President Hunter requested Richie to lead us in the pledge and a find job he did. Lynne requested "Hey Jude", a Beatles tune from fifty-one years ago, be sung. Tony helped us with his guitar and I must say we sounded good. Good compared to our attempt at "Yellow Submarine" a few months ago, not good compared to John Lennon. All things are relative.

 

Odds and Ends

Our Top Golf event from last Tuesday got a few good reviews from those who were able to attend. It was announced that Bob Bishop's twin grand kids have arrived and doing well. Randy asked for a few members to remain after the meeting to interview Alexis Elarosa for possible Rotary Vocational Fund scholarship to Respiratory Therapist School.

 

Board meeting at John's office tomorrow 2/6/2019 at 5:30 pm. 

 

Tour de Cookie rider prospecting done on Sundays at Farmers Market 9 am to noon. Help is appreciated and easy to do. Located near Rillito Park on First Street just south of River Rd. Beckie has several booth sign ups, but still looking for the $500 Sponsor. Dan requests any signs, tee shirts etc from last year please bring to next week meeting. Please share on Facebook and your email contacts. March 9th.

 

Poker Tournament a week from Friday. Please share information with your email contacts, golf club members, fire department employees, congregation members and anyone else you can think of. 

 

Rachel spoke of the United Way's program to assist the working poor with the income tax refund process. There are nine sites in Pima County and one being at the Marana senior Citizens Center. Mary, Randy and Deb from our club are assisting and more needed.  Hours of operation are Thursdays 4-7 and Saturday's 12:30 to 3:30. The UW is also partnering with PCC for basic tax accounting course.

 

Tony says we are looking for an April project. Send him your ideas.

 

Happy Bucks

John-Thanks Tony for Top Golf outing

David-Trial is over

Don-Glad David was acquitted?????

Harold-Enjoyed Top Golf

Richie-Enjoyed Rotary Leadership Institute and recommends for new and old Rotarians

Beckie-Happy to be here and hopes SLC home sells quickly

Rachel-Heck if I know. I think I was asking for additional salsa at the time.

Randy-Happy to have seen Richie on TV for a lengthy informative session on Scouting. Randy also claims to have hit a golf ball straight and far at Top Golf last Tuesday. He did not say if it was straight and far "in the direction he intended."

Mary-Heck if I know. For some reason I miss Mary's comments on a regular basis. I apologize and short of writing me a note every time I do not know what else to do. Maybe you can sit with me and Dan from now on?

 

Joke Off

Lynne won easily as Maeve chose not to attend this morning.

 

John-As usual won and lost the raffle this time with the 5 of hearts.

 

Jeff Pridgett, Marana Police Department Sergeant and Public Information Officer (PIO), was our speaker this morning. Counting Jeff, Richie and Dan we had three Marana Tigers at our meeting. Jeff spent twelve years in the MUSD school system. He has held numerous positions from "beat" cop to school resource officer to motorcycle cop to in house Sergeant in charge to his current position as PIO. The new station is a place of pride having evolved from a triple wide mobile to the state of the art facility they now are housed in. The tax levy that raised the money for the new building is gone as promised.  The headquarters is located across from Ora Mae Harn Park on Lon Adams Rd. A tour of the facility will be arranged.

 

The MPD respond to all traffic incidents unlike TPD and writes a report for each. The MPD detectives are broad in scope and investigate all from purse snatchings to murder. The MPD responds to all calls and in a timely fashion, again unlike TPD.   

 

 

                                                                            

Dr Mack again led us in the Pledge. Apparently he has to do this until we get it right!

President Hunter apologized for having neither a song nor his guitar then sought a thought for the day from our members. Beckie Penman had a good one I recall, but unfortunately that is all I recall. Peter suggested we be generous with the our weekly Food Bank donations as there may be an increase in need due to the Federal Government shutdown.

 

Flash: "Life is a journey not a destination." Thanks, Beckie.

 

No 7AM meeting next week. Members and their friends are encouraged to attend our 5th Tuesday social at Top Golf starting at 5:30 PM.

 

Dan will again send the 2/15/2019 Poker Tournament flyer to all members as apparently some did not receive his first email. Please talk this up among friends and family.

 

RLI this Saturday with Richie and Denise registered. Still time for more to register. Contact John or Randy for details.

 

Happy Bucks

John-Randy's birthday

Dan-  Randy's Birthday  

Harold-Weather here compared to rest of the country

Rachel-Weather

Beckie-Daughter engaged, home for sale in SLC, weather here compared to SLC with the cold and inversion problems

Mary-Preliminary grant approval for Cameroon!

Denise-Happy for today's speaker, Edna Rosas-Gutierrez.

