President Bruce Hedblom opened the meeting. Craig Waller conducted the song, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” with Peter Marston at the piano. Jerry Loomis gave the invocation.  Lucy Mattson and Steve Miller were each awarded a Paul Harris Fellow.   Tom Burton made a call for housing for the inbound Ambassadorial Scholar.  Doug Peterson invited all to the Business Development "Sharpen your Saw" meeting on Wednesday, August 27, where Matt Norman will be talking about public speaking.  Dick Hackett announced the Group Study Exchange to India and made a call for participants.  Darla Keller asked everyone to sign up for a location for Vocational Fellowship Week on September 5 and let the office know their top three choices.  Matt Norman encouraged everyone to bring a guest on August 22, as it is “Guest Day” with featured speaker Robert Zeakse from Second Harvest Heartland.  Quinn Tierney rallied the club for the September 13 “Taste of Lake Street” event.  It will be held from 3-7:00 p.m. Tickets are now available and are $25 each.  Hosted by all five Minneapolis Rotary Clubs and Rotaract, the event will be a food and wine tasting from Lake Street merchants.  Quinn encouraged everyone to purchase tickets, attend the event, and volunteer to help.  He also requested that each Rotarian bring two bottles of wine to the next meeting to be collected for the wine basket giveaways at the event.  Proceeds from the event will benefit local food shelves for hunger relief.  Bruce reminded everyone that the speaker would be available for questions at the new “meet the speaker table” directly following the program.  Secretary Maureen Tubbs gave the fellowship report and introduced visiting Rotarians and guests.

President Bruce Hedblom served as day chair by introducing the speaker, Chris Holm. Chris began his remarks citing the accomplishments of Rotary International President D.K. Lee whose motto for the Rotary year is “Make dreams real.”  Chris gave everyone at the meeting a pin representing that theme.  He said Club 9 is a player on the world stage and that its members can change the world one child at a time.  He set six goals for the club, and is looking forward to the Club achieving those and receiving the Presidential Citation as a result. Goal 1:  Have fun.  He reminded the club to make sure to engage members outside the regular meetings to build camaraderie.  Goal 2:  Send a club member on an international Rotary trip.  The difference between Rotary and other service clubs is its international service.  Chris acknowledged Ken Puffer for getting Club 9 started in its work in Ecuador.  He listed the three upcoming trips (Haiti, India, and Tanzania) still open to Rotarians.  Goal 3:  Find a new member.  Rotary International’s goal is to grow membership by ten percent.  He asked Club 9 to grow by a net of one new member, quipping “now is the time to get your ask in gear.”  He thanked Garfield Clark for being his sponsor and inviting him to join Rotary.  Goal 4:  Fund a local service project utilizing a matching grant from the District.  He was pleased to report that Club 9 was awarded $4,000 from the District for the dictionary project and $2,500 for the Taste of Lake Street event.  Goal 5:  Get members involved, whether at the club level or District level.  He acknowledged the following club members for their involvement at the District level:  Ted Risdall, website work; Kevin Caulfield, co-chair of Rotaract; Michele Martin, treasurer for District conference; George Koblas, International Service coordinator; KC Sukumar, Group Study Exchange; Quinn Tierney, Vocational Service coordinator, Lynn Swon, District trainer; Bruce Hedblom, World Community Service chair, Hal Tearse, District foundation chair; Jerry Loomis, song master; Ken Puffer and John Richter for their service as well.  Goal 5: Give to The Rotary Foundation drive. As Bill Nord says, “give until it feels good”.  Club 9 will have a combined fund drive this year (Minneapolis Rotary Foundation and The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International).  Last year, Club 9 was #6 in the world for total giving.  District 5950 was #5 in the world.  In addition, Chris is asking each club in the District to give $100 to the India Tricycle Project and recognized Club 9 for starting the amazing project rallying the support of 22 clubs to purchase nearly 500 tricycles to date.

Chris concluded by highlighting some upcoming events for the District and invited all to attend:  The District Membership meeting on September 12; District meeting in St. Cloud on November 8, and the District Conference in Minneapolis, April 25-26.  He looks forward to an exciting year of service and invites all Rotarians to put Service above Self by reaching for the goals set forth. 

August 6, 2008
By Jeff Campbell

Day Chair Bill Pomerenke called the bright Wednesday afternoon meeting to order, providing the usual pleasantries and announcements.  Introductions were then made by the attendees, including interesting and diverse commentary about “what one would do if money or failure weren’t an option.”  The speaker of the day, Kurt Linberg, PhD, was then given the floor for his new member vocational.

Kurt is a small town Wisconsin boy at heart, growing up in Elk Mound and attending UW-Stout for his undergraduate studies in applied mathematics.  He worked his way through college with a car repair job Saturday nights and Sundays.  Despite a bad job market in 1982, Kurt had a contact that led to a position with McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, MO, working as an engineer in the area of jet avionics.  After a brief stint with a small company in Vermont, Kurt found his way to Minneapolis with several positions at Honeywell and ultimately Medtronic.

Earning his master's degree from St. Thomas and PhD from Walden University, Kurt had the opportunity to help develop IT curriculum in 1999 for The Graduate School of America, now Capella University, emphasizing the overlap of technology and business principles.  The Dean liked his work so much that he was asked to remain full time with the school, and Kurt has remained with Capella since.  He is now the dean of the School of Business and Technology at Capella University.  Today, Capella University offers more than 970 online courses and 21 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in 109 specialized areas of study. Capella's more than 23,400 learners include a diverse group of adults from all 50 states and 45 countries.

Kurt lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Adrienne, and young daughter, Annika, and has volunteered himself to be the resident jet avionics specialist for Club 9.  Kurt Linberg is a welcome addition to Rotary.