Rotary Meeting 10-31-06 Program

Rotary Meeting program for meeting held 10-31-06: President Jason Wolf opened the meeting. After introduction of visitors, Jennifer Jakolka-Brown served as Sargeant and quizzed members on Halloween origins. Mark Critelli, chairman of Vocational Service, introduced the four new members who were giving presentations for the vocational program & invited any members who hadn't visited their tables to get information & promotional giveaways to do so after the speeches. Cory Garrison of REL Productions of West Des Moines introduced his innovative program with the acronym: DIRTY. This company uses "story-telling" for companies to develop their brand, tell about their business and cause people to act. He explained that your brand is your "DNA" of your company & it can be used both in hiring employees and with your clients. D: different, I: inviting, R: relevant to audienceâ¿¢ie, SouthWest Airlines for inexpensive business travel, T: truth, Y: yours & you own it. Ed Arndorfer of Northwest Bank has been in banking since 1983 & in April of 2004 he started a new bank with Don Nickerson in a temporary location until they opened a new building in January, 2006. Northwest Bank is a division of Northwest Financial of Spencer, Ia, which is a bank holding company. There are several branches under this corporation and they are able to loan up to 7 million dollars. With one billion in assets, Northwest Financial is one of the largest bank holding companies in Iowa. They recently acquired Gateway Savings in Ankeny, as well. (Fortunately we're not yet needing to use the car window scrapers that Ed distributed .) Bryan Arzani founded The Results Group, which teaches companies some skills for more effective hiring, efficiency, & desired effect. Currently 80% of his company's business is outside Des Moines. He attributes his entrepreneurial skills to a variety of experiences, including working on his grandparents' farm, working a paper route in De Soto to earn money to pay for an Olympic -level training program for wrestling, and a sales job with General Electric. Additional preparation included attending Buena Vista and working in Brazil. Bryan is very active in community activities, such as the City Council & Boy Scouts. He hails from Truro, Iowa & has 4 children, ages 6 through 12. Melanie Roe is an account sales representative with Acme Printing. Her talents include taking an idea presented by a customer & helping him design it, designing mailing pieces for customer contacts, & designing mailings with variable data where the recipient could win a prize or receive a free gift. As a sample of these products that were designed & printed by Acme, she showed a game that is being marketed by a recent customer.