Opening and Welcome - President Jay Paulus
Dick Myren offered the invocation. Ted Williams led the Pledge of Allegiance. John Pennypacker led everyone in reciting the 4-Way-Test by singing it.
District Governor Banners
John Pennypacker has been the room preparation guy for Mesa West Rotary for several years. Displaying the banners for our many Past District Governors is a chore that would make it hard to recruit a replacement should John ever want to retire from that task. He had received the first of two new pull-up banners listing several PDG's on a single banner - the cost of which was about half what we would be paying for a banner for our soon-to-be District Governor, Jim Schmidt. Colleen Coons is now officially in the line-up to be DG in 2027-28. There seems to be a height requirement for setting up the new banner. Exavier King displayed his "Always be prepared" boy scout values by getting up to assist John.
Lou General wondered what would be done with the existing felt banners, and expressed her desire to have her banner if the club was no longer going to use it.Wayne General thanked Jeanie for putting a link to his report on taking better pictures in the Messenger. He will be presenting a program on that topic April 10. He encouraged members to read through it so they could be prepared to ask any questions that he might not cover during his presentation.
Lucinda and Wayne General were both celebrating birthdays during the week of the meeting. The club sang Happy Birthday to them
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint
Chuck announced that the small pot was $30, and the large, accumulating pot, was up to $930. He asked Andy Bradford to draw the winning ticket, which was held by Lou General.. Chuck delivered the $30 small pot to her, and she deliberately worked with the cards before her attempt to draw the Ace of Clubs so she could also receive the large pot. Unfortunately, for Lou, the card she drew was the Eight of Spades.
Happy Bucks - Andy Bradford, Sgt at Arms
- Wayne General made a $75 contribution to celebrate his 75th birthday.
- Liz Paulus contributed. She had attended the organization meeting for the satellite club and was very happy to be a part of Rotary.
- Jack Rosenberg was also happy to have attended the organization meeting of the satellite club.
- Harry Grossman enjoyed the singing of the 4-Way-Test. In a prior Rotary Club he was a part of, singing was a very integral part of their club culture. They had a Rotary song book, there was a piano in the room to accompany their singing. At each meeting, a random member would be selected to choose the Rotary song that would be sung at that meeting. They had the page numbers of their favorite songs memorized.
- Dick Myren contributed his traditional $2 thankful that he and Honorary Member Rod Daniels are associated with the Ace of Clubs. He contributed a couple of sad dollars for missing Ignite Innovation and the organization meeting of the satellite club.
- Lou General thanked everyone for the lovely birthday serenade. She said she would be heading for Chicago April 12 to participate in the Rotary International Council on Legislation. Once every three years, the COL is held in person to vote on potential changes in the RI governing documents. It will be her second opportunity to represent District 5495 at the unique event and hear the perspectives offered from different parts of the world regarding the proposed changes. She said it is an interesting process to see it all play out.
- Justin Hart was happy to have made it to a meeting and expressed his appreciation of the warm welcome he received when he arrived.
- John Pennypacker thinks that Warren Williamson has somehow influenced one of John's grandsons. John's daughter took his grandsons - ages nine and eleven - to the National Archives. When showing the Declaration of Independence, the tour guide asked if anyone knew where it was signed. Nine-year-old Will said, "At the bottom."
- Ed Koeneman was happy he and Deb would be hosting the social event of the season - Spring Olympics - at their home on Saturday. He said to be sure to wear close-toed shoes and apparel that would make being attacked by spiny plants less likely. When asked what time help should show up to help him get the games set up, he said help should arrive at 2:00. To celebrate the long list of family birthdays and anniversaries, he pledged $100 to his sponsorship program team. He was also happy to announce it is only 414 days until the scheduled release of the next Star Wars movie.
- Deb Koeneman was was attending on Zoom also pledged $100 to their team to celebrate their anniversary. She said a few years ago, they renewed their marriage vows in Star Wars apparel at a Star Wars event which they attended on their anniversary.
- Colleen who was attending on Zoom pledged $50 to Pam's group and encouraged everyone to register for the District Conference.
- Warren Williamson told about a woman who woke up in the middle of the night and was surprised her husband was not in bed. She found him in the kitchen enjoying some hot cocoa. He told her he was celebrating their first date. When she expressed her surprise that he remembered the date, he said it would always stick in his mind, "Your father found us in the back seat of my car. He took me aside and informed me that you were only seventeen, and that I could either marry you or he'd see that I spent the next 20 years in prison. I would be getting out this year."
AnnouncementExavier King announced the Rotary Week of Service Project scheduled April 19 from 9-11 a.m. The link to register with Midwest Food Bank to participate in the work project is available in the Messenger. Members were encouraged to bring other family members with them. Children are welcome, but need to be old enough to make a real contribution to the work effort.
CLICK HERE for a shortcut to the Midwest Food Bank Registration Site for our event.
Program - Chris Brady - City Manager's Road Show
President Jay itroduced Chris Brady, saying, as City Manager, Chris used to be his boss when Jay was with the City's Utility Office. He went on to say that Chris is set to retire from the City of Mesa at tje end of May. Chris has been the CEO of Mesa since January of 2006.
About ten years ago, when John Giles was the new Mayor of Mesa, he told Chris, "I think we have a problem. We are the 35th or 36th largest city, and when people want to meet with me, I can't tell them where to find 'City Hall.""
The mayor was right there was no site that was very interesting that could serve as a way to make a good first impression. They did have a building at Center and Main that would be a good location, but it did not have eye appeal or represent the culture and values of the city. They knew it would be slow in coming to fruition, but with setting aside a little each year, they did transform that building. The long-term plans had lots of short steps.
Before Mayor Giles term was up, he met there twice.
They liked the circular staircase in the central library in Mesa and adopted that style for the City Hall. There were two floors. The council chamber was on the 2nd floor. The lower floor has an impressive lobby with interesting art. It also has a meeting room where visitors can actually see who is participating in work-sessions through glass walls.
There were some long plain walls that have been decorated to reflect some of Mesa's long history from a downtown perspective. Some of the decor is actually repurposed wood flooring found under vinyl floor covering in one of the city's properties.
CLICK HERE or on the image above to see the slide show Mr. Brady used during his presentation. There is a photo of tables that have wood in them from trees that were cut down in front of the building. Years ago, the person who arranged for the planting of the trees intended for them to be there forever and said anybody who cut them down should leave the city. They were cut down and Chris is retiring the end of May so it appears that wish came true.
When asked what he would treasure most about his 20-year career with the City, Chris said it wouldn't be the projects or the buildings, it would be the relationships - the people he worked with.
He is a member of the LDS church. He and his wife will be heading to Mexico City for a three-year mission after his retirement.