The Board of Directors of Mesa West Rotary Foundation, Inc. met Thursday, January 14, with only two of their members unable to attend. Their first order of business was their unanimous approval a motion to accept the new Mesa West Rotary Foundation Bylaws which were distributed for informational purposes to Mesa West Rotary Club members prior to their December 17 Annual Meeting. In filling the offices as stipulated in the new bylaws, Chris Krueger, as Past President of Mesa West Rotary, having served in that role in 2018-10 is President. Jim Schmidt as Immediate Past President of Mesa West Rotary Club is Vice President. Allan Cady volunteered to be Secretary/Treasurer the remainder of this Rotary year. The new bylaws call for defined term expirations. Ray Smith, Bob Jensen and Ed Koeneman's terms will expire in odd years, and Jim Crutcher and Ron Thompson's terms will expire in even years.
The new bylaws call for the club to submit Planned Service and Budgets. Dan Coons was present as a guest, but had not been asked to be prepared to submit a budget at the meeting. Dan will discuss the subject with the Mesa West Rotary Club Board at their Tuesday, January 19 meeting. President-Elect Bob Zarling and his board will benefit from this process as he prepares for his year of service.
The Trustees discussed the Mesa West Scholarships traditionally awarded to Westwood High School students. The decision was made to award four individual scholarships of $1,000, all with the ability to re-apply in subsequent years. Each scholarship will have the stipulation that the student would receive $1,000 for the first semester and the remaining $1,000 would be released upon successful completion of the first semester. The Mesa West Rotary Foundation to provide a total scholarship budget of $8,000. They also determined that a committee of club members be formed to review the scholarship applications with a goal of awarding two to Interact students and two to students at large but giving discretion to the Scholarship Committee to reallocate that mix if they deemed it to be appropriate.
Allan Cady reported on a request made by DG Elizabeth Mahoney on her Presidents' Call Wednesday, January 13. She had invited Karen Lazo Ramos from Oaxaca, Mexico to attend the Zoom meeting. Karen presented her request in Spanish and DGND Kevin Pitts translated. Karen's Rotary club has a wheelchair project and would like to put together another container of wheelchairs to be delivered to Oaxaca. The cost for a container is $10,500. Karen said Oaxaca is the second most-needy area in Mexico experiencing extreme levels of poverty. Her district also provides a free health clinic. DG Elizabeth gave a plea to the district to help raise funds for the project, but had a commitment deadline of January 15. After some discussion, the Trustees present voted unanimously to commit $1,000 to the Oaxaca wheelchair distribution project.Chairman Chuck expressed his appreciation to the Board for substantially increasing the funds committed for scholarships essentially doubling what Mesa West has supported in the past. He also expressed his appreciation for the Bylaws Committee for their diligence in producing the new Mesa West Rotary Foundation bylaws.