Events

Joint meeting with the Rotary Club of St. Louis Park, hosted at Brookview by the Rotary Club of Golden Valley.

The cost of the event is $25 per person. ALL ATTENDEES MUST RESERVE A TICKET. The link will be made public after members of the Golden Valley and St. Louis Park clubs have registered. Tickets include a buffet-style lunch. Members from the St. Louis Park Rotary Club will be billed through their Club. All other guests will pay at the door with cash or credit card.

Former Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson will share his perspective on leadership, public service, and the challenges facing Minnesota and our nation in “Getting Back to Excellence”.

Carlson served as Minnesota’s 37th governor from 1991 to 1999, following 12 years as Minnesota state auditor and earlier service in the Minnesota House of Representatives and Minneapolis City Council. A moderate Republican, he was elected to two terms as governor and became known for working across party lines during a period when Democrats controlled both houses of the Minnesota Legislature.

During his time as governor, Carlson made fiscal management, education, health care, and environmental protection priorities. His administration's efforts to control spending and improve long-term financial management helped restore Minnesota’s AAA bond rating. He also played a key role in the 1992 health care reforms that created MinnesotaCare and championed stronger wetlands protections and environmental stewardship.

More than 25 years after leaving the governor’s office, Carlson remains an active voice in Minnesota public life. He continues to write and speak about government accountability, fiscal responsibility, leadership, and the challenges facing Minnesota. In recent years, he has continued to offer his perspective on the state’s political and civic landscape, including through commentaries published in 2024, 2025, and 2026 and a recent interview discussing current issues facing Minnesota and the nation.

Now nearly 92, Carlson brings nearly seven decades of experience in Minnesota public life to a conversation about what it takes to lead effectively, work across differences, and pursue excellence in public service.

For more than four decades, Jim Brimeyer has helped organizations and communities navigate change, develop leaders, and build stronger futures through a career spanning public service, executive leadership, business, and coaching.

Today, Jim serves as an executive coach and strategic advisor, working with leaders to strengthen their organizations and maximize their impact. A certified executive coach through the Center for Executive Coaching, accredited by the International Coaching Federation, he combines practical leadership experience with a passion for developing others. He also holds a Master of Public Administration from Northern Illinois University and a bachelor's degree from Loras College.

Jim's career in public service includes executive leadership roles with cities in Illinois, Ohio, and Minnesota, most notably serving as City Manager of St. Louis Park. In recent years, he has continued to guide organizations through periods of transition as an interim administrator and executive director for several Minnesota communities and public agencies.

In addition to his public sector leadership, Jim founded The Brimeyer Group in 1992, building a successful executive search firm that recruited leaders for cities, counties, nonprofit organizations, public agencies, and private companies before transferring the business to new ownership in 2013.

A lifelong believer in service above self, Jim has been deeply involved in Rotary and civic leadership. He has twice served as President of the St. Louis Park Rotary Club and currently serves on the Board of the St. Louis Park Rotary Foundation. His community service also includes serving as an at-large member of the St. Louis Park City Council and as a member of the Metropolitan Council representing the southwest metro, where he chaired the Management Committee and served on the Transportation Committee.

Drawing on a unique blend of leadership experience in government, business, and community service, Jim brings practical insights shaped by decades of helping organizations solve challenges, develop leaders, and create lasting impact. His presentation promises to offer attendees thoughtful perspectives informed by a lifetime of leadership and service.

Richard Bahr is a life-long resident of Minnesota having grown up in the Twin Cities area. For 21 years he was President of and partner in a successful manufacturing firm. He now coaches business leaders, helping them find success while leading balanced lives.

Due to his own life experiences coupled with a passion for service, Bahr has been involved with organizations that provide a “second chance” to those in need. In 2013, he co-founded a social ministry with his wife, Carla, called Threshold to New Life. The organization’s mission is to “Keep Families Home” through their partnerships and matching grant programs, effectively reducing homelessness. Their organization plays a part in assisting over 600 people and families in getting or keeping their housing each year.

Bahr has personally delivered over 40,000 pairs of socks to his “friends” in the street as a means of meeting the homeless, learning names and establishing relationships. He spends evenings in homeless shelters and other places where homeless people may hang out, connecting with, encouraging and helping to meet the basic needs of “the least of these”. He also operates as a volunteer Chaplain at local homeless shelters.

Bahr serves at and coordinates the volunteers for 2.4 Ministries which provides a daily breakfast and fellowship a Minneapolis homeless shelter. He also has volunteered at Project 6:8 providing a weekly, home cooked meal under the 394 bridge west of Dunwoody College.

In addition, he is a founding member of and served as President of the Hennepin Technical College Foundation for 16 years at which he established the Bahr Family Endowment, he also serves as a mentor to chemically dependent men and has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity.

Richard Bahr is also a published author. Proceeds from his recent book, "Amazed: Why the Humanity of Jesus Matters", go towards funding his social ministry. In October 2018, Bahr released his most recent book, "Those People: The True Character the Homeless" relating stories about his homeless friends while transforming the readers’ paradigms of homelessness.

Go here to learn more about Threshold to New Life and Richard Bahr online at www.richardbahr.com.

Tom Selinger served 27 years in the U.S. Foreign Service with overseas tours in Kyrgyzstan, Denmark, Croatia, Albania, and Trinidad and Tobago and portfolios ranging from security cooperation to American citizen services. In his retirement, he works for the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, a nonprofit where he directs outreach efforts to promote public understanding of the work of America's diplomats. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, including combat service with the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Desert Storm, and worked as a locally-employed political specialist for the Canadian government at their Consulate in Minneapolis, MN. His interest in international affairs began during his time in Belgium as a Rotary International Exchange Student sponsored by the Rotary Club of Golden Valley. Tom is married to fellow diplomat Kirsten Selinger and has four children and three grandchildren.

Back in 1776, America's diplomats helped win the American Revolution, and over the past 250 years, they have continued to make our country safer, stronger, and more prosperous. Tom Selinger, a retired Foreign Service Officer, will share stories of how our diplomats have saved American citizens in peril, opened markets for products from our farms and factories, and built alliances to ensure our collective security and advance our ideals. He'll highlight diplomats from Minnesota and how their work has benefited communities across the state.