Home Page | Fort Dodge Rotary Club

Kraig Barber passed around a copy of the latest Master Plan for Snell-Crawford Park. The latest version incorporates some of the suggestions by Rotarians of leaving the road into the interior of the Park. Kraig noted that within the near future the Fort Dodge Parks, Forestry, and Recreation Commission will be reviewing this issue. A picture is included for your knowledge.

John Schultz Rotary District 28 Assistant Coordinator

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Aug 13, 2018

The Club was honored to have John Schultz, Assistant Zone Coordinator for Rotary District 28 address the issue of Rotary membership. Rotary International has, for the past decade, had 1.2 million members through 178 countries. Unfortunately, over that time R.I. has achieved 1.2 million new members - thus indicating a tremendous turn-over and a general lack of retention. John noted that in Northeast Iowa (District 5970) if we do not do something about membership, by 2050 Rotary may become defunct. Therefore, he left the following concepts with the members for improving membership:

John is the former President of the Mt Vernon Rotary Club and owns a music business in Cedar Rapids with his wife and two children. He travels extensively with his business in District 5970;;
People smile when asked who introduced them to Rotary - perhaps we need to build on the social connections and the interaction that Rotary offers;
Rotary has been long involved with youth - International Youth Exchange, RYLA, and Scholarship Recognition. We need to use these venues to encourage more younger people to attend our meetings as they offer renewed vitality and involvement;
North America, Europe, and Australia are especially critical for membership as their populations are getting older and declining;
Rotary is supposed to be people of action - many clubs have forgotten that fact;
Rotary has a recent history of recruiting new members, but we are not engaging and retaining. The key word here is engage;
Successful clubs tend to be gender balanced. All clubs can do a better job of that goal.

It was noted that President Tofilon and the Board of Directors will soon be addressing Club Membership, including the concept of projects that tend to engage and keep members.

Club Receives a District Governor's Award of Excellence

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Aug 13, 2018

A banner that is displayed before each Club Meeting is a record of the Club receiving the annual District Governor's Award of Excellence. Please note that from 2004 to 2018 the Club has achieved the award each year. The latest year sticker was recently added.

Meet Jesse Ulrich

Posted by Joseph Tofilon on Aug 13, 2018

During Monday's meeting President Joseph Tofilon presented the Permanent Blue Badge of Club Membership to Jesse Ulrich. Jesse is the new Superintendent of the Fort Dodge Community Schools and comes to us from a beginning in West Bend, beginning college at ICCC, completion of a Bachelor's at BVU's Fort Dodge Center, and various stops around Iowa in a professional capacity. His last stop was in Avoca, where he was a member of their Rotary Club. Jesse said he earned his first dollar picking up rocks from is family's farm. Welcome Jesse to the Club and greet him at future meetings.

Picture of Rotarian in "The Messenger"

Posted by Stephen Kersten on Aug 10, 2018

Rotarian Steve Kersten appeared on the front page of "The Messenger's" Friday Edition. He was pictured painting at the Market on Central Event. Perhaps we should change his Rotary Classification from Magistrate to Artist.

Save the Date Notice

Posted by Kraig Barber on Aug 13, 2018

Kraig Barber announced that on September 17th a Rotary Golf Outing Best Ball (9 holes) will be held after our regular meeting. Last year's outing was very successful and if you missed that one please see Kraig for the upcoming meet.

Marcie Boerner and WCCTA

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Aug 06, 2018

Marcie Boerner, Office Manager with Webster Calhoun Cooperative Telephone Association (WCCTA) presented a very interesting discussion of its services to 16 rural communities that surround Fort Dodge. All communities are 100% fiber capable, have available a 1 GIG capability, and were recently awarded the status of "Smart Rural Community." Broadband is very important to Rural Iowa as modern economics revolve around it. Examples are plenty of small rural companies utilizing broadband to create and later expand businesses. WCCTA fills that void where large providers will not service rural communities of a small number of users. WCCTA receives some subsidy from a fee paid by all broadband users to help "equal the playing field" for rural communities.

WCCTA has 16 employees that serve 2,700 internet customers, 1,300 Television accounts, and 2,300 telephones. The organization is a consumer-owned cooperative that is also part of the National Broadband Association that lobbies for rural interests before Congress and D.C. regulators. The two most important components are Speed and Data. Both must be provided if rural areas will achieve economic parity with larger customer bases of major communities. The Crossroads of Global Intervention located 3 miles west of Fort Dodge is served by this vital organization. Rural Broadband is vitally important for small communities to attract the "lone eagle" or an individual that chooses to establish a small business in Rural Iowa.

Darren Driscoll Receives Blue Badge of Membership

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Aug 06, 2018

At the Cub Meeting President Tofilon had the pleasure to provide to Darren Driscoll the Blue Badge of Membership. Darren is a former Rotarian that returns to the club after an approximate 10 year absence. He is a Fort Dodge SE graduate in 1995, attended the University of Iowa for his B.A. and later for his Law Degree. In 2003 he returned to Fort Dodge and joined the Johnson Law Firm, where he worked until being asked to become the Webster County Attorney in 2018. Darren's wife Carrie is a financial advisor working from home. They have two children, a 12 year old daughter and a 9 year old son. His first dollar was earned while working for the Dariette, located where Fareway now exists. Welcome Darren to the club when you see him.

Save the Date Notice

Posted by Joseph Tofilon on Jul 23, 2018

This is a "save the date" notice of an upcoming Club Social event for all members and their families. On October 1st at 5:30 P.M. a Rotary social will be held at Godfather's Pizza in Fort Dodge. Rotary will provide the pizza and drinks. Watch for future notifications and updates, but for now mark your calendars.

Schedule of Invocations

Posted by Teresa Naughton on Aug 12, 2018

The following have volunteered to provide the weekly invocation as our meetings start. If you are unable to make your assigned schedule please contact a substitute that will then check-in with the President prior to the meeting. (Also please note that you can call Don Woodruff, who said he can be a fill-in permanent alternate.)

.Aug 20 - David Fierke

Aug 27 Linda Smith

Sept 3 - Labor Day Holiday

Sept 10 - Laurie Hendricks

Sept 17 - Dave Beekman

Minutes and Financial Reports

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Jun 10, 2018

Minutes and/or Financial Reports for the 2018 Rotary Year have been posted to the members only section of the Website and are available for viewing by accessing the Members Only Section.

Club's Application for Funds for Various Projects

Posted by Stephen Hoesel on Jan 01, 2017

Rotary is a service organization comprised of community leaders of various professions dedicated to humanitarian causes locally and throughout the world. The club budgets funds annually for a variety of local causes that may be made available for requests made throughout the year for which the Board of Directors may want to support. To make application for funds please use the following application format found over two sections of this applet. When completed please scan your application narrative and send to Fort Dodge Rotary, Box 935, Fort Dodge, Iowa 50501 . The first page of the application appears below and the second is found by clicking on the "read more" applet.

please use

Welcome to Fort Dodge Noon Rotary

Service Above Self

Joe Tofilon, President