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Welcome to the Rotary Club of Marana in Marana, AZ
Service Above Self
We meet Tuesdays at 7:00 AM
Nana's Kitchen
Nana's Kitchen
8225 N. Courtney Page Way
Marana, AZ 85741
United States of America
Marana, AZ 85741
United States of America
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Rotary Club of Marana
Announcements: With four members celebrating birthdays, we opened the meeting with a robust singing of “Happy Birthday.” President Richie Benner noted that he, Denise West and Laura Clymer participated the Rotary Leadership Institute training on January 25, and Mary Straus served on the faculty. Richie and Denise have completed two of three sessions. Rotary Community Service Day will be April 25, so save the date and mark your calendar.
Happy bucks for: Our our guests, personalized “Happy Birthday” serenades from Carl Maes, beautiful weather (compared to Alaska this time of year), the approaching Gem Show, and an upcoming citizenship ceremony (2/21/20) for our own Peter Mack who somehow duped us ;) into letting him become a citizen. I will vouch that our country is getting the better end of this deal. Let’s just hope we can keep up our end in these precarious times.
Guest speakers: We welcomed back U.S. Border Patrol officers Jesus Vasavilbaso and Sergio Leones Jr. Both are assigned to the Tucson Sector, which runs for 262 linear miles along our border with Mexico from the Pima County line to the New Mexico state line. A total of 3,900 agents with the federal government patrol the sector.Vasavilbaso and Leones noted some of the arrests and drug seizures that have been made recently and made public through news releases. Additionally, as of December 25, 2019, the Border Patrol had rescued 243 crossers for the year. The Tucson Sector has 34 rescue beacons, which can be activated by desperate or abandoned crossers.
Vasavilbaso also explained that drug cartels often control how, when, and where undocumented immigrants are going to cross the border. The cartels target vulnerable people who want to immigrate to the States for a better life, Vasavilbaso said. The population of crossers has changed as well with more people from destabilized and violent Central American countries. The officers also noted that they are seeing an uptick in dubious claims from the crossers seeking asylum with children, prompting immigration officials to conduct DNA-swab tests to verify whether the minors crossing with adults have familial ties.
Finally, the officers noted the decrease over the last 10 years in marijuana seizures as compared to the dramatic increase in narcotic seizures as drug cartels increase their efforts to push heroin and fentanyl into the U.S. Presumably this is to capitalize on the opioid crisis, fueled in part by the over-prescribing of pain medication that was marketed aggressively by pharmaceutical giants, as pain med-addicts turned to heroin and fentanyl.
Submitted by Laura Clymer, secretary
Rotary Club of Marana
We had the pleasure of welcoming a visiting Rotarian all the way from London, Tony Sharma, DG for Rotary District 1130. Tony felt right at home as Mother Nature delivered a steady, driving rain during our breakfast meeting.
Tony told us about two service projects that his Rotary club has sponsored: 1) a global grant which set up a fire station in Ethiopia using a refurbished fire truck; and 2) a double-decker “Shelter Bus” which travels around London and makes various stops to provide food, clothing and counseling to the homeless. The “upstairs” of the bus has clothes that the clients can pick out for themselves. Impressive projects, no doubt.
Announcements included:
- Our members authorized to contribute $1,000 to the Oro Valley Club’s global grant once it gets approved.
- President Richie Benner, Program Director Denise West, and your humble secretary are signed up to attend the Rotary Leadership Institute. Mary Straus is on the faculty.
- Randy Brooks is traveling to Mexico to check out the microloans program.
- Tour de Cookie is set for March 14. Dan Contorno, our tour de force of tour de cookie, asked for folks to help out on Sundays prior to the race. Dan is setting up a table at 9 a.m. along the Loop at Rillito Racetrack to hand out information to riders.
Happy Bucks flowed for the rain, the rain, and the rain. And more bucks showered down for our visitor from the U.K., our own Carl Maes for speaking about the “Secure Act”, for visits from children and grandchildren, for hikes, and jazz concerts.
Lynne’s joke was lighthearted and garnered laughs and a few groans: “I went to see my financial planner and asked him to check my balance. He tried to push me over.”
