Happy Tuesday, Rotarians.

Don’t forget to vote today.

Need to Know:

1. Upcoming speakers: On April 12^th, Greg Fitz from the Conservation Department will be with us, on April 19^th, there will be a presentation on Marshfield Strategic Location.
2. We will be doing Marshfield’s first “Color Run” as a joint project with Marshfield Schools on May 21, 2016. We are all encouraged to solicit sponsors and to encourage people to sign up to participate through a link on the club website. There are three levels of sponsorship: Platinum ($500), Gold ($250) and Silver ($100). All paid entrants to the event will receive a t-shirt and goodie bag. Contact Adam Blanch with any questions about the event.
3. Our board meeting is currently scheduled for noon on April 13^th at Southern Missouri Bank, however since several board members will be out of town, this is subject to change.

Meeting Recap

Amy Wilkerson led our meeting today and provided a brief report on PETS/SETS, which she and Janet Silvis recently attended. We are getting extremely close to worldwide eradication of polio, folks – maybe within the next year. Next year will mark the 100^th anniversary of the Rotary Foundation.

Our speaker this week was David Hasenbeck, the Elk Program Manager for the Missouri Department of Convervation’s Wildlife Division. Through the Elk Program, a small number of elk were relocated from Kentucky to a 350 square mile area of mostly public land in southern Missouri in Shannon and Carter counties. The program hopes to re-establish an elk population in Missouri, which has been absent since the 1800s. Small numbers of bulls and pregnant cows were relocated to Missouri from 2011-2013. There are now approximately 125 elk. The long-term goal is to have a population of 400-500. Most of the elk can be found at the Peck Ranch Conservation Area. The population is monitored through the use of GPS/radio collars, which track and collect data on the elk, as well as through vaginal inserts placed in pregnant cows, which provide alerts when calves are born. The program suffered its first instance of poaching this winter when an adult bull was killed. There is currently no hunting of elk allowed, although that may change with continued success of the program. There is a driving tour for elk sightings at the Current River Conservation Area.

Final Thoughts

“There are only two seasons – winter and baseball.” Bill Veeck (1914-1986)

I’m with Mr. Veeck on this one. I am so happy baseball is back. For all you other baseball fans and/or fans of quality documentaries, a new documentary on Jackie Robinson by renowned filmmaker Ken Burns will premiere on Monday night on PBS.

https://youtu.be/04KQydlJ-qc

Marshfield Rotary Club: Raising the bar through leadership, giving and education.

Yours in Rotary Service,

Kristin Grace Krebs