Highlights of November 14, 2019 Meeting

President Jim Schmidt opened the meeting asking Ray Smith to lead everyone present in singing America the Beautiful.  Dick Myren offered the invocation and Tim Troy led the Pledge of Allegiance.  

 

President Jim introduced his wife, Rosalyn.  Jeanie Morgan introduced PDG Jim Erickson and Amber Zenteno who had been interviewed prior to the meeting for consideration by Mesa West Rotary Club to sponsor her grant request from The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona to study at East Valley Institute of Technology to become certified as a surgical technologist.

 

Carolyn Jones was the lucky $5 winner in the weekly attendance drawing.  Chuck Flint explained the weekly raffle.  Of each $5 ticket sold, part goes to the club operating account, part becomes the daily raffle prize, which at the November 14 meeting would be $35, and part goes into the accumulating prize (now $681) to be won if the holder of the winning ticket should be lucky enough to draw the ace of clubs (which we believe we are) from the dwindling deck of cards.  Any card drawn other than the ace of clubs or the joker, the card is destroyed.  Should the ticket holder draw the joker, they would win $20, and the joker would be returned to the deck.  Looking for an honest face, Chuck asked PDG Jim Erickson to draw the winning ticket, which was held by Chris Krueger.  Chris drew the king of hearts from the deck.

 

Dr. Ron Thompson served as Sgt. at Arms and said he planned to "fill the bucket" as he began collecting happy bucks.  The first to contribute was Chuck Flint who reported that he had enjoyed the Guaymas trip.  He had a great time with all the Rotarians who were there.  He reported that Wendell Jones and Ray Smith "lived on candy" while they were there.  Chris Krueger also contributed for a great time on the Guaymas trip, and thanked Bob Jensen and Ray Smith for doing so much work in preparation for and during the trip.  Tim Troy contributed.  He was happy to be able to attend the meeting as he has missed several this year.  He reported that he and Angie had purchased a house in Cornville, Arizona.  He announced that in the near future, he would make a three-night stay at the new house available for the club to auction.  Pam Cohen had a birthday (somewhat) recently.  One of her gifts was a new nickname - Bubbe. The reason for the nickname - Pam's daughter, Alex, will be presenting her with a grandbaby next spring.  To celebrate this exciting family event, Pam contributed $100 toward Alex' 2nd Paul Harris.  Don Boucher contributed sad dollars for the shooting victims at Saugus High School in California.  Don has many reasons to feel close to that community and was deeply saddened by this tragic event.  Lucinda General contributed - she was Jim's seatmate on the trip to Guaymas and now "has all the dirt on him."  She said she began her term as District Governor scooping poop at a parade in Springerville and has not been elevated much as her official duty at the Guaymas Gift of Hearing mission was that of bathroom monitor attempting to ensure that only one gender at a time was using the only available working restroom.  Wendell and Ray's sweet tooth tendencies are apparently epic.  Story is that some cookies fell to the floor, but Ray ate them anyway.  A confession that Ray and Wendell were NOT served key lime pie as they were told, but instead were served margarita pie.  Polly Cady contributed, happy to be a member of the best Rotary Club ever.  While she and Allan were at the Friendship Conference at the Grand Canyon, they could see the pictures posting on Mesa West's Facebook page and know what was going on in Guaymas.  Shelly Romine reported that President Jim's company made the list of top Corporate Volunteer Programs in the state.  They were ranked 24, but made that achievement with only 38 employees who contributed 1900 hours of volunteer service.  The firms that placed higher on the list were MUCH larger than Jim's.  Dick Myren contributed in the tradition of honorary member Rod Daniels as a proud member of Mesa West Rotary.   John Pennypacker contributed for a very special Veterans Day experience.  He was at a park in Anthem where there are five pillars lined up representing the five branches of the US Armed Forces.  They are lined up so that holes in each pillar align perfectly on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11 minutes after the 11th hour, the sun shines through the holes and illuminates the Seal of the United States.  John also had the opportunity at the event to meet an Admiral who was instrumental in the development of the Anthem Veterans Memorial.    He was Captain of the battleship USS New Jersey and was in command when it was taken out of service in the late 80's or perhaps a few years later.  In 1968, John's unit flew several combat assaults with supporting fire from the New Jersey.  "The rounds they fired were 2000 lb. bombs and an entire grid square (1000m x 1000m) was obliterated.  It definitely got their undivided attention the first time they fired for us."  John's experience with this awesome war machine preceded the Admiral's time by two decades plus.  Bob Jensen contributed celebrating 33 years of doing the Gift of Hearing project.

 

Ray smith reported on highlights of the Guaymas trip.  The Gift of Hearing mission had the entire front page of the local newspaper and the story continued onto the second page.  Ray reported that President Jim cannot roll his r's, as required to properly pronounce some words in Spanish.  Ray advised anyone to stand back should Jim attempt to roll his r's.  Failing to stand back could cause you to get wet.  Several on the trip ordered local tortillas while in Guaymas.  On the bus ride home, the tortillas were distributed, but at the end of the distribution, they were short - not good when at least three CPA's were on the trip.  It was particularly vexing for Ray Smith who was in charge of keeping the mission in balance.  It was discovered that one of the CPA's (President Jim) had ordered two packages but received and accepted six packages without pointing out the discrepancy.  The extra tortillas have been retrieved and have been delivered to Allan and Polly Cady.  

