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Hello Fellow Rotarians,
Greetings from the extremely hot valley of the sun. For those of you at higher elevations, I’m envious. If you read last month’s Governor message, you’ll recall there was discussion of the DG photo – something about my cape being in the wash. There is another photo this month, but you will need to read to the end of this missive to find out how this came about. August is Membership and New Club Development month. Our District has actually done a fine job recently in getting new clubs started. We are also getting satellite clubs started and some satellites are converting to Rotary clubs. Membership, however, continues to remain a problem. I recently had occasion to review the invoices that each club in the District is receiving this month from RI for semi-annual dues. RI is billing the various clubs in the District for a total of 2,253 members, but seven of those members were in a club that has closed down. So the number is actually 2,246. How many of you can truly say that you actually expected a number that low? I know I was surprised. We will need to increase our overall membership by almost 7 percent to get up to 2,400 members. I think that is an achievable and worthy goal. So you know that person you’ve been thinking about asking to join in Rotary? Why don’t you make the ask?
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Over the weekend, the Rotary Youth Exchange Program for District 5495 had welcomed 11 out of the 13 students that will be staying in our district. We are so fortunate to have had host families, couselors, and representatives from different Rotary clubs join us at two different international airports making this a very special and welcoming experience for our inbounds. .jpg)
The 4th Annual Arizona Rotary Water Summit will be held in Phoenix on Saturday, August 11. The summit is the perfect opportunity to connect with others concerned with water and sanitation issues worldwide.
District 5495 will be taking a group of 6 Rotarians and partners (or single Rotarians) to Argentina with the proposed dates of the exchange starting on or about April 1, 2019. (No it’s not a April Fools Joke) in Buenos Aires. We will host the team from Argentina on or about October 1, 2019. 
The Silver Creek Rotary Club is having a fundraiser to donate 60 backpacks with school supplies to needy kindergarten students in the Concho, Snowflake and Taylor schools. A $15 donation sponsors one backpack. If every club in our District helped with just one, Silver Creek would be rich in backpacks, pencils and scissors and putting smiles on some of the faces that need it the most in Arizona.
Happy August District 5495 Rotary Clubs,
Scottsdale Sunrise Rotary presented a check in the amount of $5,000 to The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona to assist in the great work they do in providing grants to qualified candidates to pursue vocational careers in areas such as welding, health care professions, mechanics, aircraft technology and other vocational programs. 
The president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council told a meeting of the Rotary Club of Scottsdale that AZTC has grown into an 800-plus member professional networking organization since it was established in 2002. Steve Zylstra was the luncheon speaker at a recent Rotary Club luncheon at Scottsdale’s McCormick Ranch Golf Club’s Pavilion.
Kent Hammond was recently installed as 2018-19 club president of the Rotary Club of Scottsdale. Kent Hammond is partner at the firm of Rudolph & Hammond, LLC in Scottsdale. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, The American Society of Legal Advocates, and the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers. He was has also nominated by his peers as a "Southwest Super Lawyer."
The Arizona Rotary Leadership Academy (RLA) is now accepting nominations for the 2018-2019 class.
Rotary Club of Sedona Red Rocks and Friends of the Sedona Library have collaborated on providing a new commercial-grade picnic table to Sedona Public Library. The table is located at the library’s rental property that currently houses the Friends’ used bookstore.
A variety of colorful backpacks will greet 36 at-need elementary grade students as they return to classes at West Sedona School in August.
The Chandler Horizon Rotary Club is a morning club which meets on Wednesday mornings at the Grill 60 of the San Marcos Golf Resort.
Diane Sterner, faculty advisor to the Interact Club of Scottsdale Prep, reports, “This was a purely student-initiated and conducted project.”
The Rotary Club of Winslow handed out $1,000 scholarships this year to three incredible individuals. These young people are the beneficiaries of scholarships named for the specific people who made a real impact on the Winslow community. Pete Kretsedemas from the Falcon restaurant with 50 years perfect attendance who passed away in 2010 , Pinkie Walton was a high school counselor who touched many lives and Hayden Walton his great grandson who was tragically died after being hit by a baseball playing Little league. 