Wednesday, January 14, President Jamie Soukup arrived at the Rotary building with the luncheon from Valley Pump and Rotarians got right to work eating a meal of salad, soup, and roast beef. We all come for the meeting at various times so our Rotary Grace is not offered up until it is time for the business meeting. Song leader Rachel Woods relied on one of our old standards “Smile.” We were a little off key but did well.

Rotarian Patty Frei reported on a trip that Patty and husband Bill made last weekend to Sioux Falls for a District 5610 Public Image Training session. During the training they were led to inspire our local club through community involvement, our members, our club “vibe,” projects, fundraisers, club speakers, and our online presence in our community and district.

Patty and Bill thoroughly enjoyed the session especially the focus on finding out what your club’s “why” actually is. “It’s not just the WHAT we do: It is the WHY we do it! The time to share is NOW. They were challenged to ask our club members “What is your WHY?”

If our club inspires one person that in turn will inspire another person. Every hour that we put into Rotary will transform someone’s life. A great description of WHY we are in the WAGNER Rotary!!!

Sergeant at Arms Gerrit Juffer began his fining session with a strict warning that anyone who interrupts his routine for fines will be punished severely. The Sergeant had to endure a great deal of interference at the last meeting. Ted Honke was fined $1 for winning $50.00 on last week’s scratch ticket; Rachel Woods was fined $1 for her compliment on his family’s Christmas Card; $1 also went to Jordan Weber for interfering with the Sergeant’s conversation plus a dollar fine went to everyone at the table. (This table has been in trouble in the past and has earned its title of “Trouble at Table One.”) Jerry Weber was fined $2 for commenting on his change for purchasing a Queen ticket; Alison Woods was fined $2 for having two nights planned for drinking wine. She was then asked to explain the two events that her and Chole Kocer are sponsoring in the coming week. Check your paper for details.

Happy Fines of $1 came from Jerry Weber who had asked for $100 in change when purchasing his ticket; $1from Jordan Weber who was happy that the Bears beat the Packers; $1 from Tim Thaler who was also happy that the Packers had lost; $2 from Becky Brunsing who reported that she had a very Happy Birthday the past week at 59 years of age; and Jamie Soukup was $10 happy that he had won $10 on a scratch ticket last week when he tried to win the Queen of Hearts drawing.

Secretary Craig Krsnak gave a financial report on the club’s finances. The topic of our meal rotation was discussed and some ways to find a substitute for our quarterly steak meetings that we used to have. We still miss Rotarian Scott McAdaragh and not just because he cooked a perfect steak, but his friendship is sorely missed.

A confusing but successful exercise was executed to pick out new attendance teams which will go into effect for the next quarter. Ted Honke and Deb Houseman are the new team captains. Today’s meeting was counted and Ted Honke had perfect attendance and Deb Houseman’s team had two absences.

Football book winners were chosen. At the end of the football season all the ticket stubs are put in a drawing so that everyone who buys a ticket has a chance of winning the money. There are two drawings and Makayla Koenig won $300, Scott Honomichl won $200 and Carson Koehn won $100. In the second drawing Becky Breen won $300, Titus Sperling won $200 and Jerry Henke won $100 which he generously donated back to the club treasury. Thank you, Jerry!

The day’s business was concluded since there is no formal program at the end of a quarter in Rotary. We adjourned with our usual recitation of 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 FRIENDSHPS? Will it be BENENFICIAL to all concerned??