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October 3, 2009
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Speakers: Jayne Haugen Olson, Delta Sky Magazine
Topic: TBA
Jayne Haugen Olson is editor-in-chief of Sky, the recently re-launched onboard lifestyle magazine for Delta Air Lines. After the merger with Northwest Airlines, Delta is the world’s largest airline, making Sky the world’s largest in-flight with more than 5 million readers per month. Many Twin Citians recognize Jayne’s name as a longtime editor for Mpls.St.Paul magazine where she still serves as an editor-at-large.
“My new position with Sky magazine is a professional highpoint. I am able to lead a team of dynamic editors, writers, and art directors to create a magazine that covers the world in the areas of travel, business, lifestyle and celebrity,” says Jayne, “without leaving my hometown.”
Jayne is a lifelong Twin Cities resident and currently lives in Golden Valley with her husband and twin four-year-old daughters.
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November 7, 2009 |
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Speakers: Professor Andrea Een, St. Olaf College (Hardanger Fiddle Program)
Topic: Playing by Ear: A Journey from Classical Violinist to Hardanger Fiddler
Professor Andrea Een, Norwegian-American Hardanger fiddler, received the St. Olav Medal, given by King Harald V of Norway, in May, 2002 for her promotion of greater knowledge of Norwegian culture abroad. Een, whose grandfather, Knute Een, was born in Voss, Norway in 1882, has studied the Hardanger fiddle, the nine-string folk violin unique to Norway, with some of the leading fiddlers in that country. In 2004 she released her solo CD, "From the Valley" (available at AndreaEen.com) which combines her original fiddle solos with traditional dances and tone poems from West Norway. Andrea Een has performed over 125 concerts on Hardanger fiddle in the U.S., Costa Rica, France and Norway and has been a featured solo performer on Norwegian television and radio and National Public Radio and PBS in the United States. In 1998, Een was named a Master Folk Artist by the Minnesota State Arts Board. She is a founding member of the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. A member of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra in residence at the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, Andrea Een has taught Hardanger fiddle, violin and viola at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN since 1977. Her poetry has been published in literary journals and the chapbook, "Some Days We Name It Love" (Heywood Press, 1994).
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December is our annual fundraising month.
Please consider making a donation to our scholarship fund!
To make this meeting more festive, consider wearing a bunad if you have one.
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December 5, 2009 |
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Speaker: Roar Moe
Topic: The Impact of Traditional Coastal Culture in Modern Norway
Roar Moe is the lead teacher of a nature-life and coastal history school on a far western island called “Litle Faeroy,” which is located at the mouth of the Sognefjord in Norway. He lives alone on the island year round, but in the warmer months hosts student groups from 8 years - adult who set up camp to live as the coastal folks did before iPhones and electronics took over our daily lives. Group activities on the island include sailing and rowing traditional boats, fishing and cleaning nets and preparing traditional meals. Is learning to depend on one’s own skills to come up with new solutions an old fashioned concept? It is often the women who embrace this type of adventure most, even in a country where “friluftsliv” is a common term and everyone wears hiking shoes or rubber boots on a regular basis.
Roar combines his coaching skills from a decade as a sports teacher at Voss Folkehøgskole, with his expertise in traditional boat building and sailing, and his passion for preserving and sharing coastal culture ("kystkulture"), which is a self-sufficient way of life based on using the best, but simplest technology of the times. Roar’s teaching methods are very experiential and students quickly learn to participate fully – stretching to find new strengths they never knew they possessed. The coastal culture of Norway has always been like this – women creating the rescue service, mothers running the farm and the home while the men were off fishing. Today, young people who embrace the coastal way of life often have difficulty finding a partner who is interested in leaving the city life for this beautiful coastal lifestyle. It is not so different in the interior farming regions of the Midwest or Norway. Roar refers to his work as ¨filling old bottles with new wine¨ to give the next generation exposure to the problem-solving mindset of earlier times – a skill set they can take back into their modern lifestyles with a new set of strengths, skills and self confidence.
