Frank was reared in Shawnee, Oklahoma.  He graduated from the American University (Economics) in Washington, D.C., while enjoying working for a congressman.  He entered the computer world with RCA and then Xerox serving in technical, sales, marketing, executive, and product management roles.  He had the opportunity to move to Illinois, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Los Angeles.  He took early retirement from Xerox and started his fee-only financial planning business in Tucson, AZ, after receiving his Certified Financial Planner designation.  He still maintains a practice in Tucson.

 

He met his wife Jackie, who grew up in North Carolina, in Washington where she was a contracting officer for NIH.  She left NIH when they moved to Los Angeles.  Not sitting still, she became a church office manager when they moved to Tucson.  Both love to travel.  When not visiting their blended family of five children, they are active in service/professional organizations.

 

Frank joined Rotary in 1996 upon moving to Tucson and rapidly became involved in club projects in Mexico.  Building libraries in elementary schools, helping kids get wheel chairs, and supporting several orphanages has inspired him to continue Rotary’s good work.  While chairing the District’s first fall conference he was amazed at the variety of projects of the district clubs.  As Annual Giving chair, he became aware of just how generous Rotarians were to support humanitarian projects.  He is looking forward to helping the District to find more ways to serve.

Wow, November already. I can’t believe this year is quickly coming to an end. Where has the time gone? The year may have gone quickly but I’ve certainly enjoyed the many Wednesday lunch meetings with my fellow Rotarians.

 

We celebrated two Birthdays this week. MARK IRVIN recently turned a year older while fly fishing in a mountain lake somewhere beautiful because, as MARK put it “I never work on my Birthday.” Good for you MARK! And DICK GUTHRIE, a fellow Engineer, celebrated another year. DICK is a Pear Harbor survivor, so I’m sure I speak for all Rotarians when I say thanks for your service! Happy Birthday to both MARK and DICK.

 

Just a brief reminder, the voting for new Board Members is during the meeting on 18 November, so be sure to attend. Your vote is important.

 

Congratulations to DIANA CANNON, our newest Blue Badge recipient.  DIANA has quite an impressive record of serving the Tucson community, including helping start the El Tour. Welcome DIANA and we look forward to your continued involvement in RCOT.

 

We had a great presentation from Mark Hart, Public Information Officer for AZ Game and Fish. In Mark’s words, contrary to what his friends think, his job includes more than taking pictures of animals and writing stories. Fortunately for us, he does take pictures of local animals which he shared, along with a few interesting stories of wildlife in the southern AZ desert. I routinely see coyotes and javalina during my morning walks, however I’ve never seen a mountain lion. So I was surprised to hear how prevalent they are in the area. I knew there was a good reason for walking with my dog other than just early morning exercise… Just kidding!

 

In closing, I have a joke from the meeting. What do you call a trailer full of sheep?  “Ewe” Hauler! Get it? Have a great week!

 

There exists a fundamental difference pertaining to organizations that give away money. At one extreme is the practice of disbursing all money collected during a period before (or as) the period ends. Quite different is the system of retaining some funds for use in future periods. There are justifications, and strong advocates, for each method.

 

The proponents of not holding onto reserves most often urge “doing the most good, for the most beneficiaries, as quickly as possible.” Until every bad has been made good, holding onto resources means someone is suffering longer than necessary. Morally, we must not say no to a legitimate need while holding onto ameliorative assets.

 

For charitable sources that expect no future donation income, such as an entity funded by a bequest, inflation can be a concern. Spending earnings and capital gains in full could leave a corpus of every-diminishing worth over years of rising cost of living. So, you should spend it sooner rather than later to get greater dollar value results.

 

Donors come in different flavors. Some feel greater satisfaction by seeing their contribution providing maximum results today, rather than valuing sustaining years of help.

 

Some causes are short-term, such as rebuilding a tornado-stricken area. People give to help those particular victims immediately. Unless all damage has been mitigated, holding onto some gifts until the next tornado can seriously discourage giving next time.

 

There is a less obvious, as well as difficult to prove, theory that supports giving it away today. That is the contention that donors will give less if your foundation is less desperate. Turning it around, donors will “find” more to give if you are out of money to handle an unexpected emergency. As evidence, how else does one explain away the increased generosity that springs forth following a series of crises that exhausts all budgeted response funds? Would the money really have been donated anyway if the agency still had plenty to cover the need?