The February 9 meeting opened with the ringing of The Bell at 12:30pm.
Tom Strode played America the Beautiful. Sara Maddock’s Inspiration recalled being a teenager in the 90’s and having a teenager in the 00’s, and now has twin teens, noting that change comes fast but although the platform and interpretations change, the things that really matter remain the same: snuggling while watching a movie together, visiting with grandparents, shopping for back-to-school clothes, reading together and discussing books and current events.
Shelley MacMillan played a Tom Leher video spoofing contagion. President Susan greeted guests, thanked the people who make the meetings run smoothly, and announced birthdays.
Ken Fischer presented the Distinguished Service Award to Bob Dascola. Bob is an Ann Arbor institution for his generous and loving personality as well as tireless civic activity. We had many guests present to celebrate this well deserved recognition.
Charlie Koopmann introduced our New Member Larry Marentette. Larry is a world leader in Otolaryngology and Neurosurgery. He is recently retired and looking forward to building an interesting volunteer career.
John White reported on a busy upcoming Spring for District 6380. Descriptions, dates and times of these events are posted on our website calendar under News/Events, then Calendar.
Registrations are now open for some events.
- February 24 Gun Violence Seminar
- February 26 Grants Preparation Seminar at Concordia
- April date TBD for Interact Peace Assembly
- April 23 all Member Environment Activity – possibly our Adopt-a-Highway day
- April 24 District Speaker on the Impact of Women on Rotary
- May 20-21 District Conferrence
- June 4 – 8 Rotary International Convention in Houston
- September dates TBD Peace Conference
Notes from the Program
Dennis Powers introduced our speaker, John McLaughlin. John is the site lead for recruiting and settling new employees for KLA Tenor’s Ann Arbor R & D facility which is opening a new campus in the Ann Arbor Tech Center on Dixboro Road. He is an Ann Arbor boy so he knows the community well. KLA is a leader in process control using advanced inspection tools, metrology systems, and computational analytics with facilities and clients around the world. The Ann Arbor campus will have 600 employees when fully staffed, mostly engineers and technicians but with all human resources and accounting functions as well. John talked about how Ann Arbor was chosen from a formidable field of candidates and how he sells Ann Arbor to prospective hires.
Ann Arbor was chosen in 2017 and the property acquired from the University with construction beginning soon after. The things that drew KLA Tencor in Ann Arbor included
- Labor quality and availability – University pipeline was very important
- Cost of living and labor
- Quality of life in the Ann Arbor area
- Direct access to clients in Asia via Metro Airport- 88% of clients are outside of the US, 71% in Asia
- Local incentives and potential partnerships
- Real estate /housing availability and diversity, and the local infrastructure.
The new building will be opened in Spring with 391 employees in place. The workforce is overwhelmingly female and young. Quality of life is important to this workforce so it is incorporated in all aspects of the building. The location is close to Matthai Botanical Gardens, inviting for an afternoon stroll. The facility only covers half of the eighteen acres, and 50% of the forest is untouched. The building has big, open collaborative spaces with glass walls and several terraces.
John will be working on employee engagement both within the company and with the community. He cites the rich diversity of cultures and activities in our area as fertile hunting grounds for the employees and their families as they settle in and begin their new lives in Ann Arbor.
President Susan closed the meeting with this quote from C.S. Lewis: “you can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
