I N D E X
OPENING SESSION, Thursday Afternoon, June 15, 2017, Called to Order...... 1
Patriotic Song by George Ziebol, PSP ...... 1
Introduction of Chairman of Convention Doug Boser...... 1
Introduction of City Officials and Other Dignitaries ...... 1
Invocation by State Chaplain Mike Hanson ...... 3
Opening Ceremony ...... 3
Obligation of Members of State Aerie, Ken Kunkel, PSP...... 3
Introduction of Dignitaries and Grand Aerie Reps ...... 3
Roll Call of State Officers and Local Aeries, State Secretary John Batchelder...... 3
Committee Appointments ...... 5
Report of Judiciary Committee and Adoption of Rules, Ron Malz, PSP ...... 6
Report of Committee on Finance and Budget, State Secretary John Batchelder ...... 9
Report of Memorial Foundation Committee, Larry Silverthorn ...... 10
Report of State Trustees, Darrell Spencer...... 11
Special Order of Business, Chuck Weber, Grand Worthy Conductor ...... 12
Report of Home on the Range Committee, Gary Cunningham ...... 13
Report of Camping Club, Keith Rende...... 14
Report of New Aerie Committee, Bob Lee, PSP...... 15
Report of “No Goose Egg” Committee, Gary S. Miller, PSP...... 15
Report of State Membership Committee, Gary S. Miller, PSP, Vance Peters, PSP ...... 15
Report of Re-Enrollment Committee, Terry Lubitz, Jr.PSP...... 16
Report of State Treasurer Bruce Meyer, PSP ...... 22
Report of Auditing Committee, Don Wintersteen, PSP ...... 23
Special Order of Business, Paul Niemi, Dakota PSP...... 25
Report of Autism Committee, Randy Beggs...... 25
Report of Confidence Learning Center, John Tobie, PSP, Jeff Olson...... 26
Report of Max Baer Heart Fund Committee, John Tobie, PSP ...... 28
Report of Resolutions Committee, Weasel Henry...... 29
Report of Banquet Committee, Doug Boser...... 29
STATE AERIE AND AUXILIARY JOINT AWARDS BANQUET held at the Kelly Inn,
St. Cloud, Minnesota, on June 15, 2017, at 7:20 p.m...... 30
FRIDAY MORNING SESSION, June 16, 2017, Called to Order ...... 38
Patriotic Song by Gary S. Miller, PSP...... 38
Invocation by State Chaplain Mike Hanson ...... 38
Obligation of Members of State Aerie, John Tobie, PSP...... 39
Roll Call of State Officers and Local Aeries, State Secretary John Batchelder...... 39
Report of Make-A-Wish Committee, Doug Lind ...... 40
Report of Kidney Fund Committee, Gary Miller, PSP...... 41
Report of Special Awards, John Batchelder, PSP ...... 42
Report of Eagle of the Year, Mike Hanson ...... 43
Special Order of Business, Joe Thiner, North Central Regional President...... 43
Report of Eagle Village Committee, Don Wintersteen, PSP...... 44
Report of American Liver Fund, Gary Miller, PSP...... 45
Report of Diabetes Fund Committee, Leon Potratz, PSP ...... 46
Report of Resolutions Committee, Jeff Henry...... 47
Report of Obituary Committee, Mike Hanson...... 48
Special Order of Business, Creighton Thurman, Grand Aerie Legal Advisor...... 49
Report of Youth and Other Donations, Randy Beggs ...... 50
Report of Alzheimer’s Fund Committee, Bob Lee, PSP ...... 51
Special Order of Business, George Ziebol, PSP...... 53
Special Order of Business, John Tobie, PSP, Grand Aerie Justice...... 54
Report of Athletic Committee, Gary Miller, PSP ...... 55
Report of Golden Eagle Fund Committee, Leon Potratz, PSP ...... 56
Report of Youth Guidance Committee, Mike Melby ...... 57
Nominations of Officers and Receiving Bids for 2020 Convention City...... 58
Report of Election Committee, Ken Kunkel, PSP...... 61
Special Order of Business, Ron Malz, PSP, Grand Aerie Trustee...... 62
THIRD AND FINAL SESSION, Saturday Morning, June 17, 2017, Called to Order...... 64
Patriotic Song by Vance Peters, PSP ...... 64
Obligation of Members of State Aerie, John Batchelder, PSP ...... 65
Invocation by State Chaplain Mike Hanson ...... 65
Roll Call of State Officers and Local Aeries, State Secretary John Batchelder...... 65
Report of Resolutions Committee, John Cedergren...... 66
Special Order of Business, Dignitaries ...... 67
Report of Our Lady of Peace, John Cedergren...... 69
Report of Art Ehrmann Cancer Fund Committee, Rick Krueger...... 70
Report of Eagle Watch Committee, Jim Giesen...... 72
Report of Lew Reed Spinal Cord Injury Committee, Keith Rende ...... 73
Report of Credentials Committee, Doug Boser...... 74
Report of Jimmy Durante Fund Committee, Joe Thiner, PSP...... 75
Report of Ritualistic Committee, Bob Lee, PSP, Leon Potratz, PSP ...... 76
Report of State President Gaylen Dvorsak ...... 77
Report of Eagle Riders Committee, Ed Connell ...... 78
Report of State President-Elect Ed Connell ...... 79
Report of Election Committee, Ken Kunkel, PSP...... 79
Adjournment...... 85
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION
MINNESOTA STATE AERIE, FRATERNAL ORDER OF EAGLES
THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION
June 15, 2017
. . . The One Hundred Fourteenth Annual Convention of the Minnesota State Aerie, Fraternal Order of Eagles, was called to order by President Gaylen Dvorsak at 12:00 p.m. at the Kelly Inn in St. Cloud.
