackie Brecke Historical Fund which will give $5000 each year to one museum. There is also a museum in Geddes and one in Platte. The City of Wagner was asked for $2,000.00 this year but declined the amount.

Von Eschen spoke about the cost of maintenance which has gone up steadily each year. Mowing can be a big expense if it is a wet year costing as much as $1,000 for a season. There are trees and weeds that need to be sprayed each year, repairs to equipment also needs to be budgeted.

The biggest need right now is volunteers to help with the upkeep and to keep the museum open on a regular schedule. Neil said on a good meeting night they might get ten people. Most of the work is now falling on Neil, Jim Bouza, Mark and Barb Wiechmann, Jerry Seiner, and a couple of other members.

We are in danger of losing our museum. If it ceases to be funded properly and maintained in an ongoing manner the State of South Dakota can legally take the building and property and will pick which items are of importance and dispose of the rest.

There were suggestions and questions from the floor about fundraising, creating an inventory of the museum artifacts, designating meeting nights, a Facebook page, involving the WCS with help from students, etc.

Watch the newspaper for a meeting to be held after the Fourth of July holiday. This will be an important meeting and if you have any interest in history please consider coming to the meeting and volunteering in some way. The Rotary Club asked Neil to contact the club if they have a work night for some of the projects.

The meeting was adjourned with the recitation of the Rotary 4-Way Test: Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned? Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?