President John Chandler called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. and led the club in the Four Way Test.

Past President Al Zdrazil led the Pledge of Allegiance and offered two poems from Langston Hughes as inspiration and to celebrate the actual birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr: Song of Adoration and Backlash Blues.

 

 

Please register for the Feb 5 joint meeting with Minneapolis Club 9 to welcome Rotary International President Mark Maloney. Please note the meeting will start at NOON, not 12:15, in order to get our guest to the airport on time.

 

We expect hundreds to turn out, so please get your spot reserved! Our time with Mark starts at 9:00 a.m. for a tour of the Rondo Center for Diverse Expression, followed by a tour off the St Paul Cathedral with the Archbishop.

 

Congratulations to all of our duly elected 2019-2020 Board Members!

 

The club sang a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to our January birthday babies.

 

David Dominick introduced today’s speaker, Glen Gunderson, CEO of the YMCA. Glen Gunderson is president and chief executive officer of the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities (YGTC), a leading nonprofit dedicated to strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. He is responsible for leading the third largest YMCA in the United States. In the state of Minnesota, the YGTC is the largest nonprofit provider of childcare, the largest camp operator, the largest nonprofit employer and one of the largest providers of health and well-being services.  YGTC’s operating budget has expanded from $106M to $187M during his tenure.

 

Prior to serving the Y, Glen was chief business officer for RedBrick Health where he led all market facing and operations functions.  Prior to his stint at RedBrick, Glen served as a member of senior management at Life Time Fitness, leading brand, marketing and business development functions. He holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College. Glen serves on the National Board of Directors for YMCA of the USA, Orthology, Inc.'s board of directors and is a board advisor for social enterprise, Engine for Good. He previously served for 11 years as a board member for the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities. Glen has garnered recognition as a member of the Twin Cities Business Journal's 40 under 40 and 2018 Minnesota Most Powerful 500 for his business and community leadership.

Glen and his family reside in Independence, MN.

Glen started by recognizing Rotarian Claud Hone, who has been involved with the YMCA for 92 of his 99 years! The Y has a long Minnesota history, going back to 1856 when we were still a territory.

Greater Twin Cities YMCA by the numbers:

·         409,374 members

·         91,000 seniors participate in “forever well” programs

·         84,289 youth participate, including those among the 4,000-6,000 Twin Cities youth experiencing homelessness

·         29 branches (including Rochester)

·         7 overnight camps (including Ely)

·         10 day camps

There has been a Y in downtown St Paul since its founding here and the current Lowertown location has been its home for 40 years. This site serves mostly adults. The facility and location don’t support the programs that serve a broader demographic, so the Y has been in an exploration process to relocate and expand the downtown Y closer to transit hubs and the new Teen Tech Center being built with support from Best Buy. This new center is designed to be a place for kids to thrive, especially the vital 6-15 year old age range that is so critical to future success in life.

 

A location near Cedar and 5^th or 6^th seems ideal based on their market research. The goal is to create a downtown “neighborhood hub” for people of ages and races.

 

The Y is now in a $175M campaign to fund new programs, make capital improvements across some of its facilities and the new St Paul facility.

 

In response to a question, Glen reported that yes, the Y has taken over management of the Maplewood Community Center, taking it from losing $500,000 annually for the city to a break even in just 18 months, all while expanding services and programs at the facility. This area of nonprofit facility management is a new growth area that leverages the organization’s assets.

 

Nancy McKillips introduced our first corporate members: Ginny Arthur, President, and Rita Dibble, VP of Advancement from Metropolitan State University. This club’s first member from Metro State was Reatha Clark King, President in 1986. St Paul Rotary had already changed its bylaws to allow all genders to join and begun recruiting women prior to the Supreme Court case that forced a rather surprised Rotary International to accept all genders. Ginny had to dash off to the opening of the MN Legislature, but Rita, who first came to the US through the Rotary International Graduate Fellowship, made a few lovely remarks. Rita has lived in 4 countries, traveled to 26 and is fluent in 3 languages, so she is perfect for our international outlook!

 

Sherry How introduced Christopher Chung, who works with Edward Jones. Another outstanding member interested in international service, Christopher is the co-founder of Ride for Uganda, a nonprofit that has built 500 water towers in Uganda. He is also a Big Brother and will be heading to Mexico soon to build houses for those without permanent shelter. Christopher grew up in Hong Kong until his family moved to Eau Claire, WI to open the Fortune Cookie restaurant, which now has locations in Menomonie and Hastings.

 

Greta arrived and found she couldn’t understand her host family’s Spanish. Relying on her innate resilience, she ultimately found the experience one that developed her assertiveness and kindness. Not just her hosts became extended family, but so did all the Rotarians she encountered. She traveled to the south and far enough north to experience snow, and walked the historic El Camino del Santiago pilgrim trail.

 

Corey Edmunds, a CPA and tax partner with Boekermann, Grafstrom & Mayer (BGM), specializing in tax compliance and consulting. Corey has been in the club for 5 years, on the board for 2 years, serving on the holiday party committee. His favorite Rotary memory was this year’s party. He was amazed at how many Rotarians stepped up to make the evening both fun and a fundraising success.

Corey is married to Anne and they have three children, aged 19, 22 and 25. They and the extended family all come to Corey’s house for Thanksgiving and a great weekend of games and “doing a lot of nothing.”

Corey loves hockey, boating and exercise. You probably couldn’t tell that he lived in Taiwan for two years and if a movie was made of his life, it would be The Accountant.

 

Chuck Standfuss, board secretary, reported that he has begun work to revise our club bylaws, which will soon be posted on the website.

 

Jeff Baidoo reported that seats in all price areas are available, but there will be one pre-game gathering space. AND, Rotarians will have the chance to add their own water to the Zamboni to truly make it “Our Ice” for the game against the Blues. Don’t miss this great night – register here.

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Michael-jon Pease