diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b063e9ac2903d505777b0cc0a91c9fc4515494e4..462eacf3f41ae7fd0d17dbb3768fa9aa89ca6238 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/) and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
+## 2.3.4 - 2023-09-09
+
+### Changed
+- forgot to update the template
+
 ## 2.3.3 - 2023-09-09
 
 ### Changed
diff --git a/terraform/modules/rke1/templates/user_data.tmpl b/terraform/modules/rke1/templates/user_data.tmpl
index 2f12a3c424ec9ca987b92afe88e08b36081655e0..3ee73cf09ca10b2bee0709883d5c62bfe78a5b70 100644
--- a/terraform/modules/rke1/templates/user_data.tmpl
+++ b/terraform/modules/rke1/templates/user_data.tmpl
@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@ ssh:
 package_update: true
 package_upgrade: true
 
+# set timezone
+timezone: America/Chicago
+
 # files to be created on the system
 write_files:
 - path: /etc/fstab