APR 17, 2012 ROTARY IN REVIEW:
Sheriff Matt Bostrom
We of April births were serenaded and congratulated by our fellow Rotarians.
Mano a Mano: Armando Camacho asked for monthly volunteers to prepare shipments of medical materials to Bolivia. We have had a long-time association with Mano which has about 100 clinics in Bolivia which in turn make good use of these medical supplies. Try to help.
Dick Warren pleaded for more volunteers for our annual Feed My Starving Children event. We are way behind in all five of our time slots – two on Friday, April 27 and three on April 28. This is big, As Dick said, we earnestly need help so please look over your schedules and see if you can’t fit in a two-hour slot. In the Happy Hours, both Doug Hartford and Scott Van pledged $5 for each recruit for their sessions. Very generous, friends
John Bradford asked for additional volunteers for the upcoming annual RYLA event.
Valdi Stefanson and I introduced Sergio Romero who is visiting this week from Nicaragua. Sergio is the key leader in the Rotary-supported Potable Water effort that is touching about 100,000 people in 98 communities in the northwest part of the country. This is a major public health effort in a very poor country. Sergio, in cooperation with Compatible Technology International, uses the CTI-8 gravity-fed chlorinator to advance the program. Community committees cooperate fully in this effort to fight water-borne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, diarrhea, etc.
Ken Peterson introduced the speaker, Ramsey County Sheriff Matt Bostrom who gave a wide-raining discussion of the duties of the Sheriff’s office. A graduate of Johnson High School in St. Paul, the Sheriff earned several degrees – baccalaureate from Northwestern University, masters from St. Thomas University, and Ph.D. in Public Administrate from Hamline.
The Ramsey County sheriff’s office in the first such body in Minnesota history. Here are my highlights of his talk.
SO (Sheriff’s Office) is first line of defense organization.
SO personnel get intensive training in technical and cultural skills.
SO fills in for those Ramsey County communities that do not have their own police force.
Cooperation, never competition, is always approach to work with other entities.
Every task is important – large or small.
In a case where there is more than one entity, the local unit always prevails unless it is a federal case.
“It’s not just what you do but how you do it.”
“We are here to solve problems.”
“We take pride in helping individuals and communities.”
A final note. Matt Bostrom seems like an ideal peace officer. Well educated, committed to goals of service, he trains his staff carefully, sets a good example, and advances democracy by legally protecting the citizen while working within civil government.
Malcolm McLean,
Scribe