Highlights of April 13 Meeting

Welcome and Open Meeting - President Pam Cohen
 
  • Shelly Romine offered the invocation.
  • The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Steve Ross
  • Colleen Coons presented the Rotary Minute.  She shared information about the Rotary Open World program which replaced Rotary Group Study Exchange several years ago.  In May of 2024, District 5495 will be hosting an Open World Team.  Colleen thought Mesa West Rotary would might want to accept the challenge of being very active in the planning of their 8-day program while in our district.  Members who agree to host would need to see that the visitors get to their planned activities, providing meals and the comforts of home.  In addition to 8 days in Arizona, the incoming team will spend two days in Washington DC.
  • Pam recognized Pai Bethea and Polo Santiago who were both attending via Zoom.
Introduction of Guests
 
  • Diane Ware introduced her sister, Janice Wagner, an Arizona native who will soon be moving to Hawaii.
  • Polly Cady introduced Shane White, who has visited before.  He is director of Imaging and Facility at Arizona General/Dignity Hospital in Mesa.  One of the member noted Shane's accent and he responded saying he grew up in North Carolina and spent fifteen years in Atlanta.
  • Ted Williams introduced speaker PDG Abe Feder, saying Abe is one of two Past District Governors in his family.  Barb Feder was a Rotarian before she drug Abe kicking and screaming into Rotary, but once in, he loved it.
  • President Pam introduced Tom Yuzer who spends about half the year in Arizona and the balance in Minnesota.  Attending Mesa West while in Arizona helps him maintain his perfect attendance status.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint
 
Chuck explained that raffle tickets are sold for $5 each.  A third of the revenue goes to the club operating account, a third goes to the daily pot, which he announced would be $40, and a third goes into the large pot which was up to $355.  
 
The holder of the winning ticket would win the small pot plus the opportunity to try to draw the Ace of Clubs which would entitle them to the large pot or a joker, which would entitle them to $20.  
 
Chuck asked Abe Feder to draw the ticket.  It was held by Lola McClane.  Since Lola is our photographer, there was no photo taken of her drawing the Queen of Spades from the deck.
 
Happy Bucks - Ron Thompson
 
  • Ron was happy to have won a medal - even though it wasn't gold - at the Spring Olympics.
  • Colleen Coons was happy Ron has again agreed to be Sgt at Arms next year.  She was also appreciative of having the opportunity to share in the Microcredit experience by travelling to Hermasillo Mexico with a group led by Abe earlier this year.
  • Dick Myren contributed his traditional $2 - happy that he and Honorary Member Rod Daniels were fortunate to be members of the Ace of Clubs.  He was also very happy to see Abe Feder, saying Abe and Barb are long-time friends.
  • Pam was happy that she had exchanged houses with her daughter and son-in-law the prior weekend, meaning she got to spend the weekend with her grandson, Wilder.  She was delighted to see what a good little boy he is when his parents aren't around.
  • Allan Cady complimented Mesa West Rotary for being a wonderfully giving club.  He pointed out that Jeanie is President of TRVFA.  Of the $230,000 in donations received by TRVFA this year, Mesa West Rotarians and their network were responsible for $37,050 of that total amount.
  • Jeanie Morgan contributed.  She was happy to report that our CPA member, Ray Smith has been responsible for a significant amount of the donations brought in or donated by our club members.  She was also grateful that her COVID brain-fog had mostly lifted.
  • Ed Koeneman was very happy for everyone who attended and helped make the Spring Olympics a success.  Someone had sent Ed a video of Jeanie to share - Jeanie's reaction is shown in the final photo.  Your editor was unable to figure out how to share it in the Messenger.  Ed also reported that John Pennypacker was on his way to his 60th high school class reunion, and John pledged $60 to his team's sponsorship fundraising effort.
Announcements
 
Jim Erickson gave an update on Polio Plus.  Following are numbers he shared about cases of the wild polio virus.
  • 2017 - 22 Cases
  • 2018 - 33 cases
  • 2021 - only 6 cases
  • 2022 - 30 Cases
  • 2023 - so far, only 1 case so far.  It was reported in Pakistan 
He said the leaders are hoping this is the year we will break the transition - and we seem to be on the right track.  He hopes he will live long enough to see the official statement that the world has been declared polio-free.  Ten years has to pass with no new case(s) of wild polio virus in order for that declaration to occur.
 
The last time Jim checked, Mesa West was the highest giving club in our district for Polio Plus.  In addition to the total amount, there is a per capita giving factor that could allow some smaller club(s) to overtake us.  We have a very good chance of winning the traveling Polio Plus Champions trophy back.  The Rotary Foundation has budgeted $50,000,000 for Polio Plus. If we make that goal, the Gates Foundation will match it $2/$1
 
David Brauchler reported that the New Life Center was very appreciative of the donations given to them from the joint project we participated in with Mesa Sunrsise Rotary Club.  They said it was an amazing surprise.  Many of the items could be put into immediate use.  Many who will benefit are survivors of violence.
 
Dave is trying to put a project together with Sunshine Acres, but is having difficulty connecting.
 
Dave asked members to watch for a registration link opportunity to sign up to give blood at the Ross Farnsworth YMCA May 11, when Mesa West will be holding our lunch meeting at the YMCA facility.  (In fact information was emailed by David to members April 18.  We need to respond within a week.  After that, the registration link will again be available to the public.)
 
 
Program - Abe Feder - The Face of Microcredit
 
President Pam introduced Abe saying that she got to know Barb and Abe just under 33 years ago - before any of them were in Rotary.  Pam was trying to schedule a baby-naming event in their synagogue.  The date she wanted conflicted with the Feders' son's bar mitzvah, which was being held Friday and Saturday of that weekend.  The Feders agreed to sharing the time. with Pam saying it made perfect sense to combine the celebration of a new life coming into the synagogue with their son becoming a man.  Pam has always appreciated their gracious attitude.
 
Abe said that seven years ago Sherry Mischell invited him to participate in Microcredit.  there was no job description.  There was a micro-credit issue, and Sherry asked Abe to "go fix it."  Abe said on his first trip to visit borrowers, he found himself.  He has a sense that many who make that excursion have that same experience.  Since Mesa West Rotary is an "invested partner", Abe encouraged members of Mesa West to travel on one of the future trips.   He was happy to show a slide of the Fin Reg office, saying it is "not the Ritz."  They are the company we use to manage the program.  
 
The problem was that the projects had started out as matching grants or global grants, the there was no way to say the project was completed and all the funds used.  The borrowers repay their loans, paying a pretty high interest rate, and the funds are loaned back out to new borrowers or prior borrowers whose businesses are growing.
 
CLICK HERE to see the slide presentation.  
 
Abe's slide presentation did a great job of putting a face on the stories of several who have benefitted from the microcredit lending program.