______If you have not already done so, please give Jeanie Morgan your business card or to send her a digital image of your card, CLICK HERE.
______If you have not yet been featured in a "Know Your Fellow Rotarian" article, see the article in this newsletter and use the links to download the questionnaire so you can complete and send it along with your photo to Jeanie.
______Turn in (or mail) your club survey which was distributed at March 8 meeting.
President-Elect Chris Krueger opened the meeting by asking Ray Smith to lead everyone present in singing "Home on the Range." Wendell Jones offered the invocation and Jeanie Morgan led the Pledge of Allegiance. The greeter for the day was Penny May.
Don LaBarge introduced his guest, Steve Jones from Seattle, Washington. Penny May introduced our District Governor-Elect, Jim Erickson from the Superstition Mountain Club and Lee Holmes, an Assistant District Governor. We had visiting Rotarians, Greg and Ann with us. Greg is from Thailand. Wendell Jones introduced his lovely wife, Carolyn. Other guests present were Susan Taylor, Carein Mooney, and Princess Jennifer Lee from Nigeria.
Badge numbers 32, 36, and 28 were drawn with their owners not present to win. The $5 winnings were declared to roll over to the April 5 attendance drawing. Steve Ross handled the weekly raffle. Don LaBarge's guest drew Aubrey's ticket, so she won the weekly $50 pot, but after she drew the six of spades, everyone but Aubrey was glad the $1,161 pot will roll over and continue to grow. Steve then briefly explained the buck board and circulated it to sell additional squares.
Carole Kralicek announced that she will be going to Canada for the summer. Happy dollars were collected from John Pennypacker who was glad to be looking forward to a golf outing with his son and grandson. Ray Smith was happy to report his family had welcomed their first great grandchild - a girl. Pam reported that Chuck is doing well, and is mobile now.
A highlight of the day was the induction of two members by Lucinda General. Both Immanuel Beeson and Bert Millett have been Rotarians in the past (Bert is a former member of Mesa West). Because of their past experience, the induction was conducted in an interview style. Following the interview, both new members were warmly welcomed to membership in the Rotary Club of Mesa West with a standing ovation.
Announcements:
April 13-14 Tree Planting project. If you are available to help and have not yet signed up to do so, get in touch with Don LaBarge. CLICK HERE to send Don an e-mail.
April 21 - C lub Leadership Academy. This is for all Rotarians and incoming club leaders are strongly encouraged to attend there are over 40 breakout sessions to choose from. Some offerings will also enhance professional and personal growth. The Mesa West Board has approved paying the enrollment fee for any member who wishes to attend. CLICK HERE to register.
April 25 - Sponsor Appreciation Event at the Arizona Museum of Natural History in downtown Mesa. Members were encouraged to verbally invite anyone who they successfully solicited as a sponsor. All sponsors will receive a mailed invitation. Pam Cohen thanked Dan Coons for printing the invitations.
Members were reminded to turn in their club surveys at the meeting or drop them in the mail in the self-addressed envelope which was provided.
Steve Ross reminded members of the May 5 (Cinco de Mayo) Spring Olympics which will again be held at the home of John and Jane Benedict.
Our guest, Princess Jennifer Lee from Nigeria, said that Rotary has had a strong influence in her life. Her father, who is now King, was first exposed to Rotary when he was a student at Oxford. He could see that partnering with Rotary would be beneficial to his home country. Princess Jennifer Lee is a business consultant. She assists in negotiating deals that will be profitable for large companies investing in Nigeria, and the deals require 10% of profits to be invested back to benefit Nigerian communities.
Steve West introduced Mike Hutchinson from the East Valley Partnership. Mike is a Senior Business Advisor, Steve serves on the Partnership board.
The East Valley Partnership is a regional coalition of community, business, educational and government leaders whose goal is to provide leadership and advocacy on critical regional issues, support economic development, and improve the quality of ife in the Phoenix East Valley geographic area.
Among the values that the coalition has to offer businesses they wish to attract are a young, talented and growing labor market (4% younger than national average). The east valley also has excellent 8-12 schools and top rated universities and community colleges. Other advantages are world class healthcare, high quality modern infrastructure, low cost of doing business, and high quality neighboring businesses that have already made the move.
Sizable and predictable population growth that will occur in the coming decades is already being considered in planning transportation infrastructure. The Phoenix Gateway Airport provides a unique transportation advantage for the East Valley.
The partnership participates in events where interested individuals can learn more and get involved:
Governors Breakfast - held each January
Statepersons' Luncheon - held in early spring each year. This year, it will be Friday, April 20 at EVIT Culinary Banquet Hall
Thought Leader Forum - held each year in late fall
Key focus areas for the partnership are advocacy for economic development and quality of life in the following areas:
Transportation and Infrastructure
Superstition Vistas (area of future growth and development on state lands located in the far east valley)
Education and workforce development
Aviation and aerospace
Working together, the municipalities in the Phoenix East Valley Partnership can accomplish more and benefit all. A critical communication decision was made a few years ago to change the name to include "Phoenix" prior to "East Valley Partnership" to enable those seeing and hearing the name to readily make the geographic connection.