 

Bob Jensen thanked all who went on the trip and the club in general for supporting the trip.  He is not certain how the tortillas are prepared, but they do not deteriorate.  All prior records were broken with this year's Gift of Hearing Mission.  450 patients were seen.  287 devices were distributed, and 80 devices are left to begin the inventory to take in 2020.

 

Allan Cady was sorry to miss the Guaymas trip.  It was unfortunate that the Mexico/USA Friendship Conference overlapped.  He reported that 90 were present at the conference at the Grand Canyon.  It was about an even split between US Rotarians and Rotarians from Mexico.  Allan had the opportunity to present the Aqua Africa project.  The reception for the project was good.  $1,950 was donated by seven other clubs.  $2,000 was committed by District 4185 in Mexico,  so the support was just under $4,000.  The strength of the project is the water tower which will serve 10,000 people.  Allan was also able to secure commitments form Bret McKeand (who will be District Governor in 2021-22) and Patrick Walsh from Tempe South that their clubs will contribute if Allan or Chris Krueger will make presentations at a meeting of each of their clubs.  Allan and Polly hosted three people.  Pita and Rosa were from Vera Cruz and Paco Romero was from Puebla, Mexico.  Donna, Bryan and Emilee Goetzenberger were also at the conference.

 

Chuck Flint, is the Club's Foundation Chair.  The focus of the program was The Rotary Foundation.  He announced that Lucinda General had brought her laptop to the meeting to help members sign up for Rotary Direct to enable them to make their contributions to TRF the most efficient and effortless way possible.  He made it clear that Rotarians who wanted to take advantage of that option were free to quietly have Lucinda help them as the program continued.  It was also pointed out that John Pennypacker had put paper forms to enroll in Rotary Direct and a paper containing answers to commonly asked questions about Rotary Direct on each of the tables.  Contributions can be set up as small as $10 and can repeat monthly, quarterly or annually.  While the most common choice is for donations to go to the Annual Fund, Rotarians can opt to have their donation go to End Polio Now.  TRF funds many projects ranging from polio immunizations to providing clean water.  The funds donated are held three years with the interest earned during those years used to support operating costs.  On the third year, some of the donations are allocated to the control of each district to be used their district designated fund projects.  92% of the donations are used for doing good in the world, which is a very admirable percentage in the non-profit world.  TRF has received the 4-Star rating (it's highest rating) from Charity Navigator for the 12th consecutive year.  TRF is the second largest charity in the world - only surpassed by Salvation Army.  

 

There are a variety of levels of recognition for giving to The Rotary Foundation, ranging from $1,000 to receive a Paul Harris Fellow to $1,000,000 or more.  The following Rotarians were recognized at the meeting:

 

Darl Andersen

Rosalyn Schmidt

Warren Williamson (accepting for Son Hee)

Bryan Goetzenberger

 

Don Boucher

 

Jim Schmidt

 

Chris Krueger

 

Allan Cady

 

Chuck reminded members that Allan and Polly Cady have already been recognized as Major Donors but can continue to receive recognition for their individual contributions.   To that end, they have both recently enrolled in Rotary Direct.  It was noted that during the meeting Dr. Ron had signed up for his annual donation.  John Pennypacker quietly assisted Chuck with his very smooth presentation ceremony.

 

Chuck pointed out that several recipients were not present to receive their recognition.  Don Boucher reminded members that they should investigate whether or not matching gifts are available through their employer as they are through his broker-dealer.  Chuck pointed out that appreciated investments can be donated directly and in doing so the capital gains tax can be avoided.  In preparing for the meeting, Chuck discovered that it appears the giving of Mesa Baseline members prior to their merger into Mesa West may not be being reported accurately and has committed to look into getting that discrepancy resolved. He urged Rotarians who have been members of other Rotary Clubs to look to see if their past giving is being property allocated to Mesa West.

 

The meeting ended with a better than usual attempt at humor by our Club President.  In light of the recent Gift of Hearing mission, Jim thought a joke on the subject of hearing would be appropriate: 

 

A gentleman told his doctor that his wife needed a hearing aid refused to talk to her doctor about it.  The doctor said it would be impossible for him to be of any assistance without her hearing being properly evaluated.  The patient persisted, and the doctor suggested a simple "test" to enable the husband to discover for himself the level of his wife's hearing loss.  When the husband arrived home, from the door, he called "Honey, I'm home.  What's for dinner?"  Receiving no response, he moved a few steps closer and again repeated a little louder, "Honey, I'm home.  What's for dinner?"  Again, no response.  He repeated this two more times, a few feet closer each time as well as increasing his volume.  After the 4th time, his wife shouted, "For the fourth time, I'm glad you are home, and we are having carne asada for dinner!"