Rotary Shines

The 2012 Rotary Shines will take place on Friday, April 20 at the OuterEdge in Appleton. Food will be catered by Michiels Fox Banquets and Rivertyme Catering. This is our club’s only fundraising event. Tickets cost $100 which admits 2 adults. The proceeds will benefit the Peruvian Mobile Medical Unit, Even Start Family Literacy Program and PolioPlus. The committee is looking for silent auction items. In the past, items have included overnight stays, gift baskets, gift certificates, artwork, event tickets, jewelry, etc. If you would like to donate an item, please contact JoEllen Wollangk at jbwollangk@wisconsin.bbb.org. Thank you to the following sponsors: Goodwill Industries (Premier Sponsor); Valley Truck Leasing and Community First Credit Union (Presenting Sponsors); Bassett Mechanical, Fiduciary Partners, Barb Merry/Gail Popp, Nicolet Bank and Schenck SC (Supporting Sponsors); American National Bank Associated Bank, Curt and Jean Detjen, East Wisconsin Savings and Loan, Keller Inc., Susan May, Steve Rieth and Harry Spiegelberg (Friends Sponsors).

Family of Rotary - Happy Hour

What a great time we had at Intermezzo last month. The food was spectacular – really special and lots of it and the conversation with fellow Rotarians and our guests was fascinating. But don’t be sad if you missed it. You have another chance. The next Rotary Happy Hour, sponsored by the Family of Rotary Committee, is:

Tuesday, March 20
Stone Cellar Brew Pub
1004 South Olde Oneida Street in Appleton
5-7 p.m.
Free H ors d’oeuvres and Cash Bar
Great setting
Fantastic conversation

Bring a spouse, significant other, friend, potential Rotarian – and join us. It’s a great chance to get to know each other better.

Courtesy Awards

Melissa Stafford, Jim Webb, Willie Lausman, Debra Michiels

(filling in for Chef Bruce Petrie) and Jeff Arps.

The Courtesy Awards are given to recognize sales people and others who work with the public and have exhibited special courtesy or consideration to customers or individuals served. The recipients received a Courtesy Awards certificate, a check in the amount of $75.00 and a Rotary pen/pencil set. Congratulations to the following Courtesy Award recipients:

Jeff Arps

Cellcom

Nominated by: Carolyn Nankervis

Willie Lausman

American TV and Appliance

Nominated by: Jennifer Wanke

Chef Bruce Petrie

Michiels Fox Banquets and Rivertyme Catering

Nominated by: Mary Harp-Jirschele

Caroline Lasecki and Alyce Dumke

Melissa Stafford

Fava Tea

Nominated by: JoEllen Wollangk

Jim Webb

U. S. Postal Service

Nominated by: Alan Button

Group Study Exchange Team to Australia

Our District exchange with Rotary District 9750 in Australia will depart on 18 October 2012 and return on 17 November 2012, for an exchange lasting 4 weeks. Our District Outbound Team will consist of a Rotarian Team Leader (we have already selected an outstanding Rotarian, Tom Guyette of Green Bay) and four non-Rotarians selected from within District 6220. There is no specific vocational focus and applicants from all vocational areas are encouraged to apply.

We need to get the word out about this incredible program. Please mention this opportunity of a lifetime to eligible persons who may benefit from this experience.

A notice will also be posted in the District newsletter, notices will be sent to the larger newspapers in the District, and also to Young Professional groups affiliated with various Chambers of Commerce within the District.

In the notices to be distributed, interested persons will be asked to contact a local Rotary Club or me as GSE Outbound Coordinator. In the event I am contacted directly, I will contact local club Presidents to inform them of an interested applicant from their area, since each applicant must be sponsored by a club. You may wish to invite interested persons to your club meeting, to give them an idea of what Rotary is all about, as well as acquainting them with the club for the purpose of possible future membership.

The application deadline is 15 April 2012 with committee interviews and selections scheduled for 28 April 2012. Exchanges are open to all who work or reside in District 6220, provided they are not an immediate family member of a Rotarian. Applicants must be least 25 years old and no more that 41 at the time of their application.

Answers to frequently asked questions:

+ Clubs may sponsor multiple applicants and multiple applicants from the same club may be chosen
+ Applicants must be engaged in full employment
+ Applicants may not be a spouse or child of a Rotarian
+ Applicants must live or work in District 6220
+ All expenses for the exchange will paid by Rotary except clothing and
any small gifts members choose to bring to their host families
+ Teams will participate in a minimum of three or four preparation weekends prior to the departure date

Applications and information may be obtained from the Rotary International website:
www.rotary.org
Click on "Service and Fellowship"
Then click "Group Study Exchange"
Then click GSE team member application

E-mail application to:
Fred Borchardt
fborchardt@juno.com

For questions call Fred Borchardt at 920-277-2750

Applicants will be contacted with additional instructions regarding the application process.