STATE PRESIDENT GAYLEN DVORSAK: Let us have order. Officers, please take your stations. Welcome to the 114th Minnesota State Eagles Aerie Convention. We will now have the Posting of the Colors by the St. Cloud Boy Scouts Troop No. 21, and we will join them in the Pledge of Allegiance.
(WHEREUPON, the Delegates recited the Pledge of Allegiance.)
(Applause.)
STATE PRESIDENT DVORSAK: Please remain standing for our patriotic song.
BROTHER GEORGE ZIEBOL, PSP: Good afternoon, Brothers.
BROTHER EAGLES: Good afternoon.
BROTHER ZIEBOL, PSP: If you'll join me, please, we'll sing God Bless America.
(WHEREUPON, Brother George Ziebol sang God Bless America and all Delegates joined in song.)
BROTHER ZIEBOL, PSP: And God bless the Fraternal Order of Eagles. (Applause.)
STATE PRESIDENT DVORSAK: I'd like to now introduce the Convention Chairman Doug Boser.
BROTHER DOUG BOSER: Good afternoon.
BROTHER EAGLES: Good afternoon.
BROTHER BOSER: Thank you all for attending the 114th State Convention here in St. Cloud. I'd like to welcome all of our Grand Aerie Officers that have joined us today, and all of you.
Just a quick tidbit, just make sure that we have our cellphones off. That was one of my pet peeves last year at the meeting, so. Also, we have about 30 dinner tickets left for tonight's event here at the Kelly Inn. So if you're interested in that, please let myself know, or we have the tickets available at the Club. We also --
STATE PRESIDENT DVORSAK: Who is going to introduce the officials, city and county officials?
BROTHER BOSER: Oh, yeah. Want me to do that now?
STATE SECRETARY JOHN BATCHELDER: Yeah.
BROTHER BOSER: So I'd like to introduce our officials that are here to join us today. I believe our Mayor Dave Kleis is here, from St. Cloud, and we'll let him speak. After that will be Don Gudmundson, who is our Stearns County newly-elected sheriff; followed by Jeff Oxton, our assistant police chief of St. Cloud.
MAYOR DAVE KLEIS: Can you hear me? I should still use this, I suppose. There, I'll just have to come around and lean forward. No, I'll do this. This will be uncomfortable, but this will work.
I want to, first of all, welcome you here, and I want to thank you for the service that you provide the community; and, you know, whether anyone was here when I, probably, I'm assuming not, but you'll hear about it, since I gave a welcome this morning to the Auxiliary, and I made a mistake, so I'm going to -- but you're going to hear about it, so I'm not going to avoid it and make the same mistake. You know, I've been mayor of St. Cloud for eleven years, and when I became mayor, one of the things that's important to me is there is a tremendous amount of service organizations in the community that just do tremendous things, and when you're mayor, we partner with many of them. So there was one organization that I was in that, because I was mayor, I just had, from an ethical aspect, had to take a leave of absence. This sounds better than when I said I was a former Eagle. I'm building up, because I got booed this morning by the Auxiliary. (Laughter.) So now, I think that was a little better. Good, nobody --
But, no, it's an organization that I'm proud to have taken a leave of absence, I've been a member of, because it's one of the organizations that has just done so much for the communities that you represent and has really been a champion, and I can't say enough about not only the Eagles, but just service in general.
