Rotary Club of Madison

October 23: Tom Loftus: Ambassador to Norway --submitted by Ellsworth Brown We had the pleasure of spending time with Tom Loftus, advisor to the World Health Organization; member of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents; and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Governor of Wisconsin, defeated by Tommy Thompson. We were in the company of this Sun Prairie man’s service as United States Ambassador to Norway between 1993 and 1997. Loftus reviewed the old order, now past: USSR’s government had collapsed; the Berlin Wall was down; Nelson Mandela shared the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993; Oslo Accords 1 and 2 regarding Israel and Palestine were signed in 1993 and 1995 respectively. Among other things, Loftus negotiated with the Russians regarding safe disposal of their submarines’ liquid nuclear waste at sea. Loftus shared lighter stories too: his introductory presentation to King Harald V of Norway, who later visited the United States; hosting and feeding Governor Thompson’s impromptu trade mission visit to Norway; and  Norwegian immigrants to Wisconsin and their links to Wisconsin mayors. Ambassador Loftus was highly articulate, self-effacing, and very funny. Watch the video (https://lnkd.in/g34M4Dta) if you missed the meeting, or buy his book, Mission to Oslo, published last month. It would be a rewarding experience.

October 16: Dane County Executive Candidates Forum --submitted by Ellsworth Brown Club member Joy Cardin moderated a classic Rotary forum for the two candidates for the Dane County Executive Director’s seat: five-term State Senator Melissa Agard, and Dana Pellebon, current Executive Director of RCC Sexual Violence Resource Center. Joy directed a series of pre-selected questions to each candidate in turn, each responding with two-minute answers and then three-minute closing statements. The forum revealed clear differences in experience and style between the candidates and thus also signaled a change in approach for this report. Their multiple answers were rapid-fire, challenging to report, and impossible to review without revealing this scribe’s conclusions about each person. The good news is there is a video record of the forum, and viewing it enables those who missed the program to form clear and independent opinions about the candidates and their readiness for the job: https://lnkd.in/gXpHXS5j.

Mike Gotzler Receives Rotary Club of Madison Youth Service Award Presented by Anthony Gray on Oct. 16, 2024   Each year, our club recognizes six members for their service to our Rotary Club in one of Rotary’s five avenues of service which are club, community, international, vocational or youth service. Today, I am going to introduce you to our Rotary Club of Madison 2024 Youth Service Award recipient.   Mike Gotzler joined Rotary in 2009. He is an attorney with Littler Law Firm, specializing in labor and employment matters.    During his 15 years of membership, Mike has been very active in our Rotary Ethics Symposium Planning Committee. He chaired the committee starting in 2019 and through the years of Covid. He co-chaired the committee last year and continues to be an active member of the planning committee which is just starting up with preparations for our 2025 Ethics Symposium.   Mike also served on our Youth Awards Committee, helping to make the presentations to high school students during our annual Youth Awards luncheon in the spring. He has also served on our Personnel and Goodman Rotary 50+ Fitness Advisory Committees and served on the Board of Trustees for our Madison Rotary Foundation for 4 years.   We want to thank Mike for his continuing dedication to Rotary and especially to our youth programs, and our club board has named him as our 2024 Rotary Club of Madison Youth Service Award recipient. Congratulations, Mike! 

October 9: Leckrone Shares His Moments of Happiness --submitted by Ellsworth Brown Moments of Happiness: A Wisconsin Band Story, co-authored by Doug Moe and Mike Leckrone, provided more than a meeting’s worth of happiness for Rotarians as Moe interviewed Leckrone about his fifty years as UW-Madison Marching Band leader. From a musical family, Leckrone’s inspiration was fueled by a stage-side seat at a non-stop two-and-a-half-hour performance by Louie Armstrong and his band in a small Indiana town. Armstrong’s commitment to even a small audience was not forgotten by Leckrone. Moe’s questions triggered endless stories about Leckrone’s life, band, students, and stage creations from 1969 on. In fact, he began earlier with a story about meeting his future wife in seventh grade and extended it to sixty-two years of marriage. Many UW Band traditions began accidentally: “When you say Wisconsin, you said it all” was a commercial injected with “Wisconsin”. The basketball “pep band” became the UW Varsity Band. Leckrone’s famous concert entrances offset his boredom with standard entrances. A career highlight: The 1994 Rosebowl parade where the band played “On Wisconsin” 137 times while passing by Wisconsin fans. Pride: The band played for all UW sports except fencing (ended too soon). In closing . . . career and life well-lived, and presentation very funny besides! If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here: https://lnkd.in/g3cNSBSe.