THE STATE OF THE STATE – POLITICAL ECONOMY OF … DYSFUNCTION ?

Todd Barry, President of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, talked about how they are a private government research organization established in 1932 dedicated to teach and inform citizens about state and local government. They are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that does not advocate or lobby. The per capita income has dropped going into the recession and now Wisconsin is starting to bounce back. Since Wisconsin is largely a manufacturing state, it tends to go into recession before the rest of the country and comes out a little before. Employment has been going down. Is it predicting a national slowdown or is it just a blimp and we are on a long term trend line? Wisconsin doesn’t tend to create a lot of new firms compared to the rest of the country but it tends to hang on to new start-ups and young businesses it creates. Wisconsin tends to raise a majority of its revenue through income and sales taxes. Services tend to be delivered more at the local level. Wisconsin spends its money on aid to local governments and schools (55-60%), Medicaid, corrections and the U. W. System. During the 1990’s, Wisconsin’s economy was doing well and incomes were growing. The State had a lot of revenue coming in and a lot of money went into school aid and Medicaid. At the time, Barry felt we didn’t have the economic growth and tax revenue to sustain everything that was going on. During the recession in 2001, Wisconsin became overcommitted and had a $1 billion deficit which was never dealt with. Currently Wisconsin has about 1.2 million Medicaid recipients (1 in 5). Over the last few years, Wisconsin has kept smaller reserves than any state in the country and relied heavily on stimulus money which was spent on schools and Medicaid. When this money was no longer available, the State was left with trying to figure out how to fill this hole. During the last 15 years, Wisconsin has had structural deficits going into the first year of each new budget of about one half a billion dollars or more. Medicaid’s funding is being cut but the program is still going up $1.4 billion. Rather than raising taxes or making accounting adjustments, some debt was restructured and major programs were cut to fund health services (Medicaid). At the local level, this created difficulty. Recalls were and are being held. Wisconsin has become divided and Wisconsin is being known as a state of chaos and turmoil. Could this effect employee transfers, recruitment of faculty and business relocation/attraction? Some ideas for change could be a part-time citizen legislature, smaller assembly districts, session limits, one long senate term, ballot reform (instant run off voting), nonpartisan redistricting, unicameral legislature (nonpartisan)and multimember districts.

Inductions

The Rotary Club of Appleton inducted Steve Andrysczyk, Agent with Rural Mutual Insurance Company; Amy Flanders, Chief Development Officer of the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes, Inc.; Kathleen Lhost, Executive Director of the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame/Paper Discovery Center; and Thomas Nelson, County Executive of Outagamie County.

Rotary Youth Exchange Student Update - Laura McNeill (Chile)

I am still here. I promise. I have failed miserably on the blogging side of things so far, although from now on I will try to do better. Well, I'm now more than halfway through my exchange. The first half was difficult, and many parts of it, while I'm glad I did experience them, I wouldn't want to repeat the ordeal. The problems, both big and small, caused by the misunderstandings between two languages, are now, finally, almost non-existent. While occasionally I don't understand slang, or a more complex word, the majority of what is said, I understand. The thing is, Chilean Spanish isn't Spanish. It is its own language, only somewhat related to the Spanish I learned in the U.S. Yes, they use most of the basic vocabulary I learned. But their conversations are filled with slang, invented words/verb tenses, and other vocab that only fellow Chileans understand. They often say that even other South Americans don't understand Chileans. Which I suppose is both good and bad for me. On the one hand, it's that much harder to learn, and on the other hand, when I understand 100% of what Chileans say, I'll understand ANY Spanish speaker.

Anyway, enough about that. As to my daily life, I'm still with my original host family. I don't think I will change, which is fine with me, as I have gotten to the point where I am comfortable and happy with this family, and would prefer to stay with them. It's summer here right now, and in the 90s every day. I don't complain, because I remember where I would be right now if not on this exchange, and I prefer 95 degrees to 25.

My host family and I are about to leave on a two week trip through the bottom half of Chile. We won't go as far as Patagonia, where the glaciers and such are, but we'll get pretty close. We will drive down the country, spending a couple nights in each town, camping. I'm very excited to see more of the country. Unfortunately, as soon as I get back, it's back to school. I like school, but I prefer summer. However, at the end of March, my host parents are taking me to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!!!!!!! That is the most exciting.... I CAN NOT wait.

Well, my host mom just told me she wants me to come with her to the local grocery store, so I'll have to close for now... but I SWEAR I will blog more. If there's anyone still reading, of course.