15 Zoomers joined 63 members and guests in the Anderson Room as today’s meeting was called to order by President Dawn and together we sang ‘My Country ‘Tis of Thee’ as our patriotic song. The membership then proceeded to recite the 4-way test.

New member, Leslie Anne Pinney, offered today’s inspirational comments, focusing on how we respond to ‘life’.  Some key thoughts:  focus on follow through, even when no one is looking (!) and that efforts don’t always have to be large, even small instances matter. 

Today’s music, led by Marlena Studer, required some audience participation as we sang ‘Whistle While We Work.’

President Dawn and the Club welcomed several visitors and guests including our former long-time club photographer, Fred Beutler! Other guests included the President of the Ann Arbor Potters Guild, Peter Allen, a long time Ann Arbor developer, the VP of Terra Firma and a former Ford administrator.  Four birthdays were announced – Karen Pancost, Marlena Studer, Don Deatrick and Shelley MacMillan – and we offered thank-yous to the helpers of today’s meeting.  

Announcements

President Dawn reminded us the RCAA Happy Hour this evening at Sessions Room. In addition, with our recent club survey results in, President Dawn reminded us to review the results (email) and thanked members for their participation in the survey.  

Barbara Eichmueller announced the introduction of two new members who were then formally introduced by their sponsors.  Sara Maddock introduced new member Leslie Pinney (who gave our inspirational thoughts today) and Mark Foster introduced new member Mark Schirmer.  

Dave Keren gave announcements on behalf of the ARC/Peace Committee.  The Book Club has selected their book for the August bookclub meeting on Wednesday, August 19.  You can register for this Zoom event by emailing Dave at dfkeren@gmail.com.  Dave also reminded us to check out the Embrace Differences exhibit at Gallup Park; announced the Concert for Peace occurring Wed. July 27th in Livonia and you can get a link for tickets by emailing Dave.  Lastly, if you are interested in joining this committee, please contact Dave.

John White introduced today’s speaker, Sue Gott, University Planner.  Sue is well known by many members and this is the 8th time that she’s been an invited speaker to RCAA!  Sue’s presentation focused on current and planned construction on UM’s campus, titled ‘Building Today & Tomorrow – a Blueprint for Our Future’ was focused on 4 areas: Campus planning, Campus Plan 2050, Tour of Projects and Experience Making.

To begin, Sue spoke about what campus planning really is – bringing structure to campus properties with planning and arranging land use and development patterns and maintaining infrastructure.  One slide depicted the history of the Ann Arbor campus, starting with the acquisition of the original 40 acre campus in 1837.  From that time forward, there’s been many projects on our campus such as the beginning of the Medical Center, the Athletic Campus, North Campus, purchase of former Pfizer complex to the current Campus Plan 2050.

The Campus Plan 2050 has five planning themes: Life-Changing Education, Civic Engagement, Health & Well-Being, Environment/Sustainability and Collaboration/Connectivity.  Sue then spoke about recent and current central campus projects, including the new College of Pharmacy building and Wolverine Village Phase 1.  Other highlights include a planned new transit center near South Quad at the intersection of Madison/Packard/Thompson streets; the new Kahn Health Care Pavillion and geothermal and solar projects that are both in place and planned.

Our meeting was then adjourned at 1:30pm.