Learn about upcoming speakers, events, last meeting's presentation, and other club updates.
Upcoming Speakers
August
10: Carver County Commissioners Panel: Degler, Fahey, Udermann
17: Dan Kohler, St. John’s Bible
24 - Annual New Teacher’s Breakfast
31 - Alfonso Cornish, gener8tor
September
7 - Miguel Ramos, Telemundo
Upcoming Events
August 7 District 5950 Zoom Presentation – Staying Engaged, 7:00 -7:45 PM.
August 24 West Metro Rotary Year Kick Off, 6 PM, Fat Pants Brewing Co, Eden Prairie.
September21 and 28 Our Rotary Club will meet in the Chaska Community Center, Brick City Room.
Invocation: Gary Hardel
Club Announcements
Matt Podhradsky acted as President and introduced Sophia Pesina, a senior at Chaska High School. She will be joining our other intern, John Goodman. Sophia is active in DECA and interested in going to a business college.
Cindy Anderson thanked the many people for logistics and staffing our wine Tent at River City Days. She noted the extra efforts by Dan Keyport for the refreshments and Erin Kerber for her technology expertise.
Greg Anderson asked for donations to continue our contributions to provide laundry services to homeless persons supported by His House in Chaska. Another collection will be made at our next meeting.
Nate Bostrom called attention to the panel of Carver County Commissioners that will provide next week’s presentation.
Erin Kerber asked us to search for Host Families for our exchange student from Italy. She is arriving in two weeks!
There is a District 5950 Zoom Presentation on August 7 – Staying Engaged, 7:00 -7:45 PM, Link: Register Online
Meet nearby Rotarians at the West Metro Rotary Year Kick Off- Areas 5 & 6, Aug 24, 2023 6:00 PM, at Fat Pants Brewing Co., 8335 Crystal View Rd., Eden Prairie. Link: Register Online
George Glaros continued in his pop quiz role from his days as a teacher. Today he tested our knowledge of Minnesota history and bits of knowledge that were hidden to most of us. Once again, a few tables escaped his fines, but George kept at it until the blue pig was satisfactorily fed!
Happy Dollars continued the flow of contributions with donations from Bob Chinnock, Kevin Eide, Cindy Anderson, and Gary Cooper. Matt Podhradsky suggested we all donate to celebrate successful fund-raising for the Miracle League Field project.
PRESENTATION: Jennifer Glickstein, Dress Up to Calm Down
Jean Heyduck introduced Jennifer Glickstein, the CEO of Dress Up to Calm Down, a distributor of weighted clothing, costumes and toys that are marketed to parents of children with anxiety or sensory processing difficulties. Jennifer has an Occupational Therapy degree from St. Catherine University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education from the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Ms. Glickstein’s work as a pediatric occupational therapist led her to start her business providing clothing and play tools to help focus and calm the behavior of children with autism spectrum or who have difficulties reacting to environments or situations around them. Jennifer believes that weighted or compressive clothing increases hormonal production of dopamine and serotonin and results in more calm behaviors. Weight-modified clothing, costumes, and plush toys are sold through her website www.dressuptocalmdown.com. There is also a section of the site containing education content about Sensory Integration Therapy.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In my follow-up on this topic, I found several articles related to the scientific research about the effectiveness of similar products. If you or others have that same interest, and don’t mind seeing pro + con differences, here are links:
Chaska Rotary Board of Directors Meeting Minutes: July 21, 2023
Attendees:
Cindy Anderson, Nate Bostrom, Gary Hardel, Andrew Haugen, Erin Kerber, Michelle Kraus, Gretchen Oppriecht, Matt Podhradsky, Pat Schaffran
Absences: Kristy Miklas, Bob Chinnock, Gary Cooper, Steve Mueller, Keith Payne,
Approve the Minutes of the June 16, 2023 Meeting – approved as submitted.
Treasurer’s Report – Kristy Miklas – proposed budgets need to be accepted. Since Kristy wasn't present to discuss the Treasurer's Report, motion was made to accept the report with flexibility. Approved. Discussion of the budget was tabled to next meeting.
Membership Updates – Kristy Miklas
John Zirbes resignation received 6/30.
