Thank you to Admiral Michael Franken for spending an hour + with Potluck column readers this week. Often issues related to foreign affairs get short-changed in political campaigns, as they are overshadowed by the so-called kitchen-table topics that surface among focus groups of voters.
As Franken said on the call:
[Foreign Affairs}…doesn’t particularly impact people… until it does.
Franken agreed to appear periodically on future sessions to weigh in on international events. Check out the video above, and you’ll see why his perspective is steeped in experience.
Poetry Palooza
Our Monday Zoom Lunch guests for February 6 are affiliated with Poetry Palooza, which is taking place in April. Here is a blurb about our guests, provided by Diane Glass:
Diane Glass, former marketing director of the Des Moines Register, is now a spiritual director and poet. She is one of a team of poetry loving women resurrecting the celebrated Iowa Poetry Festival. Poetry Palooza will be held April 6 to 8 in Des Moines at Mainframe Studios and Franklin Junior High. Four poets laureate and other talented published poets, including Akwi Nji and Caleb Rainey, will headline the festival.
Deb Marquart is Iowa’s Poet Laureate and a Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University. A singer/songwriter, she continues to perform solo and with her jazz-poetry performance project, The Bone People, with whom she has recorded two CDs. Marquart’s most recent book, The Night We Landed on the Moon: Essays Between Exile & Belonging, was published in 2021.
Kelsey Bigelow is a spoken word artist, page and performance poet. Kelsey is leading the final slam competition that will select Iowa’s representative in the national competition of National State Poetry Associations.Â
Our Monday Zoom Lunch sessions are now open to all subscribers. Thankfully, we are still getting enough paid subscribers to help fund the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat scholarship fund, so we are eliminating the Monday Zoom paywall.
There are plans underway for a real-time gathering of paid subscribers later this year as a thank-you. Perhaps, a potluck?
Please do not share the Zoom invitation link publicly on the internet. I had an incident where a hacker tried to disrupt our meeting a couple of weeks ago. If we can keep that from happening, the Monday Zoom lunch sessions will be open to all paid AND free subscribers.
Zoome Invite Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86053520974
Future Monday Zoom Lunch Guest
The debacles facing the Iowa Democratic Party structure reminded me of a business speaker I had the privilege of booking on three occasions. He is Ian McDougall, and in my 20+ careers as a Vistage business executive coach, the presentation he gave to the organizational leaders in my group were some of the most memorable.
The life Cycles of an Organization is his topic. If you are on a board, lead a company, or are simply curious why some entities that once enjoyed exponential growth, but ultimately fail, you’ll understand better why after hearing Ian McDougall.
I guarantee you will find the time with him well spent.
In fact, send this column to people you think might benefit from the discussion. Large, established companies are not all doomed to failure, but there are plenty of red flags to heed, and the more established company leaders need to heed warning signs before it’s too late.
Tune in Monday, February 13, 12:p.m. central time: Ian McDougall, founder, Corporate LifeCycles Associates.
Have you heard?
Des Moines native, Justin Roberts (son of Dawn, and the late Steve Roberts), is up for a Grammy nomination. Again! Check out the story in The Des Moines Register. The Grammys will be held at 7 p.m., Sunday, February 5. Justin’s mom, Dawn, is in California to be there for the event.
And, one more Have you Heard?
Rekha Basu and I are in the process of launching a podcast titled: What the hell happened to Iowa?
We are honored to have our intro and outro music composed and performed by the amazing Tina Haase Findlay.
Subscribe, and take a listen to what Tina recorded:
P.S. Responding to Frequently Asked Question: No, Rekha and I were not backup singers. Tina recorded all six tracks of the song. We did get to watch the magical process of creation, however. Thanks to Brian Dodson and James Hamilton, our audio engineers, for their time and talent!
IOWA WRITERS’ COLLABORATIVE
I am delighted to be a founding Iowa Writers’ Collaborative member. We have columnists in Davenport, Waterloo, Bussey, Kalona, Cedar Rapids, Jefferson, St. Ansgar, Jefferson, Des Moines, Lovilla, Winterset, and more! If you sign up for the Monday Roundup, you’ll receive links compiled from columns filed that week.
SPECIAL SHOUT TO Robert Leonard for landing an opinion piece in the New York Times. A co-author is David Oman, from Des Moines. The topic is immigration reform:
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative ColumnistsÂ
Laura Belin:Â Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns:Â The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek:Â Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle:Â A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha:Â Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford:Â Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Beth Hoffman:Â In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Pat Kinney:Â View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer:Â Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard:Â Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Tar Macias:Â Hola Iowa, Iowa
Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton:Â My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger:Â Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains, Washington, D.C.
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis:Â Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts:Â Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Teresa Zilk:Â Talking Good, Des Moines
If you aren’t already receiving the weekly roundup, sign up here:
We are proud to have an alliance with Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Video of Zoom call with Michael Franken