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January 2, 2010 |
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Speaker: Ruth Øfstedal
Topic: The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station: A first-hand account
Ruth Øfstedal is one of the lucky few who have lived in an even colder and snowier place: Antarctica. She'll tell about her two austral summers at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where Norway's Roald Amundsen was the first explorer to set foot less than 100 years ago. After a brief recap of Amundsen and Scott’s race to the South Pole, Ruth will primarily focus on current-day Antarctica, what draws countries to build stations there, and just what life is like at the bottom of the world.
Ruth grew up in a Norwegian-American family who celebrated Syttende Mai and enjoyed customs such as making lefse and krumkake. After a childhood in Iowa and North Dakota, Ruth studied at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN with a Humanities major in Chinese and East Asian Studies. While in college she spent one semester studying Mandarin Chinese in Beijing (China). After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree, she deferred graduate school for one year while she worked as a Chinese-speaking flight attendant based in New York City.
She then earned her Masters in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, AZ. After graduation, she worked with companies including American Express and Rutherford Consulting, which entailed travel in the US, Russia, Venezuela, and the UK. She was then hired by the US Antarctic Program, which will be the topic she'll cover. Currently she lives in Minneapolis and is a project manager with a local technology firm. Aside from work, she is a passionate advocate for organic and sustainable agriculture. She is involved and volunteers with several local environmental organizations. Undoubtedly there is a connection between Ruth’s environmental passion and her time in Antarctica.
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February 6, 2010 |
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Speaker: Lois Quam
Topic: The New Green Economy
Lois Quam is an internationally recognized visionary and leader on the emerging New Green Economy (NGE) and universal health care reform, and the founder and CEO of Tysvar, LLC, a newly created, privately held, Minnesota-based NGE and health care reform incubator and think tank. Named in 2006 by Fortune magazine as one of America’s “50 Most Powerful Women,” Ms. Quam also appears as an expert on Clean Technology and NGE in Thomas L. Friedman’s recent best-seller, Hot, Flat and Crowded.
Prior to founding Tysvar in March 2009, Ms. Quam was Head of Strategic Investments, Green Economy & Health, at Piper Jaffray, a leading international Minneapolis-based investment bank.
As a native of rural southwestern Minnesota, Lois brings business leadership to areas of great national and social challenge. For nearly two decades, she focused on improving health care access and affordability. In 2007, Quam’s concern about the warming climate, led her to leave a position as a top office of a Fortune 50 company to help build the green economy.
Quam chaired the Minnesota Health Care Access Commission, which made the case for new legislation that brought health insurance to tens of thousands of Minnesotans, resulting in the lowest uninsured rate in the country. She also served as a senior advisor, with a particular focus on rural areas, to Hillary Clinton’s task force on health care reform.
Attending Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, Ms. Quam graduated magna cum laude, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and the recipient of Macalester’s Distinguished Alumni Award. As a Rhodes Scholar, Ms. Quam went on to earn a master’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford in England.
Quam serves on the Board of Trustees for Macalester College and the University of Minnesota Foundation, the Board of Directors for General Mills and the National Wildlife Foundation, and the Advisory Boards for the polar explorer, Will Steger Foundation. She is trustee Emeritus of the George C. Marshall Foundation.
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March 6, 2010 |
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Speakers: Professor Tor Dahl
Topic: Strategies for living longer and reducing stress in your life
Presentation Title:
Two Philosophies:
1. “He Who is Not Busy Being Born is Busy Dying” –Bob Dylan
2. “Live Long and Prosper”- Dr. Spock
Tor Dahl, President of Tor Dahl & Associates, is an economist, consultant, and adjunct professor in public health at the University of Minnesota. A Fulbright Scholar in Economics, Tor has published works on health care, economics, management, productivity, and behavioral change. He was educated at the Norwegian University School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen, Norway, and at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, USA.
He has served as a consultant to a number of corporations, U.S. governmental departments, foreign governments, and universities. Tor coordinated and edited the Proceedings from the White House Conference on the Vinland National Center, which is a non-profit rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, and chaired international conferences on lifestyle and health.
