President Bob Grady gaveled the meeting to order at 12:10 and invited a minute of greetings among members and guests. M. Craig‘s invocation was a spin- off of words by PDG Roland Wilsey, Roseville Rotary, entitled Autumn. Lunch headliners: Chicken marsala and pumpkin pie.

Announcements

Details for Feeding the Homeless at the VA on Monday, volunteers needed for interviewing a candidate for the TRVFA, Oro Valley Club is offering a Roadrunner Game benefit. Anita McDonald will be distributing a one minute survey to club members on use of My Rotary. Please help.

Our Gaslight Theatre gang consisted of over 50 Rotarians, friends of family for festive fun Wednesday night. Thanks to PP Pat Egbert for organizing.

Tom Robertson thanked the club for its $3500 to HeART Works which earned an outstanding $9,000+ at its first annual BGCT Art Auction with Jim Click as auctioneer.

Introductions

Norm Rebenstorf introduced Bill Carter, Past President of the Kitchener-Conestoga Rotary Club (Ontario, Canada), which supported the newest Global Grant written by Barbara Kiernan, who just arrived back from extended travels. Al Anzaldua introduced his wife Maria whom he just proposed for membership. Welcome back Merle Anderson!!

Queen of Hearts

Ed McEuen drew the Ace of Spades so the Queen of Hearts safely remains, raising the royal coffers!

Paul Harris Fellow

President Bob and Foundation Chair PDG Al Chesser awarded Joanne Westerman with her Level 2 PHF.

Sergeant at Arms

Norm R. offered a tutorial on The Rotary Foundation in the form of a quiz. He extracted a Happy Buck from everyone present.

Program

We were treated with pure insights into the current city recycling program with outstanding info from Pat Tapia, Deputy Director for the City of Tucson (COT), and Cristina Polsgrove, Public Information Officer for Environmental Services. Recycling has changed since it began in 2002. Currently about 90% of residents participate in recycling. However, the costs have exceeded the pay backs and the COT is losing thirty-thousand dollars monthly. China will no longer accept most of our recycled materials. Serious issues are on the table.

We were informed that Only these materials will soon be accepted:
Cardboard, aluminum cans (cleaned but not crushed), plastic bottles caps on, not crushed) and tin cans.
Citizens may face new taxes or fees. New motto…”When in doubt…throw it out!”

President Bob thanked his helpers for the day and rang the bell at 1:30 pm.

Check out these photos from the meeting. If you’d like to view captions, click on a photo to open the gallery.