Newsletters

President’s Report

I hope everyone is well and had a good summer. If you wondered why you didn’t get an August Cliff Notes Newsletter, it is because your board decided since we don’t have summer meetings we don’t need July and August newsletters. Your Board revised the Bylaws accordingly. This September Newsletter starts the next season. 

Our upcoming October 4 meeting has an interesting speaker. Steve Hoza. Steve is a recognized authority on the history of World War II in Arizona. He will present a PowerPoint program of the history of the German’s internment in Arizona. He will also have artifacts on display. We thank Al Stimac for finding the speaker.

The November meeting will be November 1, Matt Greenman, manager of the HTF7000 engine family. Thanks Dave Oman for obtaining the speaker. 

Cathy Bennett has resigned from Events due to her job workload. Some of us still work. Diane Bennett will take over for Cathy but Cathy did arrange for our December Holiday Luncheon. It will be held at the Millennium McCormick resort in Scottsdale. The room has great views. The date is December 6. Please put that on your calendar and attend.

The Clubs Dues Notice letter will be issued in September. Our Treasurer recommended that our dues be $15 for the upcoming season and your Board approved.

Here is the Club meeting/event schedule for the 2023/2024 season

• October 4, 2023 Scottsdale Granite Reef Senior Center
• November 1, 2023 Scottsdale Granite Reef Senior Center 
• December 6, 2023 Annual Holiday Charity Luncheon
• January 3, 2024 Scottsdale Granite Reef Senior Center 
• February 7, 2024 Scottsdale Granite Reef Senior Center
• March 6, 2024 Scottsdale Granite Reef Senior Center
• April 3, 2024 Spring Picnic
• May 3, 2024 Scottsdale Granite Reef Senior Center

Hope to see all of you at our October meeting.

President’s Report

Hope everyone is having a great summer break. Our next meeting is October 4, 2023. Meanwhile your Board is busy on several items but first Honeywell Aerospace made a major announcement.

On June 15, 2023, Honeywell International Inc. announced that Mr. Michael Madsen, age 60, has elected to retire as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company’s Aerospace segment. Mr. Madsen will be succeeded by Mr. James Currier, age 57, effective as of August 1, 2023. Mr. Currier joined Honeywell in 2006 and has served as President of Aerospace’s Electronic Solutions business since 2021. Prior to his current role, he served as President of Aerospace’s Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India Aftermarket business from 2019 to 2021, Vice President of Airlines in North America from 2018 to 2019, and Vice President of Business Development for Engines and Power Systems from 2015 to 2018. Mr. Currier earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Miami and was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame for his role in the Delta Clipper X/XA program.

Note Michael Madsen was one of us, he was a performance engineer at Garrett.

The next item is Dues Notice letter. It will be sent to everyone via USPS (paper mail) in September 2023. The dues amount will be $15. Our largest operating expense is the room and video projector at the Scottsdale Granite Reef. The Senior Center used to be free but not anymore. Does anyone have access to a room that can accommodate 30 people that is less money than Senior Center?

Per our Bylaws “Section 4.2 Annually, CLUB members shall receive notice of dues, both current and past due. Payment shall be sent by the due date as directed by the notice. Allowances will be made for such things as possible change of address, but membership shall be terminated after a two-year period of nonpayment”. Note if you are two years delinquent you are dropped from the club so pay your dues.

Board member Chuck Jonkosky is conducting a Survey monkey. Early results are in this newsletter. Since I am term limited for both President and Vice Present one item of interest for me is question 7.

Q7 Would you like to be more active in the Club’s board?
No one was interested in President, Vice President, or Fix-It Guys. Someone needs to step up and be President. If I resign the Club dies. Sad.

Congratulations to all our descendants who received scholarship awards. Highest awards ever and they are all ours, thanks to all the contributors.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.