President Josh Sprague got the meeting off to a truly rousing start!! That was followed by our usual opening of invocation, pledge, 4-way test and introduction of visiting guests. Laura Schroeder, our student ambassador gave us a very enthusiastic summary of her year with many new friends in Brazil.Pictured here to greet you are Jennifer Hendrickson, Public Image Chair, Dan Hennen and Stefan Smith, Camp Enterprise Chair.
Next on the agenda, Local Grant Chair, Kelley Burnett gave an informative explanation of the primary criteria our committee uses to decide on local grants for seed money - disabled, education, basic needs and growth. Grants totaled about $63,000 this past year, all funded by the Annual Gala. Kip Peterson immediately followed that with an announcement of the annual Gala raffle ticket fundraising tool which is to begin next week. Good timing.Past President Brad Hepp introduced our speaker, Megan Tamte. Megan and her husband Mike are the co-founders of a women’s fashion retail business at 50th and France. They initially called it Hot Mama. The business, later changed to Evereve, has grown to 87 stores in 27 states with 1,800 employees.
Megan was a 3rd grade teacher and new mom in 2004, and her husband Mike was working in the financial area with the Evangelical church when they decided to follow Megan’s dream of owning a women’s fashion retail business - with no obvious background experience! However, their combination of being a target customer and understanding the financial and operational aspects of a business was perfect.
I found it very interesting that after several years of growth and profitability they “took a pause to stop, listen to customers and employees, and apply what they learned”. The primary lesson was that “women have changed” from 2004 to now. They have evolved from trying to figure out how to be a mom and work and manage the household, to realize it’s ok and doable to be both a mom and work. The second lesson was to focus on treating each customer with their “heart values”. That means hiring people who love people and love fashion, and then training them on some very specific behaviors to follow in their interactions with each customer. This sounds very much like the Rotary 4-way Test!
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President Josh Sprague closed the meeting and announced Senator Rudy Boschwitz will be our speaker on August 22nd. You don’t want to miss his wise and interesting thoughts on “Magnificent America".President Josh Sprague and Shelly Loberg, International Grant Chair.
Another "Thumbs Up" meeting with Bob Gubrub, Dave Aase, Youth Service Chair and Bjorn Freudenthal
Which one is not like the others? Doug Johnson, Susan Johnson, Joe Hayes, 2019-2020 Secretary
Kenny Smith, former Community Service Chair is pictured with Bridget Hallstrom, Mentorship Co-Chair. Following his career path, Kenny is moving out of state. We will miss you and your endless dedication to our club.