In the absence of President Jim Kosmo, who was on vacation, the meeting was called to order by Vice President John Guthmann.
 

Lynne Back and Geoff Kaufmann greeted members and their guests. David Laird led the singing of America (My Country tis of thee) with Leon Goodrich at the piano. Ken Peterson provided a thoughtful and reverent invocation.

 

Nancy Anderson introduced guests including Alexandra Badar, a Rotary International Scholar supported by our Club and District 5960. She will study in Stockholm, Sweden, and will report to the club upon her return. During the collection of Happy Dollars, she stood and read the Four Way Test in appreciation of its ideals.
 

The recognition of immediate past president Dan McKeown, more a toast than a roast, given his fine service and difficulty in finding clay on his feet to roast him about, will be held at the Town and Country Club on August 27th at 5:30.

Pure, unadulterated Rotary fellowship will be available at the patio of WA Frost on August 21 from 5:30 in the afternoon thanks to Michael-jon Pease, organizer.

ImagePast President and past District Governor Joe Kovarik presented Darrell Butterwick with a 5 sapphire Rotary Foundation pin for his many contributions to the Rotary International and Saint Paul Rotary foundations.  Joe proposed that “If Rotary International were a chivalric order, this man would be a distinguished noble knight, and we would address him as “Sir Darrell.” Darrell has been a Saint Paul Rotarian for 43 years and served 4 terms as a Club director. PDG Joe concluded that Darrell was a role-model for all Rotarians as he “manifestly supports the Foundation directive to “do good in the world.”

Darrel, with the second most resonant voice after Past President Joe’s, said his contributions were more than just giving. Hearing back from recipients around the world, knowing that they have clean drinking water and water for irrigation to earn livings and feed themselves, has deeper meaning. This is about action that turns people towards Rotary all around the world. That makes him feel worthwhile.

A number of Happy Dollars were then collected as members reported successes and achievements, past and forthcoming.

Past President Dan McKeown introduced the speaker, Bonnie Holub of ArcLight, Inc.  Bonnie, (a Club member since 2006) received her PhD in computer science from the U of M.  She specializes in data analytics and business intelligence, with a focus on graphic visualization of Big Data.

 

Bonnie rose to pull the veil off social media and demystify it. She provided a comfortable tutorial in the dynamics of Facebook, Linked in, Twitter and blogging talking about what they are, how they work, who uses them and why.

 

Linked in is more for professionals where your bio and profile are posted for others to know. Facebook is mostly used by adults to follow children’s thoughts and activities and to share pictures. For example, Bonnie recently found on Facebook a 3 minute video on how to respond to panhandlers placed there by the Union Gospel Mission.  Twitter, she compared to the CNN news feed – a constant stream of openings into what others think and feel.

 

Blogs should be short – 200 words only – and provide a platform to share your point of view with friends.
 

Bonnie showed a graph provided by Linked in labs of her network on Linked in. This revealed the clusters of where she has professional contacts and how her contacts are linked to each other.  Bonnie advised that today if you are hiring someone for sales or marketing, you should ask to see their linked in networks to confirm where they have outreach and contacts.

 

Users of social media are more in the younger age brackets – 93% of those under 29. But 38% of those over 65 are users of social media. More women and than men are users; and the preponderance of users in income brackets are in the $25,000 to $99,000 annual income range.  As to education, those with some college are the heaviest users, but those with a college degree are the more frequent users of Linked in, which is for professionals.

 

Millennials are now heavy users of cell phones for sending text messages, with 64% sending texts while driving. 41% of Millennials use only cell phones, with no land lines.   75% of Millennials have posted a social profile and rank most highly as life ambitions becoming married, parenthood, and having a home.

 

Bonnie then urged members to use Twitter and to blog to extend influence among friends and cement relationships with reciprocal exchanges.  But since your tweets can be read by many and can be sent to others, they are in the public domain. Authors of tweets should be mindful of what they say.

These social media establish you as an expert, as thoughtful and witty. Facebook is for family and is more personal.

 

Bonnie then accessed her Twitter account on the screen for the group to see who had sent her tweets during her talk and several in the room had done so. She replied to some, thus demonstrating how the service works to attach people to each other instantly through their observations and thoughts.

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She encouraged all to dip their toes into these new communications technologies and perhaps later take the plunge into more regular use of them.

Steve Young
Scribe