Guest Speaker Dave Kretschmann on "What’s Wrong with Major League Bats?"

The guest speaker for our March 22, 2012 meeting was Dave Kretschmann, Research General Engineer, Forest Product Laboratory, on the topic of "What’s Wrong with Major League Bats?"

 

“I break things for a living.” Dave’s primary involvement at the Forest Product Laboratory is the oversight of design values for wood used in home construction. The new FPL lab, $38 mil, 2010 addition, permits full scale testing of major structural members for moisture and durability.

In 2008, there were 2200 broken bats in major league baseball. They didn’t have this problem 10 years ago. Many were hazardous projectile multiple piece breaks. Major League Baseball asked the FPL to make recommendations to reduce the multiple breaks.

Dave’s primary recommendation: 3% maximum slope of grain in the handle. The FPL recommended standards that have been adopted by MLB have reduced the multi-breaks by half since 2008 although the total number of breaks has remained constant. Bats can be made that would last longer and break less by enacting additional quality standards in the selection of wood density, species and wood quality. But this is neither in the interest of the bat manufacturers nor the players.

Barry Bonds set the home run record (72, topping Mark McGwire’s 70) with a maple bat which started a trend toward maple away from ash. Maple is 5x more likely to break than ash. It’s better to hit on the face of the grain with maple, the edge of the grain with ash.

MLB regulations dictate weight, length, maximum and minimum diameters for bats. The bat must be one solid piece of wood. Cupping out the end allows denser or more material in the barrel of the bat. Bats today are made larger in the barrel with lower density wood to keep within the maximum weight allowance.

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin Addresses Rotary Club of Madison West

Court of Appeals Candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg Speaks to Rotary Club

Attorney JoAnne Kloppenburg, recent candidate for the Supreme Court.


Assistant Attorney General Kloppenburg has been a litigator and prosecutor at the Wisconsin Department of Justice since 1989, serving under Attorneys General from both parties: Don Hanaway, Jim Doyle, Peg Lautenschlager and JB Van Hollen. Her legal experience includes constitutional law, appellate law, civil litigation, environmental prosecution and administrative law. She has argued cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and she has tried cases in circuit courts around the state.

Assistant Attorney General Kloppenburg graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin Law School (1988). She has an undergraduate degree from Yale (1974), also with honors, and a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University (1976). During Law School, she was an intern for Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and later was a law clerk for Chief Judge Barbara Crabb of the United States District Court.

A teacher at the UW Law School since 1990, she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana (1976-1979) and remains active in professional, civic and community life. She is a member of the Legal Association for Women (LAW), a mentor with the Dane County Bar Association, an English as a Second Language (ESL) tutor, and a member of her neighborhood association board.

JoAnne is running unopposed for the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, April 3, representing District 4, SW Wisconsin including Dane and 23 counties. The recent election illustrated the power of people which she wants to see replace the power of money from undisclosed sources to determine the outcome of elections. 75% of Prosser’s$2.8 million in third party contributions came from out-of-state. These contributions were mostly in the form of attack ads, some judged by Politifact to be false. She does not view appointments as a solution. A candidate without political connections would not make it through the appointment process. We need to bring back public financing and strengthen the 3rd party disclosure system.

As a judge, she would not sign a petition for recall. She discussed what judges can and cannot do as citizens.

JoAnne and her husband Jack have two daughters and one son. They live in Madison.

House Blessing for the Habit For Humanity Home that Madison West Rotary Assisted in Constructing

You're Invited to the House Blessing Celebration for the Buchanan Family
Thursday, March 15, 4 p.m., Mt. Horeb

Help us Celebrate the
Completion of our Home

Karen Buchanen

Join Karen Buchanan and her son Stephen to bless their new home at 1816 Fjord Pass, Mt. Horeb
on

Thursday, March 15, 4 p.m.

Congratulations future homeowners

Please join us for refreshments following the celebration

Recent Guest Speakers

 Gary F Karner, Ph.D., Commissioner of Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, on "The WIAC Centennial".



Gary Price, UW-Madison, Dept of Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education

on "Full-Bore Genealogy".



JoAnn Gruber-Hagen of Slave- Free Madison on the topic of "Human Traffiking."

Newest Members "Dood" Reep Forbess and Rebecca Hildebrandt

1.12.12 Meeting At the Lussier Community Education Center

http://lcecmadison.org/



The January 12, 2012 meeting of the Rotary Club of Madison West will be held at 12:15pm at the Lussier Community Education Center.  The Club has been active in assisting the community for the past decade and raised substantial funds for the capital campaign to construct the Lussier Community Education Center facility.