Rotary Club of Madison’s Club Service Award to Mark Clear Presented By Charles McLimans - October 9, 2024   I am pleased to introduce a member with our 2024 Rotary Club of Madison Club Service Award. This recognition is part of our Avenues of Service Awards Program which recognizes members for their efforts on behalf of our Rotary club in one of the five avenues of service which are: club, community, international, vocational and youth. Mark Clear has been a member of our Rotary Club since 2012. He is currently the development director for Isthmus Community Media. He is also a founder of three start-up tech companies.   With his background in software products for website management, Mark is a natural fit for serving on our Rotary Club’s Information Technology and Office Support Committee. He has served on this committee for ten years and is a past chair. What many members may not know is that Mark has provided countless hours of pro-bono IT work for our Rotary office. When the office transitioned to Microsoft 365, Mark handled the transition and installation. When there are small issues that arise with our office computers, Mark is there to help troubleshoot. He helps keep our office systems running smoothly and is very appreciated by Pat and Jayne.   Mark has also served on our Program and Visitor Hospitality Committees, on our club board, and he is a former Meeting Experience Team Leader. During Mark’s time as Meeting Experience Team Leader, he created our Four Way Test for our Speaker Q&A portion of our meetings.     For Mark’s continuing volunteer efforts on behalf of our club, we are naming him with a 2024 Rotary Club of Madison Club Service Award.  Congratulations, Mark!

October 2: Madison’s Passenger Rail Station Identification Study --submitted by Ellsworth Brown   Liz Callin, City of Madison senior transportation planner and specialist in transit, passenger rail, public engagement and policy work, spoke about Madison's Passenger Rail Station Identification Study that is fitting and necessary for the state Capital, the University and associated research, tourism, Madison’s new transit system, and linkage to the city’s biotech hub. The goal is to provide two round trips per day between Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul while linking several Wisconsin cities associated with the new Borealis line, as well as the Hiawatha line. Possible Madison station sites being studied: somewhere downtown (probably preferred), First Street corridor and the Oscar Mayer corridor. The best would contain associated space for development of lodging, businesses, and public functions. A site could be identified in 2025-2026. Completion of planning, design, and construction could occur by 2031. The benefits would include accommodation of 300,000 new Madison-Dane County residents by 2050; and more efficient, safer, cleaner and environmentally friendly city linkages. Now the project needs federal leadership and a supporting coalition of potential benefactors in Madison and along related rail routes. If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here: https://lnkd.in/gs8vpAnJ.

Welcome New Members! The following joined our Rotary Club on October 2: Julia Bolz holds a bachelor’s degree from Smith College and a law degree from Northwestern University. About 25 years ago, Julia left her law partnership in Seattle to focus on human rights and social justice for women and girls. She has lived and worked in over 70 countries, volunteering for dozens of nonprofits, teaching at various educational institutions, creating development models and international partnerships, advocating to end poverty and oppression, and advising a broad range of establishments, ranging from governments and religious institutions to civics organizations and the U.S. military. Bob Winding is her sponsor. Tim Lightner is the owner of TWO MEN AND A TRUCK moving company. He is a former member of our club from 2003-2011. He served on our Club’s Board of Directors from 2007-2009. Tim is married to Sheri Rice, and he has one adult daughter. Tim is a veteran, having served in the US Army. He started the Madison franchise in 1993 with one truck and today, operates five moving companies, three junk moving businesses, and employs more than 200 people across Southern and Southeastern Wisconsin.  He enjoys live music, travelling, giving back to the community, and spending time with family and friends. His sponsors are Steve Goldberg and Bob Sorge. Tom Linfield is president and CEO of the Madison Children’s Museum. Tom and his wife, Lida Miller Linfield, have two adult children. Tom holds a Fine Arts degree from Brandeis University. Among his community service activities are serving as chair of the National Community Foundation Program Officers Network and chair of the Open Art Studios Board. Tom is fluent in French and German and enjoys art including painting, mosaic and sculpting; playing the guitar, crossword puzzles and reading. Bob Sorge is his sponsor. Maria Luttig is managing partner for Step Up: Equity Matters. Maria and her husband, Jeremy, have one child. She received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Universidad Nacional de Colombia including post graduate studies in project and construction management. Maria also holds an MBA degree in accounting from Colorado Technical University. She has served as treasurer for the Latino Professionals Association. Camping and reading are among her favorite pastimes. Sandy Morales is Maria’s sponsor. Vincent Rice is vice president of community and business impact for Summit Credit Union. He and his wife, Tia, have two adult children. Vincent earned his bachelor’s degree from Hampton University and his MBA degree from the University of Virginia. He has served on the boards of Northwest Side Community Development Corporation and the Forward Services Corporation. Vincent plays the saxophone and enjoys reading and learning about investing. His sponsor is Maggie Porter Kratz. 

