Marana Rotary Zoom Round-Up for 6/2/20
Attendance: Richie, Laura, Harold, Bob, Don, Peter, Randy, Mary, Dave, Carl, Denise, and guest Ethan Orr.
Announcements:
- Applications being accepted for being District Governor 2023-24. Next week we’re going to discuss future for meetings going forward in COVID-19. Virtual Rotary International Convention, June 26, sessions start at 6 a.m. our time. June 28 – Virtual installation of Diane
- Mary: Harold’s birthday yesterday (6/1). Talked with Bouba this morning, using a hotel as a hospital. Things are a bit dire. Peter and I spoke to Veterans Memorial and the town manager office, both are interested in the Peace Pole. Peter said the cemetery is essentially closed to normal business.
- Denise: We had four stores looted in Scottsdale, Austin, Portland. We’re in good hands, locally.
Guest speaker was Ethan Orr, Assistant Vice President of UA Government Affairs and Community Partnerships, to discuss the UA Land Grant projects and other ways the Government Affairs and Community Partnerships Department and the University of Arizona applies science to help address issues that face our state, from eating properly to living longer.
Ethan Orr told us about the land grant system because no one really understands the land grant concept, which is a distinctly American concept. The idea is that knowledge should be accessible to everyone but practical and applicable. The land grant system sets aside land and money to build universities.
Orr said we often overlook that investment in education spurred both the Industrial Revolution and Technological Boom by making education accessible to people. Multiplier effect of manufacturing creates more jobs. 2.5 jobs created by every manufacturing job. 6.2 jobs created by tech job.
One problem though is job concentration for a particular industry (ie, automotive). But as industries “mature”, a diffusion of jobs takes place. For example, “precision health” which uses what we know about a person's genetic code could bring about a "democratization of health".