FENG SHUI (pronounced Fung Shway): The Chinese art of harmonious surroundings that enhance the balance of Ying and Yang, or Energy, in your environment.

 

For our program today, PUALINE HECHLER introduced us to Kevin Walters, Principal for Feng Shui Planning. Kevin provided us with an entertaining and photo-filled introduction to Feng Shui urban designs. Picture books were always my favorite, so the use of the many slides throughout his presentation worked well for me.

 

We have two new members in the Club. LARRY ADAMSON introduced us to TIM DAUGHENBAUGH. who is a fellow Big 10 alum having attended The Ohio State University. And JAY ZUCKER introduced us to LES SILBERMAN who taught us two Hebrew words which I can’t pronounce, but one translates as “great spirit” and the other as “charitable giving”, both words that JAY feels properly describe the character of RCOT.

 

Member and Board Director, Allyn Bulzomi, took a pie in the face to raise funds for students to attend RYLA. 

 

Our President-Elect Nominee was announced for Rotary year 2017-2018.  Congratulations to Cliff Bowman!

 

We had five birthday celebrations today. Happy Birthday to MARK BLAKEMAN, LINDA WOJTOWICZ, JACK PARRIS, BOBBY LARSON and Honorary Member, CHAR ERNSTEIN. BOBBY shared a story about his uncle who was an All Big Ten center for Northwestern University. It was a great  story, unfortunately BOBBY missed his opportunity to let us all know that Northwestern finished the football season with a 12-2 record and ranked 13^th in the nation. Go Cats!

 

Hope to see you all at the Holiday Mixer next Tuesday. Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

There is much ado about dark money in the game of politics. In reality, it’s only partially dark, since the source organization of the cash is not a secret. In fact, it is deliberately made known in our world of buying access. Those who fund the organization may be hidden; that does not diminish the desire of the contributing group to have significant influence for its beliefs (which are also the beliefs of the donors).

 

Unlike political dark money, charitable dark funds can be a 100% mystery, e.g. a bag of cash, or a valuable piece of jewelry, or a money order dropped into the donation box.

 

How much, if any, detective work is the charity obligated to perform to discover the donor’s identity? There’s a strong incentive to adopt a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach. The group always needs the money to do more good; so let’s not do anything to jeopardize the receipt of this, and future, donation(s).

 

But what if the donor is known to the charity and wants to remain anonymous, while at the same time happens to be one who is known to acquire assets by unsavory means? Is there a moral precept that means the charity should say “no” to offers from donors of bad reputation? If not, is that charity somehow encouraging, enabling, or at least tolerating the bad behavior?

 

While no one is likely to profess that all is acceptable if the good done by the non-profit exceeds the bad done by the donor to amass the funds, there can be justifications for not refusing tainted gifts. It is tempting to explain accepting the contribution by saying “If we don’t take it, someone else will. Or worst of all, the funds will not go to any non-profit, but instead to another shady enterprise.” Thus, by accepting the donation, less is available to be reinvested into illegal operations. Isn’t that positive?

 

So does a non-profit refuse all untraceable donations? Real world experience would suggest that this is never the practice. Most likely, it keeps the truly anonymous money. The sticky decision is how much of a moral standard to employ when deciding to accept or decline a known donor’s offer of a silent contribution.

 

Our club has several non-profits represented among the members, and dozens more non-profits have board members who belong to Rotary. I invite you to disclose your policy. I will compile and make known the composite results.

What Rotary member can be better compared to the ageless Han Solo of the ever popular Star Wars series than our new President-Elect-Nominee, Cliff Bowman? Cliff joined Rotary in November of 2008 and became involved shortly thereafter serving on several committees as well as being elected to the Board of Directors. Cliff serves as current chair of Music and Pledge committee.

 

Cliff was born in Ruleville, Mississippi, a small farming town in the Mississippi Delta.  He lived in several states growing up, primarily Mississippi, Montana, and Arizona as his father was in the military and they moved often.  Cliff graduated high school from Charles Russell High in Great Falls, Montana.  He is a proud graduate of the University of Arizona taking “just” five years to receive a Bachelors of Science degree in Mathematics with minors in Chemistry, Physics, and Astronomy.  Cliff married his college sweetheart in December 1988 and lovingly states that they are “still happily living in married bliss.” 

 

After graduating from the U of A, Cliff joined government service and job requirements led to extensive travel mostly in the southern U.S. with some travel overseas.  He earned his Masters of Science degree in Business and Organizational Management from the University of LaVerne in California while living in North Pole, Alaska – 100% truth.  Cliff’s job eventually led him back to Tucson in April 2000.  He and his wife, Kathleen, have four children, all graduates from Salpointe Catholic High School as his wife is also a Salpointe grad.  Cliff and his family live less than a mile from his mother-in-law, Past President Charlotte Harris who served as his sponsor.

 

Cliff is the best A-10 attack pilot ever-just ask him and is currently the Lead A-10 Pilot Instructor with BGI-LLC at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Yes, the Force will be with us when Cliff Bowman serves as our club President in 2017-2018. Congratulations, Cliff!

 

Colorado State and Nevada will be competing for a win in the inaugural NOVA® Home Loans Arizona Bowl on Tuesday, December 29^th at Arizona Stadium!

 

With that news, an important reminder about the Arizona Bowl Gives Back Program… Time is running out! 50% of the ticket sales using your OFFER CODE goes straight back to your organization.  Your nonprofit sells $1000 worth of tickets, they receive $500 from the Arizona Bowl! There are a limited number of seats eligible for the Gives Back program, so time is of the essence. The nonprofit that sells the most tickets will receive a check for $5,000! Yes, that’s $5,000 for your organization!

 

Thank you for signing up for the Arizona Bowl Gives Back program and supporting this exciting event in our community. For more information, visit www.azbowlgame.com.

 

When signing up use the code word "ROTARY".