The club was greeted by Rtns. Assata Caldwell and Carlin Parish.

 

Our Meeting was called to order by President Steve Quigley and he hoped that everyone had a great holiday and new year.

 

 

Rtn. Barb Thomas let everyone know that she came with gifts!  There are calendar strips for your keyboard from the Tippie College of Business here today and she’ll bring more if anyone is interested.

 

Rtn. Christina Kimerle, co-chair of the Rotarians Supporting Women Committee, accounced that the committee is just $245 shy of its $1,000 fundraising goal for the scholarship.  Please see Christina or Tara Minetos if you are interested in helping.

 

Rtn. Art Novak, co-chair of the Dictionary Project thanked all the volunteers who did an outstanding job in distributing the books to grateful students at Horne, Wickam, Weber, Kirkwood, and Van Allen Elementary schools.  There is a dictionary on each table and Art drew our attention to page 373, with the longest word – 1,109 letters!

 

President Steve Quigley conveyed a message from Rtn. Erna Moran, incoming District 6000 Governor.  She will be sending an email asking for volunteers to become an Assistant Governor.  There is no longer a requirement that Assistant Governors be a past-president.  It is a 3 year term and a great opportunity to be more involved in Rotary.  Please contact Steve if you are interested.

 

Rtn. Tim Krumm introducted the program.  Tim has served as a Board Member of Mercy Iowa City for 10 years and currently serves at Board Chair.  He was pleased to introduce Sean Williams, President and CEO of Mercy Iowa City Hospital.  Sean joined Mercy in May of 2018 from Mercy Medical Center in Clinton.  Sean earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Loras College and his Masters of Healthcare Administration at Des Moines University.  In a relatively short time, Sean has earned the support and confidence of Mercy’s staff, Board of Directors, and the community.

 

Sean began by reflecting on the unique experience of working in a Catholic healthcare organization.  Each meeting starts with a prayer or reflection, so he began his presentation with the poem “Anyway,” which is widely accredited to Mother Teresa – who was a beautiful example of someone who undertook healthcare as a mission.  Sean reminded the group that it is important to remember that those at Mercy do what they do because of what they believe, not what [patients] believe.

 

Mercy Iowa City has 27 primary care and specialty clinics, 250 physicians, and 1,300 employees.  The organization was founded in 1873 by the Sisters of Mercy to give care to those who needed it – it was not founded as a business.  There has been a recent major financial turnaround and since then, Mercy has been growing. 

 

Mercy is proud of the many accolades they have received.  They have the prestigious 5 Star rating from CMS for 3 years running, putting them among the top 2% of hospitals.  They have exceptionally high clinical care and patient experience scores. 

 

Mercy Iowa City has recently increased its visibility to ensure that the public knows who they are and what they do differently, through commercials, marketing, and social media campaigns.  Their market includes the entire Southeast quadrant of Iowa, in addition to serving Johnson County.  Mercy has recently brought on new physicians and is focusing on population health research, with the goal to increase the health of the entire population through focused efforts.

 

The meeting ended at 1:00 pm with President Steve leading the assembly in reciting The Four Way Test.

 

Singing: America the Beautiful, Happy Birthday (to January Rotarians), and Smile were led by Rtn. Aaron Schaefer with Rtn. Jim Conrad on piano.

 

Rtn. Assata Caldwell announced Kirk Leiffert, from the Cedar Rapids West Club as a Visiting Rotarian.

 

Guests of Rotarians: Anna Milbach (Renda Greene-Fishman).

 

Program: Tom Cilek; Attendance: Nancy Droll.