President Bill Frei called the Wagner Rotary Club to order on Wednesday, July 17th, for our quarterly steak meeting which was courtesy of the Bill and Patty Frei team. Wagner Super Foods served delicious barbecued steaks and all the trimmings.

Pastor Bill Herrmann was called upon to offer up a prayer. He gave thanks for the rain and that everyone was safe from the effects of the storm which pounded Wagner early this morning.

Guests today were Rotarian Goldy Uhler from Sioux City, Iowa, and William Woods was with his mother Rachel Woods.

Pastor Laurie led us in singing Home on the Range and our Rotary Song for the day was Roll Rotary!

A Membership Minute was given by Rotarian Ken Cotton on Literacy. It has been estimated that a billion people----one-sixth of the world’s population are unable to read. Illiteracy among adults and children is a global concern in highly industrialized nations and in developing countries.

The tragedy of illiteracy is that those who cannot read are denied personal independence and become victims of unscrupulous manipulation, poverty, and the loss of human dignity. Illiteracy is demeaning. It is a major obstacle for economic, political, social, and personal development and a barrier to international understanding, cooperation, and peace in the world.

Many Rotary clubs are thoughtfully surveying the needs of their community for literacy training. Some clubs provide basic books for teaching reading. Others establish and support reading and language clinics, provide volunteer tutorial assistance, and purchase reading materials. Rotarians can play a vitally important part in their community and in developing countries by promoting projects to open opportunities that come from the ability to read.

Rotarian Jeff Doom is a voracious reader and he offered up his collection of books to anyone who is interested in reading.

William Woods drew a ticket stub from the can and of course he drew his great grandfather’s ticket—FrancisDoom! Therewere only 15 cards left in the deck, but Francis only drew the 6 of Diamonds. $22 was collected today to bring the total up to $755.00!

Secretary/Treasurer Patty Frei passed out copies of the Steak Teams. The Captains this year are the two pastors in the club, Pastor Bill Herrmann and Pastor Laurie Kidd. Patty reported that there was 1 miss on Bill’s team today with a total of 5 misses and Laurie’s team had 2 misses with a total of 7 misses so far.

Copies of the club’s financial budget were also passed around. President Bill announced that next week Jeff Doom had the program followed by Amanda Bechen on July 31st. He called for a quick Board of Directors meeting immediately following adjournment.

The club adjourned with the singing of America.

The new Sergeant at Arms, Becky Brunsing took her place at the podium for the first time. She remarked that she thought it was going to be a hard job but discovered early in the meeting that it would be easy! Fines were assessed to:

• $3 to Jerry Weber for voting for our next projects from his chair and for cleaning the head table by piling everything in a box and hiding it under the table

• $2 to Linda Soukup for enlisting child laborers from her granddaughter’s summer nanny job to clean up her yard after the storm

• $3 to Jerry Henke for not appearing to help to clean up the golf course at Pickstown

• $1 each to Patty and Bill Frei because now they get to have lunch together every week

• $2 to Scott McAdargh for doing such a good job as Sergeant at Arms last week

• $3 to Jamie Soukup for his tricky little sprinkler system on his test plot at his business and he was also blamed for all the rain we got today

• $4 to Jeff Doom for his upcoming 40th Class Reunion

• $1 to Francis Doom just because Becky can now legally fine him—all in fun

• $1 to Gerrit Juffer for trying to switch his canning supplier from Becky to Michaela

• $1 to Rachel Woods for her son William being so cute

• Jeff Doom offered a Happy Fine of $2 because he enjoyed how little William Woods tore into his steak dinner

• Jerry Weber offered up $2 for his 40th Class Reunion and being able to party with Jeff Doom

• Dave Isebrand offered up $3 in thanks because he doesn’t have to go to their reunion