Opening and Welcome to Meeting - President Colleen Coons
After acknowledging that the room looked considerably different than usual because she was not the only one wearing a hat (fascinator), President Colleen thanked everyone for celebrating her birthday by wearing hats at this meeting. She then thanked the following individuals:
- Erwin Reimann for serving as greeter
- Ray Smith for offering the invocation
- John Pennypacker for leading the Pledge of Allegiance
- Diane Ware for handling check-in
- John Pennypacker for getting the banners placed in the room
- Pam Cohen for serving as chief technology officer.
Introduction of Guests
- Jim and Beth Hoban were visiting from Honolulu Sunset Rotary Club
- Andy Bradford was again visiting
- Shawn Buntin was introduced by John Pennypacker. Shawn was a Rotarian formerly. He said he has been away from Rotary for about six years.
- Eric Silverberg was again at our meeting.
- Tom Hutchinson was visiting from the Valley of the Sun Passport Rotary Club. He's been visiting an uncle and watching old movies like the Sound of Music. His father had studied with the Von Trapp family and his son is currently in Austria.
- Our exchange student from Denmark - Thilde - was glad to be able to be at our meeting. She said her school has a complicated schedule and require their students wear uniforms.
- Justin Failner was happy to again be at our meeting
- Bob Jensen was attending via Zoom and also wearing a hat to celebrate Colleen's birthday.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Dick Myren
Dick asked Andy Bradford to draw the winning raffle ticket. Pam Cohen was the lucky winner of the $35 daily pot plus the opportunity to try to draw the Ace of Clubs which would entitle her to the accumulating large pot - now up to $181. Instead, she drew the Six of Hearts.
Happy Bucks - Sgt at Arms Ron Thompson
- John Pennypacker contributed to celebrate Robbie Burns birthday (the Scottish poet who wrote Auld Lang Syne. John read a celebratory quote using the brogue dating back to Burns' era, which nobody understood.
- Warren Williamson contributed and told a story about an Alaskan Airline flight #1313 which was probably headed for Hawaii. The 737 had no live pilot or copilot. It was being controlled by artificial intelligence. Once in the air, an announcement came of the PA system informing the passengers they were safer with AI than they would be with a live crew, and added "nothing can go wrong . . . go wrong . . .go wrong. . .. .
- Pam Cohen said she missed the January 18 meeting. She was busy breaking Chuck Flint out of the rehab center where he was not getting an appropriate response to the way he was feeling. After Pam delivered him to the hospital ER, within an hour he was in surgery for repair of a ruptured intestine. She said that Chuck is pretty sure the hospital staff shares one bullion cube with all patients on a floor who are on clear liquids. He also had a redundant experience. Since the surgery, he was celebrating the arrival of his second #2.
- Dick Myren shared the fact that many years ago he played Captain Von Trapp in the Sound of Music. He sand Edelweiss to his wife for Christmas.
- John Benedict said he had never seen an uglier duck (referring to Ron's Cardinal hat).
- Machel Considine said she has been all over creation since her husband retired. Fun visits were trips to see grandchildren in Oregon and Minnesota. She was happy she was able to be present for hat day. Sadly, the prior week, Machel had attended three funerals.
- Brian Harvey was happy to be at the table with the ugly Cardinals hat and paid a find on Ron's behalf.
- Beth Hoban shared a traditional Aloha greeting with everyone. She said they wouldn't get to stay in Arizona as long this year. Something to do with Treasurer and being missed by their home club.
- Wayne General thought Ron's hat was beautiful - not a bird brain!
- Harry Grossman was jealous of Ron's hat and sad to have lost the remote to the sound bar on his TV. He was headed to Best Buy after the meeting to get a replacement.
- Shelly Romine wished Colleen a happy birthday and contributed for the PDG's and PDG's to be who are willing to stand up and serve.
- AG Dan Coons wondering if bringing the birthday girl to the meeting would count as a birthday dinner.
- Lucinda General reported that PDG Forester Darling had served in another zone, but relocated to Phoenix and was a member of the Phoenix 100 club. He passed away four days prior to the meeting from pancreatic cancer. She talked about some of the more cushy benefits of being a PDG. One of which was the ownership of some of Son Hee Williamson's extra spicy hot sauce. She said she's not sharing.
- Pam Cohen contributed saying Son Hee's sauce would cure COVID.
- Colleen pledged a celebratory $341 donation to TRVFA for her birthday. She also said her husband was now a guest. She added that since it was assembly day, she was going to name the January Rotarian of the Month. The person serves the club every week, leaving his office for an hour-and-a-half or more. He and his wife who is also a very busy professional volunteered their home for our post-holiday celebration. Dr. Ron Thompson is our January Rotarian of the Month and asked Ron to express the club's thanks to Toni. Colleen also thanked Pam who did an outstanding job coordinating the event.
