The program speaker at the Thursday, Feb. 8, Rotary Club of Edina meeting was Steve Elkins, Metropolitan Council Member for District 5.
Interact students promoted their upcoming Skate to End Polio event Feb. 16, and were selling tickets as well.
Rotarian Bonnie Rolstad gave her Classification Talk at the meeting.
Click on the link below for more on the meeting...
Rotarian Bonnie Rolstad gave her Classification Talk at the meeting.
Click on the link below for more on the meeting...
We were greeted by Heather Hansen, Jennifer Shinners and Stefen Smith. Scott Hawkins and Jennifer Garske provided front desk support.
President San Asato called us to order on time and John Mazzara gave us the invocation of “Look in the Mirror.”
Lisa Walker provided the guest introductions for:
- Scott MacDonald’s guest Laura Gideon
- Greg Yoch’s guest Scott Blake
- Kris Maser’s guest Kyle Vick
- Guest Katy Campbell
- Scott Neal’s guest Chanté Mitchell
- David Clynes’ guest John Gibbs
- Steve Slyce’s guest Jeff Shea
- Ann Platt’s guest Kevin Koepke
Aarathi Garimella, Interact President, and Anika Boss, Interact Treasurer, from Edina High School were here to promote the Interact Club's “Skate to End Polio” benefit event at Braemar. All proceeds go to The Rotary Foundation's PolioPlus campaign. The event is Feb. 16. Contact Josh Sprague for tickets.Ann Platt spoke about the April 25 Jersey Boys musical and pre-party. Register online. There are some tickets still available.
Bonnie Rolstad gave her Classification Talk. Bonnie owns a company that provides online nursing education. She feels that it is very gratifying to her to be able to work with and help patients. She is an author, a researcher, has started three businesses, a mother, a grandmother. Very impressive! She joined Rotary because she believes the purpose and culture of Rotary matches her personal values. Her favorite saying is “everyone you meet has something to teach you.”
Tom Bach, sporting a new haircut, introduced our speaker, Steve Elkins, a member of the Metropolitan Council from District 5.
Steve provided a dynamic and riveting insight into the Metropolitan Council organization. The Metropolitan Council has a $1 billion per year budget that oversees Metro Transit, Metro Sewer District, and other functions in the seven-county metro area. Steve says they manage “buses and flushes.”
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Metropolitan Council was created in 1967 and a large part of their responsibility is to help provide the vision and blueprint for growth in the metro area. Their goal is to prepare the region for prosperity, livability and sustainability into the future. They do this by providing demographic data to each city in the region, so these cities can complete their comprehensive plans. The Metropolitan Council then administers the comprehensive plans for all these cities. Some interesting statistics that their demographers have come up with is that by 2040:
- There should be 800,000 more people living in the metro area than there are today.
- 40 percent of the population will be people of color.
- Affordable housing will be one of the biggest challenges facing the region.
Jake Johnson thanked the speaker. San Asato adjourned the meeting promptly at 1:30 p.m.
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