The partnership is an excellent illustration of collaboration and cooperation creating a fertile environment for winning outcomes.
The North American Youth Exchange Network was simply an incredible experience, and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to attend on behalf of our District.
What is NAYEN?
The North American Youth Exchange Network, commonly known as NAYEN, is a Regional Association representing 167 districts, in Canada, Mexico and the United States, which are involved in Rotary Youth Exchange. The annual three day conference provides a forum for training youth exchange officers in best practices and the opportunity for interaction and collaboration with our overseas counterparts. NAYEN further supports its members through the development of resources and training materials to support their district programs.
The North American Youth Exchange Network facilitates collaboration and provides support to Rotary Districts and Multi-Districts in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, and promotes Rotary youth exchange around the world. I discovered that it is just one conference out of several, in different regions of the world. Needless to say, I am excited for the opportunity in the future to attend others, as well.
The conference was packed with information and offered a variety of training and break-out sessions every day. For instance, each day began with a Plenary session, which then led to training and break-out sessions before lunch; then the afternoon followed with same path - more training and breakouts and an afternoon Plenary session, before dinner and evening events. Instead of attempting to try to list out all that was offered, I've simply attached the 11 PAGES (!!!) of the Program Outline. (CLICK HERE to download the program outline.) As you can see, the Conference program was extensive . . . and I was overwhelmed with information!
I also made so many new friends from all over the world, and exchanged contact information for our District! Which was the most amazing part of it all in my opinion - the actual direct, face-to-face contact and new friendships that I made with our exchange partners from Sweden, Switzerland, several Districts from Brazil and Mexico, Belgium, France, Argentina, Paraguay, etc., etc., etc., etc. As the Outbound Chair for our District, it gave me a level of confidence and satisfaction knowing that I personally made direct contact with many of the Districts where we are sending our own Arizona students. And all of that doesn't even include all of the contacts and friendships that I made within the States, that I am now able to use for resources, questions, sharing of information, training documents and materials. All of those resources combined, are invaluable to Youth Exchange and to our District.
A couple of other things I learned on the side - Mexico and Brazilians sure know how to throw a party! After attending the Mexican party Thursday night, and the Brazilian party Friday night, it was quite difficult to "get up and at 'em" for the early morning sessions! (Needless to say, coffee was my friend Friday and Saturday mornings.) I also learned, that all of us in youth exchange have similar priorities - teaching tolerance and acceptance of cultural diversity, developing better world relations and friendships, service to others, peace building, facilitating and implementing effective training for our youth exchange program, and support of students during their three year Rotary exchange experience (the year before, the year of, and the year after). Again, so much that I took in, so much that I learned, and so much that I now can teach - I am very excited to share it all with others.
On a side note, I also discovered that we are considered the "rogue" or the "wild-card" state. (Yes, those are actually two terms that I heard us referred to as.) Ha! Yep, apparently, we prefer to have a direct say-so in the exchange process, instead of joining a multi-District group that handles that all for us. We continue to make our own contacts and choose our inbound exchange partner Districts, and we choose our country placements for our outbounds. The downside to that, of course, is that WE DO ALL OF THE WORK!!! I'm new at all of this of course and it is my first year, but so far I understand that we are very hands-on and, as such, are quite happy being the "rogue". (I'll get back to you on that in another year or so (wink).)
Again, I am new, and I have a lot to learn; but, youth exchange does hold a very special place in my heart and I'm excited to be involved.
A big THANK YOU to Polly, for asking me several years ago, if I'd consider hosting an exchange student.
Our own Donna Goetzenberger was in charge of Outbound Youth Exchange Orientation for our Rotary District the weekend of March 24-25. She had just recently returned from NAYEN and had only a few days to get caught up at home and work and put the final details of the orientation together. This is what she had to say about the orientation when it was all over:
"Last weekend in Prescott for our District's RYE Outbound Orientation was a huge success, if I do say so myself. Suffice it to say, as it was my first year (let alone my first year 'in charge') of the two day/overnight camp, it was quite the learning curve for me with everything that had to be done in putting together all the student and parent packets that had to be created; knowing what information to give; creating the powerpoints, materials, and instructional videos; arranging the housing/cabins for all the students/staff/parents; and, even the little things like putting together games and entertaining evening activities for everyone - it was A LOT OF WORK for one person to do!!! (Whew, am I glad that's behind me - at least for a year! Ha!) Not to mention the fact that I was out of state almost the entire week prior (Tues-Sun), attending the NAYEN conference! Wowza, did that come at the wrong time!"
Rotary supports activities and training to improve maternal health and reduce child mortality for children under five.
