Kent Peterson - February 7

 

Kay Baker - February 15

 

Glenn Bowers - February 21

 

Stephanie Bruggers - February 23

 

     

We braved the frigid January cold to experience our first meeting in a new location after 30+ years at the Hampton/Best Western Inn.  Our Shore 96 hosts were there to greet us with a big welcome and good breakfast.  It worked well for this first meeting to be a club assembly so that we could get a chance to work out any kinks before resuming regular meetings with outside speakers.  Not that there were many kinks to be worked!  Kent and Jerry prepared a few slides so that we could test out the AV equipment, which works well, while reviewing some important areas of club business, such as the impact of the venue change on our club finances.  Secretary Paul kicked off the meeting in style with some of that homespun wisdom we've come to expect from him.  The one that stuck with me was "Everytime you clean something, you make something else dirty."  So true!

Today's meeting included a fun and interesting presentation on the subject of town amateur baseball parks in MN by Arden Hills resident Todd Mueller.  Todd is a retired marketing executive with a passion for small town baseball.  He has written and published a "coffee table" style book on the subject, in which he profiles 27 of the towns/ball fields in the state that have earned his "best of" rating for one reason or another.  We were surprised to learn that MN has the most town clubs of any state in the union, at just under 300!  Some of his favorites can be found in the small towns of Dassel, Miesville, Pearl Lake, Red Eye, Dundas and Jordan.  Many towns have populations of only several hundred people.  Clubs can recruit from within a 30 mile radius of the town border but, still, one wonders how teams manage to fill their rosters in order to compete!  In addition to the game itself, Mueller is also taken with the dedication of some of those who go above and beyond with the groundskeeping of these fields.  He told of one fellow who routinely wakes in the middle of the night to water the grass and others who have perfected the art of the "criss cross" mowing pattern we admire on professional fields.   Mueller's research for the book him over 2,500 miles to visit more than 130 ballparks from Detroit Lakes in the north to Winona in the south. The 230-page book features 500 photos selected from over 20,000 images.  

We were fortunate to have local author Jim Hoey return to speak at our meeting today.  Jim is a retired history teacher and long-time friend of Kevin Keenan who has written several sports-themed books and spoken about them at a meeting several years ago.  Today was different however, in that his most recent publication, entitled "Honoring Those Who Honor" covers the story of Fort Snelling National Cemetary's Memorial Rifle Squad.   This is a highly dedicated group of military veterans who offer a final tribute for veterans being buried at the Fort Snelling Cemetary.  This honor guard consists of three rifle volleys, the playing of taps, and the folding and presentation of the American flag to a surviving family member.  There are currently 125 members in the squad, divided into groups serving each day of the week.  Our own Joe Ziskovsky is a member of the Friday squad.  There are as many as nine ceremonies each day at Fort Snelling and the rifle squad has fulfilled this duty day after day, in weather ranging from stifling heat and humidity to bone-chilling cold and wind.  In general, members range in age from 72 to 92.  Their bond with each other and dedication to this responsibility is awe-inspiring.  The federal government covers the cost of flags but all other costs are born by members themselves.  Hoey noted that all proceeds from sales of his book will go to the squad to help support the work of this group.

Today's speaker was Scott Welle, a motivational speaker whose presentation was entitled "Outperform The Norm".  Scott has presented to many Rotary Clubs as well as the local Optimist Club, where Kevin Keenan first heard him.  Scott has a masters degree in Sports Psychology and began his career working with athletes to improve their performance.  He discussed the difference between motivation stemming from competition with others versus motivation that comes from within -  being internally driven to keep improving.  This internal motivation is relevant in all aspects of life and Scott now works as a consultant, bringing his message to businesses and other individuals.    He claims that the average person has 50,000 different thoughts each day; 80% of which can be categorized as "glass half empty" versus "glass half full" type of thoughts.  He maintains that our thoughts affect our behaviors, which then affect our outcomes and he preaches a philosophy of playing to win instead of playing not to lose.  He promotes the following steps as the means of achieving this:  Commit to being engaged.  Commit to being enthusiastic.  Commit to being excellent.  Specific actions which help along the way are to fuel our bodies properly, keep physically active and stay focused.