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The Brownsdale Study Club met at the home of Fern Paschke on Aug. 15. President Shelly Vogel opened the meeting with the reading of the Collect. Four members answered the roll call, “Where is your sanctuary?”  The secretary and treasurer’s reports were approved. There was no old business.

Under new business, Therese Manggaard will find out more details about our fall outing to the Marion Ross Theatre. Mary Kidwiler Moritz made a motion to suspend blast from the past for the year 2024 and substitute historical issues month by month from 1924, seconded by Therese, carried. The calendar for 2024 was filled out. Shelly made a motion to donate $20 to the Brownsdale Library for printing out the booklets, seconded by Fern, carried. Because of scheduling conflicts, we will return to meeting on the third Wednesday of the month. Mary made a motion to keep the same officers for another year, seconded by Therese, carried. 

Under announcements, the Brownsdale Library will resume their book club on Thursday, Sept. 14 with the book, “Educated.”

Mary made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Fern.

Mary’s blast from the past highlighted the Aug. 21, 1991 meeting which was held at Laura Akkerman’s home. Marleen Swan presented her topic, “Lysine Corn.” Laura gave the history of “The House on the Rock” in Wisconsin. Completed in 1945, the House on the Rock was the dream-come-true of builder Alex Jordan.

Mary presented the main topic, “What is Cryptocurrency?” Cryptocurrency is digital currency designed to work as a method of exchange though a computer network that is not dependent on a central computer network authority such as a government or a bank, to uphold it. In a “proof-of-stake” model (also known as “mining”) owners put up their “tokens/coins” as collateral. In return, these owners get authority over each of their tokens in proportion to the amount that they stake. Cryptocurrency does not exist in a physical form and is not issued by a central authority. Using decentralized control, each cryptocurrency works through a distributed ledger technology  also known as “blockchain” that serves as a public financial transaction database. On a blockchain, mining is the proof that transactions are legitimate. For their efforts of successfully validating transactions, miners obtain a new cryptocurrency as a reward. The reward reduces transaction fees by creating an incentive to contributing additional power to the network. In 2022, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center received almost 10,000 complaints from victims over age 60 involving the use of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, Eththeum, Litcoin, or Ripple.Losses incurred by these victims totaled more than $1 billion.

Shelly served a very moist and delicious sugar free and gluten free zucchini cake topped with homegrown black walnuts.

Submitted by Therese Manggaard, secretary