In Review

Our meeting began with President Jennifer Bennerotte relaying a story concerning her son Evan. Jennifer learned from one of the lunch ladies at school that Evan has shown his own example of “service above self,” and has done it without seeking credit or praise—a real-life example of how Rotary’s service above self has helped to make our community and world a better place.  

 

Greeters at today’s meeting were Greg Yoch, Meg Boehne and Thom Winninger. Dan Hennen helped Jennifer Garske at the front desk. Deirdre Kvale gave an invocation that reminded us of the inspirational life of Jack Jablonski, who is now studying at USC.

 

Colleen Simpson introduced the following members and their guests:

 

Additionally, we were joined by two guests of our speaker, Michelle Swanson and Sara Barrow.

 

Greg Yoch gave a classification talk. Greg talked about living in seven different states, including Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, California and Colorado. Greg spoke of a varied career, starting with undergraduate degrees in Economics and Political Science and a graduate degree in Marketing and Finance. He worked in banking and consulting and worked with Clorox in consumer packaged goods. Greg is currently working with about 30 other employees, including fellow Rotarians Gary Pedersen and his father, Ted Yoch, in a business known as Murals Your Way. Greg and his wife and daughter live in Edina. Greg is a terrific addition to our club.

 

Gordy Lewis introduced our speaker—Chris Clark. Mr. Clark is the president of Northern States Power Company—Minnesota, an Xcel Energy Company (NSP). Mr. Clark provided information concerning NSP, indicating that it is the largest utility company in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. It has operations in Michigan, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. Additionally, we learned that NSP is the number one provider of wind energy and a leader in solar power, transmission lines, carbon reduction and storm response. (In fact, their storm response in New Mexico was so impressive that lawmakers there wanted to understand how they were able to get out into the community and reconnect power before the emergency responders could get out onto the streets.)

 

Mr. Clark described the changing economics and the changing customer expectations and how those have affected the company’s operations. Further, he described a five-year resource plan involving the closure of two coal plants and the increase in wind and solar resources and the adding a natural gas facility.

 

Regarding nuclear energy, Mr. Clark stated that he generally receives mixed reviews from people about nuclear power. On the other hand, he likes it and believes it is an important ingredient to the diverse composition of power resources utilized by NSP.

 

Looking into a crystal ball, Mr. Clark sees electric cars having increased importance. (However, he acknowledges that the low price of gasoline has dampened the necessary research and development.) He also sees battery storage as an evolving technology, along with solar power and “smart technologies.”

Following the presentation and questions from the audience, Royce Pavelka thanked our speaker and our meeting concluded with President Jennifer Bennerotte quoting Maya Angelou: “Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.”