Announcements - Shelly Romine- Microcredit - Shelly would be participating the trip to depart Friday, January 26. Three more trip opportunities are available. All expenses are covered for up to ten (including the team leader) to travel to Hermasillo. They will travel by bus going down on Friday, visit the borrowers on Saturday, and bus back on Sunday. The participants will be two-to-a-room. The other trips are scheduled for Feb. 23-25 March 22-24 Apr.26-28.
- The January community service project is scheduled for January 31 packing emergency food supplies at United Food Bank
- February 16, the service project will be providing dinner service at Paz de Cristo.
Club Assembly
Colleen had prepared slides but printed the information and had it on the tables instead.
Since being elected she has experienced Service Above Self. Mesa West has had twenty events since she bein elected to become President - mostly service.
When volunteers helped wrap presidents at the police facility, Ted Williams didn't think he could do it, but he did so well that Colleen threatened to tell his wife since they have so many grandchildren she could probably use the help. Ted said they give them money instead of gifts.
The March 14 Cubs Game will be a joint activity with Mesa and Mesa Sunrise Rotary Clubs, Mesa Leadership and Mesa City.
She's gotten well acquainted with Rotary Club Central - a resource on the Rotary International website where projects and service hours can be recorded. Without including Guaymas and Crutches 4 Africa, we have 174 volunteers contributing over 1100 service hours.
With her husband being our AG, she strives to be an over-achiever. She is very determined to earn the five avenues of service award this year. Logan will be attending President Elect Training Seminar (PETS) the first weekend in February. Officers and Board members will be urged to attend Club Leadership Academy (CLA). To achieve the Annual Fund giving goal of an average of $100 per member.
The good thing about agreeing to serve in Rotary is that excellent training is available, and many experienced members are there to support and mentor the newer leaders.
The Focus for this Assembly is Vocational Service
Bryan Goetzenberger is our Vocational Service Chair. He wished Colleen a happy 30th birthday to which she responded he was her new best friend.
Bryan explained that The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona (TRRVFA) offers $2,000 maximum grants to individuals who meet low-income guidelines to get vocational education. The majority in recent years have been studying to get their Certified Nursing Assistant certification. The longest term program they will fund are programs that will result in a vocational associates degree. One candidate Bryan interviewed immediately received a $2/hr. raise when she had qualified for her CNA. The extra $80/week changed her life. Some candidates are refugees. Some are fresh out of high school. Some are single moms forced back into the work cycle. Vocational skills are in high demand and the salaries are becoming more interesting.
A college education is not the only route to earning a great living. One individual Bryan interviewed to study welding came from a blue collar family. He loved basketball, but couldn't lay. He couldn't afford the physical and couldn't pay the fee. Welding was going to be his door to be a pipefitters apprentice. He had a plan for a very positive path forward.
Jeanie Morgan shared the need to support TRVFA to keep the flow of applicants funded. TRVFA would like to increase the maximum available grant, but that is not in the foreseeable future unless more people start to understand the tax credit opportunity of supporting TRVFA. For up to $421 for an individual tax filer or $841 for a married couple filing jointly, if their tax obligation to the state of Arizona is above those amounts, their donation will cost nothing. They will either send a smaller amount to the state or get a larger refund. There are several categories of tax credits available in the state. Taxpayers can max out in all the various categories. Ray Smith helped Jeanie drive that point home.
Jeanie also spoke about the giving culture in Mesa West Rotary. At the bottom of the home page on our website, there are four things all members are urged to support to the extent that they can (so they are participants rather than observers)
- The annual fund of The Rotary Foundation (TRF) - one of the world's most respected charities. Some of our donations come back in three years to be used for District Grants close to home. This year, our Working Warriors project at Westwood is a District Grant benefitting from TRF annual fund giving in the past.
- End Polio Now - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation match these donations $2 for $1 - tripling the impact of your donation.
- Mesa West Rotary Foundation - this is how our club does all the charitable things we are directly involved with. To meet the goals of our vision plan, we need to keep this resource healthy.
- The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona - what we are talking about today. We provide grants to people who are at or below 150% of the published poverty levels in our state if they are studying vocational programs in Arizona and are legal residents in our state. The applicants must successfully pass sponsorship screening interviews with one or more representatives of a Rotary Club.
Jeanie also added that TRVFA donors are not limited to just giving to get the tax credit. Larger donations will still qualify for charitable tax deductions since TRVFA is a 501(c)(3). Some members or friends might be old enough that they have to take mandatory withdrawals from their retirement accounts. If that is the case, in some instances, they won't have to claim the income if that withdrawal is directly transferred to their charity of choice. We hope it will be one of the four mentioned earlier.
Now their is a fifth available way to donate on our website and at the bottom of our Messenger. The ECA Tax Credit benefitting the Interact Club at Westwood High School has been reactivated.