2024 Mitch Javid Award Recipient: Susan Schmitz Presented by James Tye – Oct. 2, 2024   Our Member Recruitment Team continues to encourage all of us to think about individuals in our circle of friends, work colleagues and family members who would make good additions to our Rotary Club.    The committee created an award in 2014 to recognize a member who is excelling at sponsoring new members into our club. The award is named after Rotarian Mitch Javid Award as a way to honor him for holding the club’s record for sponsoring the highest number of new members. We annually recognize the member who has served as the primary sponsor to the most new members for the past 3 years--and who are still in our club.    Mitch Javid was a member our club from 1968 until his death in 2021. Mitch sponsored 56 members and co-sponsored another 10 members. This distinguished and very busy member who was chairman of the UW Department of Neurosurgery said, “I love Rotary. It is very dear to me. I believe in it and so I want to share it with other good people.”     This year’s recipient is long-time member and past president Susan Schmitz who continues to be a champion of our club and promoting membership and has received this award three times previously since 2014.    Susan has been part of our Rotary Club since 1989 and retired in 2018 from Downtown Madison, Inc. She was our club president in 1995-96 and continues to be incredibly active in our club. She has served as our Member Experience Team Leader since 2022. She also serves as our fellowship group coordinator among a number of other continuing committee roles   Susan has served as the primary sponsor to 10 new members since 2021: Dave Bornstein, Chris Campbell, Kyle Geissler, Mark Guthier, Eric Krieghoff, Erin McCombs. Rich Oliver, Paul Rider, Peter Welch and Lindsey Yoder.   Congratulations, Susan, on receiving this year’s Mitch Javid Award! 

September 25: Madison’s City Clerk, Maribeth Witzel-Behl, Explains How Numerous Checks & Balances Keep Local Elections Fair and Secure --submitted by Sharyn Alden   It’s a big job to stay on top of election security, but Madison, along with the state of Wisconsin, has multiple safeguards to prevent election fraud. Wisconsin has 1800 election administrators, and Madison has 4,000 poll workers ready for the November elections. Witzel-Behl pointed out we have a paper-based voting system. That means it’s imperative to keep elections safe and make sure each person’s vote is counted. Some of the Safeguards: 1.      The system is designed so you can’t vote twice, deliberately or accidentally. On an absentee ballot, the barcode prohibits from using the same ballot more than once. 2.      At the polls, a continual tabulation reconciles the number of people who have registered to vote in-person with the number of votes that are continually being counted. If you’ve wondered about the security of ballot drop boxes, Witzel-Behl said they are ’tamper proof.” So where do Dane County ballots go after the voting ends? They are delivered in locked cages to the Madison City Clerk’s office, where the numbers are certified. After that, the State of Wisconsin is required to sign off every vote and certify all the results. Once verified, the results are available online. If you missed this week’s meeting, you can watch it here: https://lnkd.in/gqd_thsk. 

Steve Mixtacki Receives Joseph G. Werner Meritorious Service Award Introduced by Terry Heinrichs – September 25, 2024   Our club’s Joseph G. Werner Meritorious Service Award is granted in recognition of outstanding club service in the Rotary tradition of “Service Above Self.” He chaired many significant committees, both before and after serving as club president in 1953-54. He served as district governor and became the second member of this club to serve as director of Rotary International.    Today we recognize Steve Mixtacki with this prestigious award.   Steve began his career in public accounting and spent 29 years at American TV, followed by 7 years as CFO of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, retiring in 2017.   Steve has been a member since 1983 – that’s over 4 decades of service to Rotary.  The Rotary hook for Steve was our Community Grants Program. Shortly after joining, he served 6 years on the Community Grants Committee with 2 years as chair. He went on to serve as fund drive chair; then served on our foundation board of trustees, as club president in 1991-1992, and he served as chair of our foundation investment committee for 30 years.  Steve added the Community Projects Committee during his year as president. He felt it was important for members to have opportunities for hands-on community service, and that committee still continues 33 years later.     When Steve first started with our Investment Committee, the fund balance was $2.8 million, and he has seen it grow to now over $17 million. Steve noted that our community grants funding wasn’t seeing much of an increase year to year. So he came up with a proposal and presented it to Foundation trustees to create a new fund, and the trustees unanimously approved the creation of a new Community Grants Endowment Fund. Because of Steve’s vision, we now have this fund that is helping increase funding for our local grants projects and programs.   Steve, we thank you for your outstanding service, and I’m pleased to introduce you as the 32nd recipient of the Rotary Club of Madison Joseph G. Werner Meritorious Service Award.