With this e mail I am resigning from the Chaska Rotary Club. I have gotten more and more involved with the Victoria Lions as well as St. Victoria church and being a faithfully attending member has not been possible. It has been my absolute pleasure to be a part of this fine organization and to get to know so many great people. I have nothing but fond memories from my years with Chaska Rotary and wish everyone the best!
Bill Engelhardt has been on leave of absence for over a year and resigned with new billing.
Kirsten Smith has officially resigned.
Kaylee is interested in working on a program to recruit younger members. Do we, or the district, have tools we can share with her? A Rotary brochure will be available for River City Days. Andy Haugen will also check with the district for other available resources.
Any other changes in membership status over last month
ROTARY BUSINESS
2023/24 Vice President – Motion made to approve Erin Kerber as Vice President. Approved.
2023-24 President-Elect – Discussion of an individual to approach to consider being President-Elect and another to be a new board member.
Review 2023-24 Rotary Club of Chaska flow chart - Michelle Kraus will forward flow chart to board members for comments/updates. Gretchen Oppriecht offered to help Andy Haugen with the Student Exchange program as Erin Kerber changes roles.
ITEMS NEEDING ACTION
Polio Plus Annual Contribution
Asking for $1500 from every club to make their 50-million-dollar goal
Do we want to add to 2023-24 budget? Motion made and approved to add this to the 2023-24 budget. This payment will be due June 2024.
His House Laundry Program for homeless
Will be guest speaker in Jan 2024
Expecting an ask in the near future, thoughts around $$$ - It was suggested that two Rotarians be asked to speak about this at the August 10 meeting, with a request for donations from fellow Rotarians at that time.
Benefit Bashers Fundraiser for Miracle League Field
$1,000 donation request for event expenses IF YES, IS IT IN THE BUDGET? [Note from Kristy: this has been paid on 3/17/23] – This is a Halloween costume party to be held on Friday, Oct. 27 to benefit the Miracle League Field. It was suggested that Rotary host a money board at the event.
ITEMS FOR UPDATE OR DISCUSSION
Chaska River City Days Wine Tent (Cindy) – Rotary will be selling red wine, white wine, seltzer and margaritas. It was suggested that there also be a tip jar for Polio Plus.
New Teacher Breakfast August 24th(Nate/Gretchen) - Sheryl Hough and Celi are heading this up.
Do we have a featured guest speaker?
Who will be the MC for this event?
Will there be a Rotarian speaking? If yes, who?
Will there be in Invocation given? If yes, by whom?
Will there be need for tech support?
Rotary Intern Update – We are recommending we add a 2nd Intern. This would mean adding another scholarship.
Good Afternoon,
I hope you had a great 4th last week and I wanted to thank you again for meeting with me.
I'm sending this email to further express my interest in the internship position through the Chaska Rotary Club for the 2023-2024 season. After further discussing leadership opportunities, I believe that the internship position would be a great fit for the city and me. I feel I would be helpful in further expanding the Rotary's reach and building the bridges needed within our community. I hope to be further considered for this position and am happy to provide you with any further needed information.
Thank you, looking forward to the Rotary meeting tomorrow!
Sophia Pesina
Motion made and approved to accept Sophia Pesina as a second intern.
Chaska Rotary Music Fest Oct 7th (Matt) – We will need software to sell tickets for the event. Rotary will be able to sell all beverages.
Fall Social – Cindy Anderson will talk to Phil Solseng about having a social at his barn this fall.
Fundraising Update on Miracle League Field (Matt)
Rotary website
Jean is working on our website and has discovered it is not linked to Clubrunner (CR). It is a separate site that was developed using Wordpress. She is looking into developing a new site utilizing CR, for consistency and support. This is part of our CR package. She has reached out to the district for help with this and will share with us what she learns. She does need a 30 access level. Currently Matt, Gary, Gretchen, & Keith are the ones with this and it has to be changed internally by them.
Moved and approved to increase Clubrunner subscription by $6/mo for ability to run the website through Clubrunner.
Other Business
Rotary will not host a Marsh Lake Hunt this year.
We will begin posting the monthly board minutes in the Futura this year.
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