Good morning Rotarians!

As we endure the wonderful Wisconsin winter weather, take comfort in the fact that we are on the downhill side of winter and summer meetings and COG are just around the corner! 

How about that Milwaukee Curling Club meeting last week! What an venue and how lucky are we to have the opportunity to meet there and try curling. Thank you again Alice, Steve and the curling team.

This week we will meet at Logeman Center and our speaker will be Jesse Daily, Partner at Core Engineering.

I am excited to announce that the Board approved 4 new member applications last Friday. 

• Allison Maureen Gerschke Kinney (we can just call her Allie…)
• Jane Bishop
• Corperate Member - Newcastle Place | Tim Hamilton & Jennifer Sutherland

The applications are available for review in our Club documents in the file named “pending member applications”.  The period for any objections to these proposed members shall expire at 12 noon on Feb. 19, 2015. Please forward any objections in writing directly to me prior to that date.

Wednesday was the Bucks outing with the noon club, we will look for a “fun report” from attendees on Friday.

Upcoming Events: 

• Big Brothers/Big Sisters Bowling for Kids - This year all time slots are on Friday nights , last Friday in Feb and all 4 Fridays in March. See Tom Martin for details, we will select a time slot that will work best for our participants.
• The American Lung Association Fight For Air Climb - March 21, 2015 (If you are interested in climbing with the Mequon Fire Department Team, in fire turnout gear - see me)

As always, the schedule for Greeter, Thought of the Day and Rotary Minute are accessible (click here). please be prepared when it is your turn and find a replacement if you are unable to attend when you are scheduled. 

Thank you, have a great day!

Shaffer Development LLC is designing a $17 million project on a contaminated Grafton property that will include housing and retail.

The village of Grafton by May 15 may buy land at 1505 Wisconsin Ave. for $270,000 for the Shaffer project, according to a plan the village's Community Development Authority approved Wednesday. The village would sell the site to Shaffer. The property, locally called the Lumberyard, has environmental contamination, and village officials are working to secure grants to clean it.

Shaffer's redevelopment of 4 acres there will include 59 housing units and 10,000 square feet of retail in its first phase. A second phase will have 72 additional housing units and up to 15,000 square feet of commercial space, according to a Thursday announcement by the Mequon developer.

Shaffer has begun outreach to potential retail tenants, and has interest from a coffee shop or restaurant, financial institution, hair salon and dental practice.

Shaffer is rounding up $2.5 million from investors to pay for the project, and expects a summer groundbreaking.

Strengthening Rotary's membership is not just important for incoming district governors, it's critical. That's the message they received from several key speakers at their training event, the 2015 International Assembly in San Diego.

For membership to grow, leaders must be willing, for example, to ease stringent club meeting protocols and make other efforts to accommodate a younger, digitally oriented demographic.

Seventy percent of Rotary members are 50 years or older, while half of the world's population is under 30, according to Rotary leaders. The contrast shouldn't be something to fear, but rather something to embrace, said Rotary member Michael McQueen, a bestselling author who studies social change, youth culture, and cultural issues and whose consulting firm, The Nexgen Group, specializes in demographic shifts and social trends.

To engage this young demographic, McQueen says that staying relevant is crucial. He shared three key ways that enduring organizations can do that: recalibrate, re-engineer, and reposition. Read More ...