IRS Special Agent Brian Watson shared with the club the ins and outs of bringing tax cheats to account.
Marana Rotary Club, Weekly Meeting
March 21, 2023
The meeting started with social time.
The meeting officially began at 7:10 AM with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Since Andy, our Club Secretary, was not able to attend, Bob Bishop volunteered to record the minutes in his place.
President Laura Clymer noted that we had some guests and the club greeted them:
- Mark Willey, a visiting Rotarian
- Our guest speaker, Mr. Brian Watson
President Laura called for announcements:
- Cindy Dooling informed us of a very important bill pending in the AZ State legislature that would highly impact our ability to bring foreign exchange students who are attending schools. The bill would essentially waive the tuition fee AZ charges per out of state students.
- Laura requested that anyone with outstanding receipts for Tour de Cookie to forward those ASAP.
- Mary reported that the registration for the upcoming Human Trafficking Forum had exceeded 40, with expectations of more as the date grows closer.
- Randy reported on a conversation he had with Bouba, our contact in Cameroon, regarding the progress of the international project we had started there. It was bad news, good news. The women empowerment portion was lacking the full enthusiasm from the women. The water project and garden are doing well.
- Randy also announced a barbeque next Sunday at 3:00 pm at his and Deb’s home in honor of Jeanne, a former exchange student from France who was visiting. He asked for RSVPs so they could get a head count.
President Laura Clymer then called for Happy Bucks:
- Bob was happy with the support he has been receiving from members in obtaining speakers for our meetings.
- Cathy was happy and still in need of egg cartons.
- Cindy was happy and talked about the youth exchange program.
- John was happy.
- Our visiting Rotarian, Mark Willey, was happy be able to visit our club.
- Mary was happy that Jeanne was visiting us.
- Randy was also happy that Jeanne was visiting and was also happy about the successful Tour de Cookie.
- Harold was happy to be on the road to recovery from his recent knee surgery.
- Beckie was happy to solve a mystery about a strange noise at her house.
- Mark was happy not be able to join the meeting. He was attending by Zoom from Prescott.
- Laura was happy; while all her favorite teams have been knocked out during March Madness she now has more time to concentrate on other things.
Noting that our room was to be occupied starting at 8:00 AM by members of the fire training center, President Laura introduced our guest speaker, Brian Watson, Special Agent for the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations Division of then Department of the Treasury. He is currently the Public Information Officer, working in the Tucson Field Office.
His PowerPoint presentation began a poster entitled “Only an Accountant Could Catch Al Capone.’ Besides the Capone story, his entertaining and informative presentation included ‘IRS humor and the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping case where the agency supplied valuable information that helped bring the culprit to justice. He explained that the cases they work on are often very long and complicated where they are looking to bring those with criminal intent, and not simply errors in calculations, to justice.
His presentation was well received as evidenced by the number of questions from the club members during the closing Q & A.
The meeting concluded with the Rotary 4 Way Test and adjourned at 7:50 AM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Robert G. Bishop
Acting Secretary