May 2023 Newsletter
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.
April 2023 Newsletter
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.
March 2023 Newsletter
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.
February 2023 Newsletter
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.
January 2023 Newsletter
Happy new year, club members!
A handful of important announcements for you:
- Scholarship applications submitted on our website and the deadline is April 1, 2023
- Our February meeting topic is “What is Dementia Anyway”.
- The newsletter has a questionnaire for the upcoming April Spring picnic. Please respond to help plan our spring event!
Our First 2023 meeting was on Jan 4 at Scottsdale Granite Reef Senior Center
Our guest speaker was Gary Snyder, AARP. Topic was Fraud and Identity Theft. Gary reviewed common scams, tactics used by Con Artists and prevention strategies. He listed two AARP guidance sources you can trust, and are free of judgment.
AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline: 877-908-3360
Toll-free service available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET
Gary usually has handout pamphlets but AARP is updating them. He will mail them to us when they become available and we will have them at future meetings. There were 18 attendees.
Important Membership DUES announcement
Several months ago, the Board decided to terminate memberships for those dues who are 2 or more years delinquent. If your dues letter showed that you owe $35 or more, you are in this category. This is the last notice. After February 15 if you are still $35 delinquent you will no longer be a member of the CLUB. Please become current and enjoy the Club including the scholarship benefit for your descendants.
Currently there are approximate 100 members owing $35 or more.
December 2022 Newsletter
Our Dec 7 Holiday Charity Luncheon was held at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort.
Diane Bennett, our event director, did her usual outstanding job. The lunch entrees including salad and desert were excellent. Room decorations, prizes, centerpieces were all done by Diane. 31 Club members enjoyed the Luncheon.
In addition to the room and meal, Diane also does our traditional donations to two local families each with three children. Diane gets our families from Vista Del Camino, a Scottsdale City authorized agency. They supply the families after vetting them and we ask for two families with three children each. We never know the families name, only the children’s first names. They never know our name either. We and they are identified only by our assigned numbers.
The children give us their “Wish Lists” and we try to fill as much as we can with our allotted monies, $100 per child. Normally, we get by with less than the allotted amount and then we then add a gift certificate for the family to buy food for their Christmas dinner. The family also gives us the child’s clothes needs and sizes allowing us to purchase clothes for them.
The monies ($600) for this comes for our dues.
Again great job Diane for all you do for our December Holiday Charity Luncheon.
Garrett Employee $5000 Funeral Benefit
The Garrett Corp provided a sum of money to cover funeral expenses of Garrett employees upon their death. The benefit is still available.
- The amount of money is $5000
- The benefit is recognized within the Honeywell system as a “death benefit”. When contacting Honeywell that term should be used, along with mention of the sum of $5000.
- To request the benefit, call 1-877-258-3699. This is the number contained in the November 21, 2022 letter and recent postcard sent to participants.
- Press a phone key for option 5 to start the process.
Now Accepting Scholarship Applications!
The 2022-2023 club scholarship application is open, applications are now accepted via our website. All donations go to descendants of our members, and are tax deductible. Good luck to our 2023 applicants!
November 2022 Newsletter
Our Nov 2 meeting was on Fundamentals of Estate Planning presented by Attorney Megan Selvey. Megan specializes in Elder Law & Long-term Care Planning.
Common goals of estate planning include:
- Assets delivered to correct individuals or entities
- Tax efficient outcomes
- Incapacity planning – with increasing life expectancy, this has become a big item today
- Asset preservation planning
- Fundamental documents that everyone older than 18 should have include:
- Powers of Attorney for Health care, Mental health, Financial
- Living Will
- HIPPA Medical Release
- Revocable Trust (probate avoidance)
- Last Will & Testament
- Deeds for real property
Megan gave out copies of her 21 slides plus a checklist of basic estate planning and a list of 10 common estate planning mistakes. Megan recommended that once you have a plan in place it should be periodically reviewed particularly:
- It was created prior to 2009 due to major law changes
- It has been more than 3 years since last review
- You have economic or personal changes in circumstance
- Your beneficiaries have had personal changes in circumstance
- Your named decision-makers have had personal changes in circumstance
- You have documents created in another state
The presentation was very informative and well received with many questions from members.
Big thanks to Scholarship donners – Since we obtained IRS 501(c)(3) status, scholarship donations have increased. All dues and donations are tax deductible. In future newsletters we will list donors, names only. Also, we are following IRS rules about who receives written receipts. Donations of $250 or more are the only ones which require a written receipt. Our Treasurer is grateful since he is he receipt writer and mailer.
