Category Archives: Weekly Rotary Guest Speaker

October 23: Tom Loftus: Ambassador to Norway

Posted on October 25, 2024 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Ellsworth Brown

We had the pleasure of spending time with Tom Loftus, advisor to the World Health Organization; member of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents; and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Governor of Wisconsin, defeated by Tommy Thompson.

We were in the company of this Sun Prairie man’s service as United States Ambassador to Norway between 1993 and 1997.

Loftus reviewed the old order, now past:  USSR’s government had collapsed; the Berlin Wall was down; Nelson Mandela shared the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993; Oslo Accords 1 and 2 regarding Israel and Palestine were signed in 1993 and 1995 respectively.  Among other things, Loftus negotiated with the Russians regarding safe disposal of their submarines’ liquid nuclear waste at sea.

Loftus shared lighter stories too:  his introductory presentation to King Harald V of Norway, who later visited the United States; hosting and feeding Governor Thompson’s impromptu trade mission visit to Norway; and  Norwegian immigrants to Wisconsin and their links to Wisconsin mayors.

Ambassador Loftus was highly articulate, self-effacing, and very funny.  Watch the video (https://youtu.be/ubjQQoLfz8A) if you missed the meeting, or buy his book, Mission to Oslo, published last month.  It would be a rewarding experience.

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

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October 16: Dane County Executive Candidates Forum

Posted on October 18, 2024 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Ellsworth Brown

Club member Joy Cardin moderated a classic Rotary forum for the two candidates for the Dane County Executive Director’s seat:  five-term State Senator Melissa Agard, and Dana Pellebon, current Executive Director of RCC Sexual Violence Resource Center.

Joy directed a series of pre-selected questions to each candidate in turn, each responding with two-minute answers and then three-minute closing statements.

The forum revealed clear differences in experience and style between the candidates and thus also signaled a change in approach for this report.  Their multiple answers were rapid-fire, challenging to report, and impossible to review without revealing this scribe’s conclusions about each person.

The good news is there is a video record of the forum, and viewing it enables those who missed the program to form clear and independent opinions about the candidates and their readiness for the job:  https://youtu.be/se6oPsuQI4o.

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

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October 9: Leckrone Shares His Moments of Happiness

Posted on October 11, 2024 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Ellsworth Brown

Moments of Happiness:  A Wisconsin Band Story, co-authored by Doug Moe and Mike Leckrone, provided more than a meeting’s worth of happiness for Rotarians as Moe interviewed Leckrone about his fifty years as UW-Madison Marching Band leader.

From a musical family, Leckrone’s inspiration was fueled by a stage-side seat at a non-stop two-and-a-half-hour performance by Louie Armstrong and his band in a small Indiana town.  Armstrong’s commitment to even a small audience was not forgotten by Leckrone.

Moe’s questions triggered endless stories about Leckrone’s life, band, students, and stage creations from 1969 on.  In fact, he began earlier with a story about meeting his future wife in seventh grade and extended it to sixty-two years of marriage.

Many UW Band traditions began accidentally:  “When you say Wisconsin, you said it all” was a commercial injected with “Wisconsin”.  The basketball “pep band” became the UW Varsity Band.  Leckrone’s famous concert entrances offset his boredom with standard entrances.  A career highlight: The 1994 Rosebowl parade where the band played “On Wisconsin” 137 times while passing by Wisconsin fans.  Pride: The band played for all UW sports except fencing (ended too soon).

In closing . . . career and life well-lived, and presentation very funny besides!

If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/PJidZnF6uzc.

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Posted in Madison WI, Rotary Club of Madison, Rotary Weekly Guest Speaker, UW-Madison, UW-Madison Football, Weekly Rotary Guest Speaker

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October 2: Madison’s Passenger Rail Station Identification Study

Posted on October 4, 2024 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Ellsworth Brown

Liz Callin, City of Madison senior transportation planner and specialist in transit, passenger rail, public engagement and policy work, spoke about Madison’s Passenger Rail Station Identification Study that is fitting and necessary for the state Capital, the University and associated research, tourism, Madison’s new transit system, and linkage to the city’s biotech hub.

The goal is to provide two round trips per day between Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul while linking several Wisconsin cities associated with the new Borealis line, as well as the Hiawatha line.

Possible Madison station sites being studied: somewhere downtown (probably preferred), First Street corridor and the Oscar Mayer corridor. The best would contain associated space for development of lodging, businesses, and public functions.

A site could be identified in 2025-2026. Completion of planning, design, and construction could occur by 2031.

The benefits would include accommodation of 300,000 new Madison-Dane County residents by 2050; and more efficient, safer, cleaner and environmentally friendly city linkages.

Now the project needs federal leadership and a supporting coalition of potential benefactors in Madison and along related rail routes.

If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/ckc1Es-u0hM.

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

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September 25: Madison’s City Clerk, Maribeth Witzel-Behl, Explains How Numerous Checks & Balances Keep Local Elections Fair and Secure

Posted on September 27, 2024 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Sharyn Alden

It’s a big job to stay on top of election security, but Madison, along with the state of Wisconsin, has multiple safeguards to prevent election fraud. Wisconsin has 1800 election administrators, and Madison has 4,000 poll workers ready for the November elections.

Witzel-Behl pointed out we have a paper-based voting system. That means it’s imperative to keep elections safe and make sure each person’s vote is counted.

Some of the Safeguards:

  1. The system is designed so you can’t vote twice, deliberately or accidentally. On an absentee ballot, the barcode prohibits from using the same ballot more than once.
  2. At the polls, a continual tabulation reconciles the number of people who have registered to vote in-person with the number of votes that are continually being counted.

If you’ve wondered about the security of ballot drop boxes, Witzel-Behl said they are ’tamper proof.”

So where do Dane County ballots go after the voting ends? They are delivered in locked cages to the Madison City Clerk’s office, where the numbers are certified. After that, the State of Wisconsin is required to sign off every vote and certify all the results. Once verified, the results are available online.

If you missed this week’s meeting, you can watch it here:  https://youtu.be/1QWrjJJvr5Y.

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

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September 18: The 20th Anniversary of the Overture Concert Organ

Posted on September 23, 2024 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Joy Cardin

Rotary Club of Madison members and guests experienced a special presentation and performance by Greg Zelek, the Principal Organist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Curator of the MSO’s Overture Concert Organ to instrument’s 20th anniversary at Overture Hall.  Here’s more information on the 2024-25 organ concerts: https://madisonsymphony.org/concerts-events/overture-concert-organ-performances/.  Zelek said the organ has 4,040 pipes that need to be tuned before each concert and it is so heavy it needs to be moved into place using railroad tracks.  He demonstrated how the organ works by pushing pistons that play the sounds of other instruments and how he uses multiple keyboards with his hands and feet!  Here’s a brief example:  https://youtu.be/jagPULPNBxk.    

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

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