The October 21st meeting of the Wagner Rotary Club was brought to order by President Bryan Slaba with the traditional ringing of the club bell. President Bryan led the members in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to our United States Flag. Rotarian Bill Heermann blessed the members in attendance with a prayer for our fellowship and food, a delicious steak meal.

Rotarian Roger Wiltz took over the podium to deliver his Membership Minute. He spoke briefly about a Sioux Falls club that asked how we were able to have meetings in Wagner. Our meetings are utilizing social distancing with limited attendance and focusing on autobiographies of current members for our programs rather than outside guests at this time. Rotarian Roger then addressed the club with his Membership Minute about an article in the September Rotarian magazine regarding Rotary Youth Exchanges. The Rotary Youth Exchanges have faced some postponements in the midst of the current Covid-19 situation worldwide. The primary goal of a Rotary Youth Exchange is the ability to dive into another culture and experience that completely during the course of the year. Rotarian Roger shared a few memories of when his three daughters went on Rotary Youth Exchanges saying that it was “a profound experience in their life” and “it was interesting to view America through the eyes of a foreigner” several other Wagner alumni have participated in the Rotary Youth Exchange and Rotary is always looking for aspiring youth to suggest for an outbound youth exchange. Assistant Sergeant at Arms Scott McAdaragh took over the podium to levy the following fines:

A $2 fine to Rotarian Bill Frei for asking Ken Cotton if he can deduct a recent purchase for “predator control” on his tax return.

A $2 fine to Rotarian Jeff Doom for taking a phone call and proceeding to have a full phone conversation after entering the Rotary Building. And another $2 fine for ignoring President Bryan Slaba’s text message from earlier this morning.

A $5 fine to Rotarian President Bryan Slaba for going on vacation and forgetting the order of business, and almost forgetting the prayer upon his return to our Rotary meeting.

A $10 Happy Fine was offered by Rotarian Kathe Henke in honor of her 16 year old grandson getting a perfect score of 36 points on his recent ACT test. Congratulations to this intelligent young man.

Rotarian Laura Wright was holding the lucky ticket for the Queen of Hearts drawing but came up short with a two of clubs from the remaining deck of cards.

Secretary/Treasurer Patty Frei reported that we have 14 members present for today’s steak day meeting and that we had eight members who had “perfect attendance” for the month of September. We collected $14 for the Queen of Hearts which brings the total up to $482. Quarterly dues statements were handed out to those in attendance for the third quarter of this year. Rotarian Patty Frei also announced this week’s football book winners who were Jordan Weber sold by himself and Todd Doom sold by Jeff Doom.

Due to the meeting being our regular quarterly steak meeting, there was no scheduled program. President Bryan Slaba took to the podium to take care of some Rotary club business handing out Rotary lapel pins from the newly installed Rotary International President, Holger Knaack of the Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln, Germany. And hanging up the banner with the International Presidents theme for 2020-2021 of “Rotary Opens Opportunities”.

President Bryan then asked Rotarian Patricia Frei to step up to the podium and he presented her with the honor of being named a Paul Harris Fellow with the Rotary Foundation. The Paul Harris Fellow recognition acknowledges individuals who contribute to The Rotary Foundation. Rotary established the recognition in 1957 to encourage and show appreciation for substantial contributions to the Foundation. Rotarian Patricia was presented a certificate and also a Paul Harris Fellow pin for this achievement.

President Bryan encouraged anyone who is able to attend the 2020 District 5610 Virtual District Governor’s Conference on November 6th details can be found on the District 5610 website.

Rotarian Bryan also gave a brief Coronavirus update at the request of the attending Rotarians. Wagner’s healthcare teams are controlling and responding to the current health issue in our community. The healthcare teams have therapeutics and treatments in place to control the symptoms and get patients home to recuperate. Our county is listed as substantial community spread, but there are less cases in the Wagner community than other areas of the county as it does not differentiate by zip code. Rest and addressing the symptoms are key to treating the virus.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned by the Rotary members reciting the Rotary 4-Way Test of the things we think, say or do.