Josh opened the meeting highlighting the six female board members for 2019-2020, and that next year we will have eight of fourteen positions next Rotary year. Josh shared a video from Kelly Burnett talking about this year’s theme, Rotary Connects the World.
Catherine Gump gave the invocation. Greeters were Robb Breding and Gregory Gable, and Barbara Born wrote The Barker.
Jennifer Bennerotte gave a summary of the recent member survey. 77 members completed the survey and more than half of those that responded are ready to meet in person when guidance allows and most recognize that changes will be necessary including no handshakes, distancing will be required and the ERBB, aka the Edina Rotary Big Buffet will be no more.
Make-ups are available on You Tube, search for Edina Rotary. We also have a new text notification service. Text “ROTARY” to 22452. It’s another option for those that prefer text to e-mail.
Congratulations to Tim Murphy. Tim will represent District 5950 as a delegate to the Zone Nominating Committee.
Greg Gable gave his classification talk. His classification is investments, he’s been a member for about a year. He was born in Columbia Heights and has been in the Twin Cities his whole life. He lives near ECC. He has three children, Jacob, Sofia and Leah. He and his wife are expecting another child in October. Jacob is a freshman at Clemson and Sofia and Leah attend Providence Academy. He started his career as an account for a mutual fund with mortgage backed bonds, and moved to another company and became a bond trader, and worked as a mortgage bond trader for Carvelle, the hedge fund subsidiary of Cargill. At the end of March he started his own company with his cousin. They are trading mortgage bonds and loans for large institutional investors. They’ve been in business for three weeks. He loves to travel, he’s been to Africa eight times, it’s one of his favorite places. He met Rotarians there, and that drove his interest in Rotary. He also collects vintage baseball cards.
Mike Tingum also gave his classification talk, his classification is business law, Joe Christianson is his sponsor. He was born and raised in Grand Forks, ND. He went to UND, his parents have a law firm. He met his wife Courtney in college, she is from Cottage Grove, she moved back here after college and he followed and got married shortly after. He got a job with Christianson and LaRue. They live in Eagan, and have a dog, Chopper (Happy Birthday Chopper), and they have another dog. He still maintains his ND bar, he focuses on business and real estate, mostly mergers and acquisitions, and real estate, it’s mostly transactional. He's an avid hunter and angler. He and his wife enjoy traveling. He plays guitar and does a bit of collecting of Super Nintendo games.
Today’s program is the Women in Leadership Award presented by Jennifer Bennerotte and Chyrsanne Manoles. This meeting reflects back on the history of women in Rotary. Rotary was founded in 1905 by Paul Harris. A Rotary club in India first proposed that the word male be stricken from the constitution in 1950. In 1972, more women were reaching high professional positions and more clubs began lobbying for women members, and the first proposal to admit women was presented. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 4, 1987, that Rotary clubs ruled that Rotary clubs could no longer deny woman membership. In 1989 Rotary caught up and changed the constitution.
Edina welcomed Chrysanne in 1988 and shortly thereafter, Jean Morrison joined. Our first president was Patti Ellingson-Solheim during the 2001-2002 Rotary year. By 1990 there were about 20,000 female Rotarians, and by 2005 a female was appointed a trustee of the Foundation. Today we have over 200,000 female members.
Today is a celebration of women in Rotary and to recognize the good work of women in Edina.
Chrysanne announced the 2020 honoree, Kathy Rendleman. She has led the Edina Education Fund since 2016. She has been a partner with Edina Give and Go, and worked with food procurement and packing. She has gone beyond the role of managing the fund’s finances and led the COVID-19 food response. Collaboration is a hallmark of her leadership style. Kathy is often the fund’s lead representative with outside organizations. Her commitment goes beyond the fund, she supports her four children in their activities. She served as PTO president at Creekside. She sewed dance costumes and chaperoned school field trips. She has a commitment to helping people. Kathy was honored and surprised to receive the award. She said the work is a labor of love. The speaker is Laura Hope Melton from Edina Neighbors for Affordable Housing, the 2019 award winner. Under her leadership, the group now has more than 100 participants. She stressing the importance of teamwork and highlighted her leadership team. The organization started in the fall of 2017, preserving, protecting the tenants population and producing more affordable housing, and is working towards meeting the 1,220 goal set by the Metropolitan Council.
The organization educates the public about affordable housing, and created an affordable housing platform presented to the council. The city has now adopted most of those recommendations. Affordable housing benefits the community because housing and social development are interrelated and interdependent. Businesses benefit from healthy and stable employees and safe, stable and affordable housing benefits all of us.
The Standard definition is that households pay no more than 30% of their income for housing.
Other benefits of affordable housing include: 
1.Over 40,000 people commute to Edina daily, over 90% of jobs in Edina are commuters. Having affordable housing in Edina reduces employee turnover.
2. Affordable housing makes it easier for employers to retain employees
3. Affordable housing can provide households with additional disposable income
4. Housing construction employees construction workers
5. Affordable housing, especially single family and townhomes, brings additional children into Edina schools, which benefits the school funding
6.Recent housing study shows Edina seniors are the most squeezed by Edina housing costs, 1/3 pay more than 30% for housing and that is true for 2/3 of renters, so they stay in their homes which constricts the housing market
2. Affordable housing makes it easier for employers to retain employees
3. Affordable housing can provide households with additional disposable income
4. Housing construction employees construction workers
5. Affordable housing, especially single family and townhomes, brings additional children into Edina schools, which benefits the school funding
6.Recent housing study shows Edina seniors are the most squeezed by Edina housing costs, 1/3 pay more than 30% for housing and that is true for 2/3 of renters, so they stay in their homes which constricts the housing market
The organization has accomplished many things working towards the Met Council’s goal, including the hiring of Stephanie Hawkinson as affordable housing development manager. Edina was the first suburb to do so. More than 100 units of affordable housing have been preserved or created in Edina.
What doe the future hold for affordable housing? We’re early in a long and slow economic recovery. She talked about the trend of boomer parents living with their children because they can’t afford to retire.
Charity addresses the consequences of inequality, not the source. We need to have to courage to make bold choices, our future depends on it.
