In Review ...

The April 21 meeting was the ninth-annual Vocational Ethics Day and was sponsored not only by our Rotary Club, but also the following clubs: Bloomington Daymakers, Bloomington Noon, Eden Prairie AM, Eden Prairie Noon, Edina Morningside and Richfield.

 

The gathered were welcomed by John Crudele of the Eden Prairie AM Rotary Club. We were greeted by Brad Beard, new member Bjorn Freudenthal, and Mayor Jim Hovland from the Edina Morningside Rotary Club. Providing front desk administration were Marty Kupper and Deirdre Kvale, with help from Joel Jennings. Our Invocation was performed by Edina Rotarian Pastor Arthur Rouner.

Our guests included students from the following high schools: Bloomington Jefferson, Bloomington Kennedy, Eden Prairie, Edina and Richfield. Each school's presence was determined by a shout-out from the respective students. In addition we had the following guests:

 

Paul Nelson of EMRC made an announcement about Camp Enterprise, which will be Oct. 27 through 29. Camp E is an extensive three-day camp offering students the opportunity to participate in leadership activities focusing on the free enterprise system. For more information, see their website at www.campenterprise.org.

 

Jean Fox of the Richfield Rotary Club announced the Fight Back Project, which will be Tuesday, May 3, at the Richfield Middle School auditorium at 6:30 p.m. and is  free. The Fight Back Project recounts the experience of Angela Champagne  and her "Mission: To Educate & Empower Women & Children to Fight Back" against potential assaults. More information can be found on their website, http://thefightbackproject.weebly.com.

 

District Governor Tim Murphy announced the District 5950/5960 Joint Conference, which will be May 12 and 13 at Mystic Lake Conference Center. This year's theme is "Celebrate our Gifts to the World." More information can be found on the conference website at http://www.rotary5960.org/dc2016/.

 

The Edina Prairie AM Rotary Club sponsored Youth Exchange student Art Matanboon from Thailand, and he talked about his experience as an exchange student. He has had an incredible year and will take home some great memories and experiences.

Our keynote speaker, David Irvin, was introduced. David’s presentation was titled "Living Your Values, Taking Out the Grey Areas." David grew up in the Twin Cities, attended  Cooper High School in New Hope and lives in Bloomington. He had a very successful professional, personal and community life, including coaching his children’s sports clubs.

 

As a human resources director he often had to make decision a person's employment based on bad decisions, including drug use. Dave proceeded to share how a decision during one of his birthday parties to try drugs lead to additional bad decisions, ultimately leading to his arrest and an end to his lifestyle. Though this decision had dire consequences, Dave took responsibility for these decisions. And though his life is different, his relationship with his wife, faith and perspective has grown from the experience.

 

His message is that though making a bad choice can seem insignificant, especially while drinking or having a good time, but a bad choice can alter the rest of your life.

 

He ended his presentation with this plea: “Put some thought about if you are ready to lose. What is important to you for bad decisions? Think about what you believe in and how you would like to have others think of you. And how valuable that is to you. And how a bad choice can put all that in jeopardy.”

 

Edina Noon Rotary President Jennifer Bennerotte thanked the speaker and adjourned the meeting.