America the Beautiful and Smile! were sung with Rtn. Devin van Holsteijn
President Eric Weiler announced that two prospective members recently attended new member orientation and three more are attending orientation in July. As a reminder, the Club will buy your guest’s lunch – just let Eric or President-Elect Ryan Bell know your guest’s name ahead of time.
President Eric all reminded the Club that Rotary annual dues are due by June 30. Eric, Ryan, and John Schneider will be reaching out to the 50 members who have yet to renew their memberships.
Rotary International has raised $150MM this year to help eradicate Polio. The Rotary Foundation’s Polio vaccination efforts have saved an estimated 20 million children from contracting Polio. Only 8 cases have been reported in the world this year and cases continue to trend down.
As a reminder, the Highlander is unable to host next Thursday’s meeting, so we will be meeting at Big Grove on June 30th. There will be a special program, awards, and President-Elect Ryan Bell will discuss the year ahead.
Rtn. Verne Folkmann announced the Foundation’s newest Paul Harris +1 Fellow, Rtn. Myron Welch
Rtn. Tara Minetos, Chair of the Rotarians Supporting Women Committee, thanked the Club for their support of RSW’s annual scholarship. The scholarship assists a woman in the community seeking to continue her education. 2022 scholarship recipient Jerri Ranson shared that she is completing an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and will finish next April, just before her 50th birthday. She thanked the Club for their support of her education and looks forward to using her degree to benefit her patients at the University of Iowa Hospital.
Rtn. Dave Seibert announced today’s speaker, Pat McGrath. Pat is the owner of McGrath auto dealerships in Eastern Iowa.
Two commonly discussed issues in the auto industry are the shortage of semi-conductor chips and inadequate batteries (they don’t have enough range and take too long to charge). But Pat discussed what is really keeping dealers up at night: the change from dealer franchises to agency models as car manufacturers focus on electric vehicles. Many manufacturers are only releasing vehicles to agents, not dealerships. Small town, community-focused dealerships and their pipeline of local leadership are most adversely impacted by the agency agreements. The future is very unclear for the auto industry.
The meeting ended at 1:00 PM as President Eric Weiler led the assembly in reciting The Four Way Test.