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Please Introduce Yourself
Posted on October 25, 2006 by Jason Aadland
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Tell us about your background and qualifications, and why you are running?
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Candidate Responses
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Meet Tom Katus
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n his famous inaugural address, President Kennedy challenged Americans: "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country." Tom Katus, then a Civil Engineering junior at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, responded to the President's challenge and volunteered for the very first Kennedy's first Peace Corps mission. He served for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer surveyor/engineer constructing rural to market roads in Tanzania. After returning to the United States and completing his college graduate education, he was founding president and CEO of Volunteer Training Specialists, Inc. (VTSI), a private company of 12 American and African owner-employees with multicultural training experience. Within four years, VTSI trained more than 2,000 Peace Corps Volunteers for deployment to five countries at training sites in South Dakota, the southern U.S., and around the world. For the past 18 years, Katus' firm, TK Associates, International, has assisted in the launching and development of more than 50 small businesses, tourism attractions, tribes and colleges in South Dakota and the Great Plains region.
Katus remarks, "My extensive private sector and public service experience supports long-term development to secure the future of our children and grandchildren. Smart growth is smart business," says Katus. He believes there are three interrelated issues that are at the top of most voters' agendas. These include jobs, health care and education. To address these interrelated issues, Katus states, "We need to continue to grow our own small business sector while simultaneously encouraging large companies that pay a living wage to locate in South Dakota. There are 90,000 people without health insurance in South Dakota. We also need to help all our small businesses to pool together to negotiate with the insurance companies to enable them to obtain the best health insurance coverage for their employees at lowest costs."
He concludes, "I have long practiced life, not pontificated about it. I have three children, two of whom are adopted, and six wonderful grandchildren. All are God's children and have every right to their own pursuit of happiness. I do not feel we should be passing legislation such as HB 1215 that has no exceptions for rape, incest or health of the mother. In my extended family, there is direct experience with some of these issues. I do not need preachy, holier-than-thou legislators, many of whom are men, to tell me how to deal with these very private spiritual matters. I will work hard to promote adoption, parenting classes, health and sex education to help everyone avoid unwanted pregnancies and raise healthy families once children are born."
Katus was born and raised in McIntosh, SD on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation. He volunteered for the U.S. Army National Guard right out of high school. He received his basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO and advanced combat engineer training at Ft. Belvoir, VA, where he fired a perfect score on the machine gun range. Since his days as a student at SDSM&T, he has resided intermittently in Rapid City and continuously for the past 18 years. Following his Civil Engineering training at Mines, he received a B.S. in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and completed graduate studies in International Administration at UWM and UCLA. He has conducted scores of workshops and seminars for small businesses, professional associations and colleges and has published more than 30 professional books and articles. He serves as a part-time Special Correspondent to The Lakota Country Times. He is editor of The Last Mile, the newsletter of the Black Hills Running Club in which he has been active for over 20 years.
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Posted By Tom Katus on October 30, 2006 0:59
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