So we have a proud tradition in this community of being a community that we're No. 1, by the way, in a poll 50 years back, in volunteerism in the State of Minnesota, and Minnesota is one of the No. 1 states in the country in volunteerism. So people are willing to step forward and serve their communities. So that service as your organization as Eagles is something that I feel very strongly and proud of, and so I'm honored to be able to welcome you to St. Cloud.
I also have the honor to give you the wonderful weather that you have, that is, you know, this is a Chamber of Commerce day, this is beautiful sunshine, and hopefully you've had an opportunity to, you know, explore downtown. We've got, you know, I have to apologize a little bit for some construction, but as is always the case, things get old and need replacement. So we have a little construction outside here, but we have a wonderful downtown.
I've got to ask this question: How many of you have been down on the trail down by the Mississippi River? A couple. Well, the rest get down there, because we spent $8 million building it, so there is a need for you to be out there on that. And there is a cool, little opportunity, if you haven't had an opportunity, if you go to cities all over the world or wherever you travel, you want to tell people where you're at, we have the most important river in the world, the Mississippi River, flowing right through the middle of our town. The Mississippi often, in most communities, borders, rivers border communities. We have it flow right through the middle. And we have a little historical marker down there, it's a metal frame, a picture frame, and it says Mississippi River, St. Cloud. So feel free to go down there and take a selfie on the Mississippi River, so you can prove you were here. If there is some reason for a tax deduction or something that you need, that will be helpful, you'll have the proof of that. We'll have that opportunity to keep a little memory so you keep coming back.
We appreciate you being here, we appreciate you holding this here; and as I told, I probably told the Auxiliary, and I said whatever, you know, you can do to spend money in the community, I would appreciate you do that. Also, because that goes back into the community, so we can offer the amenities that we have.
So thank you for your service, thank you for being here, and enjoy our community. We're proud to share it with you. (Applause.)
BROTHER BOSER: Thank you, Mayor.
STEARNS COUNTY SHERIFF DON GUDMUNDSON: I'm Stearns County Sheriff Don Gudmundson. Welcome, on behalf of Stearns County and also St. Cloud. And the reason people always ask me to come is I usually have a story to tell.
I used to be the sheriff in Fillmore County in lovely Southeast Minnesota, where the Amish are, right? And the Amish have this reputation of being very stern people. Actually, they're quite fun. Here's a story an Amish guy tells me. He says, "There was Amish farmer milking his cow." And some of you, like me, have milked some cows in your life. The Amish farmer is milking his cow and the cow's tail came around, hit him right in the face, and he went up and whispered in the cow's ear, a nice Jersey cow, he said, "Thou knowest I'm an Amish man and I will not beat you." They're pacifists, they wouldn't hurt a fly. He went back to milking and the cow kicked right in the shin. He went up and whispered in the cow's ear, he said, "Thou knowest I'm an Amish man and I will not strike you." Went back to milking. He had a full bucket of milk. The cow kicked the bucket of milk over, kicked him in the shin, tail laid him way down to the gutter. Took a real deep breath. He went up to the cow and he said, "Thou knowest I'm an Amish man, but what thou does not know is I'll sell thee to a Lutheran." (Laughter.)
So when I was the sheriff of Dakota County -- I've been sheriff four counties. I'm in this never-ending quest to be sheriff of all 87 counties. I've got to hurry up here now. So I was the sheriff of Dakota County and the HR director, Mr. Volk, came to me and he said, "Sheriff, you can't be running across the county and across the state and across the country telling all these ethnic jokes, you know, we're kind of a politically-correct town." And I said, "Mr. Volk, from now on, I'll only tell stories about the Good Samaritans, right, the Good Samaritans of the Bible. Who could I offend." Okay. Did you hear about these two Good Samaritans, Ole and Sven. (Laughter.) So Sven says to Ole, he says, "Ole," he said, "come and ride in my Cessna airplane." And Ole said, "Yeah," he said, "that would be fun." And they were flying around, flying around. All of a sudden, the motor gave out. Sven tries to start, tries to start; can't start it. And he turns to Ole and he said, "Ole," he said, "I think we're going down." Ole said, "Yeah," he said, "you better pray." He said, "I don't know no prayers." He said, "You better pray. We're going down." He said, "Wait, I live next door to the Catholic church, I can pray like them." He said, "Go ahead, pray then." "Dear Lord, under the B9, under the I --" (Laughter.) I got the Lutherans in the first one.