Rotary Club of Marana
 
                                                                            
President Tony Hunter ducked out on the final Tuesday meeting of his term leaving it in the good hands of President Elect Richie Benner. While Richie did allow Randy to lead us all in The Pledge singing was prohibited. We have the next twelve months to bend President Benner to our will. (insert evil laugh)
 
Guest today was Carl May who visited our Club once before. Carl, as you may recall, was referred by departing (as in moving to Illinois not as in departed) member Maeve Johnson. Per Randy, Carl "WILL" join our Club. (insert not so evil laugh).
 
At least two of our members attended the District 5500 Governor installation of Ellie Patterson. Thank you Randy and Richie.
 
Please send volunteer hours to Rachel Cheeseman. I missed her email address so please see her.
 
August 3rd will be a District membership symposium. The end of October will be a four day cruise to Ensenada, MX for those who wish to attend the District 5500 Conference. Daily meetings/Presentations will take place plus a joint project with several Rotario Clubs will take place in Ensenada. Cost is $470 or so per person.
 
Our new Club officers to be installed tomorrow evening 6/26/2019 starting at 6 pm. Location is the home of Mary Straus 6925 N Donatello Way.
 
Randy, District 5500 Foundation Chair announced that our District, the smallest of seven in our zone, led the way in donation participation and we were third in average donation per member. Thank you.
 
Happy Bucks
John- Convinced aliens are real after visiting Roswell, NM Alien Museum last week. The famous Section #51 holds the contents from this crash site.
Dan- Happy for officer installation (I think?)
Mary-Happy to hear of Harold's childhood ranch life.
Harold-Ellen continues to make good progress with her medical issues. John Zwick says hi and his wife has made a nice recovery from recent stroke. John is in Canada for a few months.
Beckie-Happy about new potential member and a lot of other stuff that Denise now knows since Beckie spoke facing away from me in a normal conversational tone directed at her table mate Denise.
David-Happy (good to see you!) 
Denise-Happy Randy is back as is our speaker fom a couple of yers ago, Mindy Blake from the RTA
Laura-Not happy because Roswell "stole" the alien gig from Corona, NM where the aliens actually crashed. Also discussed were The Lincoln County War, the movie Young Guns, Pat Garret, Billy the Kid and John Simpson Chisum, the largest cattle rancher in the US in the late 1800's. (John apologized to Mindy for taking some of her time.)
Randy-Really not happy for misdiagnosing his wife Deb's broken arm when she fell in Germany two weeks ago.
Rachel-Belongs to a train and bus group. I know I missed the salient parts of what she said, but my guess most of the group were Thomas The Train fans as little tykes. When you see her about reporting volunteer hours you can gather more info about Planes, Trains and Automobiles. YUK, YUK.
 
Beckie won and lost the raffle.
 
JOKE
Maeve not here but really did not matter as Lynne presented a doozy!
 
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson were on a camping trip. Sensing Watson was awake in the wee hours of the night Holmes says, "Doctor, open your eyes and tell me what you notice."
Watson does as instructed and says, "I see millions and millions of stars and knowing there are millions and millions of galaxies I realize how massive the universe is and the likelihood somewhere an alien being is staring into the same vastness of space and pondering its existence." 
Holmes replies, "You idiot, I notice our tent is missing."
The moral of the story is (supplied by yours truly) do not over think the situation.
 
 Our speaker, Mindy Blake, is the Community Relations representative from the Regional Transportation Authority. (RTA)
We were presented with a newly minted booklet regarding the current state of affairs within the RTA with completed, in progress and planned projects detailed in its sixteen pages.
 
The RTA consists of the following: South Tucson, Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Sahuarita, Pima County, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Tohono O'odoham Nation and the AZ State Transportation Board.
 
 
The RTA was funded for 20 years by a 1/2 cent sales tax (estimated at $16 a year per household) and is scheduled to expire in 2026 if not renewed by public vote. Planning is afoot to renew the program in 2026 capitalizing on past successes of this multi jurisdictional program under the auspices of the Pima Association of Governments (PAG). PAG manages the RTA through a Memorandum of Understanding while the RTA serves as the fiscal manager through 2026. 
 
Eight hundred and forty projects have been completed throughout Pima County including at least eight in the Marana area. Dollars budgeted for the twenty years of projects total close to 2 billion with another half a billion from non RTA revenues. This money goes towards new construction projects with no money earmarked for maintenance which remains the individual jurisdiction responsibilities.
 
They have my vote, says the unasked scribe. 
BTW, we may still be in need of a Club Secretary beginning 7/1/2019. See Richie if interested/willing, otherwise I get two votes at every Board meeting since I was hornswoggled into being President Elect.