I N D E X
OPENING SESSION, Thursday Afternoon, June 16, 2016, Called to Order. . . . . . . . . . . 1
Patriotic Song by Vance Peters, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction of Chairman of Convention Tom Minehart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction of City Officials and Other Dignitaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Invocation by State Chaplain Ed Connell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Opening Ceremony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Obligation of Members of State Aerie, Bruce Meyer, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Introduction of Dignitaries and Grand Aerie Reps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Roll Call of State Officers and Local Aeries, State Secretary John Batchelder. . . . . . 3
Committee Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Report of Confidence Learning Center, John Tobie, PSP, Jeff Olson. . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Report of Judiciary Committee and Adoption of Rules, Ron Malz, PSP . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Report of Committee on Finance and Budget, State Secretary John Batchelder . . . . . . . 10
Report of Memorial Foundation Committee, Jeff Henry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Report of State Trustees, Roger Hyatt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Special Order of Business, Carl Burnett, Grand Trustee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Report of New Aerie Committee, Bob Lee, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Report of Camping Club, Keith Rende. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Report of “No Goose Egg” Committee, Weasel Henry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Report of State Membership Committee, Weasel Henry, Vance Peters, PSP. . . . . . . . . . 17
Report of Re-Enrollment Committee, Terry Meyer, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Report of State Treasurer Bruce Meyer, PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Report of Auditing Committee, Harley Rosenberg, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Report of By-Laws Committee, Duane Scherff, Sr., PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Special Order of Business, Ron Malz, Grand Trustee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Report of Banquet Committee, Doug Lind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
STATE AERIE AND AUXILIARY JOINT AWARDS BANQUET held at the Eagles Club,
Albert Lea, Minnesota, on June 16, 2016, at 7:10 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
FRIDAY MORNING SESSION, June 17, 2016, Called to Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Patriotic Song by Jim Giesen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Invocation by State Chaplain Ed Connell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Obligation of Members of State Aerie, John Tobie, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Roll Call of State Officers and Local Aeries, State Secretary John Batchelder. . . . . . 34
Report of Max Baer Heart Fund Committee, Bob Nogosek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Report of Make-A-Wish Committee, Doug Lind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Report of Kidney Fund Committee, Gary Miller, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Report of Special Awards, John Batchelder, PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Report of Eagle of the Year, Mike Hanson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Special Order of Business, Greg Anderson, North Central Regional President . . . . . . . 39
Report of Eagle Village Committee, Duane Scherff, Sr., PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Report of American Liver Fund, Gaylen Dvorsak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Report of Diabetes Fund Committee, Leon Potratz, PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Report of Resolutions Committee, Weasel Henry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Report of Obituary Committee, Mike Hanson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Report of Youth and Other Donations, Randy Beggs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Report of Alzheimer’s Fund Committee, Bob Lee, PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Report of Home on the Range Committee, Gary Cunningham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Special Order of Business, George Ziebol, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Report of By-Laws Committee, Duane Scherff, Sr., PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Report of Golden Eagle Fund Committee, Leon Potratz, PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Report of Youth Guidance Committee, Mike Melby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Nominations of Officers and Receiving Bids for 2019 Convention City. . . . . . . . . . . 56
Report of Election Committee, Ken Kunkel, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
THIRD AND FINAL SESSION, Saturday Morning, June 18, 2016, Called to Order. . . . . . . . 59
Patriotic Song by Weasel Henry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Invocation by State Chaplain Ed Connell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Obligation of Members of State Aerie, Duane Scherff, Sr., PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Roll Call of State Officers and Local Aeries, State Secretary John Batchelder. . . . . . 60
Report of Resolutions Committee, Sonny Reinke, Jeff Henry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Special Order of Business, Dignitaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Report of By-Laws Committee, Duane Scherff, Sr., PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Report of Our Lady of Good Counsel, John Cedergren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Report of Credentials Committee, Doug Lind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Report of Art Ehrmann Cancer Fund Committee, Rick Krueger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Report of Athletic Committee, Gary Miller, PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Report of Eagle Watch Committee, Jim Giesen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Report of Lew Reed Spinal Cord Injury Committee, Keith Rende . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Report of Jimmy Durante Fund Committee, Joe Thiner, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Report of Ritualistic Committee, Bob Lee, PSP, Leon Potratz, PSP . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Report of State President Terry Lubitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Report of State President-Elect Gaylen Dvorsak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Report of Eagle Riders Committee, Ed Connell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Report of Election Committee, Ken Kunkel, PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Adjournment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION
MINNESOTA STATE AERIE, FRATERNAL ORDER OF EAGLES
THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION
June 16, 2016
. . .The One Hundred Thirteenth Annual Convention of the Minnesota State Aerie, Fraternal Order of Eagles, was called to order by President Terry Lubitz at 12:00 p.m. at the Eagles Club in Albert Lea.
STATE PRESIDENT TERRY LUBITZ: I'd like to call the meeting of the Minnesota State Aerie to order. I would ask the Albert Lea American Legion Post 54 to post the colors.
(WHEREUPON, the Colors were posted by American Legion Post 54.)
STATE PRESIDENT LUBITZ: I would ask you to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
(WHEREUPON, all Delegates recited the Pledge of Allegiance.)
(Applause.)
STATE PRESIDENT LUBITZ: As long as we're still standing, it gives us good air, I'd like Vance to lead us in a patriotic song. Vance.
