The "Manhattan Optimist Club Bulletin": Vol. 2025 #15: 1-22-24

VOLUME 2025          JANUARY 22, 2024         NUMBER 15

First-Vice President Kelly Karl welcomed the membership and guests, then Jerry Banaka shared a reflection on Jimmy Carter.  The flag salute followed.

Mike Fincham introduced today’s speaker, Megan Moser, Executive Editor of the Manhattan Mercury.  In her column, “Off the Beat” she sometimes wrote about her infant son and his antics, and he found her writing style to be entertaining, amusing, well organized, and lighthearted.  She has a subtle sense of humor that he enjoyed through her writing.  Megan started at the Manhattan Mercury as Designer and Lifestyle page editor in 2008 following graduation from KSU with a BS in journalism.  She was promoted to News Editor, and in July 2014, she was promoted to her current position as Executive Editor.  Megan leads a ten-person news and sports staff, coordinates and edits local coverage in print and online, and oversees the Mercury’s quarterly Flint Hills Lifestyle Magazine-313.  The staff at the Manhattan Mercury claimed seven National Newspaper Association awards in 2024.  Megan is from Garden City, Kansas and she and Brendan, her husband, are parents of two boys aged four and eight.  Her topic today was “Change and Adapting to Change.”

Megan thanked the Optimist for having her as our speaker.  She led off talking about age milestones as she had just turned 40.  One of her favorite interviews with a lady named Julia, who was 108 at the time.  She was a WWII veteran, a member of the Pottawatomie Tribe, and a devout Catholic; Megan noted that living that long was an amazing accomplishment.  She entered a nursing home and was still energetic.  Her goal was to live to be 112; she almost made it as she lived to be 111, which probably made her the oldest woman in Kansas.  This article was one of a series she did on people over 100 years old.  Megan has older relatives and has an interest in older people and their generational perspectives.  She also was inspired by a photography project which showed portraits of individuals when they were young adults and in their old age.  She noted you could often see the “younger version” was that “older person” in the portrait.  She did something similar with both photos and her interviews, with the subject recalling her early years and her later years.  She did an interview with Joe R. for an hour or two.  She realized that she couldn’t do her whole life story starting in 1910, so she focused on defining moments or significant experiences in her life.  Joe was really great and told the best stories; they were funny and had shame, regret, joy, pride and everything in between.  Megan received a lot of good feedback on this story.  Since this group was from the “Greatest Generation,” many of their memories revolved around World War II.  One woman recalled after her wedding with a soldier in Italy, she and her husband took a 10-day honeymoon trip around Italy in an army truck, accompanied by another soldier who was the truck driver.  The couple camped in the truck and the driver camped in a pup tent.  With a little grin, the lady said, “In each successive night, the pup tent was pitched further and further from the truck.”  People liked that story, and they won an award from the Kansas Press Association.  They discovered there were many octogenarians in Kanas. 

She learned that there had been great changes in their lives with the advent of television, cars, airplanes, computers etc.  To make it to that age they had to be able to change and adapt.  She thinks a lot about this in respect to her job.  She has been at the Manhattan Mercury since about 2008 and she has been Executive Editor for a decade.  Recently, she has also served in a similar role at KMAN radio station.  Lots of changes have happened since she was in grade school using Apple IIe computers to write the school newspaper articles and a darkroom to process the photographs.  By sixth grade she could do the entire newspaper on her home computer.  In middle school they had digital cameras, and by high school they had software similar to what is used today, which is typical in the industry.  In college social media had arrived along with cell phones and internet streaming.  In classes they also learned to use all types of media, audio, video etc. for a rounded experience.  Now students are already editing audio and video for their own social media.  She finds she has a harder time finding people comfortable making phone calls and spelling without spellchecking.  Megan doesn’t believe that journalism is dying; she believes there will always be a need for information, for checks and balances, or for human need for entertainment.  There will be a place to tell stories, and they will need to look for new ways to tell the stories and the best way to tell them. 

