Next Sunday (March 23rd) is the annual Blair Rotary Aebelskiver Breakfast.  A list of responsibilities will be sent via e-mail and posted on the Club's website soon.  This is the major fund-raiser for the club and everyone needs to be available to help out.

The club is planning a golf tournament on June 27th at the Rivers Wild Golf Course.  Please reserve that date and plan to help with the tournament.

Notes from the March 11th  Meeting - Program Chair Dan Veskrna

Dan's guest for the day was Carl Adamson, a vice president with Mutual of Omaha.  Carl's responsibilities include all mail functions, both incoming and outgoing, including the image processing of all underwriting applications.  The new facility being built just outside of Blair will facilitate most of these functions including the storage of more than 20 million records.

The north side of the building will be two floors to accommodate offices and the equipment necessary to sort and perform the image processing of incoming mail.  The second floor will serve as a disaster recovery site for Mutual of Omaha.  All the necessary computer, phone and utility connections will be installed to activate 500 computers within three days, should the need ever arise.  The south side of the building will be the storage area with a state of the art rack system.

The project completion date is mid June of this year.  When completed the 100,000 square foot building will employ about 100 people.  Most of these employees will transfer from operations in Omaha, however, there are a number of positions that are currently available (see mutualofomaha.com for available openings).  In time, Carl feels there will be a significant number of these positions filed by Blair residents.  The operation will run six days per week, from 7:00 a.m. until approximately 8:00 p.m.  Mail will be picked up from the main post office in Omaha and transported to Blair on a daily basis. When completely operational, there will be four runs daily from the Blair facility to Omaha.

Prior to building this facility, Mutual of Omaha had been using leased space.  The efficiency gained by owning their own space and the updated equipment, were the primary factors in going ahead with the building.  The projected cost of the building, with equipment is estimated at $50 million.  If you would like additional information, please contact Carl at 351-2424.

Rotary Question of the Week

What is Rotaract? How many Rotaract clubs are there?  In how many countries? 

Rotary Fact of the Week (from  the RI Website)

Rotaract clubs across the world have been busy hosting special events and activities this week to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the first Rotaract club charter on 13 March 1968. From established Rotaract clubs, such as those in France, to clubs just being formed, like the one on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois, USA — Rotaractors took this opportunity to spread the word about their clubs.

World Rotaract Week is held each year during the second week of March to commemorate the club's first charter in North Carolina, USA. The goals of this weeklong celebration are to strengthen ties with the sponsoring club, promote membership growth in Rotaract and increase awareness of Rotaract's service activities in the community.

"Celebrating the 35th year of Rotaract demonstrates the quality of our organization," says Hervé Piglowski, Rotaract club member of Montpellier, France, and communication and information manager for the French Rotaract Multidistrict Information Organization. "We have realized many important actions in the world; we have showed many times that we are partners with Rotary."

Today, there are more than 7,300 Rotaract clubs in 151 countries with membership exceeding 169,000. Like the Rotary clubs that sponsor them, Rotaract clubs offer men and women ages 18-30 an opportunity for service, camaraderie, and professional development.

Rotaract is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women ages 18 to 30. Rotaract clubs are community-based or university-based and are sponsored by a local Rotary Club, making them true "partners in service" and key members of the Rotary family.

 Thought of the Week

"The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." - Charles Du Bosart o

March  Birthdays
Doug Wolfe - 9th