The first meeting of the 2018–2019 Rotary year was presided over by John Flynn, our president for the next year. The July 12 meeting featured Bill McReavy, the 2018 Aquatennial Commodore, and other Aquatennial Ambassadors.
Youth Service Director Kip Peterson gave an update on the past year's Youth Service projects.
Terry Stevens, Youth Exchange Co-Chair, introduced the three outgoing Youth Exchange students for the 2018-2019 school year.
John Flynn announced the theme of the 2018 Fundraiser & Gala—"Rotary's Got Talent." The accompanying video was "Simply Irresistible."
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Today’s Rotary meeting was the inaugural meeting under John Flynn’s presidency, our Club’s 64th president, and the opening meeting of our club’s 62nd year. John also indicated that it would be known as the Bill McReavy meeting, unless it did not go well. Then the meeting would be known as the “BM” meeting.
This year’s Rotary theme is "Be the Inspiration." John opened his meeting with two video takes featuring Lisa Walker and Scott Hawkins. John will feature similar videos throughout the year of Rotary members talking about how Rotary inspires them.
John announced that Val Burke would be the Co-Director of Public Image on this year’s Club Board of Directors, and he congratulated Shelly Loberg, who was featured in Edina Magazine this month.
Bob Solheim delivered the invocation and reminded us that our Club stands on the shoulders of our past leaders including Mick Flynn, John’s father and past president.
Barbara Born introduced our visitors. Visiting our Club today were the following:- Melissa Bjork, guest of Michael Stanzak
- Pam Albinson, guest of Bonnie Rolstad and Bob Perkins
- Mary McNiff, guest of Mike Norman
- Nick Cardarelle, guest of Frank Cardarelle
- Pam Conlow, guest of John Flynn
- Rhoda Perkins, guest of Bob Perkins
- Greg Beckstrom, visiting Rotarian from City of Lakes Club, who invited club members to purchase tickets to their fundraiser, Beer and Books, at Able Seed House Brewery on July 24.
Kip Peterson, Youth Service Director, provided the F18 Youth Service Annual Report and highlighted the following projects:
- Do the Right Thing—Leadership Ethics Seminar, coordinated by John Buttolph and Sutton McGraw
- Camp Enterprise, coordinated by Sam Thompson
- Youth Exchange, coordinated by Terry Stevens and Heather Hansen
- Student Guests, coordinated by Steve Buettner
- Interact Club, coordinated by Josh Sprague
- Andy and Elmer’s; coordinated by Jennifer Bennerotte
- RYLA, coordinated by Kip Peterson
- Student Scholarships, coordinated by Jennifer Bennerotte
Terry Stevens, Co-Chair of the Youth Exchange Committee, introduced three outbound students who are excited for their Rotary year abroad. They are:
- Laura Schroeder—going to Brazil and then Cornell University the following fall
- Masha Feldman—going to Australia and then to University of Minnesota the following fall
- Maggie Hogan—going to Belgium and then on to Drake University the following fall
Royce Pavelka, Director of Membership, announced Prospective Member Day will be held July 19; our goal is to net five new members this year.
President John Flynn also announced that this year’s Fundraiser & Gala would be the hoopla to end all hooplas and will be on Sept. 29 at The Metropolitan in Golden Valley. This year’s theme is “Rotary’s Got Talent.” He then presented a video of "Simply Irresistible," featuring the talented Dave Hatzung, Shelly Loberg, Kaylin Eidsness and Andrea Thompson Miller.
Past President Scott McDonald introduced today’s speaker, Bill McReavy, this year’s Aquatennial Commodore. “Commodore Billy” was a walk-on the Gopher’s football team and apparently has the book, “White Makes Anything Look Good” on his nightstand. He is the 79th Commodore and designed the Commodore’s Medal this year. The medal has waves of water celebrating the Mississippi River, ten thousand lakes in Minnesota and the Minnesota River that connects all Minnesotans.
Bill introduced members of the Senior Court including:
- Senior Queen Susan Klug
- Senior Commodore Jim Dehn
- Senior Princess Gerry Schulz
- Senior Vice Commodore Leo Sedlacek
He then introduced other members of the court who then briefly spoke:
- Queen of the Lakes, Vanessa Gonzales, from Northfield, who discussed her two-year journey and the competition.
- Captain, Quentin Moore, who discussed the travel of this year’s court, which included San Antonio, Winnipeg, and Macon, Georgia. They also attended the Tournament of Roses.
- Princess, Ellie Brimeyer, who is from Maple Grove and is familiar with Rotary having participated in the Leadership Ethics Seminar and Camp Enterprise, and discussed the 49 Ambassador communities in Minnesota who compete for the Aquatennial Court.
- Princess ReAnn Eidahl, from Farmington, who discussed the wonderful experience of meeting Captain Kenny Devine from Chanhassen, who discussed his journey from being a Skipper from Minnetonka High School to this year’s Aquatennial Captain.
Bill’s grandfather, Donald McReavy, was the 1947 Aquatennial Commodore. Bill ended his presentation by thanking Gordy Lewis for giving him the pins from previous Aquatennial years. And he presented President John Flynn with the office Aquatennial bobble head trophy. He also presented the Honorary Commodore titles to his parents, Bill and Kay, who were also in attendance. Mike Opitz thanked our speaker, Bill McReavy, and the meeting closed with the following quote from Brendan Francis:
“If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don't hoard it. Don't dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke.”
President John Flynn adjourned the meeting promptly at 1:29 p.m.
