Wagner Rotary Club had a full house on Wednesday, November 6th. Harvest is over for the farmers, and we enjoyed seeing each other over a meal. President Weber gave a blessing for the food and fellowship. Judene Irvine was a guest of Amanda Bechen.

The first order of business was to sing the Birthday song to Rotarians Jeff Doom, Tim Thaler, Margaret Doom and Patty Frei who were all celebrating November birthdays. Song Leader Gerrit Juffer led everyone in singing two songs for the day—Old McDonald’s Farm and in honor of the recent national election The Star-Spangled Banner. Juffer warned Rotarians that soon we would be putting motions to the Old McDonalds Farm song!?

Rotarian Patty Frei gave members insight into November being Rotary Foundation Month. The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotary members to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotary members and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world. This support is essential to make projects funded with Foundation grants, which bring sustainable importance to communities in need. The Rotary Foundation transforms your gifts into projects that change lives both close to home and around the world. As the charitable arm of Rotary, we tap into a global network of Rotarians who invest their time, money, and expertise in Foundation priorities such as eradicating polio and promoting world peace.

Frei presented President Jordan with a banner from the Rotary Foundation for the Wagner #5610 club being third per capita in annual giving. The two clubs ahead of Wagner were Sioux Falls and Rapid City. That is quite an accomplishment for a small club like Wagner Rotary. Our club has worked hard at projects for Wagner with funds received from the Rotary Foundation.

A hush fell over the club as Sergeant at Arms jerry Weber went to the podium. He has been absent for several weeks due to the harvest and cattle and could hardly contain his glee in being back in action! Jerry levied the following fines: $5 to himself because he was so happy to be back; $2 to Gerrit Juffer for his last remark; $2.30 to Margaret Doom who won for being the Rotarian who stayed up the latest to watch election returns—2:30 A.M.; $3 to Tim Thaler, Margaret Doom, Jamie Soukup, Jeff Doom , Rachel Woods, and Gerrit Juffer for having a lively discussion before the meal began about the election; $2 to Jamie Soukup for giggling. Happy Fines were received from Linda Soukup $5 for attending her granddaughters last Volleyball game of the season and for eight years of traveling to Mitchell for volleyball games; Becky Brunsing also gave $5 for the same reason; $5 from Bill Frei for his wife Patty joining the “50’s” Club; $8 from Jamie Soukup for his daughters eighth birthday; $2 from Amanda Bechen for flying; $5 from Patty Frei for her four kids surprising her for her birthday.

Judene Irvine could not find the Queen of Hearts in the drawing which was only worth $43 at this point. Secretary Krsnak reported that the Bill Frei Team had zero misses for the day but are stuck with fourteen absences already while the Margaret Doom team only has nine absences.

Football winners were Bryan Slaba sold by himself and Haley Frei sold by Patty Frei. Krsnak announced that Tuesday, December 17th our meeting will be held at Choteau Creek Brewing company and further details will be forthcoming. He also informed us that Nick Dion is back from his Rotary Exchange trip to Australia, and he is eager to give us a report on his travel experiences.

Rotarian Bill Frei introduced Margaret Doom for his program. Margaret is our Wagner Area Growth Director, and you might have participated in her survey that was conducted recently. She has just begun to analyze the results of the survey. Preliminary study shows that there are positive results from residents about living in Wagner. Participants were a little more negative about the number of businesses in Wagner and gave a list of the ones they would like to see develop. The top on the list of wants was a boutique of clothing, and a craft supply store as it is next to impossible to buy items needed for sewing and crafts. There was also a perception that growth in Wagner has slowed and their biggest concern for the future was the amount of crime. Participants were neutral about thriving in the next five years and the biggest concern was the need for housing opportunities. A good discussion developed from this topic. Margaret is very positive and is being aggressive in her new position. We are lucky to have her working for Wagner. If you would like to visit her about your concerns for the community or give suggestions, please stop in at her office in the Frei Insurance building at 188 South Main right next to Adventure Academy.

We adjourned in our usual fashion by reciting The 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?