2023

President’s Report

Hope everyone is having a great summer. Although we have no meetings for the next few months your Board is busy.

The Scholarship Director, Chuck Jonkosky, is busy in determining the award allocations. All applicants have 3.0 GPA or higher. Students with STEM courses get more money than the non-STEM students. This year we created three grade performance categories. Thanks to the generous donations of our members, our students will receive more money than prior years.

Board member, Chuck Jonkosky, has also created a Survey Monkey. Survey Monkey is an app that
allows us to send a questionnaire on what you like about the Club and what needs improvements. After you get the newsletter, you will receive another Cliff Garrett email with a link to the Survey Monkey. Click on the button and you will be in the survey. The results will go to Chuck Jonkosky. The results will be shared with all members. Those without email will not receive a survey. You will see the results in a future newsletter.

In September we will be paper mailing the annual Dues Notice letter. Dues will remain at $15. The notice will indicate if you have any delinquent dues, has a box to donate to our Scholarship Fund, and a place to update your contact information.

Cathy Bennett, Event Director, together with her mother Diane Bennett are planning an AZ Wineries tasting trip in late October.

Our next meeting is October 4, 2023. Enjoy the summer, stay healthy and see you in October!

President’s Report

During our May meeting Club membership in attendance voted to approve the Club’s Bylaws revision. Thank you, Jim Brink, for leading the revision.

Our May meeting topic was St Mary’s Food Bank presented by Barb Novicki, John van Hengel founded St. Mary’s Food Bank in 1967. He had been volunteering at a local soup kitchen, serving dinner to those in need when a young mother told him that she depended on soup kitchens and food from grocery store dumpsters to feed her children. His conversation with the young woman created a desire to help hungry families like hers, so he came up with the idea of a “Food Bank” where individuals and companies with excess food could “deposit” it, and those in need could “withdraw” it. His local parish, St. Mary’s Basilica in downtown Phoenix, gave him $3,000 and an abandoned building where he was able to create his food bank and named it “St. Mary’s”, however it has no church affiliation. John van Hengel is referred to as “the father of food banking”. Today, St. Mary’s Food Bank is one of the largest food banks in the United States,
distributing over 100 hundred million pounds of food in a year. All of us can donate $400 to $800 a year from your Arizona income tax. Learn more about and how to volunteer at StMarysFoodBank.org.

Thank you Al Stimac for organizing this presentation. We had 25 attendees.

In a few months, we will be emailing a survey requesting members to provide information on how the Club can be improved to increase attendance at our meetings. The survey is called SurveyMonkey and is being organized by Chuck Jonkosky. Please provide your input.

In September, we will be paper mailing the annual Dues Notice letter. Dues will remain at $15. The notice will indicate if you have any delinquent dues, has a box to donate to our Scholarship Fund, and a place to update your contact information.

Our next meeting is October 4, 2023. Enjoy the summer, stay healthy and see you in October.

President’s Report

I know this newsletter will be delivered after April 9 so I wish everyone belated Happy Easter and/or Happy Passover. I don’t like being pessimistic BUT members need to step up and help run the Club. I am term limited and there are no candidates. A career politician would love this situation. They don’t have to campaign to be in office. The Club does a lot of good things for the community and member decedents scholarships. It’s very important we have younger members in leadership positions. Please join the Board and help run the Club. The next Board meeting is May 3.

Our April Spring Picnic was very successful event. We had 53 attendees and 5 new members. The food was great and the location was also great.

Other good news new Board member Dave Oman set up and organized a Facebook Group for the club. https://www.facebook.com/groups/916026582934338 Thank You Dave.

Vice-President’s Report

The May Member meeting presentation will be on St. Mary’s Food Bank, its history and mission as well as available volunteer opportunities and services provided.

No meetings in June, July, August, and September

October and November – The schedule for each month is not final at this time however one meeting will feature Matt Greenman, manager of the HTF7000 engine family and another will be Steve Hoza who will present the history of the WWII German POWs in Arizona. There were more than ones who escaped.

The January 2024 meeting will be State of Honeywell Aerospace by Mike Madsen. Future monthly meetings will include the recycling program for City of Mesa, by John Zielonka.

President’s Report

Still looking for two elected officers, President and Vice-President. I am term limited and we currently have no Vice-President. At our March board meeting it was suggested that we concentrate on first getting new Board members then grooming them for future elected Officers. In the meantime, two existing Board members need to step up for President and Vice-President. I was informed that is the way it was done in prior years.

Good news. We have a new member, Dave Oman, that also is now on our Board. Thank you Dave.

More good news. Our April Spring Picnic is a go. We have 35 members attending. I’m expecting more since the price is a bargain. Inexpensive but good food is a draw.

More good news – Scholarship fund received a check for $8000 from Honeywell Aerospace. This is the last step in becoming full control of the Scholarship program. All donations are from our (HGRC) members and Honeywell Aerospace and student recipients are descents of Honeywell-Garrett Retirees Club members.

We have a new newsletter editor. He has his own format and left space for a President Column.

The featured speaker for the February 1, 2023 meeting was Helena Morgan, Dementia Education Specialist with Hospice of the Valley. Helena gave a very thorough and informative presentation on Dementia. There were 22 attendees who asked many questions. An important take away from the meeting is to walk 30 minutes every day.

The March Club meeting presentation will feature the Arizona Military Museum one of the best kept secrets in the Valley situated at National Guard at Papago Buttes. Presenter will be Joe Abodeely, member of the Board of Directors for the Museum.

Joe will offer background and displays at the Museum as well as comments about the Vietnam War-origins, international and domestic politics, polarizing effects of media, education, antiwar groups, communistic propaganda, and U.S. military successes.