Janis Ringhand, From Politics to Mustard – General Meeting, May 28th, 2025

Blackhawk Golden ‘K’ General Meeting
Minutes
May 28^th, 2025

Roger Willeford presiding, called the meeting to order with a ring of the bell at 9:30AM.
An Executive Board meeting occurred today.
34 members were in attendance today.

The meeting was led with the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of America, the National Anthem.

Invocation: Bob Knudson, mentioning good food and drink and the children.

Raffle: Steve Skelly oversaw the ticket sales and drawing this week.
The weekly pot was $12 and the big (Joker) pot was $227.
Nancy Tarco drew a ticket from the bucket, ticket number 351. Congratulations to the winner, Nancy Tarco.
The deck of cards has 35/53 cards remaining. Nancy Tarco drew the 4♥.

Roger Willeford thanks greeters Don Kellogg and Dick Fay, invocator Bob Knudson, rafflemaster Steve Skelly, and server Maury Frey.

Happy Box: Nancy Tarco announced she is happy because she won the raffle, and will donate the winnings to the club.
Luci Cramer announced she is happy because we have a new club member!

Roger Willeford announced that Ray Szczepaniak brought a guest today, Monte Whitford.
Roger Willeford announced that John Janes sponsors a new member, Nancy Wright. Carl Cramer inducted Nancy! A song was sung.

Jokes: Steve Skelly had a good joke about a man who went to the doctor. “Some days, ‘Doc, I awake and believe I am Donald Duck. Other days, Mickey Mouse!” The doctor replies, “How long have you been having these Disney spells?”

Member Health: Linda Bontly had a status update on Jerry Burhans, who is struggling to leave.
Maury Frey had a status update on Jerry Langdok, whose wife’s health is poor.

Other Announcements: Roger Willeford spoke upon ECHO, which continues to search for board members.

Committee Reports: John Janes announced the Salvation Army sent a thank-you letter for the trees.
Steve Skelly a dozen benches’ lumber is on order.
John Janes commented that Dave Thill has the Kiwanis Park watering schedule being passed around.
John Janes reminded use the Janesville Rally bike race is soon, June 19^th.

Luci Cramer introduced the day’s speaker, Janis Ringhand. Janis was a small business accountant for 25 years. She took to Evansville’s local government, going from city council, to alderman, to mayor, and for eight years included her name with the State Senators. After government, she started a small business selling mustard., which is distributed by Bushel and Peck, and at local venues including the Middleton Mustard Museum and Decatur Dairy.
Janet spent time detailing the process of growing a mustard business.
After some time, she received a grant, then purchased a bottling machine, which brought production from eight jars in eight minutes to eighty.
Her company, generally a one-person operation, creates around 14,500 bottles yearly.
The flavor is different when paired with different beers. While she might have liked to use Spotted Cow, it was less desirable than Miller High Life.
The mustard is a Wisconsin state approved recipe. Unfortunately, that means it requires a lengthy approval process if Janis were to alter any ingredient.
The business can produce 64 gallons per day, resulting in 64 cases of 12 twelve-ounce bottles.
A 16-hour batch is around 800 bottles.
The product is sold at Basics, Evansville Piggly Wiggly, in Beloit and elsewhere. A 4oz. version is available infrequently.
Janet then discussed being a senator.
At the time, the Wisconsin senate had 99 members. Janis’ district covered an area from the state line up to around Whitewater.
The title included a one week legislative orientation, in part to avoid mistakes such as misspeaking.
She sat on multiple committees, including “Insurance, Forestry and Financial Institutions.”
Janis relayed the party in power generally decided on and chaired the committees. There were new members every two years (a term’s length).
Senate sessions could last up to eighteen hours. One memorable session was when Scott Walker made action against unions, for which the filibuster was 72 hours.
Janis was a member of the State Building Commission. She was able to tour the underground facility beneath Camp Randall, which includes the athletes’ area, and such amenities as spas, and some restaurants.
The state previously had some of the worst rest stop bathrooms in the country. Janis rallied for their reform.
She told about the “Cookie bill.” A law prevented anyone from selling baked goods without a state certified kitchen, and Janis worked to remove the law. It was disliked by a senator with large interest friends, and never saw the Assembly floor. Later, it was taken to court, and now people are able to sell home baked goods up to a dollar value ($10,000?).
Kiwanian Jim Farrell previously asked about a law to block drivers after their sixth driving under the influence. Janis relayed, another example of governmental bureaucracy / large interest groups blocking topics was alcohol laws’ reform. People generally won’t approach some topics, due in part to lobbyists’ control.
Janis was well received and her presentation, informative.