Past President Chuck Whitaker called the meeting to order at 12:15 pm at the Doubletree Hotel. President Jerry Faletti is out of town this week. Michael-Jon Pease was the song leader and led the group in “America the Beautiful” accompanied by Bob Jones on the piano. The inspiration minute was provided by Steve Young. John Chandler introduced visiting Rotarians and guests of Rotarians. Both Bob Cardinal and Susan O’Neil were greeters and Linda Mulhern was the scribe. Kristine Montpetit reminded everyone that the Holiday Party will be Thursday, December 7th at the Intercontinental Hotel and currently has approximately 50 Rotarians and guests registered for the event. She would like to see many more, so please register! Kristine is also looking for additional items to be included in the Silent Auction, so please think about donating items for the fundraiser.
Valdi Stefanson talked about November being Foundation month. He asked that members consider donating to Rotary International in Evanston Illinois. Valdi noted that Rotary International has the highest possible score for charitable organizations and was noted as one of the best organizations changing the world. Donations made by our members do come back to the district, namely through Global Grants. In the past, we have been able to transform a town in Bolivia by providing a water pump, which has helped the townspeople increase their incomes and thereby sending their children off to better educations. He asked that members go the RI website and look for the “Annual fund – Share” to make donations. Joe Kovarik talked about his experience as a GSE member to India in 1978 and how important it was to him. At the conclusion, Sarah Kolar was able to award Arne Bostrock with a Elmer Anderson pin and noted he was a member of the 2nd Century society within our club.
President Chuck talked about a recent article written by Jim Kosmo in the newspaper as well the obituary for Ron Phillippo, noting his years of service with Rotary. We were also able to celebrate and sing Happy Birthday to all members with a November birthdays. Please note there will not be a meeting next week due to the Thanksgiving Holiday and we will return to the Intercontinental Hotel for our next meeting on November 28th.
We had a few minutes for Happy Dollars and Jay Pfaender introduced our speaker Steve Young, a member of our club and his new book, “The Theory and Practice of Associative Power”.
Steve pointed out that the CORD method was developed between 1966 and 1967 by Ellsworth Bunker, while the United States was fighting in Vietnam. At that point in time, President Lyndon Johnson knew that the war could not be won strictly with “hard power” ie military force and was looking for other ways to bring the Vietnamese people to our side of the equation during the conflict. There were many levels of a “soft” approach, which included education, policing, and building up the community. We needed to work with people and create alliances and the ability for self development and self determination. This worked in Vietnam as the insurgency dwindled based on both the hard and soft levels of CORD working together. Unfortunately, we have only utilized our “hard” military to force changes in both Iraq and Afghanistan and the insurgency has been able to infiltrate the population in both countries. Change has not occurred, especially in regards to gaining sympathy from the civilian population as we were able to achieve in Vietnam. The United States now has to learn how to migrate between the military and civilians through building up the community, education and policing. We need to look at ways to work together and decentralize power at the local communities and therefore marginalize the insurgents in order to achieve an understanding or cooperation in both countries.
Steve Young was presented with a certificate donating money to the St Paul library reading program and the meeting concluded at 1:20 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Mulhern
Scribe