Pre-Meeting Greeting and Socializing
President Pam Cohen did double duty by filling in as Greeter and welcoming members and guests as they found their way to the "Executive Suite" at the Doubletree.
Invocation and Pledge
The invocation was led by Dick Myren. Logan Harper led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Introduction of Guests
- Jim McGown introduced his guest, Dennis Hawley.
- Darl Andersen introduced Dave Hutchinson and Diana Hutchinson, visiting Rotarians from the Gilbert and Queen Creek Satellite Rotary Clubs respectively.
- Don Boucher introduced Tom Spence. A long-time friend from the Boston area. Don Said Tom has operated farms near Boston as well as in Canada, and the crop he is best-known for has been Christmas Trees.
- Sean Green introduced LaWanda Lemke. LaWanda has a residential and commercial cleaning business and potentially interested in becoming a Rotarian.
- Polo Santiago was introduced as the most recent Mesa West Rotary Club member to be officially inducted into the club, having been inducted at the October 29 Chili Cook-Off club social.
Presentation of "Best Overall Chili" Traveling Award
Community Service Chair Shelly Romine started a new Mesa West Rotary Club tradition by coming up with a decorative wooden spoon to be the annual traveling award to be given each year to the chef who prepared "the Best Overall Chili" at the Chili Cook-Off. After the votes were tallied, Pam Cohen was declared the first recipient and is shown in the photos accepting her award.
National Sandwich Day Celebrated
President Pam decided to make good use of the Oreo cookies left at her house after the Chili Cook-Off. Apparently, November 3 is National Sandwich Day. She couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than to share the most famous sandwich cookie in the world with her fellow club-members.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Dick Myren
Dick explained the proceeds of raffle ticket sales are split three ways - 1/3 to the club operating account - 1/3 added to the "big pot," and 1/3 to the holder of the winning ticket. He then added the lucky winner at the November 3 meeting would receive $35, and if they were to draw the Ace of Clubs from the deck, they would also win the "big pot" which was up to $372. Dick asked visiting Rotarian Diana to draw the winning ticket which was held by President Pam Cohen. After carefully shuffling and arranging the cards on a narrow ledge, the card she drew was the Ace of Clubs making her the happy winner of the "big pot." We wonder if she used at least one of those dollars to invest in a lottery ticket as she said she was going to do.
Before handing off the microphone to Ron Thompson, Pam reminded members of the Happy Bucks Form to be deposited in the hat as they pay their happy bucks. Members and participating guests should indicate if they deposited cash in the hat or wish to be billed for their donation or pledge. All cash will be deposited into the club operating account to help offset the cost of socials and other club expenses. If members want their cash or pledge to go to any of the charitable causes listed in the bottom half of the form, it will be a better use of time and resources if those gifts are $10 or more.
Happy Bucks - Ron Thompson
- Pam Cohen pledged $100 toward her Paul Harris - $67 to celebrate her birthday and $33 to celebrate a successful Chili Cook-Off and her win of the Best Overall Chili travelling trophy.
- Ed Koeneman contributed saying their son had been promoted from cashier to sales staff at the Scottsdale Gun Club and had celebrated that milestone by declaring his independence and moving out. Ed was also happy that his aunt had recently moved down to Arizona. Ed was very happy to let everyone know it was only 414 days until the next Star Wars movie would be released.
- Jim Erickson pledged $100 to The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona in memory of PDG Danny Messersmith.
- Don Boucher was happy Tom and Beth are like his extended family, but better than family.
- Jim Schmidt contributed saying he had heard a thump as he was backing out of his garage. He got out of his car to find out what had happened and found he had run over a woman. Fortunately, she was a scarecrow blown into his driveway by the unusually strong gusty winds.
- John Pennypacker had made his COL/COR Presentation at the Prescott Sunup Rotary Club that morning. He left his computer charger in his hotel room, and has ordered another, but PDG Art Harrington went to the hotel and picked up the charger for John, so now John will have two chargers, and his computer should be capable of always being fully charged! He was happy that it appeared his son was going to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway that evening.
- Dennis Hawley was happy to be Jim McGown's guest at the meeting.
- Dick Myren contributed his traditional $2 - happy that he and Honorary Member Rod Daniels are associated with Mesa West Rotary Club.
- Lu General said she had a bag containing an eclectic mix of bling from various locations to be auctioned.
- Colleen Coons was happy to have finally tested negative for COVID.
- Warren Williamson contributed sad dollars. His 82-year-old sister had recently lost her life to a severe heart attack. She enjoyed life right up until her death. She was vacationing in Atlantic City at the time of her death.
- Ray Smith was happy to contribute, announcing the team would be leaving Wednesday, November 9 to conduct our first Gift of Hearing Mission in Guaymas, Mexico since the onset of COVID.
Auction - Ron Thompson
Jim Erickson's bid of $50 made him the lucky winner of Lu's electric collection which included something that casts spiral shadows, a District Rotary cap, a hot pad that looks like an alligator, hand towels, a wind spinner and a gizmo for the back of his cell phone.
Club Visioning Hard Rollout - Logan Harper
Logan Harper utilized an excellent slide deck and spreadsheet as he presented the results of the Club Visioning Session in which 25 members participated Saturday, August 6. Most participated in-person and a few participated via Zoom.
Participants in the August visioning exercise generated ideas in each of these four areas. The facilitators wrote the ideas on sheets that were posted around the room. The sheets containing the 52 ideas generated during the session were displayed throughout the meeting room during Logan's presentation. It was clear the first round of voting during the visioning session utilized blue dots to narrowed the field of ideas to focus on. The second round of voting utilized red dots narrowed the focus even more.
Focusing on these areas will enable our Mesa West Visioning Plan to be consistent and support the Rotary 2024 Action Plan. It give us the ability to see more clearly what our members want to focus on will enable us to define our shared commitment, and provide long-term direction. This is especially important in an organization which intentionally has new leadership every year. New leaders can move into managing the direction that has already been set and benefit from work which has already been accomplished. The plan will provide greater consensus, continuity, consistency, and communication.
Some broad commonalities were:
- Increase collaboration with Rotaract and Interact (youth focused) - 5 ideas
- Better understand and create ipact to the Mesa Community - 13 ideas
- Implement mentorship style programs (youth and members) - 4 ideas
- Implement Club Vocational Model - 2 ideas
- Funding/Giving - 2 ideas
The spreadsheet is something members should become familiar with and go back and study from time to time. It broadly defines actions that need to be taken, but need the work of the responsible committees to identify specific tasks/targets and steps to reach those targets
The information shared at this meeting is invaluable. For that reason, both the masterplan spreadsheet and Logan's slide deck have been uploaded to our Mesa West Rotary Website in the "Menu" bar under the "About Our Club" tab.
This isn't' a once and done activity. It's an ongoing process:
Logan's spreadsheet shows the three years of the three-year plan.
- We are in year one with the annual theme of Improving Awareness so we can better understand the needs of the
- Community,
- Our Club and
- our Members.
- 2023-24, our theme will be Strengthening Relationships
- 2024-25, our theme will be Continuous Evolution