Carl Maes, our resident financial planner, presented information about the “Secure Act”, which went into effect January 1, 2020. While the long-term implications are still being determined, Carl said one of the main take-aways is the increase in age for the required minimum distribution from 70 ½ to 72. Additionally, you can keep contributing pre-tax dollars into a traditional IRA or Roth until age 72.The Secure Act also increased the incentive (from a $500 to a $5,000 tax credit) for small businesses to start-up retirement plans for employees. If you have questions or need more detail about how the Secure Act impacts your small business, check in with Carl.
Carl also reminded us that it is important that you update your beneficiaries because many of the changes could end up affecting them.
Submitted by Laura Clymer, secretary.
Rotary Club of Marana
At our breakfast meeting we joyously welcomed back Bouba Hamadon, who was in town visiting and to express his appreciation for the successful securing of the global grant for the Malam Center in Cameroon.“I’m here to acknowledge the hard work of the club for the global grant, and in particular Mary (Straus) and Randy (Brooks),” Bouba said. “Now the burden is on us. Thank you on behalf of the village the Rotary Club in Maroua. We appreciate the help and the commitment.”
An additional $4,000 from us will go Malam School Center project, and Marana Rotary President Richie Benner presented that check to Bouba as well.
Announcements from our merry morning included:
- Rotary Leadership Institute will be January 25. There’s still time to sign up.
- Tour de Cookie sponsorships are available. Dan handed out fliers to post.
- The Rotary Day of Peace will be April 4, 2020, so be on the lookout for more information about how to participate.
- In a special announcement, club member Don Jorgensen was “pinned” for becoming a Paul Harris Society member.
We doled out “Happy Bucks” for seeing grandchildren, for completing the first international trip of the year (Peter Mack, of course), for Bouba’s visit, for the Rotary Foundation, and for feeling like “it’s home here” at the Marana Rotary club meetings (Bouba).
Deputy Pima County Attorney Jonathan Mosher returned for another presentation in his series, “How Not to Get Away with Murder.” This time, the featured case was “State v. Joshua Lelevier”. Lelevier of Vail was convicted of first-degree murder of his 13-year-old stepdaughter. Mosher, who is running in the Democratic primary to replace retiring County Prosecutor Barbara LaWall, emphasized how the county attorney’s office is using technology to create a visual story of what happened for jurors.
Submitted by Laura Clymer, secretary. This version corrects three mistakes in the first version sent out. My apologies.
Rotary Club of Marana
After two “dark” weeks to celebrate the holidays, we rang in 2020 with a joyful breakfast meeting featuring lots of warm greetings and guest speaker Jana Jorgensen, FBI special agent for the New York Field Office.
John Dooling subbed for President Richie Benner to run the show. We also welcomed Alaska Rotarian Martin who has recently moved to the Silver Bell and Ina area, and is looking at local clubs.
Announcements included the following:
• Dan reported that he’s likely finalized the Tour de Cookie route. We need more sponsors, but the ride is coming together. It was suggested that we order Marana Rotary t-shirts to wear so that riders know who we are.
• Mary reported that our Global Grant totaling $33,000 for the Cameroon project got fully funded! John thanked Mary and Randy for their “tremendous efforts in shepherding it through.” Great work, Mary and Randy!
• The Rotary Leadership Institute will be January 25th. Sign up to register here: https://rotaryd5500.org/event/rli/
“Happy Bucks” were offered for the New Year, for holidays spent with family, for winning at “high stakes” poker (John), for her daughter’s recovery from being kicked by a horse (Beckie), for everyone who made the holiday season special, and for our guests Jana and Martin.
We were thrilled that member Don Jorgensen used his special connections to score a very special guest, FBI Special Agent Jana Jorgensen. Jana delighted us with her story about how she decided to join FBI after serving as a prosecuting attorney in Seattle. The two-year FBI application process required three interviews, three physical fitness tests, and a lie detector test. Her training at the FBI Academy at the facility in Quantico, Virginia (https://www.fbi.gov/services/training-academy) included being pepper-sprayed, tactical training, and classroom training.
Special Agent Jorgensen explained that the FBI has 56 field offices, plus satellite offices. After graduating, the new agents rank the field offices by preference. Jana was assigned to New York City, the biggest field office. Specifically, Jana has worked the Metro Safe Streets Task Force, and her team conducted the search of Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion after his arrest. We won’t mention the super-creepy stuff the team found, but I think we all can agree it was super creepy, and the world’s a better place without that person being in it.
