Upcoming Meetings

Thursday, Aug. 5,
Board Meeting
Noon - Mihaly Room

Tuesday, Aug. 10,
Club Meeting
Former RHS student Brendan O'Brien will tell us about something really nifty!

Upcoming Events

Friday, Aug. 6
11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Diverse Options Picnic - Fenton Street

Saturday, Aug. 14, 8 p.m.
Doug Lyke Twilight Run

Club Leadership

President
Tonya Alling

President-Elect
Paul Nulton

Secretary
Kristy Sadlon

Treasurer
Bob Meyer

Past President
Norm Loomer

Board of Directors
Herm Leitz (2010)
John Roesch (2010)
Ken Koffarnus (2010)
Barb Evensen (2011)
Linda Putzer (2011)
Mellisa Wipijewski (2011)
Emily Dinegan (2012)
Tom Keuler (2012)
Ian Stepleton (2012)

Committee Chairs

Fundraising
Paul Nulton

Youth Services
Pat Himebaugh

Sponsored Programs
Rick Bunge
Jack Christ
Kristy Sadlon

Community Services
Herm Leitz

Young Child Priority One
Ian Stepleton
Mellisa Wipijewski

Club Meetings
Barb Evensen

Membership Growth
and Education
Norm Loomer

This Week’s Meeting

Attendance: 10 members and 3 guests

Guests 

George Machkovich, Steve's uncle, was the guest of Jenny Machkovich.

Scott Krueger was the guest of Ken Koffarnus. Scott works for Diverse Options as the Consumer Services Coordinator for Day Services and is a prospective member.

Our program speaker today was Tony Spence, Ripon School District's Director of Information Technology. Special thanks to Richard Zimman for suggesting this program.

Announcements 

Diverse Options Consumer Picnic - Friday, August 6
Kiwanians Kristy Sadlon and Tonya Alling will be helping out on Friday, August 6th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and they are asking Kiwanians to attend the event and/or bake sugar-free desserts. Please contact Kristy or Tonya if you can attend or if you can provide a dessert.

The Doug Lyke 5K Twilight Run is coming on August 14th at 8 p.m. Mark your calendar and get ready to sign up please! We will need help with registration at 6:45, timing during the race and road/corner guards from 7:45 until 8:45 p.m. Please contact Herm Leitz if you can help!

Happy Bucks

Tonya Alling is unhappy that she forgot to write down who was happy and why, so this is the list to the best of her ability (with a little help from Tom Keuler)! We had $10 in happy bucks . . .

Tonya Alling is happy that she was able to take Len and Liz Ringstad out to lunch last week at the Sunset Room of the Heidel House and then drove them around Green Lake to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Helga Rikkers is happy that she was able to hold her five-month-old granddaughter in Milwaukee last week while their home was surrounded by flood waters. She was also happy because she and Rik spent some time last weekend in the north woods relaxing (and chasing their dog through the forest for 30 minutes at 5:30 a.m.)!

John Olson is happy that his grandchildren (Aaron's sons) are visiting from Nevada and will soon be joined by Aaron, that his son Dan is traveling through Europe, and that daughters Rachel and Sarah will soon be back for a visit. (All that for just $2)!

Ken Koffarnus is happy that his daughter will be tying the knot in Florida next week and he's happy to have Scott Krueger as his guest today.

Jenny Machkovich is happy to have Steve's uncle, George Machkovich, visiting this week and that her daughter is expecting her first child this fall (their first grandchild).

Steve Sorenson is happy because he got his tickets for the PGA Tour at Whistling Straights in Kohler and because he's going to San Francisco for the American Bar Association annual meeting soon.

Queen of Spades 50/50 Raffle

Pat Himebaugh drew the Ace of Diamonds from the deck offered by prospective member Scott Krueger, winning nothing! Next week's pot starts at $66 with 50 cards still in the deck.

Today’s Program:
The 1 to 1 Environment in Ripon Public Schools

The premise of a 1 to 1 learning environment, providing one computer for each student, is not new. In fact, Wisconsin falls way behind other states, such as Maine, Texas and Florida which have been fostering a 1 to 1 environment for about ten years. According to Tony Spence, Ripon School District's Director of Technology, "we're not cutting edge[when it comes to giving laptops to students]."

What is groundbreaking about Ripon's 1 to 1 initiative is that our district will be offering a computer and internet access, at school and at the student's home, for an incredibly modest all-inclusive fee. To his knowledge, Ripon is the first district anywhere in the United States to provide this level of service and internet access, and the U.S. Department of Education is watching and listening with focused intensity.

When researching the feasibility of putting this program into action, the district discovered that "only 63% of families in our district have a working computer and high speed internet access". This was due to two factors: geographic location and affordability of technology and services. The task at hand then became to offer a computer and internet access to every student in the district at an affordable price.

Five different focus groups were polled last year to determine the best computer to use, and the district settled on an Acer netbook, weighing 2 lbs., with an 11.6" screen (larger than some of the netbooks available). The retail cost of each netbook is $420. These Acer netbooks have a long battery life, 2 gb of RAM Memory, web cams, card readers, are wireless enabled and come with Open Office software and a web broswer installed.

To fulfill the connectivity requirement of the equation, the high school has been expanded to include 30 wireless access points throughout the building, providing wireless coverage school-wide, with fast 300 mbs data download capability. All incoming freshmen have the opportunity to lease the device through Granite Broadband for $50 per year. Included in the $50 per year -- that's less than $1 per week -- is wireless access at their home. Granite Broadband has been canvassing all households affected to see where service points need to be added to include them in the wi-fi system recently installed in Ripon.

For those families who qualify for free or reduced price lunches, the fee is reduced to $25 per student. For families who choose not to allow their student to have a computer at home, those computers will be available at the high school to check out, but must remain in the school. Granite Broadband offers a drop/damage insurance for $5 per month and each netbook has a GPS device installed on it, in the event that the unit is lost or stolen.

To pay for this technology, Spence has worked with the ERATE subsidy program, developed by the FCC, which was approved in June. Based on the percentage of students who receive free or reduced cost meals, the ERATE program will subsidize the cost of the netbooks and the wi-fi services by 61%. With the district only paying a net of 39% of the cost of the technology, combined with the family contribution, this program is extremely affordable.

The plan right now is to equip all incoming freshmen with a netbook and wi-fi at their home, to expand it to include all freshmen and sophomores next year, and then finally to expand it to all students at Ripon High School the following year. There are also a few focus areas at the REACH Charter School and Murray Park which are sharing in parts of this initiative.

This is a fascinating expansion of what other districts are offering in terms of a 1 to 1 learning environment, and Ripon is definitely on the cutting edge of this endeavor. Congratulations to Tony Spence and kudos on this amazing initiative!