In 1932, Herbert John Taylor was hired to try to rescue a cookware company out of bankruptcy following the depression.  He felt like they could survive if they differentiated their company from their competition if they could truthfully market themselves as a company with integrity.  He crafted a simple measuring stick of ethics for employees of the struggling company to memorize.  Before asking them to do so, he practiced using it himself for a brief period and found that he needed to rewrite some letters before sending them, and rewrite some advertising material.  He didn't want to ask his employees to live up to a standard he didn't strive to live up to himself.  His plan was successful.  Some members may remember Club Aluminum cookware being used in their family kitchens.  Eleven years later, in 1943, The Four Way Test was adopted as one of Rotary's guiding principles.

 

 

Taylor became Rotary International's 44th president, and championed the code in all aspects of life.  He felt strongly that if we applied the Test to our relations with youth, we would all become more determined to give as much as possible of our time.  The Rotary Club of Fort Collins, Colorado did that.  The club has introduced the principles to tens of thousands of public school students since the mid 1990's bringing Rotary into the classrooms to facilitate honest discussion about how the test can help solve personal predicaments.  Speech teachers enthusiastically welcomed the program helping write scenarios - ethical challenges - for the youth, and tapping input from the students, as well.

 

Jeanie added an editorial comment.  She believes many young people with political aspirations take speech and debate classes.  She thought it might be beneficial to follow the lead of the Fort Collins' club by introducing those students to The Four Way Test while they are still impressionable.

 

 

As members and guests arrive, they can purchase tickets for $5 each.  If their ticket is drawn, they automatically win 1/3 of what was taken in in ticket sales.  1/3 of the ticket sales goes into the club treasury, and the last 1/3 increases the amount of accumulated potential winnings.  The lucky ticket holder also wins a chance to draw from a deck of cards.  If they draw a joker, they win an additional $20.  If they draw the Ace of Clubs, they win the accumulated winnings of $1,302.  Any other card drawn is destroyed.  Chuck always looks for someone honest to draw the winning ticket and chose Robin Harris to do the honors.  The ticket drawn belonged either to Melodie Jackson or her husband, Randy.  Randy let Melodie take responsibility for drawing the card.  She drew the 8 of Diamonds.  On the 15th, the potential winnings will be bigger and the odds of drawing the Ace of Clubs a little bit better.  In any case, the club always wins.

 

 

Ted has held onto this treasure for a long time while we were meeting via Zoom because of COVID.  They had travelled to Australia to enjoy a visit with the family of Craig and Sue Owen, Mesa West Rotary Club's first Rotary Youth Exchange Student form Port Arthur.  While there, they visited Tazmania.  It has been a long tradition in Mesa West that members bring back gifts from their travels to auction at a meeting for fun and to benefit the club treasury.  There was no way to know what they were bidding on.  The bag that contained the treasurer was quite small.  After some competitive bids were exchanged, Chris Krueger prevailed with a $55 bid.  

 

The treasure that she won with her high bid had a story behind it.  It was a pendant necklace crafted by a local artist using ashes from their own burnt home as part of the media for the beautiful keepsake.