The St.Paddy's Day St.Paul Rotary Meeting Meeting was called to order by President John Guthmann at the Crown Plaza amongst the fanfare of the annual St. Paul St. Patrick's Day parade tradition. Our piano Leprechaun Doug Hartford entertained with diddys appropriate to the occasion. Jerry Faletti lead members thru "America O'Beautiful." Steve Young provided the innvocation with lively recalls of Ireland and the celebration of the elimination of snakes of many sorts. Roger Nielsen introduced and welcomed guests and prospective members. President Guthmann initiated the announcements including next week's meeting, Camp RYLA, and thank you to all volunteers.
 

Our club will have 5 outbound students and 2 inbound students this year. We will need 2-4 more families. Please call Linda Mulhern if you have suggestions and questions. Jon Cieslak welcomed Happy Dollars. Ed Coleman proposed St. Paul Rotary March in next year's St. Pat's Day parade!

Lynne Beck introduced Michael-jon Pease, Parksquare Theater, to talk on the impact and health of the nonprofit arts and culture sector. The Cultural Data Project is helping the sector understand and compare the important impact of the arts and culture on community. It's a great new tool for the field. The interactive session included table top discoveries of key data points.

In 2014 the sector contributes $1,200 million. Every public dollar grows $5.20 in return. With nearly half of the revenue earned in sales, on average. There are 42,189 artists living in Minnesota and over 62,000 volunteers annually.

Arts organizations buy locally and contribute in multiple ways to the community economy.There are 19 million total attendees annually. With lots of economic diversity among attendees. Over 2.6 million students are served annually around the state. The arts have tremendous and unique power in teaching social-emotional skills.

The president encouraged members to read this weeks HUB which includes a report from Kit Hadley on the impact of our weekly donations in honor our our speakers. Next week's meeting will be at the Doubletree.

Respectfully submitted,

Trixie Golberg