October 2022 Newsletter
Happy fall, club members! Please find our October announcements below:
Club members –Our first meeting was Oct 5
Guest speaker was Mike Madsen, President and CEO of Honeywell Aerospace. His presentation was upbeat and very positive for the future of Honeywell Aerospace. Below are some of his comments.
The trend for APUs and other aircraft accessories is from bleed air systems to electric systems. No bleed port on the APU but a megawatt 800-volt generator on the APU. All electric increases efficiency, 800 volts reduces the size of the wire connecting the accessories.
Mike was asked how he viewed the company now as opposed to when he first began as a performance engineer at Allied Signal in the 80’s. He described how the company was operating then, when many employees from Garrett and Allied Signal knew a majority of people from other departments within the company that had 5,000 people at times. Things functioned much differently then, as we all know remember well.
Today, the work environment is so much different. There are many smart people coming together throughout the world. He was just recently in India, and it was quite clear how global everything has become there and now mostly everywhere in the aerospace industry. Employees are communicating and functioning in various capacities throughout the world.
After some financial charts, Mike commented the No. 1 money maker is the Turbofan 731 engine. We are still making them (Huge amount of applause from the audience).
Big thanks to Scholarship donors
Since we obtained IRS 501(c)(3) status, scholarship donations have increased. All dues and donations are tax deductible. In future newsletters we will list donors, names only. Also, we will follow IRS rules about who receives written receipts. Donations of $250 or more are the only ones which require a written receipt. Our Treasurer is grateful since he is he receipt writer and mailer.
Upcoming Meetings
November 2 meeting will feature Stephanie Bevins. She is an attorney with more than 25 years of elder law, special needs and estate planning experience. She will speak about issues concerning people in our age group. The meeting will be held in room 8.
December 7 Our first social event will be our traditional Holiday Charity Luncheon. Event. Director Dianne Bennett is putting together a special luncheon like she has in all past years. The Holiday Charity Luncheon we enjoyed at last year’s function at the Plaza Resort Hotel will be repeating again this year. Prepare yourselves for a wonderful meal. Tickets will be on sale by the first of November for December 7th 2022. See you there!
September 2022 Newsletter
Club Members, we hope you are all staying cool and enjoying the summer!
A few important annoucements:
Upcoming Meeting on October 5.
Guest speaker is Mike Madsen, President and CEO of Honeywell Aerospace. He will be presenting the state of Honeywell Aerospace. The meeting will be held in Scottsdale Granite Reef Senior Center room 8 starting at 1:00 p.m.
Family Day at Honeywell Engines on November 5.
All Club members are invited to attend. Those who would like to be volunteers on Engine history and Club info will get a t-shirt. Club volunteers would be in the Cliff Garrett conference room to explain company history. The Cub would have a table to promote the Club to those who may be retiring in the near future. Members please volunteer. We have close to 500 members and if we all volunteer Honeywell Engines would have to provide a lot of t-shirts. Mark Steele has the lead on this event. If you plan on attending or being a volunteer, you please let Mark know by Oct 14.
Club Dues on November 15
We now have a due date, Nov 15 and a late fee of $5 to encourage prompt payments. Our Treasurer has to manage bank deposits to avoid excess bank deposit fees.
Year 2019 and earlier dues were $15 each year, 2020 and 2021 were $5 each year since we were not having live meetings, 2022 and forward we are back to $15 per year since we having live meetings and the Scottsdale Senior Center is charging us rent for the room and audio video equipment.
Our members are consistently generous. This season one member donated $1265.00. This is the largest single donation ever in the history of the Club. We hope to receive a $500 and a $250 from 2 other members. This year all donations go to our Club member descendants.
August 2022 Newsletter
Club Members, we hope all of you are having a wonderful summer. Soon it will start cooling off and we will have our first meeting October 5.
Big news – This summer Honeywell-Garrett Retirees Club became a nonprofit corporation. We were a nonprofit association. We also expect to obtain IRS 501(c)(3) status shortly. That means both dues and donations are tax-deductible and 100% of your donations will go for scholarship assistance to Honeywell-Garrett Retirees Club descendants. This is great.
Dues – Prior to the Oct 5 meeting, you will be receiving via paper mail Club Dues Notice. As mentioned in the May newsletter we had to raise Dues to $15. The prime reason is we are back to having live meetings and the Scottsdale Senior Center is charging us rent for the room and audio video equipment. The Dues Notice will show if you are delinquent or paid in advance.