We welcome back Rotarian Larry Morgan, who will follow-up his successful presentation last year on the St. Paul Cathedral. Larry, a forty year veteran of the firm, will present a history of TKDA Engineering, Architecture and Planning.
Founded in 1910 by Maximilian Toltz as the Toltz Engineering Company in Saint Paul, the company has played a significant role in designing the city’s landmarks, including the beloved Como Park Conservatory (now Marjorie McNeely Conservatory) the iconic Hamm Building and the Robert and Wabasha Street bridges. Throughout the decades, the company has played a key role in designing the area’s roads, bridges, rail, mass transit, parks and trails as well as buildings and facilities for companies, schools and government agencies.
President Chuck called the meeting to order at 12:15. Joe Kovarik lead the club in song with Doug Hartford on the piano. Michael-jon Pease shared the story of his Irish immigrant great, great grandmother to mark St. Patrick’s Day for the Inspirational Minute. Sherry Howe introduced visiting Rotarians and guests. Thursday’s fellowship breakfast will feature John Chandler, who will talk about Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center. Founded in 1971, Wolf Ridge was the first environmental learning center in the nation to be accredited as a K-12 school. The main campus is located in Finland, MN on 2000+ acres, and soon 68 acres on Lake Superior shoreline as part of a $9.4M campaign.
Next week Rotarian Larry Morgan will follow-up on his successful presentation last year on the St. Paul Cathedral.
Dan McKeown recognized Elmer Anderson fellows Linda Mulhern and Bill Collins. Bill and Linda were recognized for giving more than $1000 to the St. Paul Rotary Foundation. Thank you, Bill and Linda, for your wonderful support! Dan also distributed the 2015-16 annual report. If you would like a copy, contact Dan.
Steve Gerber provided a Camp RYLA update, and promoted a planning meeting held March 19 at Bonfire. If you would like more information about Camp RYLA, contact Steve directly or send an email to info@campryla.com.
Rotary night at the Wild is April 14. Tickets are around $100 a piece and $15-$25 per ticket comes back to the club. Go Wild!
During Happy Dollars, Jason Bradshaw reminded everyone to sign up for service teams. There are many ways to serve and your involvement makes our meetings run smoothly.
John Guthman introduced the program featuring Rotarians John Andrews and John Overland from the Northern Star Council, Boy Scouts of America. They told us about the new building project they have going on at their Fort Snelling property. They gave us the history of the property, which started in 2001 with a strategic vision to bring an urban camp to the Twin Cities. The Fort Snelling property was purchased in 2007 for $4.25M and features an urban camp facility that serves both Scouts and non-Scouting organizations in the community. More than 300,000 kids have benefitted from the facility since it opened.
The new 42,000 square foot building will supplement the existing Base Camp building and will serve as the headquarters for the Northern Star Council. It will also have ample meeting space for community and scouting groups, a courtyard, ropes courses, and a climbing tower. Groundbreaking is May 17 and they expect construction to take a little over a year. The Council will move in during the summer of 2018. John Overland shared the plans and the space looks fantastic!
The board of directors has approved the following for membership.
If no written objection stating reasons is received by the board from any member of the club within 10 days following publication of the name, the prospective member shall be considered to be elected to membership as of April 1, 2017.
We need your help! Every week we have 7 volunteer positions at each of our meetings to keep our meetings lively, engaging and running smoothly.
2 greeters
An Introducer of Guests/Happy dollars person
Someone to give our Inspirational Minute/Invocation
A scribe
Song Leader
Musician
We are working now to fill each of these positions for every week through the end of the year. This is a great way to get involved and meet people.
So, if you have not used Signup.com before and you are ready to sign up for a volunteer role, simply click on the link below. You do not need a password or username, you just need your email address to sign up. Click the orange “Sign up!” button for whatever works in your schedule and that is it. The program will automatically send a reminder email when your sign up date(s) get close…it is really cool!
