President Jordan Weber gave a good ring of the Rotary Bell to bring the Wagner Rotarians to order on Wednesday, July 31st. Weber is settling into his role as President and already a month has passed in our new Rotary year. He offered up a prayer of thankfulness and asked for guidance for all of us as we go through the weeks ahead.

Rotarian Gerrit Juffer introduced a guest, Deb Houseman who is the City of Wagner Administrative Officer. Members were asked to sing “In the Good Old Summertime” as Juffer slipped into his role as Song leader.

Rotarian Amanda Bechen gave the Membership Minute from our recent publication of the Rotary Magazine. September 8th through the 14th has been designated as Celebration Community Week. This is when Rotary clubs all over the world cooperate with other clubs located in their communities to work at service projects together. What a wonderful way to celebrate community!

Sergeant at Arms Jerry Weber always comes to the podium with a long list of offenses: $2 to Jeff Doom for having heating and cooling units working at the same time in one of his facilities; $2 to Bill Frei on his recent fishing trip as the Sergeant received an anonymous tip from someone in Groton SD about Bill’s fishing results; $2 to Jerry Henke who was seen having a secret discussion with a politician at his table; $2 to whoever made the strong coffee; $2 to Gerrit Juffer for only getting dessert for his guest; $2 to Bryan Slaba for putting up a sign on the Rotary Building and another $2 for taking down a big nest that was residing in the Rotary Sign; $2 to Craig Krsnak who kept eyeing the dessert of Lemon Crème Pie to see if there was any coconut in it; and finally $1.00 to Joe Stedrsonky for his athletic attire. Happy Fines came from Jerry Weber of $6.30 for his fishing trip; $5.00 from Linda Soukup whose granddaughter was going back for her Senior year at DWU; $5 from Jeff Doom who was thrilled to catch a huge fish in the creek behind his house while fishing with his niece Kathyrn; $5 from Amanda Bechen for getting help with the program.

Secretary/Treasurer Craig Krsnak reported that Jamie Soukup could have won $206.00 from the Queen of Hearts program but he only found the Ace of Hearts. The attendance race is beginning to widen with three misses on the Brunsing Team and five misses on the Soukup Team.

President Jordan asked for volunteers to help serve Root Beer Floats at the Wagner Lake on August 28th when the Wagner Chamber of Commerce serves its annual Customer Appreciation meal. Volunteers responded. Hope to see you all at the Lake.

Rotarian Gerrit Juffer introduced Lee Qualm from Platte as his program. Lee recently ran for a seat in the SD Legislature and lost by sixty votes. Qualm was present as the votes were counted and said at the very end of the counting, the results from Gregory County came in and it was the first time he had ever witnessed “bullet voting.” This occurs when voters only vote for one person for a particular position. He thanked everyone for their support and proceeded to inform us of some issues that are going to be on the November ballot. There will be seven different constitutional measures for voters to be aware of. #1 will be Constitutional Amendment H which will be “open primaries” regardless of a party affiliation. #2 will be G: A constitutional amendment which will give the right to abortion in our State Constitution. If this is passed South Dakota will have the most liberal abortion law in the United States. This will allow abortion right up to and including the moment of birth. This will become law with one vote over 50 per cent. #3 is an initiated Measure #29 to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Right now, it isn’t legal in the United States, but organizers want it to be legal in South Dakota. #4 is Initiated Measure Number 28 to get rid of the sales tax on food. If passed this will take Twenty million out of the South Dakota budget and have far reaching consequences each year it is in effect. Discussion centered around the possibility of having a State Income Tax in South Dakota because of the passage of this measure. #5 is listed as Amendment E which will change the gender preferences in state government language to reflect the difference between “government” and Governor, he, she, etc. #6 is Constitutional Amendment F-to authorize Medicaid benefits that are expanded presently which will require recipients to have to work to receive these benefits. #7 will be Referred Law #21 which will take local control away. In the recent legislative session control was given to the PUC instead of giving control back to the people. This came about from the recent decision concerning the carbon companies who want to have complete control over land where they want to build a pipeline.

This is just a summary of the latest issues that will be coming up for voting in our November election, 2024. Mr. Qualm will be happy to visit with you if you would like to ask questions about these issues. He gave permission to use his phone number: 605-207-0406. If was a highly informative program and we look forward to hearing more about these issues.

The members adjourned in their usual fashion of reciting The Rotary Four-Way Test of the things we think, say, or do.