JAN 14, 2014 ROTARY IN REVIEW:
Paul Weirtz

President Jim Kosmo called the meeting to order.  Doug Hartford warmed us up with the American (Broadway) Songbook and David Laird joined him to get the rest of us singing “America” in G….. Al Zdrazil asked all of us to let the 4 truths be our guide, and asked our Guide Creator to watch over us and help us be Rotarians: truthful, beneficial, friendly and service oriented.  It was an invocation delivered in 2.32 minutes.

Trixie Golberg introduced guests and collected Happy Dollars…..Seven dollars celebrated the arrival of a new heart for Dion Powers' son who had been waiting for seven years, an unhappy $ was contributed for Bob Jones who took another fall (may he recover quickly), more $ were contributed for the devotion of construction workers at Fairview, and plow operators who ignored the polar vortex as best as they could, made us feel warmer and fortunate, and cleared snow and kept schedules in line..

Carol Bufton introduced our speaker, Paul Weirtz, President of AT&T Minnesota.

Working at the Head of Legislative and Community Affairs, Paul and his family of four are newly arrived to the state, and he is charged with bringing AT&T’s 21^st century routines and investment to our state. Paul is a former U.S. Marine who has built his career with AT&T over 14 years.  He is a leader representing 1800 employees. He heads up state operations,  and as President he leads AT&T’s legislative and community affairs activities working closely with community leaders, legislators and other policy makers, as well as local and regional business leaders and customers.

He sits on Governor Dayton’s Broadband Taskforce, and his goals are to bring 4G LTE service to the whole state….remove B2B taxes on telecommunication investments, find new ways to boost broadband availability and performance in state high-traffic “hot zones” and ultimately help get AT&T to its goal of 300,000 subscribers nationally, and the corporation to its goal as an entirely cloud-based, IP driven company, by 2020.

In the interest of improving lives, his company’s investments in the state have run close to nearly $500 million for infrastructure development over the last 5 years, ($50 million in 2013).  In the arena of saving lives, Paul mentioned the “It Can Wait” TV campaign which confronts the problem of distracted driving, far and away the largest cause of death among teenagers each year.  Perhaps you’ve seen the commercials.  Perhaps you know a teenager who should “take the pledge.”  (http://www.itcanwait.com/videos/tim-mcgraw2013/)

On this day there was no discussion about net neutrality. There was discussion about the changes in the marketplace….and of note: 5% of U.S. homes are now wired for telephone only. One in three U.S. households are totally wireless….72% of data is driven to mobile devices now, and most of our day-to-day mobile devices and routines….didn’t exist six years ago.  Product development towards 5G networks was asked, the answer being AT&T is concentrated on 4G LTE distribution and infrastucture right now.  5G will happen, but it is years off.  A question about new billing models was asked, and Paul answered that changes in billing models are mostly the result of customer demands, and there are few imminent and huge changes coming our way.

So…Where are we going?  As human beings, we mostly don’t know (sic) but know it is wireless. The telephone is gone and the digital exchange on wireless, cloud-based networks is a new economic product and the 4^th Communication Revolution. Wireless Technology represents growth and economic potential equivalent to approximately 2.2% of national GDP.  

President Jim closed the meeting with a donation and a request for 4 Truth Action….in the end we might as well call them the REAL Final Four.

It is the Truth?

Is it fair to all concerned?

Will it build goodwill and friendships?

Will it benefit all concerned?

REMEMBER NEXT WEEK -- our OWN seminar on crisis management starring Jim Lukaszewski....he'll offer us hope, and offer insights into Target's response to its New Year crisis. 

Jonathan Strickland
Scribe