RioSaladoRotary

8-30-07 Weekly Meeting

Guests:  Lynsie Rigby Speaker:  N/A Members present: Terry Michelson, Kent Hendrick, Geoff Pashkowski, Cory Bruggman, Terry Mickelson, Susan Seats, Jan Snyder, Dona Eubank, Patrick de Han, Ben Eubank, Sue Strebe, Ron Freeman

Call to Order:  This meeting was called to order at 8:10 am by Acting President Ron Freeman.

Invocation:  Eileen Schioppa
Pledge & 4-way Test:  Cory Bruggman

Announcements: The 4 way test program at EVIT will be held on October 8. There is a need for 16 Rotarians to volunteer to staff 2 ½ day sessions. Prior to this date there will be a training session. Eileen is looking for additional volunteers. Cory went to Laird Elementary School and installed a new TV/DVD player in the office. Acting President Ron Freeman collected happy dollars.

Our speaker today did not show up.

We received a letter from several clubs asking us to join the East Valley clubs to join them in a meeting that is designed to recruit new members. They are proposing a meeting at the Hilton in Mesa on Friday September 21. There would be a $200. entrance fee.  Dr. Eubank mentioned that all of the Mesa clubs benefited from this but no members were gained by the Tempe clubs. Geoff proposed that we have a joint Tempe meeting and recruit members to this. 

Dr. Jan Snyder’s project in Malowie has solar cookers and elephant dung paper making facility. There is also a well repair and disabled people prosthetics and a bakery. The solar cooker project could be a perfect fit for the micro credit project. In Alghora village India, this was implemented during Ben’s year and a village was created based around a couple of cows. This could be a project that our club has experience in based on our Dr. Eubank and Bill Tonan’s experience. Bill Tonan works for a bank in the Micro Credit industry. Dr. Ben said that Rotary International now has matching grants for micro credits. They have some restrictions such as women and rural projects.

The words Brilliant and Patrick de Han were mentioned in the same sentence. It was not a complete sentence.

Susan Seats will check out the possibility of providing some help to Peru regarding Shelter box project.

Eileen drew the losing 8 of spades. Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 8:02 A.M.

Club Meeting July 16, 2007

Call to Order:  This meeting was called to order at 8:00 am by President Martie O’Connor.
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Invocation:  Dr. Ben Eubank

Announcements Our Rotary partner club in VA has sent in their portion of the matching grant for the St. Lucia.

Ben Eubank and Jim Lemmon will be honored for their “Service above Self” Friday September 7, 2007 at Marti O’Connor’s home.

Cory announced that St. Peters Indian mission is building a library/computer center. They are ready for the alarm system to go in. We will need it installed soon as they are making rapid progress on construction. They will have a dedication service the first week in November. The will also want us to install cameras on the properties.  Last October several members donated to install cameras.

Dr Eubank announced that Former member Bill Tonan’s grandchild has passed away. He was less than one week old. Services will be held today, Thursday August 16th at Bethany community church in Tempe.
Next week we do not have a speaker but we will be talking about the club and the projects and fundraiser projects for the coming year.

Our first week of the food drive was very successful! Thanks to all who brought in food. Please remember to keep bring it in as the food banks are very low.

Our speaker, Prafull Karnik Is from the Thames East Rotary Club of India District 3140. 2X past President and current District Chair for matching grants and Chief Advisor of Community Service. Prafull has been a Rotarian for 27 years.

Praful has a “bad habit” of meeting people.  30 Districts in India and district 3140 has 115 clubs. The District Governor really never makes it home as he has Rotary Meetings at all times. The administration of this district is huge.

3 main events: PETS, District SML training for leaders, District conference.  3,500 members in the district and over 2,500 attend. This is where you meet and greet Rotarians and meet the RI president, many local politicians, and even actors from Bollywood. The event is in March and takes place in Bombay.

District Governors visit is an important day as he is the friend, advisor to the club and the members.  District Governor, behind closed doors has a conversation with the Club President to point out weaknesses and what can be done to help the club reach its goals and the districts goals.  All members are expected to attend the district Governors’ meeting. Imagine what visiting 115 meetings and all other events in the district takes! In addition all Indian District Governors’ are required to attend the International convention. Rotary can be a very taxing vocation!

Yesterday was Independence day in India. Each year the Rotary Club of Thane East visit a school they have adopted. There are 70 students that can not hear or speak. On this day, they distribute sweets to the children and talk them on a walk of the local streets.

Water clean air, alternate energy hygiene, etc are all focuses of the Rotary Club of Thane East, district and RI.  Tomorrow through Sunday they have a big medical camp. 300+ million people are illiterate and are at the bottom of the poverty level in India. The Rotary Club of Thane East conducts medical camps. 15 doctors will check patients 300+ community members are pre registered to receive medical care. The camp will be from  8 am to 6 pm. Women, children and senior citizens will be checked for diseases. Similar camps will be conducted 1-2 X  per year. The Rotary Club of Thane East go to rural areas and the 350 Rotarians in the city will effect 1.5 million people.

There is much rain fall but much can not be stored. The Rotary Club of Thane East located 25 sites where they gather the rainfall. In 5 years they have built 12 check dams. 5-6 feet of concrete where water is gathered, filtered and then distributed. They have 12 more sites, 1-2 more will be built this year.

