This Wednesday, the 5th, following his introduction by Bob Meroney, fellow Rotarian Dr. Bill Timpson brings us food for thought from his 2002 text Teaching and Learning Peace (Madison, WI: Atwood). He will also relate some of his experiences at the RI Conference on Peacebuilding, which took place last February in Vancouver, B.C.  Bill’s text is being used for sustainable peace studies in the curriculum at the University of Ngozi in Burundi, East Africa (where RI has two Global Grants). 

 Good communication and conversations can be pivotal in defusing a volatile situation, helping everyone lower their emotions and defenses in order to get a deeper understanding of what happened, how people feel about it, what peaceful alternatives are possible, and how better relationships can be nurtured. This is a salient part of Bill’s message.

Effective communication and empathy can help promote consensus within any group that can then have significant payoffs - although there are associated costs of time and effort. When everyone can agree, you can get more commitment for the decisions you make. You can also get better decisions when everyone’s voice is heard and a variety of perspectives surface. You can even get more creative decisions. Admittedly, diverse viewpoints, experiences and personalities can make for a degree of tension in any process, especially if everyone is in a hurry. Consensus invariably takes more time, but there are these important benefits.

Dr. William M. Timpson is a professor in the School of Education at Colorado State University. After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in American History from Harvard University, he went on to teach junior and senior high school in the inner city of Cleveland, Ohio before completing his Ph.D. in educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Along with numerous articles, chapters and grant proposals, he has written or co-authored nineteen books including several that address issues of peace and reconciliation, sustainability and diversity. In 2006 he served as a Fulbright Specialist in peace and reconciliation studies at the University of Ulster’s UNESCO Centre in Northern Ireland and again in 2011 at the University of Ngozi in Burundi, East Africa, and area schools and church communities. In Spring 2014 he served as a Fulbright Teaching Scholar at Kyung Hee’s Graduate Institute of Peace Studies in South Korea. In February 2018 he served as an evaluator for the Rotary Peace Center at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. 

Our November Teacher of the Month was Jamie Drage, a fourth grade teacher from Bethke Elementary School in Timnath.  Her principal, Ann Alfonso, introduced by Marty Bachman, spoke of Jamie’s deep commitment to her profession.  Jamie attended PSD, and as a youngster played games where she was the teacher and continued to dream of becoming a teacher herself.  Jamie is one of those teachers who loves to come to work every day. She is straight forward, optimistic and enthusiastic.  Her students discover that learning is fun and that each and every one of them has a positive relationship with their teacher.  She believes that developing these relationships is the core of teaching.  In addition to these classroom accomplishments, Jamie has helped to develop curriculum and has supported other teachers trying to improve student performance.  Jamie had an earlier career as an athletic trainer at CSU stemming from her major in sports and exercise science.  She happily switched to elementary education thereafter.  While she claimed that she was more comfortable addressing fourth graders, her talk to our Rotary Club was notable for how she held our attention as she clearly and warmly addressed the great vocational love of her life.

November 28, Troy McWhinney presented a summary of his economic life, especially in  Larimer County, and some of his projections of the economic future of the area. 

Growing up in Orange County, CA, he and his brother escaped household chores by starting a strawberry stand at a local shopping center, ultimately expanding to some 30 stands, all at other shopping centers.  Since agricultural enterprises were hard, dirty work whereas shopping center ownership/management was clean and probably even more profitable, they investigated getting into real estate.  At about this time, their grandmother (a descendant of John Hahn, an early Larimer county resident), who owned a relatively large farm near Loveland, CO, died.  After the City of Loveland sent a delegation to Orange County to discuss the future of that farm with them, the brothers bought the farm from the family and moved to Loveland to manage the land.  A mentor from Denver, predicting that the area would experience great growth, suggested that they buy as much farm land as possible at the prices prevalent in the early 1990s.  They were able to use available farm loans to make those purchases, expecting ultimately to develop the land, meanwhile letting their finances grow by appreciation in land value.  In the early 2000s the brothers, developing a private/public partnership with Loveland, created some $132 million in public infrastructure.  Their expectation is that there will be some $220 million in future public infrastructure associated with their developments.  Their developments currently provide some $700 million in sales taxes in the area. 

 Their prediction is that growth in the area (in both housing value/cost and salaries) will continue for the next 40 years at rates similar to the last 40 years so that their ability to contribute to and benefit from that growth will continue to grow over that period.