Special Agent Jorgensen also kindly disabused us of the notions that FBI trainees at Quantico wear stylish training outfits (as seen on tv), that the FBI barges in and takes cases away from local law enforcement (story arc as seen on tv), and that FBI field offices have state-of-the-art technology with touch-screens and fancy graphics (as seen on tv). It was a gentle reminder that separating fact from fiction simply requires talking with a first-person source!
All in all, it was a grand start to the new year and the new decade. Happy 2020!
Rotary Club of Marana
Hi Again,
With no notes and with a head cold that blocks out 50% of all sound (added to my 25% hearing loss) I shall try to reconstruct what happened at today's meeting.
Attendance was less than robust, but those who attended seemed to know the Pledge of Allegiance well enough, if not the lyrics to We Wish You A Merry Christmas.
There were few announcements, Randy had one, believe it or not, but dang if I can recall what it was. I had one, urging someone to step up and be our President Elect for 2020/2021. Hey, it is a do nothing job, plus for being president the following year we will send you to Taipei, the capitol city of Taiwan for the 2021 RI Conference. You know, Formosa, as it was called when John Zwick was a little boy. David? Denise? Beckie? Randy? Buehler? Buehler?
There were three jokes thanks to Lynne's two and Richie's solo contribution. All were one liners and I remember thinking they were funny, but unfortunately that is all I can recall.
The Club presented a check to GAP Ministries, the largest Foster Care program in Pima County. Jason Ayers represented GAP and received the check of $1,100, which constituted 100% of our net proceeds from our poker night a couple of months ago. By the way, the big winner that night was an 80 plus year young lady who gave a lot of her winnings to adopt a family through GAP Ministries. Again, a big thank you to Dan Contorno for leading this fund raiser. By the way, GAP qualifies for the Foster Care State Tax Credit should you be so inclined.
Next up was the Executive Director of the Marana Chamber of Commerce who was representing the Marana Food Bank on whose Board she sits. President Benner presented Audra Winters a check from our club in the amount of $800. Audra replaced Ed Stolmaker, a former member of this Rotary Club, last February.Happy Bucks did occur, but my mind is a blank. I know, tell you something you did not already know. I can't even recall what I was happy about, so do not feel slighted if you had a really good Happy Buck thought and it did not get recorded.
Our own Don Jorgensen was the presenter today and spoke on an organization he has supported with time and money for several years, ShelterBox, USA. Begun as a Rotary project by a Club out of the UK, ShelterBox has grown by leaps and bounds over the past ten years. Stepping in wherever there has been catastrophic natural or man made destruction ShelterBox has made a name for itself rivaling organizations such as Red Cross and Red Crescent. Necessities such as tents, tools, blankets, solar lights and even personal water purification systems have been given to over a million people in need. Don noted our club has generously donated the $1,000 needed to sponsor na ShelterBox several times in the past, but not last year. He is hopeful we can again this year.Don would have had more time for his presentation had not Richie opted to read Dr Jorgensen's lengthy and impressive resume. This cut about half an hour from the presentation.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NO MEETING NEXT TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First meeting in January 2020 will be an agent of The Federal Bureau of Investigation. You felons have been warned.
Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Your's Truly,
John the Scribe
Rotary Club of Marana
Geared up for the El Tour and cranked up for Rotary “Quizmania”, our club demonstrated that we are a competitive lot, even at 7 o’clock in the morning. Our El Tour aid station is ready for action and located at Moore Road and Camino de Oeste. We had a spirited “Quizmania” that had club members matching wits for accolades and chocolates.
But first, Assistant District Governor Marc Snow visited and presented information about the Rotary Vocational Fund, which qualifies for a state of Arizona tax credit. The Vocational Fund pays for vocational training, which goes directly to the institution on behalf of the student. Marc noted that in 2018-19, the Vocational Fund served more students than ever before (nearly 100), but had to defer funding about 25 students. Demand continues to rise, Marc said.
Marc also talked about how rewarding it is to watch the impact of the Vocational Fund grants. Locally, the Pima County program “Job Path” is a pipeline of qualified students. Marc added that another $30,000 to $40,000 would go a long way toward meeting the demand.
