Vice President Carla Hauge called the meeting to order promptly at 12:15 and hailed the splendid musical prelude by our celebrated “house band”, “The Mouldy Figs”, led by our member Jim “Fig” Field, The “Figs” were joined earlier by Past President, Doug Hartford, jamming on the “ivories” in a memorable exposition of musical verisimilitude.

 

Then, the “Figs” ascended to dais to lead the singing of “America the Beautiful” accompanied by the celebrated washboard artistry of “Fig” Field, legendary USA Banjo Hall of Fame virtuoso, Debbie Schreyer, and the “Golden Throat”, Tom Owens. Following a peacefully reflective invocation by Jim Delameter, Bo Aylin introduced visiting Rotarians and Guests. Earlier, Bo and “doppelganger” John Chandler welcomed club members and guests, having exchanged name tags to the chagrin of several members who mistook the “look a-likes” for one another.

Jon Cieslak was noted as today’s Scribe, a first-time undertaking. Chuck Standfus was heralded as the Thursday Fellowship speaker. Steve Gerber rose to promote RYLA, this weekend, affording Rotarians with a “jump start” on Values Day and an opportunity to participate in the ethical discussions component of the program. Doug Bruce, together with Jim Delameter, promoted the Feed My Starving Children event at Summit Brewing this weekend, hosted by Mark Stutrud. with a moving testimonial to the Club’s Centennial Project. Past President, Jim Kosmo, was introduced to announce the forthcoming 2nd Annual “Values Day” at the brand new home of the Saint Paul Saints, CHS Field in Lowertown. The line-up for the event includes former Minnesota Governor, Al Quie. John “Bo” Chandler inspired brief but generous contributions of “Happy Dollars” before we moved on to the introduction of our Guest Speaker, Peter Ungaro, President and CEO of Cray, Inc., by Doug Henneman.

Cray, founded in 1972 by Seymour Cray, is a story of a great innovator in the field of “super computing”, figuratively rising from its own ashes after two “buy outs”, to ascend to world-wide prominence serving diverse customers including the Department of Defense, Boeing, Ping and Major League Baseball. Headquartered in Galtier, now “Cray Plaza”, since 2009, Cray expects to grow to 400 employees in St. Paul by the end of the year. Emphasizing “clear and simple messaging” to employees and customers, Cray is “Building computational tools to help change the World”. Vice President Carla thanked Peter and concluded the meeting with leading the Club in reciting the “Four Way Test”.

Respectfully submitted,

Jon Cieslak