Club Welcomes Eunice Reep Forbess and Rebecca Hildebrandt

The Rotary Club of Madison West welcomes its two newest members:

Eunice "Dood" Reep Forbess and Rebecca Hildebrandt

Proposed Member Rebecca Hildebrandt

Rebecca Hildebrandt has been proposed as a member of the Rotary Club of Madison West with the classification of Nonprofit Director.  Unless any written objection stating reasons is received by the board by December 19, 2011, the Club will welcome Rebecca as a new member.

Proposed New Member Eunice Reep

Eunice “Dood” Reep has been proposed as a member of the Rotary Club of Madison West with the classification of “Artist.”  Unless any written objection stating reasons is received by the board by December 12, 2011, the Club will welcome Dood as a new member.

Speaker George Tesar "Economic and Political Issues In Europe"

Len Backstrom, George Tesar and Bob Sorenson

George Tesar, Professor Emeritus of International Marketing at the UW Whitewater and Umea University in Sweden spoke to the Rotary Club of Madison West about current economic and political issues developing in Europe.

Local Community Service Projects

Madison West Rotary - Community Service Projects


-Wexford Ridge Community – Madison West Rotary looked for a signature community service project that would have a significant impact on the local community over time. The Wexford Ridge low income community was selected.
-The largest gift ever made by Madison West Rotary was for the new Lussier Community Education Center that serves the Wexford Ridge Community. Over $35,000 was given to the development campaign for the new building.
-Annually for the past 6 Years the summer camp program for young people from the Wexford Ridge community has been supported
-Employment mentors and advisers from Madison West Rotary assisted members of the Wexford Ridge community in their efforts to find employment.

-Dale Gilbert High School Singer Award – For the twenty-seventh consecutive year, the Madison West Rotary Club has given the Dale W. Gilbert High School Singer Award, a $300 scholarship, to an outstanding high school choral musician from 5 Madison area high schools. The award is named in honor of our former Madison West Rotary member and UW-Madison Voice Professor. The awards are made to students who have shown exceptional qualities of musicianship and leadership in the choral area of their high school.

-Second Harvest Food Bank – Madison West Rotary has held a fund raising event for the hungry and homeless each year for many years. Food items are often donated but more significantly money is raised from the members of the club to donate to the food bank. The amount raised is variable, but usually amounts to several thousand dollars. Occasionally the Rotary board of directors matches the amount raised from the members from our Rotary Foundation.

-Salvation Army – for many years members of Madison West Rotary volunteer to ring bells at the kettles of the Salvation Army during the holiday season. In addition to this volunteer effort to raise money for the Salvation Army, occasionally monetary gifts are made from the Madison West Rotary Foundation.

- Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. - The Institute honors and continues the work of one of the great civil rights lawyers of the twentieth century. Madison West Rotary has made gifts to support the work of the CHHIRJ.

-Hurricane Katrina – A special collection from the members was made just after Hurricane Katrina and sent to assist the many people in distress after that storm.

-Habitat for Humanity – A gift was given to Habitat for Humanity for them to purchase and outfit a trailer that could be moved from one Habitat project site to another. Club members have also volunteered their time and effort in work projects on Habitat houses.

-Bookworms Project – For several years, Madison West Rotary has made gifts to the Bookworms project which provides books for disadvantaged children in the Madison area. This is a project of the University League and Madison West Rotary is pleased to be partner with them in this important work.

November 17 Bulletin

World Service Projects

Presentation about Engineers Without Borders - UW Rwanda Project

Ben Koch, Rwanda Project Manager for Engineers Without Borders presented a program describing some of the groups prior projects and its current effort to build a health clinic in Rwanda.

His contact info is Bikoch256@gmail.com

715-212-5856

Allison Armstrong Fanara, "The Everyday Life of a Deaf Person"

Alison's son Giovani acted as interpreter for club member Greg Armstrong's cousin Allison Armstrong Fanara as she spoke about the challenges faced by deaf people.

Annual Fundraising Auction - October 13

The Rotary Club of Madison West annual fundraising "Meat Auction" was held October 13, 2011. 

The bids totalled $3935 toward the fundraising goal of $6,000.00.  Members who did not bid are encouraged to donate at least $100.00 to the Madison West Rotary Foundation.

To make a donation, contact Treasurer David Hoffelt.

R. David Hoffelt on "Public Speech in America"

9/29 Meeting at Holy Wisdom Monastery