Wednesday, December 20th was another beautiful December day. Something South Dakotans don’t always get to experience in our land of “infinite variety.” President Becky Brunsing welcomed all members to the meeting and Rotarian/ Pastor Bill Herrmann gave a prayer of gratitude for the weather and the preparations being made to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The membership sang all three verses of Silent Night in our Rotary Songbooks which have become an antique. These special songbooks were given to the Wagner Rotary Club from the Commercial State Bank for an unknown number of decades in the past. We always bring them out during the season of Advent to use in our weekly singing time. We sang three verses of Silent Night under the direction of Song leader Gerrit Juffer.

Club singing in Rotary began with Harry Ruggles who was the fifth man to join Paul Harris in conversations which led to the formation of the first Rotary club in Chicago in 1905. Singing was a popular activity at the turn of the century. At an early meeting of the fledgling group, Harry jumped on a chair and urged everyone to join him in song. The Wagner Rotary has been true to this tradition and has always supported singing at our club meetings.

Sergeant at Arms Jamie Soukup had a light list for club fines: $2 to Bryan Slaba for asking Joe Stedronsky last week where the firemen kept the horses for pulling the water barrels after he was designated as the oldest fireman in Wagner; $2 to Linda Soukup for having checks handed out to her for winners in the Football books; $2 to Jerry Henke for spying on the Sergeant at Arms and his whereabouts in Wagner; $2 to Patty Frei for a phone infraction last week turned in by her husband Bill. Happy Fines came from: $2 from Jeff Doom for commenting on Linda Soukup’s opening note in the song; one happy donation from DG Rich Burns for Becky Brunsing attending two PETS meetings in a row and forgetting to talk about raising walnuts. Some years ago, Kathe Henke had invited him to come and talk to our club about raising walnuts. He has promised to do this in the future.

Secretary/Treasurer Craig Krsnak announced last week’s winners in the football books were Tami Hanson sold by Rachel Woods, and Tess Ringling sold by Linda Soukup. The attendance race is going awry again. The Juffer Team now has ten misses, and the Frei Team has only seven misses.

President Brunsing announced the tally for the Seniors who visit from WCS. She keeps a count of who is attending which facility for higher education. The results were: Mitchell Vocational School-8; South Dakota State University-7; Southeast Technical School-2; and University of South Dakota-2 Rotarian Bryan Slaba announced that next week, December 27, we will not be meeting at Noon. We will gather that evening at 6:00 for a Social Hour and then we will be eating Indian themed dishes. Gerrit and Michele Juffer have the program about their exchange trip to India.

District Governor #5610 Rich Burns and his wife Kelly were present to visit the club. Governor Burns was impressed with the plaques showing the Presidents over the 80 years that the Wagner Rotary Club has been in existence. We have also had several District Governors from the Wagner Club. He remarked how unusual it is for a smaller club like Wagner to produce so many District Governors. He said the Yankton Rotary club of which he is a member has only had two governors seventy years apart. DG Burns presented President Brunsing with our Rotary Banner which displays our motto for the year 2023-24 “Create Hope in the World. The Wagner club also received banners for having 100% membership participation and100% average giving.

DG Burns and his wife moved from California to the Midwest in 2017. They reside in the countryside around Hartington, Nebraska and he is a member of the Yankton Rotary Club. All District Governors are required to visit all the Rotary clubs in their District during a year. District 5610 encompasses a large area: all of South Dakota, Southeast Minnesota, Northwest Iowa, and northeast Nebraska. The large area is zoned, and other District Governors are appointed in the outlying areas of the region just named.

Burns outlined the objectives of Rotary for the coming year. Polio Eradication, Empowering girls and women, EndingHumanTraffickingand erasing the stigma of mental health illness. He spoke at length about Rotary’s different goals and the promotional areas they will be focusing on; and stressed the importance of engaging on the Rotary information found on the internet.

The meeting adjourned in our usual fashion: Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned: Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?