The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona is 501 (c)(3) non-profit, organization and a Qualified Charitable Organization, which means a taxpayer may claim a donation as a tax credit up to the allowable amount on her or his Arizona personal income tax return. To learn more The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona and its local impact, check out this story from the Arizona Daily Star.
Mary Straus finished up “Foundation Month” with “Quizmania” of Foundation facts. We split up into three teams and battled for glory. Team #1 emerged the winner, beating out Team #3 in overtime. But in reality we were all winners in the end for having learned about this important way to make the world a better place.
Team 3 (from left): Beckie, David, Denise and Lynne.
“Housekeeping” was in order for the meeting as we mapped out plans for our El Tour aid station, learned more about the Rotary Foundation from Mary Straus, and shared the many reasons for our happy bucks.
Carl Maes discussed what is needed for the El Tour aid station. Typically, folks meet up at 7:30 a.m. at the McDonald’s near Thornydale and Tangerine. Six to seven people are needed initially for set-up. Denise West will purchase the snacks for the riders. The city provides bananas, oranges, and water. The Rotary’s semi-trailer will arrive Friday afternoon. The busiest time for riders is from noon to 1:30 p.m.
In other announcements, President Richie Benner said there’s some district grant money left and we can apply for one, which could qualify for a matching amount up to $2,000.
“Happy bucks” for grandchildren performing at state championships (John); for having spouse’s home after long trips (Carl); for fishing 10 days (yes, 10 days!!) in a row (Dan); for a forever home (Beckie); for successful business trips (Denise); and for strong club attendance (Harold).
Mary Straus, our club’s Rotary Foundation Director, continued her three-part informational series about The Rotary Foundation because it’s Foundation Month. In review, Rotary consists of 1) Rotary clubs, 2) Rotary Foundation, and 3) Rotary International. The Rotary Foundation funds District Grants, Global Grants, Peace Scholars, and polio eradication efforts. Global grants have six areas of focus: 1) maternal and child health; 2) peace conflict and resolution; 3) basic education and literacy; 4) disease prevention and treatment; 5) economic and community development; and 6) water and sanitation.
In 1917 Arch Klumph started the Rotary Foundation with an initial contribution of $26.50. The Foundation has received the highest 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, which grades non-profits on transparency and accountability, and 92 percent of funds spent on program awards and operations. Our $25 quarterly dues go to annual fund, and in three years, half of what we give comes back to us in grant funding.
As President Benner explained, “What we do today will help fund what we do tomorrow.”
Our club housekeeping done, we adjourned.
Rotary Club of Marana
What a start to November it was. We had our MCAT Student of the Month in attendance. Rotarian Marie Andree Zachrisson visited us from Nueva Guatemala Rotary Club. Plus, guest speaker Susan Friese shared with us the amazing work Literacy Connects.
The MCAT Student of the Month was Alexis Falcon, who was joined by her mother Irasema Teran and family guest Cody Hudson. Student Support Coach Laura Garcia attended as well as Principal Denise Coronado. Ms. Coronado explained that Alexis had a really hard time in middle school and got distracted socially. It was Mr. Todd, her math teacher who realized that Alexis needed specialized support in math. Once that was in place, Alexis began to thrive. “I also saw that I couldn’t do anything without my diploma,” Alexis said. She’s on track to graduate in December. She’s “deeply grateful” for her mother’s tough love and thanked the Club for selecting her Student of the Month. Alexis plans to pursue the culinary arts after graduation.
From Literacy Connects, community outreach coordinator Susan Friese explained some of the life-changing programs of the Tucson non-profit, which works for social justice through reading literary and creative expression.The “Reading Seed” Program, in its 25th year, focuses on creating lifelong learners. Over 1,600 students have been served. Sessions allow for one-on-one work with a reading tutor and a free book after each session. Why is early childhood reading so important? “Because it from kindergarten to third grade that children learn to read, and from fourth grade, they are reading to learn,” Friese explained.
Literary Connects outreach includes:
- Training pediatricians to share with parents the importance of reading,
- Training volunteers to be reading tutors who help children learn to read by making it fun,
- Helping youngsters turn their stories into mini-plays performed by a troupe of artists, and
- Teaching English to immigrants and refugees and adult literacy.
