Welcome and Opening of Meeting - President Colleen Coons
President Colleen thanked the following:
- Warren Williamson for serving as greeter.
- Ron Thompson for offering the invocation.
- Shelly Romine for leading the Pledge of Allegiance
- Jeanie Morgan for serving at the check-in table
- Ron Thompson for serving as Sgt at Arms
- Chuck Flint was welcomed back to his old duty of handling the raffle
- Pam Cohen for serving as Chief Technology Officer while Ed Koeneman was absent and she thanked Ed for being back on duty.
Introduction of Guests
- Marilyn Klinger was welcomed as a newly elected, but not yet inducted, member of Mesa West Rotary Club.
- Susan Tychman was welcomed as a guest. Mesa West Rotary Club has recently joined the Mesa Chamber of Commerce. Susan was invited to attend the meeting so she could answer any questions members might have about our Chamber membership.
- Shawn Buntin introduced his wife, Retta Buntin and their friend, Cyndi Noriega.
- Deb Koeneman, Bob Jensen, and former member Greg Okonowski were attending the meeting via Zoom.
- Harry Grossman was welcomed as a soon-to-be member of the club.
- Bert Millett and Kayla Mudge were welcomed as members we don't get to see as often as we'd like. Both are attorneys whose busy professional schedules interfere with their ability to attend regularly. Kayla is very involved in her personal time preparing for and helping the Ambassador teams prepare for the Interact Crutches 4 Africa missions that will be headed for Kenya and Mexico this summer. Kayla will be traveling with the team going to Africa.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint
Chuck explained that the funds taken in from raffle ticket sales are split three ways. A third goes into the club operating account, another third goes to the person whose ticket is drawn in the weekly drawing, and the final third goes into the large, accumulating pot. He said the daily winner would win $25, and the chance to try to win the large pot by attempting to draw the Ace of Clubs from the cards remaining in the deck of cards. Chuck asked Susan from the Chamber of Commerce to draw the winning ticket, which was held by Ed Koeneman. Ed's attempt to draw the Ace of Clubs was "close, but no cigar" He drew the Four of Clubs instead.
Happy Bucks - Sgt at Arms Ron Thompson
- Dick Myren contributed. He was happy to have Chuck back on the Raffle job and able to be at our meetings.
- Jack Rosenberg contributed to celebrate his 44th anniversary of becoming a Rotarian on May 1.
- Ted Williams had several things to celebrate. He has two grandsons graduating from college and another grandson graduating from high school summa cum laude. In addition, his oldest grandson and his wife had made Ted a proud great-grandfather for the first time. To celebrate, he pledged $100 to The Rotary Foundation Annual Fund.
- Marilyn Klingler was happy to be accepted as a new club member.
- Eric Silverberg contributed saying the Messenger is the best club newsletter he's ever seen.
- Harry Grossman contributed. He had thought he would be doing two meetings in the same day, but he decided not to be in Sedona bright an early - he decided to go there Saturday May 4 to help them with a project.
- Shane White was happy to be at the meeting.
- Jim McGown said that he'd seen information that senior citizens get scammed too often. Scammers target senior centers and Rotary Clubx.
- Allan Cady asked Ed Koeneman to show a photo on the Zoom screen of Allan's grandson, Cameron who graduated that day from Naval Basic Training at Lake Michigan Northwest of Chicago. With Cameron in the photo was Allan's youngest son and Cameron's proud father, Matt. Allan pledged $100 to Polly's sponsorship team to celebrate.
- Jeanie Morgan pledged $200 to the sponsor program. She was happy to see the way members are stepping up to support the campaign which saves an enormous amount of time and expense compared to methods other clubs have to use to raise similar amounts of money.
- Polo Santiago announced a volunteer opportunity. He invited members to volunteer to participate in volunteering next week to small talk with students at an English as a Second Language school where Polo volunteers regularly.
- Warren Williamson kept his story short. He said at his age, there are two important things to remember. The first is, "Don't tell everything you know."...
