September 26th the Wagner Rotary Club began its last meeting for the month of September and the second quarter of our Rotary Calendar year at noon on Wednesday last.

The Senior students from WCS introduced themselves as our guests for the day. They were: Faith Tyler, parents Amy and John Tyler; Haley Drapeaux, Annie and Jerrod Rolston; Samuel Cournoyer, Francesca Arrow and Justin Olson; Amari Weston, Godwin Weston and Juanita St. Pierre.

Rotarian Glenn Hofer gave a blessing for the food, the beautiful day, our senior visitors and asked for guidance for our country at this time.

Rotarian Ken Cotton gave a Membership Minute on the Non-Attendance Rule straight from our membership guidebook. The Rotary club Constitution specifies three conditions under which a Rotarian’s membership will automatically be terminated for non-attendance. These circumstances are: failure to attend or make up four consecutive club meetings, failure to attend or make up 60 per cent of club meetings each six months and failure to attend at least 30 percent of the meetings of one’s own club in each six-month period.

These rules may seem rigid however, being present at club meetings is one of the basic obligations a member accepts upon joining a Rotary Club. Rotary is a participatory organization which highly values regular attendance. When a member is absent the entire club loses the personal association with that member.

For any Rotarian to miss four consecutive meetings, or disregard the other attendance requirements, should be considered tantamount to the submission of one’s resignation from the club. It is not meant to be a punitive action by the club. All Rotarians know the consequences of non-attendance, so it clearly becomes a conscious decision by a Rotarian to withdraw from the club when he fails to fulfill the attendance requirements.

Rotarian Laurie Kidd led the members in singing Red River Valley which had not been used in a long time.

The second yearly quarter has ended with a total of 17 misses on the Henke Team and 28 misses on the Bill Frei Team.

The football winners for the past week were Tony Tolliver and Patty Frei.

Rotarian Ken Cotton drew the lucky ticket and drew the Queen of Hearts from the remaining 7 cards! $21 was collected for the day bringing the pot to a total of $919.00 which he split 50/50 with senior guest Amari Weston. Wonderful gesture Ken! You are a great Rotarian!

President Jerry announced another reminder of the District convention being held in Vermillion this weekend.

Rotarian Kelsey Doom announced a Cracker Barrel Session to be held on October 17th at 9:00 a.m. at Booms Restaurant.

Gerrit Juffer introduced Neil Von Eschen, Charles Mix County Commission as his program for the day.

Neil gave an outline of what the county is doing right now. Budget work is at the top of their agenda. The Law Enforcement building needs a new computer system as the present system is over 8 years old, so the budget will have to be increased to accommodate this need. The Sherriff’s department and the highway department are the two biggest items in the yearly budget.

Wind towers and zoning have been a big topic lately. Charles Mix County has not enacted any zoning laws yet. They are one of three counties that do not have zoning requirements as of now. They have signed an agreement with Prevailing Winds to the effect that PW cannot construct a wind tower with three and one-half times the height of a tower from a residence. That is farther than the present one-half mile presently used by the other wind system in Charles Mix and Bon Homme counties.

Neil announced that the Courthouse had celebrated its 100th year this past summer and they had lots of visitors and everyone enjoyed the event.

A question and answer session was held and then the meeting was adjourned.