Literary Connects has an annual budget of $1.9 million, and relies on about $1.2 million worth of volunteer time. More than 110,000 books have been donated through Literacy Connects. Literacy Connects is a qualifying charitable organization for the Arizona tax credit.
We offered up Happy Bucks for our guests Alexis, Susan and Marie, near perfect attendance, and sunrises.
Lynne’s joke struck a familiar chord for many of us: “I would do my math homework but I’ve got my own problems.”
The club's Rotary Foundation Director Mary Strauss also presented the first of a three-part informational series about The Rotary Foundation. The Rotary Foundation, with a $1.2 billion endowment, funds district grants, global grants, Rotary peace scholars, and polio eradication efforts.
Guest Marie Andree Zachrisson from Nueva Guatemala Rotary Club.
Rotary Club of Marana
The best and the brightest the The Rotary club of Marana has to offer gathered for a Trivia contest last Tuesday at Native Grill and Wings two doors down from Nana's Kitchen. Randy and John D were also able to attend.
We knew it was going to be a fun evening right from the start when, after a half hour, we still could not figure out how to operate the gizmos. Eventually we divided into two groups, Peter Mack (a surprise attendee because riots in Chile have shut down the country) vs the rest of us. Just kidding. Actually, Richie dominated the entire evening. Even when he quit playing out of boredom I lost to him the next three games. Maybe he had the "master" gizmo? You know, like the teachers workbook with ll the answers?
The 10 dozen wings were great of course and, although thoroughly stuffed, we managed to wolf down two magnificent pizzas. Did not know they had such tasty pizza. It was a good thing we had a private room as Harold, Deb Hume and Cindy Dooling tended to be quite boisterous. Not to mention the Benner family. Yes, Einstein, er, Richie brought his whole family! New member applicant and Rotary raffle aficionado, Vince, joined us as well.
The Jorgensen's bowed out at the last minute in order to listen to a play by play call of the birth of a grandchild. Deb and Geary Conover reported they would attend, but alas were no shows.
Next time I get Hindman or Clymer on my team because I think I could have challenged the machine's answers given the right attorney.
Rotary Club of Marana
With all members in attendance*, our guest District Governor Ellie Patterson delivered a message worth remembering: Never lose sight of Rotary’s local and worldwide reach, and our ability to change our community and therefore, change the world because “Rotary connects the world.”
Joining Ellie was assistant governor Marc Snow. Also in attendance was Vince Reilly, who recently moved to Tucson from Texas. Vince is a Realtor with Tierra Antigua Realty. He’s also a lucky fellow because he won the raffle and then pulled a “Joker” for half the pot!
“Happy Bucks” were doled out for “being in the club”, for Ellie and Marc attending, for “installing a telescope in Connecticut (Peter, of course), for good fall breaks, and for “what dreams may come.” We settled on a new date for Tour de Cookie, which will be March 14, 2020. Mark your calendar.
District Governor Ellie then spoke to the club about Rotary, our district, and our club, and the ways we can continue t
o make an impact and how we can grow our membership. At the district level, Ellie said she sees “1-50-1” – 1 district, 50 clubs, 1 team. A collective leadership team at the district level combined with individual team members will continue to propel Rotary forward. Folks join Rotary because they are people of action who enjoy connecting through fellowship and purpose, she said.
o make an impact and how we can grow our membership. At the district level, Ellie said she sees “1-50-1” – 1 district, 50 clubs, 1 team. A collective leadership team at the district level combined with individual team members will continue to propel Rotary forward. Folks join Rotary because they are people of action who enjoy connecting through fellowship and purpose, she said.The question becomes: How can we grow more and thus accomplish more? While visiting every club in the district, Ellie said each club is unique, especially with its acts of kindness. It’s important, though, to ask ourselves, how do we attract and retain members? What would we stop doing? What would we change? What is the one thing I would do?
One way to attract and retain members is to remin
d folks of what we do to change our community and the world. For example, Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio globally have been largely successful but the costs have risen because vaccines have to be delivered to remote and politically sensitive locations. Local, district, and global grants allow us to target specific needs within the local community and across the globe.
d folks of what we do to change our community and the world. For example, Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio globally have been largely successful but the costs have risen because vaccines have to be delivered to remote and politically sensitive locations. Local, district, and global grants allow us to target specific needs within the local community and across the globe.In closing, Ellie reminded us that Rotarians like to “break things” – from breaking the seal of a polio vaccine, to breaking the cycle of poverty with local grants and community service, to breaking the record for consecutive years providing an aid station for El Tour de Tucson, to the MCAT student who breaks into a smile for being named “student of the month” by our club. With that inspirational closing from Ellie, we adjourned full of pep and purpose!
