SPEAKER
Dean Holmes graciously agreed to be our speaker on the spur of the moment. He told us some anecdotes of his time as Mayor of Miles City, MT. Dean had a friend who was always complaining about the school board. Dean laid out a challenge to his friend that if the friend would run for the School Board, Dean would run for mayor. Dean was 27 years old then and knew next to nothing about the mayor's job, but he went and filled out the papers and, after a door-to-door campaign, Dean was elected mayor. He found out later that his friend had never filled out the papers to run for the school board. Dean even had to ask where the City Council met.
Miles City people are conservative in their views. Dean mentioned the Bucking Horse Rodeo - a 3-day event that is Miles City's biggest events of the year. He got to ride on the back of a bison one year.
A couple of issues Dean mentioned were trying to stop the illegal dumping of garbage in the Yellowstone River (he succeeded) and finding the funds to upgrade the quality of the sewage treatment plant.
Dean put in 8 years as mayor and he always wore a white cowboy hat which was his trademark during those years.