Category Archives: 2. Meetings

June 11: Economic Collaboration Between Madison and Milwaukee

Posted on June 12, 2025 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Joy Cardin

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and the co-founder of the Hoan Group Ian Abston addressed our club about the importance of partnerships and collaboration in building healthy communities. Crowley said if Milwaukee County and Dane County are doing well, the entire state of Wisconsin will benefit. He noted numerous successful Milwaukee County projects and programs and credited the Hoan Group for helping to make them happen.  The Hoan Group is a private network of civic-minded leaders working to bridge the Madison and Milwaukee business communities. It was co-founded by Ian Abston and our club’s president Jason Ilstrup!  A main focus of the group is to collaborate to retain young people in Milwaukee and Madison and to attract new talent to our communities to keep the twin engines of Wisconsin’s economy humming.  One example of joint efforts to appeal to more young people is having a Milwaukee presence in the Night Market series in Madison and vice versa. 

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Posted in 2. Meetings, Madison WI, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Club of Madison Guest Speaker, Weekly Rotary Guest Speaker

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April 2: Innovation at the WI Dept of Revenue

Posted on April 7, 2025 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Rich Leffler

Dave Casey, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, and a fellow Rotarian, offered us a view of the Department’s complexity of data collections and the innovative software that it uses to serve the public efficiently and securely: It is “a full-on service organization.” Amazon Connect listens to 700,000+ telephone calls and summarizes them for staff, cutting call times and wait times. “Call Sentiment” detects when callers are angry, allowing intervention. Amazon Q will be able to answer questions. Google Document is 99% accurate in reading documents. Direct File plus Wis. Tax creates a tax return. Taxpayers only have to OK it. Security is a concern, but Google Info is on premises; Amazon is on the cloud and only Wisconsin can access it. But the IRS? That’s a worry: will it make our information available to ICE?

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Posted in 2. Meetings, Madison WI, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Club of Madison Guest Speaker, Rotary Weekly Guest Speaker

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March 26: Focused Interruption Shares Story of Gun Violence Intervention

Posted on March 28, 2025 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Valerie Renk

Anthony Cooper and Mark Cash

We show up at the hospital when gun violence victims and families need answers and support. We show up when police, during developing situations, ask for help verbally de-escalating a potentially violent situation.
That’s how Anthony Cooper, Sr, Founder/CEO, described some of the work of Focused Interruption. Their gun violence prevention programs include this outreach plus:

• Community Safety Work
• Mentorship
• Aftercare & Recovery

Cooper said they partner with hospitals, community groups, government and law enforcement. He concluded saying the organization’s goal is to improve lives by interrupting cycles of violence and trauma in communities.

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Posted in 2. Meetings, Madison WI, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Club of Madison Guest Speaker, Rotary Weekly Guest Speaker

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Wes Sparkman Receives Rotary Club of Madison’s Club Service Award

Posted on March 26, 2025 by | Leave a comment

–presented by Joyce Bromley on March 26, 2025

Today, Wes Sparkman is being recognized with a Rotary Club of Madison Club Service Award for his service to our Club.

Professionally, Wes Sparkman is the Director of the Dane County Tamara D. Grigsby Office for Equity and Inclusion.

Wes joined our Rotary Club in 2005. In these past 20 years he has held leadership roles and has been involved in a variety of club committees.

He has served as trustee on our Club Board of Directors and as our Club President during our Centennial Year in 2012-13 and also served as President of our Madison Rotary Foundation.

Among the committees he has served are Ethics Symposium, Scholarship, Program, Orientations and DEI. He has also served as a Rotary scholar mentor.

For his continuing dedicated service, we are naming Wes with a 2025 Rotary Club of Madison Club Service Award. The Club has made a gift of 200 Paul Harris Fellows points in Wes’s name to The Rotary International Foundation as part of this recognition.

Congratulations to Wes on receiving this recognition! At the meeting, President-elect Anthony presented Wes with a certificate and a special pin to recognize him with this award.

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Posted in 2. Meetings, Madison WI, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Club of Madison Club Service Award

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March 19: Harrison Green Prompts Rotarians to Tell Their Stories

Posted on March 21, 2025 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Valerie Renk

“Stories connect people,” says Danielle Hairston Green, after telling a story about her personal life. She is cohost of Madison Moth StorySlam. The non-profit has been a platform for people’s stories since 1997 on the second Monday of each month at High Noon Saloon. Ten people are selected to share their five-minute story.

StorySlam has told 90,000 stories, had 90 million video downloads, travelled to 28 major US cities plus Melbourn and London at 9,000 events.

“We need both qualitative and quantitative information to tell a story,” Green reminded everyone, as she urged them to share their own stories.

If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/l2sD-LwSZe0.

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Posted in 2. Meetings, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Club of Madison Guest Speaker

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March 12: Kwik Trip’s Story is Purpose and Passion

Posted on March 14, 2025 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Valerie Renk

John McHugh shared Kwik Trip’s mission isn’t to sell gas or donuts, but to increase loyalty through culture for their 11.5 million weekly guests. To find staff with this “golden rule” culture baked in, their first three interview questions are:

  1. Tell me about your last random act of kindness.
  2. How have you treated others last month with the golden rule?
  3. How did you help others last week?

This culture helped make Kwik Trip/Kwik Star the 88th best US employer last year, while paying a 12% cash bonus plus 4.8% retirement contribution to every associate.

If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/reD7zBUdZDY.

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Posted in 2. Meetings, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Club of Madison Guest Speaker, Rotary Weekly Guest Speaker

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