In review

At the March 23 Rotary Club of Edina meeting we were warmly greeted by Royce Pavelka, San Asato and Sandy Schley. Michael Stanzak and Mary Hustad ran the front desk with great precision.

 

President Ann Platt called the meeting to order at 12:30 p.m. with a warm greeting of “Happy Spring!” and reminded us to keep fellow Rotarian Jim Ryman in our thoughts and prayers as he mourns the passing of his mother.

 

Toni Gerard gave a heartfelt invocation and assisted the members in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four-Way Test.

 

Steve Buettner announced visiting Rotarians at the meeting and asked them to introduce themselves along with the name of their home club, including Jeff Wosje from the Plymouth Rotary Club. Steve also had Rotarians introduce their guests: John Buttolph (always the high achiever) had four guests—Lance Golinghorst, Jennifer Shinners, Shane Anderson and Kelly Anderson; new members Nash Faulk and Scott Hawkins introduced their guest—Kevin Levandoski; Axel Steuer introduced his wife and guest, Loreli Steuer; and Sandy Schley introduced her guest, Gretchen Kirchmann.

 

President Ann returned to the stage to remind Rotarians about a benefit hosted March 25 by the Rogers Rotary Club, with the proceeds going to three students who were severely injured when they were boarding their school bus earlier this winter. She also thanked Rick Carlson for organizing a great social event for members at guests at Cooks of Crocus Hill.

 

 

Past Presidents Steve Slyce and Brad Hepp inducted our newest members into the Rotary Club of Edina—Nash Faulk and Scott Hawkins. Their sponsor is Greg Yoch.

 

Joe Arends and Brandon Azbill gave two 2016–2017 Community Service local grants on behalf of the Edina Rotary Foundation to: Can Do Canines (Winona Schultz and Yoda accepted) and Fraser School (Deedee Stevens-Neal accepted).  

 

Kip Peterson, Community Service—Local Service Director, made a quick presentation seeking volunteers to head up local service projects. The committee will meet Thursday, March 30, before the regular Rotary meeting.

 

Tim Murphy provided us with an update on The Rotary Foundation Bowl. It is a heated competition with Sandy Schley’s Gold Team (71 percent of team members have made a donation or pledge) with a slight edge over Tim Murphy’s Blue Team (67 percent of team members have made a donation or pledge). Tim also recognized the top three performing team captains: Bob Perkins, Sue Spalding and Rick Carlson. 

 

Steve Slyce returned to the stage to introduce the program. Our speaker today was Judy Keen, editor at the Star Tribune, and her presentation was entitled “Covering Politics in a New Era.”  

 

Yours truly had great difficulty in trying to put into words a summation of Judy’s presentation so I have tried to take these caveats she mentioned in putting this together. It should be clear, concise, fair and balanced.

 

Judy covered the difficulties involved with covering politics in an age where the majority of people trust the information coming out of the White House vs. what comes from journalists. She feels journalists have created this credibility problem by their often sense of arrogance and entitlement and sometimes just being flat-out wrong. In addition, there are many nontraditional sources for news which can carry bias for one side or the other.  

 

In order to gain back trust, new practices must be established with coverage being transparent and objective. Journalists must keep their personal opinions out of their reporting. This is the biggest test the media has faced.

She answered several questions from Rotarians and finished up recounting the day she spent on Air Force One covering President George W. Bush on Sept. 11th. It is a day which changed her life forever.

 

Charles Agan thanked Judy for her presentation.
 
Ann closed the meeting saying, “To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.” A quote from Edward R. Murrow.