July 30, 2012 Club Bulletin # 428

Program for July 30, 2012: Our District Governor!!

Invocation by: Tony Joseph

Guests today: Kathy Hill, Wayne Joseph and Casey O'Kelly

Your Rotary Board: President, Kelly Garvin, Keith Porter,Sarah Ingstad, Secretary, Brooke Mehaffey,Treasurer ,Mike Ruby,Tony Joseph, Scott Ingstad, Steve Jameson and Mary Odell.

Fun for the Day:  Jessica Wittman gve us the highlights of July 23rd in history!!

Rotary Announcements: On the back table are copies of our annual finances for your perusal.  Tom Ward is readying for the Rotary Friendship Visit on September 7-10th.  He still needs one host family and he would like to borrow a  12 passenger van to take the Rotary Visitors around the region in.

Program for Today: Kathy Hill from the State of Iowa Economic Development Offices presented an informative program on imports and exports from Iowa to the world.  We in Iowa export to 192 countries.  Products are characterized as value added rather than just straight commodities.  $181,000 in exports supports one job.  In 2011 13.2 billion in value added items were exported.  Machinery is the top export item.  

As a state we are trying to export or import more from Africa, Europe, while most today is Canada and Mexico.  We have offices in Germany, Japan, Mexico and Canada.  Companies that export pay higher wages, have more benefits to employees, spend more time on R and D, is more productive and have higher volume of sales.

Kathy was highly involved in the visit of the Chinese Vice President and his contingent and became intimately familiar with the tarmac at the Des Moines Airport.  She shared informative and fun stories of the visit.