Bulletin for week of April 9-15, 2010

 

Provo Rotary Club, Inc.
Bulletin for week of April 9-15, 2010
2009-2010 Rotary Theme: Moral Literacy for Youth and Adults
   
Upcoming Luncheon Programs and Club Events

April 15: Christina Davis, I-15 Project Communications Manager, and Dave Smith, I-15 CORE Communications Director, will speak on the I-15 expansion project through Utah County
 

April 22: Vance Checketts will speak on his recent conquest of Alaska's Mt. McKinley
 

April 29: Field trip to the Provo Library at Academy Square for lunch and a tour
 

May 6: Derek A. Marquis, Managing Director, BYU Broadcasting
 

May 20: Larry Duffin, BYU Director of Special Events, speaking about growing safety concerns in major public assembly facilities
 

May 27: Jan Scharman, BYU VP of Student Life

Report of the Provo Rotary Club meeting held April 8, 2010

The Rotary luncheon was held at the Provo Marriott Hotel. President Steve Sabins conducted the meeting. Ron Roberts accompanied and Steve Tolley led the singing of the Anthem and the Pledge. Vic Ludlow offered an invocation.

Jim Hanchett, a former UVU basketball star and local entrepreneur, was visiting the club. Strat Wendelboe brought George Barrus as his guest. Kevin Williams has re-joined the club representing Zions Bank. Welcome back, Big Kev!

YouthLinc is sponsoring a "Young Humanitarian Award" and will give a $5,000 scholarship to the overall winner. Applicants must be US citizens and students in a Utah high school or college. For more information or to nominate someone, go to www.youthlinc.org by June 9, 2010.

President Steve Sabins mentioned that Art McKinlay and Bonnie Rupper have each undergone surgery recently and are recovering at home.

Carl Belliston served as sergeant inviting Rotarians to share IRS stories.

Ray Beckham introduced Jeff Herring, Human Resources Director for the State of Utah. He spoke eloquently about the experiment Utah has undergone for the past 20-months with a 4-day work week. He spoke about the studies they did in advance of the change trying to predict the benefits and costs. Governor Huntsman decided to simply go ahead and try it out rather than analyzing it to death. Some of the benefits are better than they projected, and some benefits were not even anticipated. Now that there has been enough time to analyze the changes, the state has come out a big winner.

There have been savings in energy costs (13%), reduction in custodial costs (4 days instead of 5), reduction in fleet usage (4 days instead of 5), and happier employees. It is the first thing the State has done that is perceived as a benefit by the employees but is not a cost to taxpayers.  Overall savings are expected to exceed $5 million per year, residents are happier now that they can access state agencies before 8:00 a.m. and after 5:00 p.m. The impact on air quality has been measurable (4 commute days instead of 5). The impact on families has been unexpectedly better now that there are three-day weekends instead of two, and only 4 days to pay for child care instead of 5. In fact, overtime pay is down and usage of paid sick leave is also down, both of which save the State money.

The schedule has attracted a new category of employees from the emerging workforce which have been hard to attract with the traditionally low salaries paid to government employees. To compensate for being closed on Fridays, the State has established more online services which are being heavily utilized. The Governor's office originally had a telephone hot-line on Fridays to field complaints and questions, but after only five months it was closed for lack of interest. A recent Dan Jones & Associates poll showed that around 80% of residents favor the change and 83% of employees want it to continue.

It turns out that the biggest adjustments have been in the DMV and Drivers License offices, some of which are now open again on Fridays to meet high demand.

Local, Community Projects

Provo Rotary Club Charitable Golf Tournament - June 21, 2010 Riverside Country Club
We are beginning the planning for our annual golf tournament that benefits children’s charities.
We will again be teaming with the America’s Freedom Festival at Provo to make our event a
part of the month-long activities of the Festival. Contact Linda Palmer, Committee Chair, for
more information or if you desire to be involved in some way. linda.palmer@byu.edu.

District Conference is in St. George this year on May 13-15, and is called Rendezvous at the
Confluence. We encourage all Provo Rotarians to support our District Leadership, your own
hedonistic tendencies (vacation in St. George), and to increase your knowledge about Rotary to
plan for and attend this conference.

RYLA applications are due to the district by the end of April and we would like our club
members to nominate at least 4 high school sophomores to attend this fantastic leadership
experience.

Provo Parks: Provo Rotary Club is teaming with Provo City to be involved in providing needed amenities for a public park in Provo. Stay tuned as more information is divulged on which park and what kind of assistance we will provide. Our Club leadership is also proactive in discussions with the City on the future needs of a proposed new city recreation center.

Rotaract - Is still planning a concert to raise the majority of the needed funds for their
humanitarian project benefitting Kenyan school children. This large-scale project will donate all
net proceeds to the Koins for Kenya Project which builds schools and clean water wells for
children in Kenya. Our Club’s support is vital during the fund raising portion of the project. We
will be assisting with prepayments for performers and venues, advertising, and organizing
activities. This project is being pushed back to later in the year.

Parting Shot

Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance? ~Edgar Bergen