BROTHER VANCE PETERS, PSP: Good morning, my Brothers.
BROTHER EAGLES: Good morning.
BROTHER PETERS, PSP: We will be singing -- what are we singing today? God Bless America?
STATE SECRETARY JOHN BATCHELDER: Whatever you want.
BROTHER PETERS, PSP: God Bless America is on top.
STATE PRESIDENT LUBITZ: America the Beautiful.
BROTHER PETERS, PSP: America the Beautiful, okay. America the Beautiful it is.
(WHEREUPON, Brother Vance Peters sang America the Beautiful and all Delegates joined in song.)
(Applause.)
STATE PRESIDENT LUBITZ: Thank you, Vance. I'd like to introduce the Convention Chairman.
STATE SECRETARY BATCHELDER: Tom Minehart.
STATE PRESIDENT LUBITZ: Tom, is this your job today? That was a real nice pass between President and --
BROTHER TOM MINEHART: Well, we didn't have the Bible up. All right, I've got $5. Thank you, Terry.
Welcome, Minnesota, to the happiest, funnest Aerie in the State, right here. We're so proud and honored obviously to have the State Convention here.
About three years ago, when we were looking for the State Convention Chairman, at that time I was a Trustee sitting in a meeting and they said we need a State Convention Chairman, and I went kind of like this (shrugging); and anyway, Tom is the State Convention Chairman. And then about a year later I ended up being the Club manager and I thought, wow, how am I going to do this. You know how I did it? With the wonderful help of this Aerie, with the Trustees, the Officers of this Club. It's--you all know these guys--it's the nicest, funnest bunch of guys. I mean, when you've got guys like Hector and Steve, and I always call the brains of the operation, Doug Lind. I don't know where Doug -- Doug, are you out there? Where is Doug? I don't know what I'd do without those guys. So thank you, first thing, to my Brother Officers, my Trustees, for helping this whole thing get off.
We've worked really hard on this Club, sprucing it up, especially for this event, and to have you guys here that I've met through the years, I've gotten to know quite a few of you pretty well, it's an honor to have you right here in our Aerie.
Everybody says I always talk too much, so I'm not going to go on and on and on. But bless you Brothers. I am so proud to be an Eagle and so proud to have all of you here in our Club, and do not forget, I've got that fun show tomorrow night, Friday night. You don't want to miss it. I know some of you have seen some of the stuff that we do here, and it's all about having a good time and having fun. So stick around for the whole weekend, and of course the meetings. We're going to be looking forward to having you guys here.
Another thing I am so very proud of is the City of Albert Lea and how we run things here, our community. Very beautiful community. I hope you've had a chance to drive around and look at the city. And one guy I'm real proud of to have as our Mayor is a classmate of mine. Mr. Vern Rasmussen, could you come on up here, please? He's our Mayor here in Albert Lea. Give us a few words. (Applause.)
MAYOR VERN RASMUSSEN: I was a little bit nervous where he was going to go with that, because some of those things we did when we were graduating together probably weren't appropriate for today's speech.
But thanks again for having me here, and I also want to just say thanks to our local Club for all the effort that they have done to put this event together. With all these types of events, really, you have community, and it's important for all of us to put our time in and volunteer to make sure these things come to our communities. So I'd just like to say thank you to our local Club for the efforts that they've done to do this.
But most of all, I want to welcome all of you and appreciate the fact that you took the time out of your schedules to come down to Albert Lea, Minnesota. Albert Lea, Minnesota, is the Land Between Lakes, as we like to refer to ourself as. We have six local lakes that surround us, and those are a blessing to us. Sometimes with big rains, they're not always a blessing, but for the most part, they are a blessing for us, and we've kind of built our whole community around that.
I hope that maybe last night, some of you had a chance to get downtown and join the Wind Down Wednesday. It's become a monthly event during the summer for us, and it really celebrates our historic nature of our community. Downtown here, we have the largest historic preservation district in the State of Minnesota. So we're really proud of that and we really put a lot of time into trying to make sure that everybody rejoices in it. So we're trying to build the heart of the community back up, which a lot of the rural communities are struggling with at this point. So if you got down there, I think you saw a lot of vibrancy and a lot of life in that program.
But I just wanted to really step up here today and just say thanks to all you for taking the time out to come down here. I appreciate it. Have a great time, and if there anything the City of Albert Lea can do to make this event come back, let us know. So thank you. (Applause.)
BROTHER MINEHART: Thank you, Vern. And then now I would like to call up our Chief of Police, keeps the City safe, Mr. Dwaine Winkels. Come on up, sir. (Applause.)
CHIEF OF POLICE DWAINE WINKELS: Hi, I'd like to welcome you to Albert Lea. I've got to say, he mentioned fun night. Your Auxiliary is way ahead of you. I got to talk to them this morning, and they've already started off on the right foot. So that was fun out there this morning.
Just so you know, for Albert Lea, we're kind of the envy of Minnesota. We have one of the lowest crime rates in the State, we have very little that happens here. Our number-one concern for my public safety department is emergency calls for service, emergency medicals. That's what we do the most of, that's what we pride our service on. We have a full-time fire department. So if you see anyone dressed in navy blue like this, they're going to have a police or fire patch on, they'll gladly answer any questions you have or help you out, if you get disoriented, don't know where you're at in town, need some help. Ask one of them to help you.