Opening and Welcome - President Jay Paulus
Prior to the meeting, Ed Koeneman and Amyla Buckhannon, President of Westwood High School Interact were selling raffle tickets to help raise funds to support the Crutches 4 Africa Interact mission to Africa this summer. Ed will be an adult advisor and Amyla will be an ambassador. Jay announced that happy bucks collected at the meeting would go to support the mission.
President Jay asked those who had attended and/or helped with the February Senior Prom to stand while he shared highlights of a story written by one of the senior gentlemen who attended the gala. CLICK HERE to read the full article, which illustrates The Magic of Rotary.
Ron Thompson offered the invocation and Deb Koeneman led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Introduction of Guests
- Ron Thompson introduced Greg Okonowski, a visiting Rotarian from the Queen Creek Rotary Club and former member of Mesa West Rotary.
- Ed Koeneman introduced Brianna Rodriguez, President of West Valley Rotaract, Amyla Buckhannon, President of Westwood High School Interact, and Courtney Sigler, Assistant Principal at Westwood High School.
- Chad Reid introduced Ramesh Pallavoor, a visiting Rotarian from Thane Northend Club in India.
- Melodie Jackson introduced her sister-in-law and driver, Carrie Wilkerson.
- Those who were attending on line were welcomed - Pai Bethea, Colleen Coons, and Gary Whitehill.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint
Chuck asked Bert Millett to draw the winning ticket, which was held by John Pennypacker. Chuck said the small weekly pot was $40 and the large pot was up to $890. Chuck had a couple of tests before letting John try to draw the Ace of Clubs. He wandered what was the difference between black-eyed peas and chick peas. The answer was black-eyed peas can play a tune, while chick peas can only hum it. The second question was 'If lightning were to strike an orchestra, who would be most likely to be struck?" The answer - the conductor. The third question was "What can a man do standing, woman do sitting, and a dog by lifting a leg. The answer was "Shake Hands." By the time the riddles were answered, John had already shuffled accepted his $40 winnings and drawn a card. The card he drew was the Joker which entitled him to an additional $20.
Happy Bucks - Andy Bradford - Sgt At Arms
- John Pennypacker made a contribution. He had spent an hour on the phone with Delta Airlines and found an ideal customer service person who helped use awards, points, etc. to get his daughter and her family from Virginia on flights to come to Arizona in April. He was very excited. It will be the first time in seventeen years his family to have his family in one place to enjoy a good time together.
- Ron Thompson contributed since the money would support C4A,, rather than offer to cover the cost of Greg's lunch.
- Harry Grossman contributed. He was supposed to be in Flagstaff meeting friends from Illinois. After he found out they were expecting 10" of snow in Flagstaff, he was happy to be at our meeting instead.
- Dick Myren contributed his traditional $2 celebrating his and honorary member Rod Daniel's good fortune in being associated with the Ace of Clubs. He also contributed $100 to celebrate his 89th birthday. He's been in Rotary 54 of those years.
- Connie Bunyard was happy to have spent time with a friend the prior week.
- John Bunyard said he had suffered with vertigo for a week. He said he's feeling better and glad to be at the meeting.
- Melodie Jackson said she thru out her knee at an Eagles concert. She spent 3 days in a wheel chair. She's glad to be walking again - though not swiftly.
- Chad Reid celebrated renewing an old hobby. He recently did his first solo skydive in twelve years. He's glad to be back in the hobby.
- Jim McGown contributed enthusiastically, but this notetaker didn't catch why. (Sorry, Jim)
- Ed Koeneman was happy for all the visitors. He was also happy that Andy Bradford had helped their daughter with her first home purchase. He's very proud of her. She has worked hard, saved, and aquired good credit. Her proud papa thinks she's pretty amazing!
- Deb Koeneman was happy for C4A opportunities. She attended CLA and learned a lot. She said Jim Schmidt made a wonderful speech.
- Chuck Flint reminded John Bunyard it was Connie's birthday.
- Jay Paulus contributed and shared a Paul Harris quote, which (again) this note taker didn't catch. (Sorry, Jay).