- Ed Koeneman was happy to win the raffle. He was also happy Pam didn't break the equipment while he was away. He was happy they were able to get their exchange student off to the District Conference being held in Mexico. The family was also celebrating the fact that their son finally had orders. He will soon escape from sleeping in a closet in Poland and return to the State of Georgia. Ed told a little about the recent fire in his workshop. All his tools will be replaced. It will take four months to rebuild. He said "spontaneous combustion" is a real thing.
Announcements
- Steve Ross was very happy to report the sponsor campaign was very close to reaching the $50,000 goal. He said Ray Smith's team was in first place, followed by Bob Jensen and John Pennypacker's teams. Allan Cady suggested that the target of $50,000 be increased to $60,000 since we have two months left in the year and not everyone has participated, yet. That new challenge was accepted.
- President Colleen reported that one of our McKinney Vento students is planning to be at our May 23 meeting.
Induction of New Member
Membership Chair Polly Cady invited Retta Buntin, Cyndi Noriega and Shawn Buntin to all join her at the front of the meeting room. Shawn is a Director and Manager with Legacy Funeral Home. He is an awesome new member. He is a former Rotarian. President Colleen Coons is his sponsor. The theme "Create Hope in the World" is an apt theme for Shawn. When he was sixteen, he lost his father as a result of an automobile accident. The days after the accident were nightmarish for Shawn whose imagination took him to dark places like "what if it's a mistaken identity?" When he finally was able to see his father lying peacefully in his coffin, and was able to spend time alone looking at and talking to his dad, he knew he wanted to do for others what the funeral home had done for him. Those moments helped him find peace and closure and look forward with hope. He and Retta have been married thirty-five years. They have four sone and twelve grandchildren. Shawn lives in Mesa. In looking at his community, he learned there are 520,000 residents, sixteen freeway exits, and three Rotary Clubs. He is glad he joined ours. After hearing a bit about Shawn, the formal induction and pinning took place. The members present gave our newest member a standing ovation when the ceremony was over.
Program - Power of Positivity - Brian Harvey
Brian gave a short, two-part, self-introduction, "Brian Harvey - a good-looking Englishman." He added that the members could decide which of the two parts was true.
He began by saying that it is typical for people to hear a presentation and think it is really good, but when asked about it three days later cannot remember anything to share. CLICK HERE or on the image to download his slided so you can be reminded of what Brian shared during his presentation.
Brian said that he has visited tons of other Rotary Clubs and the Ace of Clubs is way above the others he has visited from the administration to the friendships. He said it is uniquely wonderful. He wants everyone to remember one thing for sure. THANK YOU!
He had some things he hoped to accomplish.
- Each do a self-review of positivity and negativity in our lives.
- Review scientific data on the impact of positivity.
- Make one commitment to improve positivity at home and at Rotary.
He spoke about ways positivity is introduced at an early age. He acknowledged that negativity is also introduced at an early age. He asked everyone to think about the number one influence on whether our lives were positive or negative. He then answered the question by saying it is our private voice and spent some time explaining why positive mindset/private voice is important. We need to strive to have that voice be a coach rather than a critic.
Brian asked everyone to think about the ratio of positive to negative messages we give ourselves over a month's time in our home/personal lives, in our external work, Rotary, or other retirement "occupation." Is our team positive or negative. He asked us to consider the ratio in each of the three areas.
To produce positive outcomes, a ratio of 3:1 is needed. Several positive outcomes determined through measurable research were listed. CLICK HERE to find that slide. It's impressive.
Emotional wellbeing drives performance and success. Cultivating positivity in our environments is something we each have the capacity to do.
Several members shared things they plan to start doing to cultivate positivity.
Brian would like to use his presentation as a way to make money for our projects and/or recruit new members. He is glad to take it at no cost to Rotary events, non-profit companies, or membership recruitment events or to companies in exchange for a donation to Rotary for our projects.
Brian ended with the one thing he wants us to remember - THANK YOU!