Pam Cohen opened the meeting in the absence of President, Chris Krueger. Dick Myren offered the Invocation. Jack Rosenberg led the Pledge of Allegiance. Pam recognized Steve Ross and thanked him for serving as Greeter. Ray Smith led all present in singing Auld Lang Syne.Guests
Dan Coons introduced Caio, our inbound Rotary Youth Exchange student. Don Boucher introduced three guests at his table: PDG Alex Hopkins from Washington, Chris Cuffaro, a former Tucson Rotarian who is now living in our area, and Tom Bradford, who has attended at least five meetings now, and has a Mesa West Rotary membership application in process.
Drawings
Chuck Flint announced that the ticket holder for the weekly drawing would automatically win $25 and have a chance to draw the ace of clubs which would net accumulated winnings of $334. Our guest Chris drew Warren Williamson's ticket, but when the remaining cards in the deck were shuffled, Warren drew the eight of diamonds.
Happy Bucks
John Pennypacker served as Sgt. at Arms, collecting happy bucks first from Warren Williamson. Dick Myren sadly reported that Rod Daniels' wife had recently passed away as he paid his weekly $1 for being happy to be a member of Mesa West Rotary as Rod always did. Tim Troy had quite a story to tell. He and his family had recently gone to Barnes and Noble. One of his children noticed some poker chips on the ground. He also noticed that they said "Mesa West Rotary Club" on them. Now we know where at least some of the weekly attendance drawing chips ended up, with no clue how they got there. It is an amazing coincidence that the chips were found by members of the Mesa West family. Bert Millett asked how many squares were left on the Buck Board. After he knew more than enough were still available he said he wanted to buy ten squares to celebrate his practice's successful year, adding a new attorney to their practice, and their move to their new office location. That purchase gave Pam an opportunity to tell members that when Mesa West Members have purchased a total of ten squares (not necessarily on the same buck board) cumulatively that the club would transfer $100 in Rotary Foundation recognition points to that Rotarian. Aubry is keeping track of the cumulative number of squares purchased by each Rotarian in the club. After telling quite a stray dog story about the reason the Buck Board is looking more than a little stressed, Chuck explained how our Buck Board works. It encourages our members and guests to support The Rotary Foundation $10 at a time, with the hope of buying the winning square, which will be determined by an elimination drawing once all 100 squares on the board are sold. The winner will receive a receipt from TRF for the $1,000 donation which will be sent toTRF in the winner's name.
Announcements
Pam Cohen paid a $5 fine because she forgot the signup sheet and flyer for the January 19 post-holiday party, which will be held Saturday, January 19 at the home of Dan and Colleen Coons. An innovative Rotarian who had a writing pad, created a signup sheet manually and circulated it at the meeting.
Program
Pam introduced Donna Goetzenberger to present a program about her personal, professional and Rotary life.
Donna said she can't say "No." She has gone from hosting Rotary Youth Exchange students to being the District 5495 Chairperson of the district's youth exchange program. To have this much responsibility (and credibility) at the district level is extremely impressive since Donna has barely been a Rotarian for two years.
Donna was born in Texas. She was asthmatic, and frequently had to be hospitalized. Her parents were urged to move to a different climate. Her parents are still living, and reside in Prescott, Arizona. Her brother, Dave also lives in Prescott. Donna is married to Brian, who is also a member of our club. She has a stepson who lives in Seattle, and two daughters.
Donna loves to travel, but her adventures are quickly being surpassed by her daughters. Emilee was an outbound exchange student last year, and Paige will be an outbound student next year. Some members of Donna's family own a vineyard in Sonoma, California, and Donnal loves to go there. She also loves Cape Cod for the beauty and the history. Donna's maiden name was Fuller. She loves genealogy and has been able to trace her roots back to the Fuller family that came over on the Mayflower. and has direct ties to other Mayflower families as well. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Professionally, Donna is a paralegal. When she was young, she wanted to go into law, but did not pursue the educational requirements as the needs of her young family became her priority. A year and a half ago, an attorney offered her a position where she could work from home and set her own hours.
She and Brian jointly own a land surveying business, which does work all over Arizona nd in Nevada and California. She doesn't know details about surveying - that is Brian's specialty - but does know that they have become specialists in providing the survey stamp of approval that is required on commercial real estate transactions.
Donna has been an active non-profit volunteer for a long time with the Phoenix Youth Symphony and various choral programs. She has been an active fundraiser for the Phoenix Children's Chorus and in six years has raised nearly $1,000,000.
Donna's involvement with Rotary Youth Exchange began when Polly Cady, who is a neighbor, asked she and Brian to be host parents for Clem from Belgium who recently returned to visit them. They have also hosted Angelina from TAiwan, Arthur from France, Lisa from Austria, Jacob from Sweden and several others for brief periods. Their involvement with Youth Exchange led to both she and Brian becoming members of Mesa West Rotary. They first got acquainted with the club at one of our annual Spring Olympics events. Two years ago she joined the District Youth Exchange Committee, then became Outbound Youth Exchange Chair, and last June she became Chair of the District's Youth Exchange Program.
Donna believes in the Youth Exchange Program. Most Rotarians are aware of the traditional 11-month exchanges that are reciprocal district to district, but are less familiar with short term exchanges which last from two to eight weeks and are reciprocal family-to-family. This year 5,986 students are involved in long-term exchanges, 2,601 in short-term exchanges for a total of 8,587 total Rotary Youth Exchange students. North America has 2,122 students involved - roughly 25% of the total. Our district is in the upper tier of the number of exchanges. Arizona ranks as the 18th state in the nation in participation numbers. Donna would like to grow the program, but would need more active volunteers to serve on her committee to do so.
Donna's daughter, Emilee, was a long term exchange student last year, but now wants to go on a short term exchange to learn Spanish.
The cost of a long term exchange is about $5,500 for airfare, application fees, administrative costs (including insurance) language camp (when required) and costs of obtaining a Visa. Short term exchanges require a $25 application fee. Participants pay their own airfare and health insurance.
Clubs who host an in-bound exchange student typically provide an monthly allowance for the student. Host families treat the youth as they would their own child. If the family goes out to dinner, the parents pay for the student's meal. If the student goes out with friends, the student will use their own money or their allowance. Typically, the family provides transportation to school, but public transportation, biking, or walking to school are also available options.
Long term exchanges ideally have three host families to optimize their experience of the American lifestyle, which can vary greatly from one home to the next. Families and volunteers have to go through a simple background check and then go through period recertifications to ensure the inbound students are in safe environments. Donna said it is getting harder and harder to find willing host families within the family of Rotary. Clubs often use the families of the outbound students to help recruit hosts from non-Rotarian families who live in proximity to the school the student will be attending. In fact, for some clubs this is a requirement as part of their application process.