Category Archives: Rotary Weekly Guest Speaker

March 6:  English Language Lessons

Posted on March 8, 2024 by | Leave a comment

Submitted by: Joy Cardin 

Rotarians were taught a lesson on the evolution of the English language and why we spell certain words the way we do – on the same day we honored the top spellers of the recent All-City Spelling Bee. 

UW-Madison Professor of English Anja Wanner explained the many factors that influenced our spelling system – including word origin, politics, and even human error. For example, there is a “g” in the word sign, because it comes from the word signal; there is an “s” in the word island, because a printer made a mistake; and dictionary maker Noah Webster took the “u” out of honour and many other words because he wanted the United States to have its own distinct English language.

And why do we have words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings?  There are TOO many reasons TO go into here, so take a moment or TWO and check out the recording of the program here:  https://youtu.be/3Tr-SQt33Wc.

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February 28: Top Chef in Wisconsin

Posted on March 1, 2024 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Larry Larrabee

Our program on Feb. 28th was our fellow Rotarian, Joy Cardin, formerly with WPR, interviewing Lindsay Christians, the Cap Times Food editor, regarding the long running, 21 years, food competition, Top Chef, filming this season’s series which is totally dedicated to Wisconsin Chefs and Wisconsin food. Lindsay said Wisconsin was chosen, not for its gourmet restaurants but for its culinary and food cultures. While the Top Chef winner will receive $250,000 and huge exposure, the state will receive immeasurable positive publicity throughout the nation. She enumerated the intricacies of filming the competition around the state as well as her brief role as a dishwasher for the production. The first episode is March 20th on Bravo or Peacock.

The CapTimes included an article about Lindsay’s appearance at our Rotary meeting, and here is a LINK to the article if you’d like to read more about Top Chef Wisconsin.

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

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February 21: RNC Coming to Milwaukee July 2024

Posted on February 22, 2024 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Larry Larrabee

On February 21, former Downtown Rotary member, Alison Prange, shared with us the role the 2024 Host Committee plays in working with the National Republican Committee to prepare Milwaukee and Wisconsin for the invasion of 50,000 additional visitors including 5,000 delegates attending the National Republican Convention July 15th to the 18th.  She is the COO of the Host Committee, a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization. 

Alison emphasized the role of her organization is to help the RNC have a smooth convention by facilitating 8,000 vendors in their effort to serve the convention and its attendees who will spend $200M as well as promote Milwaukee and Wisconsin to 24 million television viewers.

If you missed this program, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/hK7MKA_-VxY.

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Posted in Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Club of Madison Guest Speaker, Rotary Weekly Guest Speaker, Uncategorized

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February 14: The Madison Forward Fund

Posted on February 16, 2024 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Larry Larrabee

On February 14th, our Rotary Club was privileged to hear a presentation by Blake Roberts  Crall.  She is the Program Manager for the Madison Forward Fund which in 2022 launched the Basic Guaranteed Income Experiment granting individuals $500 per month for one year.  The participants’ income was below the poverty level of $14, 580 per year.  Of the 3000 individuals who qualified, 2000 applied for the program with 150 being selected at random.  Of the participants, 82% were women with 49% being Black and 18% being Latino.  The yearend analysis is not yet complete, but the 8 effectiveness measures included such things as financial stability, mental and physical health, work force participation and housing security.

If you missed this program, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/w2Lpd1lrTz4.

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Posted in Madison WI, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Club of Madison Guest Speaker, Rotary Weekly Guest Speaker

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February 7: Should Wisconsin Legalize Marijuana?

Posted on February 12, 2024 by | Leave a comment

-submitted by Joy Cardin

Ari Brown, senior research associate at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, presented data from two recent studies conducted by the non-partisan organization that examined marijuana laws nationwide.  They found Wisconsin is one of 12 states in the country without a medical marijuana program and one of 26 that doesn’t allow recreational marijuana.  Each state uses a different system for taxes and eligibility requirements. Three of Wisconsin’s neighboring states – Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota – have legalized recreational marijuana and 50% of Wisconsin residents now live within a 75-minute drive of a legal dispensary.  Michigan reported $2 billion in sales in 2023, Illinois had $1.6 billion, Minnesota’s recreational marijuana dispensaries won’t be set up until 2025.  Brown noted that bills in Wisconsin to legalize marijuana for any purpose have repeatedly stalled and a new bi-partisan bill to legalize medical marijuana is unlikely to pass.  

If you missed this program, you can watch it here:  https://youtu.be/wGl5WMivzoY.

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January 31: Wisconsin as BioHealth Tech Hub

Posted on February 1, 2024 by | Leave a comment

-submitted by Jessika Kasten

Bioforward’s Lisa Johnson and Accuray’s Daniel Biank spoke to the group about Wisconsin’s evolution as a biotech hub. Bioforward is a consortium of private and public partners working to change Wisconsin’s image to attract funding, talent and investment in our biotech industry. As part of their work, Wisconsin has now been designated as a Tech Hub and they are currently applying for Phase II grants to advance Wisconsin’s role on a global scale. Through private partners like Accuray, biotech can assist in developing personalize medicine, building economic assets in our state and addressing workforce challenges in the industry – ultimately improving health outcomes around the world.

If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here:  https://youtu.be/FFVx3ukD5w4.

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