Report From February 9-11 State BOD Meeting

AzFRW's Winter State BOD Meeting was very informative and an enjoyable time getting together with all of the members from each of the Arizona Federation member clubs. A highlight was the Wickenburg club receiving its charter and becoming Arizona's newest club. It took them several months to receive their charter and they have nearly 100 members as they are now "open for business".

On Thursday evening members were invited to go on the Dixie Bell Sunset River Cruise which was delightful. The interior rooms on the main and upper levels were heated and everyone dressed warmly. The mayor of Lake Havasu City was on board and spoke briefly about the growth in the city. He and many of the other city officials are Republicans. Also speaking briefly on the cruise was our February speaker, Nick Adams.

Friday morning is when many of the Committees hold their meetings. The Club Treasurer and Membership VP meeting was held jointly so which enabled me to cover both meetings for our Club's Treasurer and Membership VPs.

The Committee meetings were followed by a morning breakout session: How Political Correctness and Wokeism is Transforming the American Dream into the European Nightmare and How We Must Fight Back. Nick Adams, Founder & Executive Director of, Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness (FLAG) was the speaker.
Nick began with the need to keep our Grand American Experiment alive starting with:

1. Having a flag in every classroom across America
2. Saying the Pledge of Allegiance every day
3. Singing the National Anthem before every sporting event in America

This year is our nation's 247 birthday. We are nearing the end of the timeframe that has seen every republic in history destroyed on or before they reached the 250-year mark. Nearly all former Republics in history were destroyed from within.

At this time, the United States is leading from behind and the world is a more dangerous place than it was three years ago.

Political Correctness (PC) is more than speech, it is a cultural attitude. PC is an international tyranny.

American Exceptionalism is simple. It begins with all of our rights coming from our creator, not man. It is the equality of opportunity, not the outcome. PC wants to render all our ideals to history and make the United States just another country, no better, no worse than any other country in this world.

Imagine the world with no United States of America. It would be a frightening and sad image. America has done more good for this world than any power in history. We have fought for the freedom of millions of people and succeeded. We have never taken any country by force and retained them. The only land America has ever asked for was land for cemeteries to bury our deceased military.

Through the teaching of civics in our schools and putting patriotism back into classrooms, we can begin to take back our country.

Our best days still lie ahead of us. We just need to win the PASSION GAP. The left wants to destroy
America more than we want to protect it.

Our luncheon speaker, Rory McShane, Founder & Principal, McShane LLC, spoke on the need for Republicans to move their analysis of voters to more targeted data such as their likes and dislikes. He explained that data down to what magazines you read, what programs you watch, and who you follow on social media is all available from many sources. He stated that the Democrats have been doing this for the last several election cycles and that is why they are more successful in reaching their voters with targeted information.

Following lunch, the Breakout Session featured Scot Mussi, President & Executive Director, Az Free Enterprise Club on The War on the Freedom To Move. Aimee Yentes, VP, of AZ Free Enterprise Club presented the session. There is a full frontal assault on our freedom of movement. The goals of this World Network are: "you will walk and you will be happy.

Globally the movement is C40 Cities, Phoenix is one of the 40, around the world. There is a book called The Ideal Communist City by A. Baburov. This book describes the forms of the social organization becoming: large cities in the process of unplanned expansion. This is not just coming to an area near you, it is already here.

Our own state legislature is working on a bill to defeat Vision 0 in AZ

My favorite session of the day was the Breakout Session: Straight Talk with Mohave County, Leo Biasiucci, AZ House of Representatives Majority Leader and John Gillette, AZ House of Representatives shared the plans for legislating in the current environment. The legislature is writing and passing bills that are popular with AZ voters, but Hobbs will veto them, making her look bad. In some instances, our legislators will get bills into committee but the Democrats oppose them. The Republicans will then have many people come into testify against Democrat positions. Again this makes the Democrats look bad because they are against bills that will help AZ citizens.

The legislature will send many bills to the ballot providing voters the opportunity to vote for or against them, bypassing the Democrat governor. So far the Republican legislators have remained strong and are voting as a block for their bills or against Democrat bills.

The current legislators are the most conservative group ever in AZ. The legislative bills our Republican members are introducing and the challenges they are facing is not getting out to the voters. They need our help to get the message out.

The last breakout session of Friday is called Nuts and Bolts of the AzFRW. This session was on building a club member orientation program, presented by Prescott, the largest club in the United States. They have over 800 members. Our club has always had a New Member Orientation program that is currently being updated. The presentation had many excellent ideas for improving our program. We will look at including them in our program.

Following the Breakout Sessions, we break into Regional meetings. We are in Region II and Glenda Bird, our club's Parliamentarian is District II Chair. In Glenda's absence, Kaye Feller filled in. We met with other Region II clubs, Tucson Republican Club, Pima County RW,  and our own club. During these meetings, we discuss ideas for growing membership, fundraising, challenges we are having, and wins.

Pima County RW is focusing on supporting legislators, focus on referendums, school boards, city councils, and supervisor races.

Saturday morning has the President's Meeting and the Bylaws Committee Meeting prior to the formal BOD meeting. At the President's Meeting, we discussed working on our Club Awards packet in preparation for submission in later May 2023. These packets are reviewed at the state level and forwarded to the National. The information in the Award packets results in the Awarding of Club level awards, Diamond, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
The discussion of members maintaining their hours and turning them in as they must be reported in late June.
The general session BOD meeting saw the AzFRW add the non-voting position of Asst Treasurer to the board. The first club to reach 80% of renewals actually reached 87% of renewals was Huachuca RW.

The summer AzFRW will be held May 18-20 in Prescott, AZ. Mark your calendar and save the date.
It was announced that AzFRW state treasurer, Donna Stawicki, has resigned from her position at the end of the conference on February 11. We will miss Donna. She was a good friend of our club.

March 31 is the Day at the Capital. Plan on attending. We will notify our local legislators to try and set up a time with them while we are at the capital. Wear Red. As soon as the announcement comes out, we will need to register to attend. This is an exciting day.

The Fall Convention is in October in Tucson. At the convention, we will elect a new board of directors for AzFRW. We are entitled to 1 voting member for every 10 members we have in our club.

Plan on attending the Summer meeting in Prescott. You will enjoy meeting members from other clubs, making new friends, and hearing interesting speakers.

Kaye Feller, President
Queen Creek – San Tan Valley RWF