David-Happy about something(good to see you David. Happy New Year)

 

Joke Off

 

 Maeve began with lawyer trying to take advantage of old person. (Maeve apologized to David then continued). Lawyer says "I 'll ask you a question and if you do not know answer you pay me $5. Then you ask me and if I do not know I will pay you $500." Old guy agrees. Lawyer, "How many miles between the earth and the moon?" Old guy forks over $5. Old guy, "What goes up the hill on three legs and down on four legs?" Lawyer scratches his head. He consults the Internet. Tweets his friends. Finally gives up and gives the old man $500. The lawyer then asks the old guy, "just what does go up the hill on three legs and down the hill on four?" Old guy gives the lawyer $5!

 

 Lynne countered with conversation between a "normal" person and a Psychiatrist. "Is there a simple test to determine if a person has mental illness?" "Yes, we tell the tested individual they have a bathtub full of water and a spoon and a bucket and ask how would thy empty the tub." "Ah, the normal person would use the bucket as it is larger/quicker than the spoon, right?"

"No, a normal person would pull the plug." "Would you prefer a padded room with a view or one closer to the cafeteria?" 

 

TIE!

 

Harold won with ticket 121 and lost with the 7 of hearts.

 

 Edna C Rosas-Gutierrez is the owner of Better Choices Counseling, LLC. Her practice specializes in treatment of child sexual predators. Roughly 75% of child sexual abuse cases are by family and 97% by males. Most cases are opportunistic in nature. These individuals can and do respond to counseling.d  

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                            

Arriving exactly at 7:00 AM both I and Maeve missed the pledge, guest introductions and any new year thoughts our membership may have offered up. As they say, "The early bird catches the worm." In this case our infamous cuckoo clock dictated the start of the meeting, not my cell phone.

 

 Randy took the lead on our Club's family adoption for Christmas. Several hundred dollars donated by our club was spent in order for the family to have a merrier Christmas than what otherwise would have been possible. The family consists of a mother and four daughters, two of whom attend MCAT. Thanks, Randy.

 

President Hunter announced a full court press in our member recruiting process with numerous members assisting.

 

Happy Bucks

John-HNY

Dan-HNY

Randy-a good buck and a bad buck (maybe two good bucks. He was sick for his own NY's party.

Ritchie-Rain is always welcome in our arid state.

Rachel-HNY and family time

Beckie-Better weather here than SLC

Don-Family time in Seattle and nicer weather too

Denise-Sick???????

Peter-Daughter married Saturday and a shout out to Randy for Family sponsorship at Christmas

Bob-Friends in town. Oh, and Linda here with him this morning as well as guest speaker.AND IDENTICAL TWIN GRANDKIDS born over the weekend

 

Joke Off

Lynne- I think it goes like this: Preacher and Cab driver arrive at the pearly gates at the same time and the cab driver gets a bigger halo. The preacher naturally challenges this and when questioned admitted that sometimes his sermons were boring and put people to sleep. St Peter explained that nobody ever slept in the aggressive taxi cab owners vehicle and many were driven to praying for their lives. 

 

Maeve

How can I clean this up? This is beginning to be weekly problem with Maeve as she dives into ever sinking depths of lurid humor to get a laugh and beat out Lynne for the Joke of the Day crown.

Okay, here goes: If you are taking a dump at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve is it the SOS different year?

 

Maeve wins! Must admit she knows her audience.

 

John won and lost the raffle with a 6 of diamonds.

 

 Our guest speaker, invited to our club by Bob Bishop, was retired aerospace legend Burt Rutan. Burt was "twice" awarded the Collier Trophy presented to those who have made "the greatest achievement in aeronautics in America..........."

Throughout his career he has worked on 46 manned research airplanes.Born into a family of Seventh Day Adventists sports were not allowed. At a very young age he was amazed to witness a low flying fleet of B36's and became enamored with building model planes. His first business after graduating from Cal Poly was started in 1973. It was the manufacturing of home built airplane kits. One of his companies founded in 1986 now has 600 employees. He is justifyingly proud of the "real" jobs and the tax revenue they create as opposed to government jobs that are 100% tax supported and created.

 

Much of Mr Rutan's talk dealt with the significant demise of NASA and space exploration. The 1965 NASA budget was 5.3% of the total US budget. Today's budgeted dollars are less than one tenth of that 1965 number. He mentioned his disappointment after the meeting with the fact that China appears to want to take the lead in space exploration and the recent deployment of a rocket and lander/rover to the far side of the moon and the simultaneous launching of the communication satellite since there is no direct line of sight to the far side of the moon. To drive home this disturbing trend he noted no one born after 1935 has walked on the moon. 

 

Mr Rutan was proud of the fact that a piece of the carbon filter from one of his early creations is on the Horizon Spacecraft that has passed Pluto and recently returned photos of Ultima Thule, 4 billion miles from earth. His belief is if you are doing things that are doable you are in Product Development. If you are working on things that are questionably even possible you are doing Research.

 

His most recent project, funded to the tune of 23 million by recently deceased Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is the Stratolaunch. its purpose to heave a half-million-pound rocket ship to cruising altitude and then drop it, whereupon the rocket would ignite its engines for a fiery ascent into space. Allen’s hope was that this extraordinary bird would be able to do quick laps between the ground and the stratosphere, making access to space no more exotic than a New York–to–Boston commuter flight. Launch is expected to be the fall of 2019.

