Early Birds: Robert Sandberg was the first to arrive and greeted Dick Anderson and Mark Arnold, then his phone rang and he was off to be with his pregnant wife. ……..More to come.
President Mark Arnold brought the meeting to order with a ring of the brass bell.
Guests: Kristen Baas of Insperity (a HR Consulting firm) was a guest of Jerry Olson.
Honorary Members: Mark Simon, Dick Nelson, Ron Britz, and Martin Peyer were all attendance today.
Announcements:
- Karen Holtmeier has been named a Minneapolis Aquatennial Princess thanks to Jim Erickson.
- Bill McGreavy Jr has been promoted to Minneapolis Aquatennial Admiral and is on a string of 8 events in 7 days with more to come. Thanks to Jim Erickson for bringing him into the Aquatennial over a year ago.
- Boat cruise to all set Wednesday August 7, boarding at 5:30 PM from the Wayzata Docks. Still room for more cruisers.
Business Networking: None
Business Exchange: The exchange was started by Karen Holtmeier and followed by Rich Junghans, Dwain Coleman, and Bob Alexander.
Business Updates: Per Mark Arnold, Continental Diamonds was named the Twin Cities Best Jeweler for the 10th year in a row and also garnered an award as a Best Wedding Vendor.
Table Introductions: Table #5 was introduced by Jim Erickson with a theme of “Favorite Twins memory”.
Pot of Gold: Karen Holtmeier drew 5 cards (the runner up being her card) and Ed Crandall was the big winner.
Craft Talk:
Mark Arnold introduced our speaker, Sean Ewen, Chief Beerpreneur, of Wooden Hill Brewing.
Sean gave the story of how the Brewery, Taproom, and Kitchen came to be.
Sean is a graduate of St. Thomas and the U of M Medical school. He has founded 2 other companies, Allied Medical Training for EMT training, and a Medical IT consulting firm for doctors.
Sean’s brother who studied nano technology and got experience in lab work started with a home brewing kit and enjoyed creating his own beers and the brothers thought they ought to bottle it and sell it.
The 2 of them founded Wooden Hill Brewing and built a brewery and kitchen from scratch in Edina. They have brewed over 50 different beers and have a staff of 31 full and part time employees.
Why the name Wooden Hill? When the young men stayed at grandpa’s house, they were sent up to Wooden Hill to go to bed. With the wooden hill being a staircase. The name stayed with them.
Somewhat unique to Wooden Hill Brewing is a kitchen where they prepare and sell Gourmet concession food. They have hired a chef who was on the Master Chef TV show with Gordon Ramsey and trained with one of the judges.
They are working on expanding their menu selections and have been named one of the Best Cheeseburgers by the StarTribune.
Visit the Wooden Hill Brewery online at www.WoodenHillBrewing.com and in person at 7421 Bush Lake Road, Edina, MN 55439
Register to Mark Arnold at marnold@continentaldiamonds.com or call 651-295-7619.
Looking ahead
July 31 is TBD at ECC
August 5 is the Wayzata Boat Cruise
August 7 is St. Paul Saints at CHS Field
August 14 is Life Credo (brought by Jerry Olson) at ECC