Our guests were Marit Runyan (friend of Harvey Clark), Brian Kabat (prospective member and owner of Frontier Ace Hardware in Apache Junction), Paul McKeen (visiting Rotarian) and our speaker Pamela Davis. There were 26 active members present.
1. Mike Dungan and Jim Erickson modeled a new version of a navy-colored knit shirt with the Rotary logo and our club name embroidered on it. It will be sewn at Gold Canyon Embroidery so we will be supporting a local business. It can also be embroidered with any other club name for the benefit of our winter visitors. The shirts cost $33.50. If you would like to order one, contact Mike or Jim.
2. Sharon Stinard announced that October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and she encouraged club members to wear purple during the month. Purple is the color chosen because of its association with bruises. She also reminded us of the CAAFA "Disco Fever" fever fundraiser dance and dinner to be held on October 25 at Dolce Vita Resort. She will have tickets for sale starting next week.
3. President Bryant reminded the club that next Monday is the Boys and Girls Club golf tournament fundraiser. We have some members playing golf and Len LaFlesch will be there with our Rotary canopy showing the flag of support from our club.
4. President Bryant announced that the Golf Committee will meet following our meeting today.
5. Aaron McDermid - our Sargeant-at-Arms had people laughing and donating.
6. The drawing was worth $493 today. Len LaFlesch won the drawing and $10 but drew the 5 of hearts. That darn joker is really elusive.
Our speaker was introduced by program chair Harvey Clark. Pamela Davis has a long and distinguished career working in the field of airline security, primarily with U.S. Air which has now merged with United Airlines. She is a Washington, DC. native. Pamela holds a multi-engine commercial pilot's license.
The U.S. is still the top target for terrorists. Every U.S. airline has a corporate security department that acts as the police department for the airline. They have broad responsibilities that range over many security issues such as terrorist threats, theft, fraud, cyber attacks, hijackings, passenger security, and airport security. The airline security people are part of a complex, multi-agency security system that includes many Federal agencies including TSA.
Pamela took us through an interesting chronological history of threats to airlines, many of which preceded the 9/11/2001 attacks. She started the series with the bombing of a plane in 1955 by a man who wanted to collect on an insurance policy on the life of a person in the plane. New types of threats led to the development of new counter-measures to thwart them. She mentioned air marshalls (think hijacking), then metal detectors (think carry on guns, knives, bombs), then X-raying of luggage (think Lockerbie luggage bombs), the formation of TSA and airport security check points (think 9/11), the removal of shoes (think Richard Reed, the shoe bomber), the banning of carry-on liquids and gels over a certain size (think foiled bomb preparation in flight) and whole body scanners (think the underwear bomber). Lately many of the threats are coming in the way of cyber attacks to gain information, gain control of systems or totally disrupt systems.
Pam's presentation stimulated a spirited period of many questions from club members that took us past the usual closing time.
Nearby Rotary Clubs that might be useful for meeting makeup attendance. You can find the meeting times and locations for Rotary clubs throughout the world by going to the Rotary International website (www.rotary.org) and clicking on "Club Locator" in the upper right corner of the screen.
Mesa East Rotary Club: Mondays at 12:00 p.m.
Superstition Springs Golf Club, 6542 E. Baseline, Mesa (16 miles)
Gilbert Rotary Club: Thursdays at 7:00 a.m.
The Henhouse Cafe, 3244 E. Guadalupe Rd., Gilbert, AZ (20 miles)
Mesa West Rotary Club: Thursdays at 12:10 p.m.
Hilton Phoenix East-Mesa, 1011 W. Holmes Ave.,Mesa (24 miles)
Mesa Sunrise Rotary Club: Wednesdays at 7:00 a.m.
Banner Health Business Center, 525 W. Brown Rd., Mesa
Tempe South Rotary Club: Fridays at 6:45 a.m.
Friendship Village, 2645 E. Southern Ave., Tempe (26 miles)