Rotary Club of Marana Meeting Minutes
10/15/19
Guests: Candace Greenberg, artist and educator, was introduced to us by Randy. We all enjoyed her kindness and enthusiasm.
Announcements:
- Last day to file taxes.
- November 9th Foundation Training Day ($5) and Foundation Country and Western Dinner
- Two RI, Zone Reps will be joining our District for this event
- Should be fun, educational, and inspiring!
- Tour de Cookie Date Changed to March 14th
- Time to Seek Sponsorships
- Tour de Tucson; November 23
- All hands on deck from 8:00am to 3:00pm
- Richie coordinating with Perimeter, Denise organizing food, Laura coordinating volunteers
- Emerge Center Against Domestic Violence service project Saturday, October 26th from 8am to noon. We will help to beautify and restore their patio and play area. Hope to see many of you there.
Happy Bucks:
- Many happinesses, but this writer forgot she was responsible for notes during the time period and remembers only one: Dan has taken and run with the club’s call to membership recruitment and engagement. Many thanks to him from all of us.
- Also, Lynn’s joke was hilarious today, but to avoid offence, it won’t be repeated.
Today’s Program was presented by Yanick Hicks who spoke with us about Leadership Development
Yanick Hicks is a delightful young man and pharmacist who spoke with us about the development of leadership and its importance. He began with a quote from his mentor and friend John Maxwell: To be influential, smile, share, give, and turn the other cheek.
Following this opening, Yanick shared his story of emigrating from Cameroon with family to the United States at age 16. His transition to high school was difficult; he wanted very much to fit in but was picked on because of his accent and difference. This period changed when he was introduced to alcohol, night clubs, and marijuana. He quickly became socially engaged and had a group of friends. While he felt happy, his grades plummeted. This young man, who had sites on becoming a pharmacist and who had been taught to work hard and to care for his community by his grandfather, no longer cared about his goals, his future, or service to his community.
Having little hope of being accepted to any university pharmacy program after high school, Yannick nonetheless applied to 5 schools. While waiting for responses, a friend recommended and sent him a link to a video. It was a life changing experience for him. A talk by John Maxwell on leadership, growth, and development.
Yannick immediately started reinvesting in himself. He stopped drinking and smoking, and committed himself to making a difference in his own and others’ lives. Yannick was accepted by one pharmacy school. While completing his program, he found his true passion was in leadership. In addition to being a pharmacist, Yannick sought out John Maxwell and eventually joined his organization training on leadership, personal and organizational growth, and development.
Yannick shared with us gems of his trainings:
- The Law of the Lid
The Lid refers to the maximum capacity or robustness of one’s leadership skills.This Lid limits the degree to which an organization under your leadership can be creative, effective, and grow.
- To further develop leadership skills
- Observe the experiences you have and take time to reflect
- Write: What went right, what went wrong, what can we/I do differently.
- Experience new things. 99% of our thoughts are the same as yesterdays. We tend to fill our days with the familiar and routines, which results in automatic thinking. To interrupt this, we must dare to experience new things where we can’t rely on our triggered automatic thinking. In these new spaces is where new development can occur.
Yannick closed his talk by emphasizing the importance of striving to make a difference in the lives of others. Without this perspective, one’s leadership will be very limited and self-serving.
The Rotary Club of Marana expresses our appreciation to Yanick Hicks for an inspiring presentation.
Submitted by Rotarian Mary Straus, 10/15/19
Rotary Club of Marana
We received good news from the El Tour de Tucson folks – our aid station remains on the route and in the same location. Folks should plan on helping the entire day, Saturday, Nov. 23, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Our service project coming up at the end of month will be Saturday, October 26 at Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse. Save the date, and plan on helping from 8 a.m. to noon.
The Poker Tournament to benefit the Foundation and GAP Ministries drew about 30 players, including a half-dozen or so from GAP. We’re still crunching the numbers but bottom line is: Everyone had fun.
