July 20, 2015 - Nadine White, Major Gifts Officer - Corporate Partnerships for the American Red Cross, gave us a very informative presentation today.  She described the 5 major services provided by the Red Cross: Disaster Services, Blood Services, Preparedness - Health and Safety Services, International Services, and Services to the Armed Forces. She also gave us both descriptions and impressive statistics about how the Red Cross impacts lives everyday. Nadine emphasized the Home Fire Preparedness Campaign and a "Be Red Cross Ready" program to help people prepare for disaster. The Red Cross has several mobile apps available to help people prepare and respond to emergencies. Lots of discussion followed.  Many thanks Nadine. Interested readers can open or save a pdf file labeled American Red Cross in the Download files section on the lower right of this page.

  June 29, 2015 - Kyle Maki and Jeff Charles gave short presentations about themselves to the club. Kyle talked about his migration from the Wrangler, where he worked for over 10 years, to his current position with  EVDI (East Valley Digital Imaging). Although he doesn't deal with the technology, he brings EVDI professionals and Doctors throughout the valley together to discuss mutual benefits of working with EVDI. Kyle was a founding member of the club 10 years ago

Our newest member, Jeff told us about migrating from England to New Mexico with his parents in 1951. He was involved in farming and then joined the Air Force. After his Air Force experience he worked for Chevron in Texas and then quit to start his own company.  Jeff has since worked for himself in several different businesses and now works with his daughter to provided leadership training to companies and non-profits. You can learn more from his web site. We're delighted that Jeff has joined the club.  Welcome Jeff.

June 22, 2015 - Paul Johnson, former mayor of Phoenix, and an advocate for open primaries in Arizona,gave us an excellent presentation on the primary processes at the state and federal level. Paul told us of his experiences to get elected as mayor and his failed attempt to be governor of AZ.  He learned many lessons along the way. He had some compelling statistics about the election process which illustrate how few people are actually involved in selecting a candidate for congress. Paul said that Nebraska was the first state to hold nonpartisan primaries and 4 other states have recently adopted the process. His message was not biased toward a particular party but was meant to encourage us to think about the issue and possibly join the movement for open primaries. Needless to say, there was a lot of discussion.

June 15, 2015 - Rebecca Bond, AARP Experience Corps Program Coordinator, gave us a great description of the Experience Corps organization, its history, goals, and current programs. The basic idea is to match individuals over 55 years old with youngsters who need help with reading skills. The Corps has 2000 members in 22 cities across the nation.    Experience Corps has existed since 2006 and has served over 2000 students in grades 1 to 3 in Tempe Schools. They are grant funded and have 84 participants in Tempe but they are looking for new volunteers. Interested people should contact Rebecca at Rebecca_Bond@tempe.gov.  Check out the web site.