President Elect Jordan Weber officiated at the August 16th meeting of the Wagner Rotary Club. He was judged to have done well when ringing the Rotary Bell to bring the members to order. It was obvious we are well into the summer season as there were five members absent for the meeting. There was one guest, Jeanette Doom who was present with her son Jeff Doom.

Rotarian Song leader Gerrit Juffer announced that we would sing two verses of “Clementine”, the first and last verse and the singing was done well by all. Membership Minute Chairman Ken Cotton spoke briefly about “No Personal Privileges” in Rotary. The RI Board of Directors determined long ago that in business and professional relations a Rotarian should not expect more consideration or advantages from a fellow Rotarian in business or professional matters. It is important to remember that the primary purpose of Rotary membership is to provide each member with a unique opportunity to serve others, and membership is not intended as a means for personal profit or special privileges.

Assistant Sergeant at Arms Amanda Bechen assumed her duties as Jamie Soukup was not present for the meeting. Fines were: $1 to Bryan Slaba for not reading about the number of verses to sing Clementine; $2 to Jeff Doom who was waiting for a rain cloud to wash his airplane but had to resort to washing it by hand; $5 to Jordan Weber welcoming him back from his long vacation; $10 to Craig Krsnak for his stain brush not being used during the painting bee last week; $2 to Gerrit Juffer for being seen with a pretty blonde who was not his wife (daughter) ; and $2 each to Jordan Weber and Jeff Doom for their trendy haircuts; and another $2 to Jeff for his “meetings comment”.

President Elect Jordan Weber held the winning ticket number but only pulled the four of Hearts from the card deck. Secretary/Treasurer Craig Krsnak announced that the pot for the Queen of Hearts drawing is only up to $60. The attendance teams are now at six misses for the Juffer team and 5 misses for the Frei team.

Other business consisted of going over the details of the upcoming Rotary Exchange encounter of Australian Rotarians coming to Wagner in September. Details will be finalized in the coming weeks.

Jordan Weber introduced his program, Mr. Jeff Doom. Mr. Doom listens to several different podcasts a week and brought one of them for the Rotarians to listen to. This podcast was from Dennis Prager University which is an American advocacy group and media organization that creates content promoting conservative viewpoints on various political economic and sociological topics. It was founded in 2009 by Mr. Prager and radio producer/ screenwriter Allen Estrin, to advocate for conservative views and to offset what Prager regards as the undermining of college education by the left.

In 2015 Prager developed two partnership programs to promote its views, including religious material, in public and private schools. In 2023 Florida became the first state to accept Prager U as an official education vendor. They were approved by the Florida Department of Education, who said that Prager U aligned with the state’s revised civics and government standards. The decision allows public school teachers in Florida to incorporate Prager U videos into their classroom materials.

The organization depends on donations to produce its content. It is not an academic institution and does not confer degrees. The idea for a brick-and-mortar university was revised into a digital product to save money and is based in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California.

The members adjourned in their usual fashion by reciting The Four-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.

The recorder neglected to take a picture of the Program Chair Jordan Weber and Jeff Doom the presenter. My apologies to both.