We had “happy bucks” for finding a forever home (Beckie) to feeling young because it only takes 10 minutes to get ready for Rotary (John) to our “crisp” mornings and lovely fall-feeling weather.
Our MCAT Student of the Month was Jayden, who unfortunately was unable to attend. MCAT Principal Denise Coronado and social studies/history teacher Mr. Bowen joined us on Jayden’s behalf. Ms. Coronado explained that Jayden attended six different elementary schools growing up and four different high schools before settling in at MCAT. Jayden works 30 hours a week as well. Congratulations, Jayden!
Randy Brooks led our “Growing Membership”, Part 2 discussion. Membership depends on recruitment and then retention. The consensus is that our club has a strong and active core, however we’ve lost numbers because members have typically moved away for job promotions (ie, Tony Hunter).
On the survey, everyone said they are willing to invite a friend or colleague. Many of us are attracted to Rotary's emphasis on giving back to our community. Randy suggested it is important to tell people what Rotary means to you, such as listing our local service projects and emphasizing that we are professionals who develop friendships and connections.
“Why we join may be different than why we stay,” Randy noted.
Various members then responded to what persuaded them to join Rotary and stay in Rotary:
- The ability to touch people’s lives both locally across the world
- Opportunity to meet other professionals
- Networking with other professionals
- Service projects
- Creating friendships and community
- “This club welcomed me”
Randy then handed out some “homework”, the “Identifying Prospective Members Worksheet” that we are to complete. The worksheet prompts us to think about our professional and service contacts. Please complete the worksheet.
Our next “Growing Membership” discussion will be November 12, when Mary Strauss leads the workshop.
Submitted by Laura Clymer, secretary
Rotary Club of Marana
With a turn of the calendar, our first October meeting began with a series of important announcements:
- Tour de Cookie 2020 date conflicts with another ride. Dan reported that he heard from folks who have already promoted to the Greater Arizona Bicycling Association (GABA) a ride on the same day (March 7, 2020) we were planning for the Tour de Cookie. They’ve asked us to move Tour de Cookie and will let us promote our ride at their ride. Given that it’s already on the GABA calendar, members discussed that we need move the date to either Feb. 29, 2020 or March 14, 2020. The group is leaning toward March 14.
- Carl Maes volunteered to chair the committee for the Tour de Cookie booth. Thank you, Carl!
- Our service project for October will be Saturday, October 26 at Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse. Mark your calendar, and plan on helping from 8 a.m. to noon.
"Happy bucks" ranged from coaching a youth soccer team (David) to servicing a telescope on top of a volcano (Peter, of course), from selling a “good” Jeep (Randy) to morning temperatures in the low 60s (Harold), and all points in between.
Lynne made a “funny” joke* about lawyers, and because the Club secretary is a lawyer, it shall not be repeated here … in the law, we call that exercising “judicial discretion”.
Our guest speaker was Trevor Edwards, the Community Recruitment Program Coordinator for Pima County’s Community Justice Boards. “Restorative justice” is the philosophical underpinning of the program. The purpose is to focus on at-risk youth who have been arrested for non-violent infractions and divert them a 90-day, non-punitive program that focuses on the impact of their actions and creates individualized plans to help them gain strategies and skills to make better decisions for their future. About a 100 community volunteers serve on Community Justice Boards. A total of 19 boards operate with their neighborhoods across Pima County, Trevor said. In fact, Trevor noted that Vail, located east of Tucson, was starting its new Community Justice Board on October 24. Each board uses a team approach to develop a set of consequences for each youth. Consequence plans may include letters of apology, community service, empowerment groups, educational programs, or creative- and career-based projects. Volunteer projects include working with Ben’s Bells, mural artists, and the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam. Victims are heard from as well through Victim Impact Statements.
Children, aged 8 to 17, who are first or second non-violent offenders are eligible. The top offenses are possession of marijuana and property damage. The program boasts a 94% completion rate, with only a 5% recidivism rate. Parent report a 98% satisfaction rate with the program.
Trevor’s informative talk gave no time for questions, but he left us with lots of literature and an understanding of how restorative justice works in the real world. Thanks, Trevor!
Submitted by Laura Clymer, secretary
* Question: What do you call 25 lawyers skydiving? Answer: Skeet.
