Marana Rotary Club
Weekly Meeting December 14, 2021, Minutes
Announcements:
Next week, Dec 21, the meeting will be a social gathering at Mary’s house. Ten people indicated that they will attend. Laura will run the meeting in Randy’s absence
Tour de Cookie timing was discussed. Tentative new date is March 5 to capture snowbirds before their migration.
Randy announced that $1,000 had been donated to the Zimbabwe, Africa project and that the $400 destined to the Oro Valley club for the Veterans Auxiliary Association may be too late for this year’s event. It was decided to give anyway as the money can be used for next year’s event if indeed too late for this year.
Happy Bucks:
- Dan was happy for the holiday season and some time off from school.
- Don is happily preparing to leave tomorrow for Maryland where weather is supposed to be better than his last foray back east.
- Mary loves the weather and looking forward to family arriving
- Laura is enjoying the cool, rainy, fireplace weather. Looking forward to church book club and good food.
- Cathy was happy to have the Farm featured in newspaper article. Relishing in the arrival of the woodchipper and rock crusher. Such excitement over a new wheelbarrow!
- Denise was happy over lottery tickets; virtual connection was noisy, but hope she wins!
- Anita McDonald, our guest speaker, was delighted to be with us today
- Harold was happy to be receiving his left eye lens
- Beckie was happy that she at least brought one wool sweater from Utah and looking forward to her daughter’s wedding in June in Las Vegas
- John was happy t be a guy so he can get ready quicker in the morning. And happy to have recruited his wife to Rotary
- Cindy happily reported that their grandson was getting his driver license; freeing her from shuttle duty
- Sulee was happy to have done X-mas shopping with Cindy. And asked if the club would like to bring unwrapped gifts to the social next week for the “More Than a Bed” cause serving foster kids. The members agreed.
- Andy survived his unscheduled stress test, cutting down dead trees on his Utah property
- Randy was happy to be heading to Las Vegas to spend time with his son and his friend Burt with whom he will be playing lots of music.
- Randy thanked Laura for setting up the virtual meeting computer gear; a complicated assignment!
Guest Speaker
Randy introduced Dr. Anita McDonald, District Governor- elect, as our guest speaker. Dr. McDonald’s resume is impressive, which is an understatement. Anita became a Rotarian in 1998 in Indiana. Anita has an educational background that includes graduate level work in education and management from Harvard, Penn State and the University of Indiana. She has held high-level positions as Dean of Education and heads the Arizona Chapter of the ALS Foundation. Anita is a level 2, major donor to the Rotary Foundation.Dr. McDonald candidly described her challenges in attaining recognition and tenure as a colored woman in the academic world. She shared experiences along her path to success which illustrated that a black woman faced subtle obstacles in a path to leadership and academic success. Her message centered on the importance, and difficulty, of minority women in achieving diversity. The changes are happening, but much too slowly as she reflected on decades of experience. Anita’s talk was both-eye opening and hopeful. The club discussed the challenges of Rotary Club’s such as ours in changing the largely white, mid to upper class dominance of our membership.