Area of Focus Statement of Purpose: TRF enables Rotarians to improve the health of mothers and their children by
Reducing the mortality and morbidity rate for children under the age of five;
Reducing the maternal mortality and morbidity rate;
Improving access to essential medical services, trained community health leaders and health care providers for mothers and their children;
Supporting studies for career-minded professionals related to maternal and child health.
The Rotary Foundation reaches mothers and children in need by giving communities the help and training they need to take control of their own maternal and infant health care.
On the Sun Lakes Rotary facebook page, PDG Gary Whiting is asking for help from other Rotary Clubs:
"Our Sun Lakes Rotary Club is in the process of putting together a 2018-2019 Rotary Global International Grant (Humanitarian: Water Project) and we are now looking for other Rotary Clubs and Rotary Districts in the USA and around the world that would have an interest in participating. The grant is an effort to provide running water inside homes (dwellings) on the Navajo Indian Reservation which is located mainly in the State of Arizona with some in the States of New Mexico, Utah and Colorado USA. Currently, it is estimated that there over 26,000 dwellings across the Navajo Reservation that do not have “inside” running water and can only obtain their safe water supply by having it hauled by a water truck, stored in 50-gallon drums next to the dwelling and then taken inside and stored in small water containers for use. In most cases, this will provide 7 gallons of safe water per day for a month before the necessary refill. Additionally, these dwellings do not have inside showers or bathroom facilities because of the lack of running water and in many cases have no electricity.
"Without getting into all the details, the dwelling will receive an in ground water reservoir tank, pump, water purifier, solar panel, hot water heater and sink with faucets.
"We are asking you to discuss with your own Rotary Club if they would participate in this International Global Grant which would require adding your club to the grant and provide some USA dollars. Presently, we want the grant to be over $100K USA Dollars. Additionally, if your club is outside the USA it would help with the international requirement for the grant as well.
To view this appeal on their page, CLICK HERE. "Since there is some urgency for this help, please LIKE and REPLY so that contact can be made. Please check out our club websitewww.sunlakesrotary.com and you can also respond there as well by using the CONTACT US at the top of the web page."
This made perfect sense to the 5th or 6th grade student who offered this explanation in an essay:
"Water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. There are 180 degrees between freezing and boiling because there are 180 degrees between north and south."
Business networking is something President Allan Cady is passionate about. He has asked Jeanie Morgan to work on putting together a business directory of our members. We will be able to have the directory available as a download on our website, but since we will be adding new members regularly, it will be maintained electronically so it will be current at all times. The photo shown is a reduced size sample of what each person's listing might look like. To do this so it is a quality product, Jeanie will need digital images of your business card as well as a close-up, current photo. CLICK HERE to send yours to her.
Many members have commented on how much they have enjoyed this series. We have now finished publishing profiles of all the leadership team. It is time to move on to the general membership. To keep the profiles somewhat consistent, we have had everyone respond to the same questions. If you would be willing to let your fellow members know a little more about you, please CLICK HERE to download the list of questions.
You can send your answers to JEANIE MORGAN along with a head and shoulders photo of yourself. Selfies from smart phones work and can be texted to 928 486 4328. Please provide your name when texting so she can add you to her contact list.
If she receives multiple profiles, she will publish them in the order received. If she receives these at the same meeting, she will publish them in the order of time in Rotary - longest to shortest.
This article will reappear in the Messenger anytime there is not a waiting list of profiles to be published.
President-Elect Chris Krueger opened the meeting by asking Ray Smith to lead everyone present in singing "Home on the Range." Wendell Jones offered the invocation and Jeanie Morgan led the Pledge of Allegiance. The greeter for the day was Penny May.
Our own Donna Goetzenberger was in charge of Outbound Youth Exchange Orientation for our Rotary District the weekend of March 24-25. She had just recently returned from NAYEN and had only a few days to get caught up at home and work and put the final details of the orientation together. This is what she had to say about the orientation when it was all over:
Rotary supports activities and training to improve maternal health and reduce child mortality for children under five.
On the Sun Lakes Rotary facebook page, PDG Gary Whiting is asking for help from other Rotary Clubs:
This made perfect sense to the 5th or 6th grade student who offered this explanation in an essay:
Business networking is something President Allan Cady is passionate about. He has asked Jeanie Morgan to work on putting together a business directory of our members. We will be able to have the directory available as a download on our website, but since we will be adding new members regularly, it will be maintained electronically so it will be current at all times. The photo shown is a reduced size sample of what each person's listing might look like. To do this so it is a quality product, Jeanie will need digital images of your business card as well as a close-up, current photo. 
Many members have commented on how much they have enjoyed this series. We have now finished publishing profiles of all the leadership team. It is time to move on to the general membership. To keep the profiles somewhat consistent, we have had everyone respond to the same questions. If you would be willing to let your fellow members know a little more about you, please 
