In Attendance: Ann, Ralph, Phil T., Jack, Dave, Jaime
Guest: Joe Henry
In Conversation:
The Rotary equipment from the Ranch House has been retrieved. The pennant boards have some mold, considering to remove the pennants from board and have available for special occasions as a display. There is also a TV/VCR Cart that will be auctioned off.
Social:
12/22 at Rosalie's - the school band will provide entertainment.
ECFE Circus on 1/10:
We can have a meal before the circus on 1/10. Volunteers needed if we proceed:
Phil T. - yes
Jaime - yes
Ann - maybe
Chris - yes
Jack - maybe
Chris was informed he is leading the Spring Sturgeon Fishing Tournament.
A Thank You card was passed around from the school in I-Falls that received our extra dictionaries.
50/50 Draw: Jaime
Happy Bucks: Phil, Ann, Chris, Joe
Joe Henry:
Fishing is Good! Joe quizzed the club on Rotary Trivia. How many Rotary Clubs are there in the world? 33,976 How many members? 1.22 Million
Joe is from Saint Cloud and has been coming up to Lake of the Woods fishing for 20 years. His family is from Stearns County. His father was a banker in Saint Cloud for 40 years. Joe attended Saint Cloud Tech High School and Saint Johns college, which is located on a wildlife reserve.
Joe sold Kirby Vacuum Cleaners to work his way through college. He had a brief stint with G&K Services in Sales and went back to Kirby and opened their distribution center in Stephen Point WI. He later came back to Minneapolis and opened his own Kirby shop. He later had a career with Kirby Corporate in the as Director of Education and Training focusing on Motivating employees and sales training.
Joe held the position of Director of International Sales at Creative Memories in Saint Cloud. He then started his own consulting business in sales, strategic planning, human resources and strategy.
Joe grew up fishing. Nobody thought there was fish in Saint Clouds Lake George, but Joe pulled a 12lb Northern from the lake.
Joe recently got married at the age of 44. He has an daughter in 8th grade and a son in 10th grade. He proposed to his wife here on the lake while ice fishing. He tied the ring on her fishing line (fire line).
He plans to run Lake of the Woods Tourism like a business and understands the responsibility to reach out to the community and work with City, County and Chamber members. He hopes to build awareness and a positive reputation of LOW through a number of different media: social media, advertising, trade shows, talks and fishing tournaments.
Joe is looking into the AIM tournament series and is in conversations with them. The idea is to take a digital photo of the fish - no kill. Tournament goers usually come to town a week ahead of time to pre-fish and amatures fish with pros. Sponsorships would be needed to help cover the $15,000 price tag to attract the tournament here.
Joe will base his work from Saint Cloud. The tourism building will continue to be staffed by Heather Eason and Mary Lee Gens.
Joe was asked if he would be focusing on other resources besides fishing like Zippel Bay State Park?
To start Joe says they will focus on what Lake of the Woods is known for - walleye fishing, but plans to also promote snowmobiling, hunting, berry picking, birding, wildflowers, skiing ext...
The Canadian dollar is strong and there plans to try and capture more tourism from that area.
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