Service Challenge week:  Program is announced to the district, they do different types of programs. In 2 clubs in the area they did 1500 cataract operations. One Dr and his team do the surgery and the club handles the post operation care. This all creates awareness in the community. HIV and hygiene is brought forth in the community. This is just Community service. Of course they have partner clubs; they have RYLA, GSE teams etc. 3-4 clubs get together to conduct RYLA 13-19 age students. They do a lot of career guidance.

Micro-credit financing. They do small loans so people can stand on their own feet by starting a business. Most are $25-100. Many women are using this to start a tailoring or vegetable sales business. There is a scope of doing many things with India. India’s economy is growing at 9.9% annually and of course this fast growth is creating many issues in Government. Polio Plus is being supported as there is 15-20 new cases found each year. For more information please visit http://www.rcte.org   

As a thank you, President Martha O'Connor presented Rotarian Prafull Karnik with a book that he signed and we donated to the Laird Elementary school in his name.

Terry drew the losing 9 of Spades.

Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 8:12 A.M.

Weekly Meeting Guest Speaker Dr. Tom Horne

Guests:  Al of the Tempe East, Tempe South and Tempe  Rotary.

Speaker:  Tom Horne

Members present: Terry Michelson, Kent Hendrick, Geoff Pashkowski, Corey Bruggman, Martie O’Connor, Jim Lemon,  Sylvia Schweihs, Terry Michelson. Bonnie Guilbault, Susan Seats

Call to Order:  This meeting was called to order at 8:10 am by President Martie O’Connor.
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Invocation:  Ron Freeman       
Pledge & 4-way Test:  Sue Strebe

Announcements: September 25th Tempe East will be hosting the inner city event. Pat Murphy ASU baseball coach will be the featured speaker. Tuesday Noon at Monties.

Monthly Rotary Happy Hour Aug 16th Raffino’s at Warner and 48th Street

Introductions of all members were made.

Our speaker today was Arizona Superintendent of Arizona education, Dr. Tom Horne. 

There is a law suite between 5 charter schools and Dr. Horne. We have 20% charter schools. The dispute is that there is standard – what students need to know by the ned of a year. Curriculum us what is used to teach them to get to that point. The state asks all 2nd graders can add and subtract by the end of the year. Does not interfere with the curriculum, but is a strong supporter of standards. The recent dispute is over history. If we teach each generation the history of the country then we will have the basis of why we want to preserve the country and what it was built and based on.

Core knowledge of American civilization. Starting in K-1 grades. It is important to teach American history in middle school. Put together a task force of teachers that set and measure the standards. www.Azed.gov click on standards.

Has no jurisdiction over home schools. Dr. Horne is totally in favor of consolidation as a general idea. We must raise the salaries of teachers in order to attract and retain teachers. If you spend less per student more money is available to pay teachers.

Teachers in charter schools do not have to be certified but they must meet federal standards as highly qualified teachers.

The main test is a Terrinova test that compares our students to the rest of the country. We perform above the national average but we are 49th out of 50. We do not allow the tests to be done in Spanish and other states do. 

Papas school does a good thing in donating clothing etc and other help that the kids need besides education. But as far as the education testing shows that the homeless that are integrated into regular public schools do better academically.

Arizona just won a major competition and received $6million in federal funding based on technology advancement.

Check out http://www.azed.gov for more information about Arizona’s educational system.

Chris Sar drew the losing 6 of clubs.

Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 A.M.

Weekly Meeting Guest Speaker Mark Kruzel

Guests:  Jim Van De Venter,

Speaker:  Mark Kruzel

Members present:
Eileen Schioppa, Terry Mickelson, Kent Hendrick, Geoff Pashkowski, Ron Freeman. Corey Bruggman, Jim Lemmon.  Jan Snyder. Shiela Maguire. Patrick De Haan. Susan Seats.

Call to Order:  This meeting was called to order at 8:00 am by acting President Dona Eubank.
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Invocation:      Ron Freeman   
Pledge & 4-way Test:  Kent Hendrick

Announcements
* Ben Eubank collected happy dollars. 
*Martin Baird was fined $80.00 because: (Take your pick) A. Martin has missed tens if not 100’s of meetings since leaving state. B. Perdue football sucks C. Marty’s Paul Harris has not been funded in some time.
* Snyder presented 3 banners to the club from his African trip. Niarobi and 2 from Malawi.
* Dianna Cunningham’s house was flooded. She is in need of packing and moving. Members are invited to participate in cleaning.
* Mark Kruzel. He is going to Notre Dame prep school. Working on his eagle badge. Working with the Friends of the Orphans. Started in grade school working wit Friends of the Orphans. Sponsorship is $30. per month for the  sponsorship of a child. It takes 10 god parents at the cost of $30. per month to keep them there. Mark’s eagle project is to generate awareness for the organization. Mark built 3 sets of book shelves and was given a donation of $500. to buy books. Many more books are needed as the children are sponges for information but there are less than 1 book per child.  Children through 8th grade are housed. At the end of 8th grade the kids are given a year where they give back to the community. This is used to find an idea of what they would like to do and receive training for a vocation. Some will receive scholarship but the cost of a college education in Mexico can be $20,000. per year because the Mexican government does not contribute financially. Mark is a sponsor of a child and has been for a couple of years.  Mark suggests that we sponsor a child who is older. www.friendsoftheorphans.org

* Next week we will have a board meeting.

* Eileen drew the losing card so the Queen of Hearts remains elusive.

* Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 7:58 A.M.