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Bulletin Editor
Devin van Holsteijn
Speakers
Feb 14, 2019
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Russell Hampton
National Awards Services Inc.
ClubRunner
Stories
IC Noon Rotary 01.17.2019
The club was welcomed by President Steve Quigley.
 
Announcements:
 
Rtn. Tara Minetos announced on behalf of the Rotarians Supporting Women committee that the committee is only $250 away from its fundraising goal that will allow it to offer a scholarship to help gain higher education to an individual identifying as female. Anyone interested in supporting the scholarship can speak to Tara or Rtn. Christina Kimerle.
 
Two new member were inducted by President Quigley: Patty McCarthy (sponsored by Rtn. Susan Craig) and Tracy Hightshoe (sponsored by Rtn. Geoff Fruin). 
Program
 
Rtn. Assata Worrell introduced today's speaker, Larry Weber, sharing his history of attending the University of Iowa for all of his degrees of higher education through his post-doctoral work. Following that work, he stayed on and has since taught and led a number of areas, most notably IIHR - Hydroscience and Engineering. His current role speaks to his high regard among his colleagues: Executive Associate Dean of the College of Engineering.
 
Larry shared a number of updates about IIHR, including the scope of its work through the Iowa Geologic Survey (a project contracted on behalf of the DNR and allowing IIHR to gain information about the whole lifecycle of water in the state), the Iowa Flood Center (10 years of extensive flood monitoring as of this year), and the Iowa Nutrient Research initiative (started collaboratively with UNI and Iowa State). He also shared that Hancher is producing a big celebration in August 2020 of IIHR's 100th anniversary that will be free and open to the public. Another program will be presented in April about that event, called The Big Splash!
 
Larry's main focus on this presentation was the Iowa Watershed Approach, a project funded by an ~$100M award from a fund set up to help mitigate flooding across the nation. The award was one of the largest to a state, thanks to its vision of improving watersheds in Iowa by simultaneously reducing nutrient in waterways while also mitigating flooding. Larry shared that this work is particularly important because flooding so often impacts the most vulnerable populations in our state. 
 
The call to action regarding nutrient runoff was also a major point of Larry's talk. This runoff from agriculture and other sources has led to giant dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico among other things. At the current rate, Iowa is currently increasing its contribution to this issue by increasing its nutrient runoff. The goal of the Iowa Watershed Approach is to address this challenge and report to the public regarding its progress, something Larry takes very seriously with the use of public funds. 
 
The meeting ended at 1:00 pm as President Quigley led the assembly in reciting The Four Way Test.
 
Singing: America the Beautiful and Vive Le Rotary were led by Rtn. Aaron Schaefer with Rtn. Devin van Holsteijn on piano.
 
Kelley Drowne announced the following guests of Rotarians: Rodney Anderson (Rtn. Bruce Teague), Zachary Oren Smith (Rtn. Bruce Teague), Ben Worrell (Rtn. Assata Worrell), Rachel Gomez (Rtn. Jody Braverman)
 
Greeters: Rtns. Patrick Donnelly and Kelley Drowne
 
Program: Rtn. Tom Cilek; Attendance: Rtn. Nancy Droll
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