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The Wagner Rotary Club met for its first meeting in the month of March on Wednesday, March 4th. The members prayed our Rotary Grace and then Vice-President Jeff Doom tried to ring the bell to bring the club to order which only resulted in laughter! He missed the bell completely and hit the wooden stand upon which the bell is displayed.

There was one especially important guest at the meeting, former Wagnerite Kelsey Doom, who is now a member of the Brookings Rotary Club but was in Wagner and was given a round of applause. You are missed Kelsey! Song leader Rachel Woods relied on our old standard—Smile! She also led the membership in singing Happy Birthday to Rotarian Craig Krsnak.

The Membership Minute given by Rotarian Patty Frei centered around the History of Women in Rotary. Women are active participants in Rotary serving their communities in increasing numbers and serving in leadership positions in Rotary. The 1989 Council on Legislation vote to admit women into Rotary clubs worldwide remains a watershed moment in the history of Rotary. Rotarian Frank J. Devlyn, who would go on to become RI president in 2000 said “My fellow delegates, I would like to remind you that the world of 1989 is vastly different to the world of 1905. I believe that Rotary must adapt itself to a changing world. The response to the decision was overwhelming: By June 1990, the number of female Rotarians had skyrocketed to over 20,000. Globally in 2025, women represent around 23% of the membership with Rotary International. In North America, women account for over 34% of Rotarian membership.

Rather than limit the celebration of women in Rotary to March 8, we are turning International Women’s Day into a movement that lasts the entire month in District 5610. We are challenged to fill social media throughout March with proud Rotarian women united in service. Together, we will highlight the strength and influence of women in Rotary---not just for a day, but all month long.

There had been a lot of laughing and teasing going on since the start of the meeting so Sergeant at Arms Gerrit Juffer took to the podium to levy lots of fines! $2 to Jordan Weber along with a moment of silence for Dale Weber an uncle who was from Wagner and active in baseball statewide; $5 to Kelsey Doom for coming to the meeting and another $5 because we love her; $2 to Jeff Doom who spent so much time in Hawaii that people were calling Gerrit to see if Jeff had moved there; $2 to Jeff Doom for the sloppy bell ringing; $1 to Rachel Woods for talking about her vacation; $2 to Amanda Bechen for her dog coming over to Gerrits residence looking for treats and another $1 for her chickens escaping all the time. $Gerrit gave a Happy Fine of $5 to himself for having an official Sergeant at Arms Button; $10 from Linda Soukup for having her tenth great-grandchild born last week; $2 from Rachel Doom for the boy’s basketball team winning last night; and $2 from Kelsey Doom who was happy to be at the meeting.

Rotarian Josh Christensen found only the Jack of hearts in the Queen drawing which brought the total in the drawing up to $64.00. The Honke Team had two misses, and the Houseman team had three misses which resulted in Honke’s team having a total of thirteen misses and the Houseman Team having twelve misses.

Items of general discussion centered around what to do about our quarterly steak meetings with no decision being made except to leave it up to President Jamie Soukup for next week’s meeting. Rotarian Bill Frei announced that the first ditch cleaning project of the spring would be next Wednesday east of town. Meet at 4:30 and ditches will be cleaned east and west until 6:00 PM with pizza at Pad 71 after the work is finished.

Rotarian Gerrit Juffer introduced his program for the day which consisted of Kristina Monroe who is the District Park Superintendent at Fort Randall; Andrew Jenkins the Assistant Park Supervisor; and Seth Schilousky who is the Park Manager.

Kristina Monroe provided the membership with a rundown of the numbers at North Point for the preceding summer of 2025. North Point which consists of 851 acres, 115 campsites and seven cabins, three boat launches, two swim beaches, three boat ramps, an archery range, archery trail, and five lanes of the rifle range and a trap range.

The Randall Creek area consists of 190 acres, 132 campsites and four cabins, one boat launch, disc golf course, a human sundial and a giant checkerboard which is twelve’ by sixteen. Monroe continued to break down the areas at Randall Creek into South Shore with 247 acres, Spillway, forty-nine acres, Star Valley, four hundred acres, North Wheeler, 95.5 acres; Pease Creek: 581 acres; White Swan with 412 acres, with a total acres managed of 2,855! The total visitation was 1,516,985 individuals. Total overnight campers were 7,255. Rangers performed 34 Environmental programs and four park events. Visitor attendance was 2,015, seasonal hires were twenty-one and no one quit during the season. Kristina announced it was a good year as no one died, there were no fires, and it was also the first year that she did not have any staff turnover.

The National Walleye Tournament went better this past year. The food trucks were a hit, especially the Choteau Creek truck with brewed beer! They also hosted seven smaller tournaments.

The Spooktacular night at the Spillway attendance was fantastic, from sixty-five visitors to a total of 750 visitors, the most in four years.

This was the first year that North Wheeler and Whetstone Bay were reservations only and the camping numbers went up for both. Reservations are ALL ONLINE now.

Whetstone Bay had a new fish grinder installed, the North Point boat ramp was replaced, and new water lines are being installed. They are getting new transformers to manage the high demand for electricity from campers and are getting a new and bigger breakwater. The North Point area is getting new docking, and they hope to get a Naturalist to come in and give programs in the area.

The rangers visit all campsite areas daily and are looking forward to a new, bigger and better year in 2016! See you at the campgrounds!

Themembersadjournedwith the recitation of Rotary’s Four Way Test: 1. Is it the TRUTH? 2. Is it FAIR to all concerned? 3. Will it build GOODWILL andBETTER FRIENDSHIPS? 4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?