He is the Chairman Emeritus of the World Confederation of Productivity Science (WCPS), and has served on a number of national and state councils and task forces. He served as the Governor's Representative on the Minnesota Coalition on Health Care Costs, and on the Blue Ribbon Task Force on State Health Priorities. He is Emeritus Board Member of the Science Museum of Minnesota and a former President of the Sons of Norway Foundation. Currently, he serves on the boards of the American Productivity and Quality Council (APQC), Vinland National Center,Tor Dahl & Associates and The Butler Foundation. He is also a member of the Leadership Group of the WCPS and writes for Minnesota Business, Harstad Tidene, The Latin American Advisor, The World Academy of Productivity Science Publications and journals such as Cost Management, and Executive Excellence.
Tor has been a keynote speaker or presenter at a number of national meetings of the American Hospital Association, the Society for the Advancement of Management, the World Confederation of Productivity Science, the Operations Research Society of America, the American Economics Association, the American Public Health Association, the National Science Foundation, the American Heart Association, and others.
He is also a co-founder of Ski for Light, the Vinland National Center, the Extensor Corporation, the Norwegian American Cultural Institute, the Minnesota Council on Productivity, and his own consulting firm—Tor Dahl & Associates.
Mr. Dahl has also been knighted by the King of Norway in recognition of his global work in the field of productivity and his contribution to Norway-America relations.
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April 3, 2010 |
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Speaker: Elizabeth Wall Strohfus (formerly known as “Betty Wall”), World War II Pilot
Topic: Love at First Flight: One Woman's Experience As a WASP in World War II
Delightful Liz Strohfus shares her high-flying story of service as a WASP (Women's Airforce Service Pilot) during World War II.
Growing up in Faribault, Minnesota, during the Great Depression, Liz (then known as “Betty Wall”) discovered her love of flying—and put her bicycle up as collateral on a loan to buy a membership in the local flying club. In 1942 Liz applied for the WASP program, an experimental, pioneering program in which women were taught to fly American military aircraft. Of some 25,000 applicants only 1,800 were accepted and of those, Liz was one of only about 1,000 to earn their wings. In addition to flying military trainers such as the PT-19, BT-13 and AT-6 at legendary Avenger Field in Texas, Liz went on to fly the B-26 Marauder and B-17 Flying Fortress bombers and P-39 Airacobra fighter.
Join us to learn about flying the planes of "the Greatest Generation"—and the many obstacles that Liz and her female comrades overcame to get into the pilot's seat. And, by the way, 60-plus years later Liz is still flying!
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May 1, 2010
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Speaker: Pam Borton, Head Coach for the University of Minnesota's Womens Basketball Team
Topic: TBA
As Pam Borton heads into her eighth season at the helm of the women’s basketball program at the University of Minnesota, her philosophy and system are firmly in place. Her teams have been built, and will continue to be built, on the ethic of hard work paying dividends. Borton’s Golden Gophers play with a focused tenacity, the same quality these young women display in the classroom and in their everyday lives.
Athletic success on the surface breaks down to the simple wins and losses. The Golden Gopher program obviously relishes its tradition of success on the court, however to those lucky few who don the Maroon and Gold, there is so much more. One can point to postseason appearances in every season that Borton has graced the sidelines and although impressive in itself, there is still more to be proud of. A deeper look reveals signposts such as nationally ranked attendance averages and academic achievements that have the Golden Gophers building upon an accomplished, proud and lasting tradition.
In the coaching realm where 20-win seasons are significant indicators of success, Borton has averaged 20 wins over her 11 seasons as a head coach, including an average of 22 wins per season in her seven years at Minnesota. Along the way, with Borton at the reigns, Minnesota has enjoyed seasons with 25 or more wins three times, six NCAA Tournament appearances, three Sweet Sixteens, as well as a magical ride to the Final Four in 2004.
Minnesota enjoyed another 20-win season in 2008-09 compiling a 20-12 record and advancing to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. The season’s journey was highlight by the program’s first win at Ohio State and a thrilling NCAA upset at Notre Dame. Emily Fox was drafted by the Minnesota Lynx in the 2009 WNBA Draft, marking the third player in Gopher history (Lindsay Whalen, 2004; Janel McCarville, 2005) to be drafted in the league.
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Member's Only Picnic
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