Meeting was called to order by President Josh Sprague at 12:36 p.m. In his first meeting of the new Rotary year, Josh’s daughter, Kelly Sprague, presented the object of Rotary and avenues of service. Josh then discussed his 6-month journey to becoming president, highlighting the Cobán, Guatemala international service trip; his President-Elect training; and the Rotary International Conference. He also announced Rotary’s theme of “Together We Connect!” as well as the Rotary International’s goal to have 30% of its membership be comprised of women.
Rotary announcements followed Bob and Barbara. Katy Campbell and Gary Pederson announced that this year’s Rotary Gala’s theme is “That’s Entertainment,” and the Gala will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel on October 5th. They announced sponsors and sponsorship levels as well this year’s entertainment which will be provided by Edina HS students. Joe Mahoney and Anna Stratton provided results of the 1st Annual Car Show which included over 100 cars and 500 participants.
Josh Sprague introduced the guest speaker, Sheila Oliver. Sheila is the GM of Fox 9 KMSP. She provided fun facts including that there are no more teleprompters and cameramen. She also discussed the influence of Neilson ratings and lamented that the sample is comprised of 800 individuals aged 25 to 54, and typically only 695 participate. This small number of raters influences the content of television. Sheila discussed her guiding principal which is to be clean, classy and contemporary, and she showed video clips of an editorial meeting, Vikings coverage, P.J Fleck Show, University of MN’s Masonic Children’s home newscast, the Jason Show, and the annual Girls, Service and Technology event.
Sheila also talked about the station’s culture including her mission to award excellence among her team and their quest to be the #1 news station. They are #1 among the stations for the morning news slot (which spans 6 hours each day). They are “unconventional” behind the scenes in that they locally produce 72 hours of programming each week. Also, they are often the only station to get invited to funerals and memorials for fallen officers because of their respectful coverage and interruption of regularly scheduled programming to cover such events. They are the Viking Station and as such, they partner with the Vikings for events such as featuring HS football on Friday nights for games played at the TCO Stadium. And Sheila is on the Women’s Advisory Board of the Vikings; there are only three such boards throughout the country. Finally, Sheila debuted the new station set which will be seen on air beginning July 22nd.
Mike Opitz thanked Sheila with a donation to the Shelter Box. Josh announced future Rotary events over the month and ended the meeting with a quote by Philo Taylor Farnsworth, inventor of the television. He adjourned the meeting promptly at 1:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa O. Walker, PhD
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
