President Neil Barnett, called the meeting to order and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Marc  Horner provided us with thoughts on this U.S. Constitution Day (239^th anniversary of its signing).

 

Bolte Beer Bash is coming up from 5 to 7pm on September 24^th at Peter Ho’s home.  Please register in advance. A contribution should be made to Rotary Youth Camp.

 

The Foundation Dinner is coming November 6^th.

 

Stacy Carrow spoke briefly about the United Nations Association of Greater KC’s reception coming up on Wednesday Sept 30^th, 2026 with 6 pm Reception and 6:30 pm program at the National World War I Museum and Memorial Auditorium. (Free Event).

Topic - Future of UN Peacekeeping in a Troubled World.: International peacekeeping  - pioneered by the League of Nations and championed by the United Nations - is at a crossroads.  Through legitimacy, burden sharing and an ability to deploy international troops and police worldwide, the UN has helped countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace. 

Join them for a discussion about challenges in UN peacekeeping with the US Navy Captain Lonnie Fields, Chief of Staff of the UN Department of Peace Operations’ Office of Military Affairs.  Capt Fields will be joined by military officers who will share their experiences as UN peacekeepers.  Missions to be highlighted will be those in Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Golan Heights.

 

Sick Bay:  Yong Kim, a 42 year Club 13 member is quite ill, per his son, Jay Kim.

World Polio Day coming up.  As a fundraising mechanism through various matching programs from the RI District Level through Bill & Melinda Gates Fdtn: $100 contribution gets various matches to become $750 !!

 

PROGRAM:  Jan Armstrong introduced our speaker, Brett Perkins, Grazing & Grasslands Coordinator for the Nature Conservancy in Missouri.  His work focuses on sustainable grazing practices, habitat restoration and bison management.  Brett collaborates with land owners, researchers and conservation partners to promote health ecosystems and resilient working lands while demonstrating how conservation and agriculture can successfully work together.

 

Brett shared with us his work at the Dunn Ranch (bought 1999) in northern Missouri, as a bison preserve.  Bison grazing and conservation are restoring America’s grassland.  Our mid America area is one of America’s overlooked ecosystems and the healthy prairies provide us with 1. clean water, 2. healthy soils, 3. wildlife habitat, 4. carbon storage, and 5. agricultural productivity.  The Midwest prairie stretches from just southwest of Houston Texas northward following the path of the Missouri River up to central Canada with wide arm covering northern 1/3 of Missouri ½ of Illinois and ¾ of Iowa.  The bison, as a keystone species, are important to the prairie to help manage the eco system.  Once there were 60 million bison from Florida to west central Canada.  At one point that figure was down to 1,000 bison, causing other issues including a loss of genetic diversity, resetting the bison evolutionary clock.   Dunn ranch with 1,000 acres provides a protected reserve for the bison.    The Dunn family wanted to preserve the land in its natural state and wanted a Land Trust to protect the properties, as unplowed, heavily grazed land.  The Dunn ranches’ fertile unplowed top soil is 56 inches deep while across the road the plowed acreage has only 3 inches of topsoil.  The bison help manage the grasslands with their intuitive choices of which grasses to graze.  This leads to other species, particularly the prairie chickens, an indicator of prairie health to survive or thrive.  The bison help mold the land for the prairie chickens.  Then other creatures showed up such as the beavers, creating beaver dams for water retention to restrain water runoff.  The bison in effect removed the Eastern Red Cedar Trees which the beavers hated, most likely because of the cedar’s sap.  Interestingly, the bison would not cross man bridges, but would cross over beaver dams as bridges.  The bison numbers now are up to ½ million. 

 

Events:

Sept 21            Book Club Meeting

Sept 24            Bolte Beer Bash

Oct 15             Project Cure – Service Project

Oct 22             Rock Island Bridge – Ask the Exec

Nov 6              District 6040 Foundation Dinner

 

Speakers/Meetings:

Oct 1               Brandon Calloway, CEO/ founder of Generating Income for Tomorrow

Oct 8               Grant Armstrong with YC2  (Youth Civic Challenge)

Oct 29             David McCaughey – Cyber Security

Nov 5              Abby Yellman – KC Public Library

 

President Neil Barnett wrapped up the meeting with the Four Way Test: 

Is it the TRUTH ?  

Is it FAIR to all Concerned ?     

Will it Build GOODWILL and better FRIENDSHIPS ?                        

 Will it be BENEFICIAL to all Concerned ?