Our opening Marshal was Darel Leipold on Tuesday, June 16^th for President Michell’s final meeting as President.  Darel started our program by singing “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” and many of us joined him.  Darel also commented that on June 21^st he will have his double-digit birthday of 88 years old and is looking for his next double –digit of 99 years old by Zoom!

 

Michelle called on Steve Frazier to give the golf update.  The Golf Classic will be held on September 15^th at Deer Run in Victoria with safety precautions in-place and box lunches at noon.  There will be no dinner this year.  We will have a live auction on-line daily for the week or two before September 15^th.   We are looking for leaders to chair Social Media and on-line Auction experience.  Also we need golfers, large ticket auction items, Event and Hole Sponsors and other volunteers to help make the event a success.  The AM Club is taking the lead and so far we have Lou Graber, Scott Zerby and Steve and Karen Frazier serving on the Golf Committee.  Steve will send an golf update at the Golf Committee meets this Thursday, June 18^th.

Michelle then called on Kate to give an update on our live and Zoom meetings starting July 7^th through August.  We will meet at the Shorewood South Shore Community Center and will set things up so that there is social distancing and members are encouraged to wear masks.  We will also Zoom the meeting for members that Covid hesitant.  For safety reasons we will have box lunches provided by Kowalski’s and members that will be attending in-person will need to make reservations with Kate that she will set-up the week before the July 7^th meeting.  There will also be a on July 7^th live and on Zoom.  Stay tuned for more details.

 

We next discussed upcoming speakers and Jenny Janson announced that Tour de Tonka with Tim Litfin would be our June 21^st and then open for new speakers after that.  Several speakers were mentioned – Don Shelby, Kissey Cokely and Dennis Peterson were mentioned as possible speakers.  There will be no meeting on September 15^th as that will be the Golf Classic day.  Kate challenged our club to each come up with a speaker and we would easily fill-up the year!

 

Michelle then gave her final goodbyes by thanking various members that helped her and our club through this past year.  She thanked the following for their contributions this year:  Jim Cada for the Make A Difference Scholarship winners and Dick Glover as coordinator of the STRIVE Program; Darel Leipold and John Ferm who jumped in to help whenever she needed them; Karen Frazier and Molly Swenson for being the heart of the club; Kate Wilinski and Lou Graber for the leadership opver the next two years and for Lou also stepping-in to be Treasurer; Jenny Janson and Marianne Laurent for being the cheerleaders and their reliable participation on the Board of Directors; Tim Litfin and Tad Shaw for their wonderful organizational skills and a source of new ideas for our club; Nick Ruehl for his brainstorming skills and positive support throughout the year; Scott Zerby for his help in club technology; Steve Frazier and Randy Schumacher for their consistent leadership and support; and Don Draayer for being her sponsor into Rotary, working together on the Reach Out and Read grant and a cheerleader throughout the year.

Michelle thank everyone in our club for their support throughout the year and that she is going to miss all of us as she moves this early fall.

 

Michelle then called on Don Draayer to introduce Duncan Tomassen as a guest interested in our club.  Duncan owns his own company and lives in Excelsior with his wife and two children.  Duncan described his connection with Best Buy and his technological product to transform older cars with the modern technological safety features now required in new cars and a lot more.  He is very passionate about his work and would be a great member to our club.

We did a club check-in and everyone was healthy and coping with life in 2020.  Jean Gray reported that Nina Stark is feeling “locked-in” at the Landings and Karen will send her an uplifting greeting from our club.  Don Draayer reported that he had an accident and got banged-up while walking a family dog that took-off on him.  Steve Frazier reported that former Minnetonka Principal Don Carruth passed away on the 12^th at 106 years of age and how Don had gone out on a limb when he hired Steve as a social Studies Teacher at Minnetonka West. Lou Graber thanked Michelle for being a great President and that after all the contributions we made this year she was passing-on $12,000 to Kate’s year.  Don made the final tribute by complimenting Michelle for all the jobs and acclaim she has achieved and the great job she has done at MHS in Student Services.

 

Michelle thanked everyone for this year and that due to moving may miss Kate’s first meeting but hopes to make some meeting before she moves in August and possibly keep visiting on Zoom!  With that we ended our meeting.

The Excelsior Rotary Club meeting on June 2, 2020 was held in a Zoom format with President Michelle Seets presiding.  Steve Frazier was Greeter and Opening Marshal and Steve relayed his experience with Taps Across America.  We had two visitors:  Mark Maloney and Suzi Howe who are interested in joining our club.  Our next meeting will be Michelle’s last meeting as President and she has done a terrific job! We had seven announcements with several actions by our Board of Directors:

1. Steve Frazier reported that we will have a golf fundraiser again this year with the AM Club taking the lead.  Steve will represent our club in the leadership organizing and ask members to contact him if they are interested in serving on the committee and/or helping with the event.  The basic structure will be highly virtual with many events being on-line so our main need is people proficient in Social Media, Graphics and Website construction.  The main organizing looks like this:

2. The Board decided to approach the South Shore Community Center for Club Meetings starting in July with Red Sauce providing our catering. This venue allows for social distancing.  We will also continue to broadcast our meetings in Zoom for those who Covid 19 cautious.

3. Molly will organize two socials.  One will be a car parade and lawn signage celebrating members and a Happy Hour at Maynards in July with social distancing.

4. The Board voted to give emergency funding of $2,500 for signage at MCEC .

5. The Board voted to have this year’s golf charities be $2,000 each to His House, MCEC Scholarships and Tyronne Carter’s STEM Program.

6.  Clips were shown of the MHS Award Program of STRIVE and Make A Difference scholarships.

7.  A Rotary Human Trafficking On-line Club will start as of June 18^th at 10 AM on Zoom.  Michelle will send out a link for the event.

Our Program on June 2^nd was Thomas Parnell of J.P. Morgan speaking about a “Good Market and Market Perspectives” and using many graphs and charts discussed the roller-coaster ride of the market and his perspective on recovery.  He explained how the market fell 34% on February 19^th and started its recovery in March and April and we can look for a more gradual recovery in the coming months with some up’s and Down’s in the Bull Market.   He also believes that we are through the worst as we are with the Covid 19 pandemic.  He gave us a lesson on how the stock market reflects the state of our economy with the worst hits in the 2^nd quarter and then rapid improvement in the 3^rd and 4^th quarters.  He discussed the history of the markets and GDP from 1970 on and the 2007 recession but the 2020 recession will be twice as bad but then improve rapidly.  The Federal Reserve initial actions did not happen quick enough but now responding better.  Congress got involved finally and through the CARE Acts pumped 2.4 Trillion into our economy and will need to enact 3 trillion more.  In response the market started going up and helping our country to come out of the recession.  His advice is not to panic and not sell-off but to stay with your portfolios and adjust it with the advice of your financial planner.