The Manhattan Mercury has been around for about 140 years and has been owned by the Seaton family for most of that time.  When she started there, the Manhattan Mercury was mostly stuck in the past but has mostly caught up now in terms of technology and everything that goes along with that.  The goal is to innovate where they can with the resources they have.  They want to have solid meeting coverage, and they want to have human interest stories, such as recent escaped cow story.  Some innovations they have tried, such as apps. they had to abandon, and some they hope to try again, such as video.  They are actually doing more, not less, as they went from three days printing to five days a week printing and they bought a second press to accommodate all the commercial work they are doing.  The Manhattan Mercury has two printing presses and there are only about 12 in the entire state of Kansas. 

Most recently, working with KMAN is one of the ways to make things more efficient.  They have combined several departments with KMAN.  Both the Manhattan Mercury and KMAN are owned by a board of Seaton family members and were essentially merged.  The news and sports reporters have been working together.  It has been an interesting undertaking; they are still learning what everyone needs and what works best.  They will try things that aren’t always comfortable.  She has been on the radio, which was never an aspiration of hers and the broadcast reporters must write in more detail than they would probably like.  The idea is to share reporters and editors.  Mike Matson is a consultant and hosts “Within Reason.” They also have an experienced sportscaster who advises them.  They try to lean into the strengths of each medium.  They want to maintain the values of good traditional journalism and find new ways to get that product in front of people and make the experience better for them.  The news is an important part of the community and they welcome comments and input from the public. 

Our guest speaker, Megan Moser and her husband, Brenden Praeger; Tim Everson, Sports Director, and Mary Phelps, former Manhattan Mercury employee, and past president of the Manhattan Optimist Club.  Kendahl Goetzmann, WTC was also a returning guest.  Gary Lloyd introduced Andrew Kvasnica, Wildcat Vet Service.

First Vice President Kelly Karl announced Heather Peterson and Kale Terrill were recipients of the 2025, 15 Under 40 program.  The 15 Under 40 program selects 15 nominees each year to honor and recognize the accomplishments of outstanding young professionals who make a positive impact in the community and excel in their industry.

About 100 finalists from the Early Expressions art contest will be displayed at the Beach Museum from February 12-15.  The award ceremony for the Early Expression art event will be held on February 15, 2025, at the Beach Museum of Art at 3:00 pm.

Jim Franke announced the Spaghetti Dinner will be held on March 29th.  Signup for workers will begin about February 15th.

Bill Widom announced signup sheets were on the tables to help with the Special Olympics basketball tournament March 21st and 22nd at Anthony and Eisenhower recreation centers.  On Friday March 21st the first shift runs from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm and the second shift runs from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm.  On Saturday March 22nd the first shift runs from 7:30 am to 11:30 am and the second shift runs from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.  If you can’t sign up for one of the shifts at the meetings, contact Bill Wisdom at bwisdom@ksu.edu .  You can also sign up online; if you do so, please let Bill know which shifts you signed up for and for which building.  Examples of the signup sheets are at the links below:

Eisenhower Recreaction Center

https://soks.givepulse.com/event/418406-2024-State-Basketball-and-Cheerleading-Manhattan

SAVE THESE DATES: Spaghetti Dinner and Silent Auction March 29th.

Adjourned with the Optimist Creed

JANUARY 29: MORNING MEETING: Business Meeting

FEBRUARY 5: MORNING MEETING: Program: Brady Armstrong, Chief Development Officer, Boys & Girls Club: Topic: “Boys & Girls Club Activities”

FEBRUARY 12: NOON MEETING: Program: Student of the Month Presentation and Jeff Sackrider, Wamego Telephone Company (WTC): Topic: “WTC Overview – Expanding Services”

FEBRUARY 19: MORNING MEETING: Program: Youth of the Month Presentation – Bluemont and Flint Hills Christian Schools

FEBRUARY 26: NOON MEETING: Program: Danielle Dulin, Manhattan City Manager: Topic: “Manhattan City Management”