Highlights of June 13, 2019 Meeting

President Chris Krueger opened the meeting asking Wendell Jones to offer the invocation and Lola McClane to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.  In honor of Flag day, June 14, Ray Smith was prepared to lead Rotarians and guests in singing "Grand Old Flag."

 

Frank Rosenberg again introduced Alex Hajdys, a University of Arizona business intern who is shadowing Frank this summer.  He also introduced his wife, Amanda, his Rotary Youth Exchange son, Caio and Ryan, son of Dan and Colleen Coons.

 

President Chris asked Alex to draw a token to determine the winner of the weekly attendance drawing.  The owner of badge number 52 was not present to win, and the owner of badge number 57, President-Elect Jim Schmidt, arrived just in time to win the $5 prize.  Chuck Flint announced that in the weekly raffle, the large accumulating winnings were now up to $139.  The small weekly pot was $35.  Since it was Caio's final meeting at Mesa West, Chuck asked him to draw the winning ticket.  Jack Rosenberg was holding the ticket, but his luck was limited.  When he tried to draw the ace of clubs to win big, the card he drew was the three of hearts.

 

Darl Andersen contributed because the young and beautiful Colleen Coons had elected to sit at the same table with several graying gentlemen.  Daryl Bethea paid some chagrined bucks.  He was frustrated because Chuck kept insisting he needed to make his donation to The Rotary Foundation before the June 30 end of the fiscal year.  He was sure someone had made a mistake because the KNEW he had made the contribution.  When he checked, however, the donation he had made was not to TRF, it was to the other Rotarian supported charity generously supported by Mesa West Rotarians -  TRVFA - The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona. 

 

Colleen Coons contributed happy bucks because it only took her thirty minutes to persuade her son, Ryan to attend Rotary to hear her program.  Polly Cady contributed happy dollars.  She was happy to be home for a bit.  Allan Cady was happy.  When they were in Charlotte, they were able to be present when his granddaughter celebrated her second birthday.  Pam Cohen was happy her daughter and her husband had come down from Flagstaff to go paddle boarding down the Salt River and Pam was going to get to enjoy their company while they were in the area. 

 

Erwin Reimann was happy to report that at a recent family reunion in South Dakota,he saw a cousin he hadn't seen in over thirty-five years.  He and Joan were back from South Dakota because Erwin's cardiologist is here.  He recently had a pacemaker installed and said he is doing well. 

 

Jack Rosenberg thanked the Frank Rosenberg and Coons families for hosting Caio and was glad that Caio was able to get out to the shooting range to experience shooting a rifle prior that very morning.  Dick Myren contributed his typical $1 honoring Rod Daniels' tradition of being "happy to be a member of Mesa West Rotary."  He was also happy President Chris was back from the International Convention.  Ted Williams was celebrating the graduation of some of his grandkids as well as the family reunion they had recently enjoyed in the mountains - especially the Memorial Day softball tournament where the Williams clan prevailed. 

 

Caio invited Mesa West Rotarians to visit him in Ecuador where he would make us welcome.  He also thanked his host families and all who took time to spend time with him while he was on his exchange. 

 

Jim Schmidt contributed the $5 he won in the attendance drawing.  He said he has had authentic Italian food in Naples and Rome, but nothing he had in Italy topped the Italian food served at the June 13 Mesa West meeting.  Greg Okonowski also enjoyed a LOT of the Italian food.  He asked to be billed $5 as he was broke - a situation he blamed on his wife. 

 

President Chris thanked those who substituted for her the past three weeks - Pam (while Chris was last-minute packing before leaving the country), President-Elect Jim and President Elect Nominee. Dan Coons. 

 

Don LaBarge shared some new knowledge about the realities of financial life in the world of technology.  He was recently doing an electronic transfer of money in a cash account to a credit card account.  He put in an extra digit causing the transaction to be ten times more ($13,000 more) than he intended.  What he learned is that a credit card payment is the only transaction that cannot be immediately reversed.  After a frustrating, determined series of customer service conversations, he did get a commitment from a national on-line supervisor that they would be sending a check for the overpayment which would arrive in about ten days. 

 

Wendell Jones contributed happy dollars.  He was happy Ray Smith came back to Rotary.

 

President Chris had a bag to auction from her Rotary International Convention trip to Hamburg, Germany.  Ron Thompson started the bidding at $25,  After several robust bids were exchanged, Chuck Flint's $55 bid prevailed making him the lucky winner of a hat, tea, a water bottle, gummy bears, a cuckoo clock magnet, a pen and a Christmas ornament.

 

 

Darl Andersen introduced Colleen Coons, relating several of her many accomplishments in her career with United Parcel.  Darl told Dan he was an extremely fortunate man to have won Colleen as his bride.

 

Colleen began by stating that in addition to her roles at UPS, she is a wife and a mother.  She had a thank-you gift for Don LaBarge - he can now race his own big brown truck.  In 2013, Colleen married Dan.  Rotary has really shaped their family's' life.  Both sons, Ryan and Nicholas, have been on Youth Exchange.  Ryan to Japan and the Nicholas to Taiwan.

 

A fact about Colleen that often surprises people is that she spent time in the United States Army.  When she was seventeen, she totalled her car.  Her dad wouldn't buy her a new one.  She decided to follow the "be all that you can be" theme and joined the Army.  She served in the Army from 1982-1987, and in the US Army National Guard from 1987-1990.  One of her bases was in Texas.  She spent time in the APO in Germany.  

 

A theme at UPS is that "determined people working together can accomplish anything."  She is proud to work for a company who has a legacy of honest dealing going back to 1959.  The UPS values and culture relate very closely to Rotary and our 4-Way-Test.

 

It was clear early-on in Colleen's presentation that this article would only contain highlights of a very impressive and capable young woman's contribution to one of the busiest companies in corporate America.  When Darl said that she was modest, it may have been an understatement.  She could rattle off impressive facts about UPS, any one of which could have been the subject of a lengthy conversation. It was clear she is a lady that can see how to make things happen and she is proud to work for a company that enables her to do it within a culture she respects.

 

UPS has ambitious initiatives in healthcare and global expansion.

 

The statistics of the numbers of packages delivered, and people and places served were beyond the imagination.  

 

UPS has a Political Action Committee (PAC).  In Illinois, they were instrumental in moving toward a phase out of the use of motor fuel tax for the general fund instead of being used for highway infrastructure.

 

Technological advances will allow even better delivery features in the future.  Some are already being tested.  "We Chat" will allow knowledge of where each of the millions of packages are.  Latch will allow opening of doors to apartment buildings with a smart phone.

 

The United Parcel corporate office is located in Atlanta.  They have a "give back" foundation.  Brochures featuring some of their charitable projects were available on the tables.  

 

Today, Colleen's office is in their home and at the airport.  Her reach is much larger.  She helps companies use delivery service technology to their advantage.  UPS even has a bank - UPS Capital to help improve cash flow for companies.

 

Concerns about minimizing their contribution to pollution has them testing new delivery vehicles - one photo was of some very sleek electric vehicles being tested in Europe - another photo she showed was a big brown delivery bike.