 

One could not help but be reminded of The Spruce Goose masterminded by Howard Hughes and its one solo flight. With Elon Musk's SpaceX reusable rockets driving the costs down and reliability up does the Stratolaunch face the same fate? Only time will tell.

 

Today was a special day for our club. Seldom do we have the opportunity for such a distinguished person in their field speak to us. A winner of the prestigious Wernher Von Braun Memorial Award, named for the famous German rocket scientist who came to the USA after WWII, Mr Rutan provided us with a meeting to remember. As stated above he is truly a legend in the field of aerospace.

 

Board meeting John's office at 5:30PM Wednesday 1/9/2019.

 

 

 

  

 

                                                                            

Due to our Club's powerful connections we were greeted by none other than Ms Santa Claus as members and guests entered Nana's this morning. She even led us in the Pledge. President Hunter then led us in the singing of Frosty The Snowman with lyrics provided by Lynne. Those in attendance who had a more of a deprived/Dicksonian childhood could be spotted as they frequently referred to the printed lyrics, being unfamiliar with this festive Christmas  carol.

 

Today's guests included a friend of Bob Bishop's, Steve Prust.

 

 MCAT Student of the Month Ashlynn Clevland, her mother Roxann, Grandmother Bruna, boyfriend, brother, Staff Rep Dani Anich and MCAT Principal Denise Coronado.

 

 

 

Our Club will sponsor a family again this Christmas in the amount of $400. The committee consists of Richie, Tony, Randy and Rachel.

 

Randy advises the Rotary Vocational Fund topped out its donations for the year. Thank you to everyone who contributed.

 

Happy Bucks

Bob Bishop did a fine job as Sgt At Arms.

Harold-Paid his IOU from last meeting and a few extra!

John-Student of the Month (SOM)

Mary- Grateful for Global Grant donations to Cameroon Project and they are where they need to be to continue with the project.

Denise, Steve, Beckie, Don Bob-All pleased for our SOM

Randy-Happy we had Ms Claus visit us.

Rachel-United Way

Richie-Charlie is 6 months old

 

Joke Off

Ms Claus stood in for Maeve Johnson who could not make today's meeting. Given Ms Claus' background and her omniscient knowledge of good and bad children, her "joke" concerned the very bad behavior of  one, Little Sammy, who decided the best way to get a new bike for Christmas was via kidnapping and extortion. Ms Claus did not say whether Little Sammy was successful or not.

 

Lynne took her front stage opportunity to regale us with humor at the expense of those labeled with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Mental Disorders from Manuals 1,2,3,4 and 5. Randy, Mary and Don (and possibly others with a mental health background) are aware a reference to all five DSM publications was required as psychiatric disorders change with the times. What once was crazy ain't necessarily so in today's world. Any who, humor at the expense of those less fortunate is always welcomed at this club. As a hard of hearing person I should know. God help us if we ever get so PC that we cannot enjoy good natured ribbing. Excuse me while I get off my soapbox and let Lynne know I especially enjoyed the Manic and the Paranoid versions of Christmas.

 

The Club by acclimation  approved the following officers for fiscal 2018/2019:

President-Richie Benner

President Elect-John Dooling

President Nominee-TBD

Treasurer-Lynne Himmer

Secretary-John Dooling

Member at Large-Harold Burtzloff

Member at Large-Bob Bishop

Immediate Past President-Tony Hunter

 

Somewhere along this time during our meeting Tony ducked out leaving President Elect Richie Benner in charge. We did not miss a beat. Our President Elect has a command presence and will do quite well come July 1. 

 

Former member and current Principal of MCAT Denise Coronado introduced SOM Ashlynn. Ashlynn will graduate in a few days. Her educational efforts, and I use that term advisedly, began in Benson, AZ . Eventually she found herself at Tortolita Middle School then Mountain View. She attributes her poor scholastic record to basic laziness. However, she runs Ms Cornado's front office and has significant accomplishments in the culinary field having won thousands of dollars in competition statewide and even finishing in the top 40 twice in national competition. Her favorite creation is Key Lime Pie. She cites a friend she no longer has with the motivation to complete her high school education.

 

Ms Coronado, commenting on the closing of neighborhood Thornydale Grade School advised MCAT will be moving to that larger venue for school year 2019/2020. Also MCAT will be offering three courses in conjunction with JTED. JTED is funded by property taxes at the rate of .05 per $100 of assessed valuation.

 

Don won the raffle AGAIN but lost. It bears repeating that Don donated his winnings from two weeks ago to our Marana Rotary Foundation.

 

CORRECTION

Last week's speaker was Brigadier General Andrew J MacDonald, Commander of the AZ Air National Guard.

 

Next Tuesday's meeting will be held at Jackpot Veterinary Center located at 6745 N La Canada Dr.

 

See you there!