This week’ s program was a tour of River Valley Converting in the Whitetail Ridge Corporate Park, 2552 Prairie Drive.  RVC CEO Brooke Lee provided an overview of the company, and then Todd Nerbonne gave a tour. CEO Brook Lee has been the CEO of Anchor Paper since 2014.  River Valley Converting is a merger of two facilities in Hudson, one acquired in 2013 and a second that has been part of Anchor since  1982. The River Falls building is huge, 87,500 sq. ft. RVC has 50 employees who work four  12-hour shifts per week. Their employees are cross-trained so that each can run several of the specialized machines which cut large rolls of paper, bubble wrap, or foam sheets into customized sizes for other companies.

About the Speaker:  Dylan Gentilcore is fresh to collegiate esports as the inaugural head coach of University of Wisconsin-River Falls Esports after founding and operating Carmel Esports out of Carmel High School in Indiana. While at Carmel, his program secured a sponsorship from HyperX and racked up over 40 national and state championships in competitions such as NASEF, HSEL, UGC, PlayVS, and the Indiana Esports Network, a non-profit organization providing esports leagues for over 100 Indiana middle & high schools that he helped start in 2019 and currently still serves as a member of the board.

 

About the Presentation:    Dylan Gentilcore talked about UWRF’s e-sports, the newest addition to the Athletic Department. He described who plays, and how this new kind of intercollegiate competition works.  Gentilcore was announced as the UWRF Esports inaugural head coach in July of 2022. He came to River Falls as the founder, coach, and director of the esports program at Carmel (Indiana) High School, developed in 2018. He said that high schools and  colleges have e-sports teams but they might not know it because they exist informally.

"Catch-Up Tidings" Continues:  Recapping July 25th and 8/1 meeting this week.

 

Upcoming Service:  here's a rundown for August

 

August 13th -- Stillwater Club's bicycle tour water stop.  We're pretty well set for setup, staffing and takedown for the water stand at Glen Park.  We could use one or two more people to staff the stand early.  

 

August 21st and 22nd --   The Tools for School event will be held on August 21st and 22nd, not on 8/14 and 15 as listed earlier.  You'll have another chance, or even two, to sign up using the sheet circulating at weekly meetings.  Or contact Linda or the Rick of your choice.

 

August 29th -- personal care items for Wiley's closet are being collected.  Click Read More for the list.  Bring items purchased to any upcoming meeting.

 

Board Highlights:  Actions from July's Meeting:  1) increasing high school scholarship amounts from $500 to $1000 per student for 23-24; 2) committed to contribute $500 to a White Bear Lake Rotary clean water initiative in Uganda; 3) reviewed the very successful recent River Falls Days kettlecorn sales and planned several improvements for next year.  Next board meeting is 8/28 at 5:30 in the RFPL meeting room.

George Ball introduced himself to River Falls Rotary at our most recent meeting. George told us that he was born in Elgin Illinois, the oldest of 4 children; his parents were educators and he has two brothers.  His wife of 46 years is a retired program analyst. The moved to River Falls in 2019, living in Clifton township west of the city with their labradoodle Maisie.

 

George received an undergraduate degree in zoology and chemistry in 1974. While working as an air traffic controller, George started taking computer science classes to gain understanding of the systems involved. George's air traffic control career ended when striking controllers were fired en masse in 1981, forcing a career change. He moved to computer systems business, including time as a co-owner of Studebaker Systems. During that stage of his career, he he added an MBA with a concentration in systems. His company developed two products for sale as well as supplying custom solutions to businesses.

This week's "Walks Into a Bar" joke:

 

A cowboy walks into a bar wearing a hat made of brown wrapping paper, a shirt and vest made of waxed paper, and chaps made of tissue paper.  Before the cowboy can even sit down, the bartender calls the sheriff, who comes in and immediately arrests the cowboy for rustling.