President Bryan Slaba rang the bell to bring the Rotarians at the Wagner Rotary Club to order for their last meeting in the month of May. He asked Rotarian Bill Frei to introduce the only guest that day which was Bill’s nephew Radack Kotab.

Rotarian Kathe Henke was song leader in the absence of Laurie Kidd, and she chose a song that she was required to sing to become an American Citizen, God Bless America, our National Anthem.

Rotarian Ken Cotton chose “First Names or Nicknames” for his Membership Minute. From the earliest days of Rotary, members have referred to each other on a first-name basis. Since personal acquaintanceship and friendship are cornerstones of Rotary, it was natural that many clubs adopted the practice of setting aside formal titles in conversations among members. Individuals who normally would be addressed as Doctor, Professor, Mister, the Honorable or Sir are repeatedly called by their first names. In a few areas, such as Europe club members use a more formal style in addressing fellow members. In other parts of the world, mainly in Asian countries, the practice is to assign each new Rotarian a humorous nickname which relates to some personal characteristic that describes the member’s business or profession.

The nicknames are frequently a source of good-natured fun and fellowship. But whether a Rotarian is addressed by a given first name or a nickname, the spirit of personal friendship is the initial step which opens doors to all other opportunities for service.

Guest Radack Kotab drew his Uncles ticket from the pot and Bill and everyone else in the room held their breath as he told Radack to draw from the few remaining cards. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Radack drew the Queen of Spades! The are so few cards remaining!

The new Secretary Treasurer Craig Krsnak announced that the total for the Queen of Hearts drawing is up to $697.50. He passed out our first quarter of dues and explained the process of catching up on our quarter dues as we have not met on a regular basis. The Rotary calendar goes from July 1st to the next July 1st, so this bill was just for January, February, and March.

President Slaba asked members to take a copy of the committee assignments which were placed on each table. He also announced that the winner of our prize on the raffle was Rod Schaefer from Brookings South Dakota. Slaba also asked members to make note of June 25 and July 23 which are the dates for the Rotary Club to be serving brats at the Super Foods. We are to arrive about 10:45.

Program Chairman for the day was Craig Krsnak and he asked Bryan Slaba to give an update of Covid to the group to follow up on the program from last week from the staff at the GS Home. Slaba reported that there has been a combined total of about 1800 vaccinations with the Hospital giving about 863 shots. Other locations have given vaccinations also. There is a total of about 2600 people who have had the shots in our Wagner area which is referred to as “Southern Charles Mix County”. Most of the recipients are receiving the Moderna shot.

He gave a report on the State Covid Cases which were 78 new cases yesterday, 31 were on Monday, and Saturday had 34 cases reported. The Wagner Hospital has done very well in weathering the pandemic with about 100 patients since last March. Some came to the hospital; and some entered through the ER. About 150 people were treated with the Bam shot. Slaba praised the IHS for the great job they did and the YST who worked together to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible. He believes about 99.9% of people who wanted the shot received it.

There were several questions asked from the floor on the merits of vaccination and Slaba reiterated his position that everyone has the right to make a personal choice of getting the vaccine or not.

The meeting adjourned with the recitation of our 4-Way Pledge.