- Warren Williamson told about a visitor to Ireland who was on his way to Killarney, and tried to correct a wrong turn by taking what he thought was a short-cut but turned out to be a little-traveled country road. He saw a local out working in the field and asked if he could tell him how to get to Killarney, and didn't get a positive response. He asked if he could tell him how to find the main highway again with no help. He asked if he could tell him how to find the closest town, and again - no idea. He remarked, "You sure don't know much." The local responded, "I ain't lost!"
Paul Harris Fellow Recognition - John Pennypacker
John Pennypacker was happy to present Dick Myren with his Paul Harris Plus Four recognition pin. Dick said his father-i-law was the one who introduced him to Rotary, but had never achieved his first Paul Harris Fellow recognition. Dick hopes everyone in Mesa West will make it a goal to support The Rotary Foundation and become Paul Harris Fellows.
Sponsor Program Update - Pam CohenPam reported that since the prior week another $1,500 in donations had come in. So far this year, we have raised $17,348.
Members are encouraged to ask for donations from people in their circle of influence - family, friends, frequently-used-vendors, associates, etc.
Announcements
- Neil Theobald, who has visited a few times, and recent retiree from the University of Wyoming has submitted an application to transfer his membership to Mesa West.
- There will be a gala on March 15th at the Mesa Arts Center. Jay thought some members might want to participate.
- March 21 is Rotary Day at the Park. Those who purchased tickets will enjoy lunch and get to watch the Cubs play the Padres in a spring-training game. There will be no regular meeting March 20.
- There will be visitors from the Guaymas Rotary Club in town and there will be a breakfast meeting with them and a few Mesa West members to discuss the Guaymas hearing project the morning of March 21.
- On March 27 we will have a regular meeting at noon, but members are encouraged to bring their significant others to the Igniting Innovation Venture Challenge in-person event which will take place on March 27, 2025 from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm at The Studios @ Mesa City Center. Those who come will get to hear the five finalists tout their project and a team of judges will decide which innovator receives our $5,000 grant to support their endeavor.
- Mesa West is hosting a blood drive at the YMCA on April 2. Please sign up to donate.
- Our annual Spring Olympics will be held at Ed and Debbie Koeneman's home on Saturday, April 5
- On April 8, Jay has been invited by Chad Reid to talk to Toastmasters at their 7:00 a.m. meeting at Oak For Less Furniture at 1660 S Alma School, Unit 100. Mesa West members who would like to attend are also invited.
- On Saturday, April 19, Mesa West's Rotary Week of Service project will take place at Midwest Food Bank on Baseline Road in Mesa. See a separate article in this newsletter for the sign-up link.
- May 2-3 is the District 5495 Conference of Clubs. Thursday evening, May 1, the district will be holding a sunset cruise on Saguaro Lake to benefit The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona. Members are encouraged to attend the cruise and as much of the conference as they can. CLICK HERE to get to the registration link.
- The Rotary International Convention will be held June 21-25 in Calgary, Canada.
Program - Artificial Intelligence - Danny Robles
Eric Silverberg introduced Danny Robles who would be talking about the accelerated adoption of the use of artificial intelligence and how it is already reshaping the way we do business and interact.
Audience participation was encouraged. It was clear that some have more experience with artificial intelligence than others, but it was evident that many of us were unaware of the extent to which it is already very much a part of all our lives if we have a smart phone or other smart device like Alexa or Siri.
Chat GBT was something that was suggested to help save time in creating documents. President Jay shared that he had used "prompts" to aid him in preparing a club endorsement letter when Colleen was running for the District Governor Nominee Designee position.
Things rarely go backward, and there are obviously many time-saving benefits about this direction we are undoubtedly heading. This writer hopes that some of the time saved will be used to spend more time actually relating to the real people in our lives. When a program is really interesting, I tend to get caught up in what is being said and my notes are not as lengthy as they should be. In this case, I think some explanation for my lack of good notes was the fact that much of what was being said was going over my head.
Jeanie