Speakers

In the shields valley of Montana, tucked up against the North Bridger Mountains amid a wild expanse of grass and sagebrush, North Bridger Bison is a family-run bison ranch that provides healthy, delicious, environmentally friendly, humanely field-harvested bison meat.

Matt Skoglund has lived in Bozeman with his wife, Sarah, since 2008. Along with Sarah, Matt is the founder and owner of North Bridger Bison, a holistically managed bison ranch located 30 miles northeast of Bozeman in the Shields Valley.

Prior to starting North Bridger Bison, Matt was the Director of the Northern Rockies Office for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), where he worked on various conservation issues in Montana and the Northern Rockies for almost ten years.

Matt graduated from Middlebury College in 2001, where he won two NCAA Division III national championships in men's ice hockey and was named an All-American his senior year. Matt also earned his law degree magna cum laude from the University of Illinois College of Law in 2005.

Matt is passionate about local food, and he loves to hunt, garden, cook, and search for morel mushrooms in the spring. Matt is the Vice-President of the Montana Bison Association, and he is on the Board of Directors for the Bozeman Community Food Co-op.

More than anything, however, Matt is proudest to be the dad to his and Sarah's two kids, Otto (6) and Greta (2).

 

Rotarians Mary Hubbard, Dave Crawford, I-Ho Pomeroy, Linda Reynolds, Cathi Simonson and husband John Hazen, and Yvonne Rudman will show us details of their recent visit to Rotary Clubs in Kathmandu Nepal and work we are partnering on with a Rotary Club in their town.

Two former federal judges who, as representatives of the U.S. courts,  have trained foreign lawyers and judges, will describe some of these trainings and explain why these encounters have challenged their concepts of what the "rule of law" means. Speaking to us will be:

Carolyn Ostby JD, a US Magistrate Judge (currently) and who has presided as a federal judge in the District of Montana since 2002, had has mediated over 500 cases in that time period.

Robert Strong, JD, a retired US Magistrate Judge having served the District of Montana from 2007 - 2015. He currently lives in Bozeman and was admitted to the bar in 1974.

This Thursday evening edition replaces our Friday breakfast meeting for the week

Ana will be addressing our club as part of International month giving us her perspective of having been in Montana the past 6 months as part of her 11-month youth exchange trip to Montana from her home in Brasil