President-Elect Dan Coons opened the meeting. He explained that President Jim Schmidt was in Guaymas, Mexico, and that some members of the board had initiated impeachment proceedings against him because of his often-ill-fated accounting jokes. Actually, Jim was in Guaymas with the Mesa West team carrying out the annual Gift of Hearing mission in that community.Ted Williams offered the Pledge of Allegiance and Warren Williamson led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Guests
Zane Luma was attending the meeting with his mother, Aubrey Luma. Seasonal visiting Rotarians attending their first meeting for this Rotary year were: Lolita Wiesner, Rik Bucy, and Thom Mellen.
Drawings
Dan Coons asked Zane Luma to draw a winning token for the weekly attendance drawing. Allan Cady and Chuck Flint's tokens were drawn but neither was present to win. Bob Zarling was the lucky winner on the third and final try. Ron Thompson handled the holder of the weekly raffle ticket drawn would win $31. If the ace of clubs were to be drawn from the dwindling deck, $641 would go to the holder of the ticket drawn. Don Boucher's ticket was drawn. His luck did not hold out. When he drew from the deck of cards, he drew the deuce of clubs.
Happy Bucks
Jeanie Morgan was happy to have attended her first Bat Mitzvah and was very impressed with the perfection and poise Sammy Rosenberg exhibited on her special day. John Pennypacker contributed - not so happy bucks - he was facing a costly and up-to-now unheard-of vehicle repair. His rear-view mirror was leaking fluid. Dr. Ron suggested it might be caused by too many turns of the mirror for John to check out his appearance. John discounted that opinion stating he has a vanity mirror on his visor for that purpose. Rik Bucy said that he was disappointed that he had been unable to take Greg Okonowski fishing when Greg was in Alaska this past summer because Rik's home had sold much quicker than he anticipated and they were moving when Greg was there. Jack Rosenberg was proud of Sammy and her parents, Frank and Colleen. Thom Mellen was glad to be back in Arizona. They left Maine two weeks ago. Jason Gitkin contributed - he was happy to be at the meeting to bring everyone up to date about Sky Harbor Airport. Greg Okonowski was in New York recently and met an exchange student from Australia. The student had a very frugal father and rather than purchase an airline ticket for his son to travel to the U.S., he arranged for him to travel on a tramp steamer. The young man made friends with the crew. They spent a week in Cancun because the ship was broke. The captain stopped him from going on an inappropriate outing with his friends on the crew. The ship broke again, and they docked in South Carolina. The captain suggested he contact Rotary to see if they could help him get the rest of the way. A Rotarian picked him up, and took him golfing, then put him on a train to Albany where his host family picked him up. Dan Coons was also happy to have attended Sammy's Bat Mitzvah. He also enjoyed the District Rotary Youth Exchange outing he participated in with the Goetzenbergers and 16 teens. Greg contributed $5 for being late.
Announcements
- President-Elect Dan announced five volunteers are needed at the East Valley Adult (Senior) Center November 19. They will meet people arriving for an event and drive them in golf carts from their parking spots to the venue.
- Sharing information John Pennypacker learned on a recent conference call with RI Zone Director, Johrita Solari, he announced:
- The Rotary International Convention in Hawaii June 6-10, 2020 is filling fast with over 25,000 already registered. The registration fee goes up December 15.
- Steven Solomon, who served our Zone well as our Rotary International Annual Giving Officer many years, has moved on to another opportunity and has been replaced by Geoff Cochran. Jeff can be reached at ago@zone26/27.org.
- RI is still waiting to hear from the IRS on the proposed change to the tax status of RI from a 501(c)4 to a 501(c)3. This has a substantial financial impact for RI and if approved will significantly reduce expenses. No impact for clubs at this time.
- Grow Rotary is the focus of International RI President, Mark Maloney. To that end there is an upward trend. New members since 1 July of 1,189 now total 1,219,291. Even though this is good news, overall RI is still down from the membership total from October 2018. With 168 new Rotary Clubs chartered since 1 July, there are 36,058 clubs in RI worldwide.
- John urged members to attend the November 14 club meeting which will be about The Rotary Foundation. Assistance will be available at that meeting for anyone who needs help signing up for Rotary Direct. If 100% of our members sign up to give to TRF through automated donations, we can get a $2,000 grant from District 5495.
Program
Steve Ross introduced speaker, Jason Gitkin, who is in charge of airport tours and special events at Sky Harbor International Airport. He is an Arizona State graduate.
Phoenix owns Sky Harbor, Deer Valley and Goodyear airports and has a seat on the board of Mesa Gateway Airport. He urged members to visit the Sky Harbor website: https://www.skyharbor.com. He stated that Sky Harbor is the busiest three-runway airport in the nation. A plane arrives or takes off every 60-90 seconds. The airport has a thirty-eight-billion-dollar impact on our state. In or around the airport, there are 45,000 jobs that support the activities of the airport.
The airport was purchased by the City of Phoenix in 1935 for $100,000. Terminal 1 opened in 1952. In the 1930's people flew to Phoenix to get married in a chapel located at the airport and would then fly back out. The waiting period to get married in Phoenix was the shortest in the nation at that time.
The first international flight from the airport went to Mexico. Terminal 1 is gone now. Terminal 2 opened in 1962 and is slated to be closed in 2020. Airlines now at terminal 2 will move to 3 which is being supersized. The new concourse is very open and scenic. Since many passengers never leave the airport, the reconstruction amenities added will make their experience much more pleasant. Terminal 2 will go away (be destroyed). Eventually, a long time down the road, a new terminal will be built. The updated Terminal 3 is much more modern. They are required to have national and local chains in the vendors at the terminals. Terminal 4 was opened in 1990. Southwest Airlines will have a whole section in the new concourse. The airport has a full-service urgent care facility in Terminal 4. The sky train service is expanding. Eventually the buses will go away. This is projected to happen by 2022 to relieve traffic congestion at the airport. The sky train will go to the rental car station.
In the airport's comprehensive asset management plan, cargo will be moving to the north side of the airport property. The Arizona Air National Guard facility on the site is expanding. Jason was glad to see that many Rotarians know about and take advantage of the cell phone parking lots and animal relief areas on site. He said that discounted parking is available through their website.
They have tried to create their own success by calling themselves America's Friendliest Airport, which causes those employed in the many support functions try to live up to that image. He urged anyone having a bad experience to report it. Jason stated that on November 6, they had a banquet honoring over 400 volunteers who work at the airport. They have a mail-back program for items confiscated by TSA that cannot go past security. They have installed more charging outlets for people traveling with electronic devices.
TSA is its own program. TSA Pre-check is available. Jason advised members to buy US Customs and Border first as it includes the TSA pre-check. To learn more about this, CLICK HERE.
They conduct free airport tours twice a month. There is a USO located in Terminal 4. Sky Harbor has the second largest airport museum in the nation.
A fun fact shared was that over 1.2 million packs of gum are sold annually. The most sold candy is peanut M&M's.