January 24th 2007

Last Meeting
January 24, 2007

Reporter – Theresa Miley

The meeting was called to order by President Elect Beetle Bailey. The invocation was given by Blount Shepard. Interim Sergeant-at-Arms John Hanson introduced our visitors. Dr. Lynn Campbell tested our knowledge of The Rotarian. Lyman Whitehead provided our humor of the day using the comparison between a newborn baby and three elderly gentlemen!

Dr. Judy Johnson reminded the committee chairs of a brief art auction meeting after our meeting today. Bob Berry solicited ads (our business cards) at $25.00 for our art auction program. Great marketing strategy, especially since he would be waiting at the only exit door when you leave. Way to go Bob! John Adair is doing a full ad and auctioning a piano at a great bargain. Thanks John.

Kelly Payne updated our group on the status of Dutch Fork's desire to do the "Alive @ 25" program through the Interact Club. They are awaiting approval from the School Board.

Chip Lyerly updated us on Shadow Day, to be held February 7th. We still need
volunteers and he passed around a sign up sheet. This will begin with breakfast and end with a 12:30 luncheon.

John Wilkins introduced our guest speaker, Jose Monge. Mr. Monge is an attorney who specializes in immigration law. Mr. Monge shared his views and work efforts in regards to immigration. He feels immigration is an economic issue. He talked about the difference between migration and immigration. Migration is the moving from one place to another and immigration is the system to control migration. He reminded us that at one time there were no rules-if you wanted to move, you could move. Now, due to increase in population, there are rules to try to attempt to control peoples' movements.

Lately, he feels immigration has been politicized and is often linked to terrorism. These are two separate issues. He addressed two specific issues:

1. Undocumented Immigration: Due to supply/demand, there are 15 million estimated undocumented workers in U.S. In Mexico, workers do same type of work for $25/week and in U.S. they make $12.00/hour. Many Americans do not want to work for $12.00/hour, but immigrants desire to do work. There is a demand for labor and the supply of labor is the illegal immigrants.

2. The system for documenting people is broken. It is a patchwork system that is under funded and unrealistic. There is no streamline system for becoming a legal citizen and no easy answer to make find workable solution.

Mr. Monge ended by saying there is a human element to the problem, as well as
an economic element.

To conclude the meeting, Ginny Barr indicated we can continue to bring magazines for the DJJ interact Club next week. Chris Joye reminded us of our speaker for next week. John Adair informed us that our next District Governor will be Allan Walter from Pawley's Island.

TEST POST

TEST

Jan 17 2007

Michael Biediger, Administrator of Lexington Medical Center was the guest speaker at Wednesday's meeting. He was introduced by Lyman Whitehead who is a member of the hospital board. Accompanying Mr. Biediger was Barbara Willm who also is employed with the hospital. It was a most interesting and educational meeting at which no Rotarian left early or fell asleep.



Last Meeting
January 17, 2007

Reporter – Stan Bugner

The meeting was called to order by President Molly Cousins. Dr. Lynn Campbell gave the invocation. Interim Sergeant-at-Arms John Hanson introduced our visitors. Lyman Whitehead provided a little health and happiness with a religious comparison of ham and cheese. Dr. Judy Johnson talked about the Art Auction on February 15th at the River Center of Saluda Shoals Park. She reminded us to pick up our ten tickets to sell and solicited our help by introducing each committee chairperson and requesting that if we are not signed up to help, to see one of these chairpersons. Judy also announced that a meeting of the chairpersons will be held immediately after next weeks meeting. President Molly encouraged us to participate in Shadow Day on February 7th.

Ginny Barr introduced the attending members of the Interact Club at DJJ. She told us that this newly formed Club was presented their charter during the previous week by Joel Collins. Antonio, the Secretary of the club, told us that their first project was to seek the donation of magazines, so those at DJJ youth would have something entertaining to read. He also mentioned a couple of other projects: securing the donation of six new, different colored coolers, that can be assigned to each dorm by color, and securing more trash cans to reduce litter on campus. John Adair stepped-up and donated the first new cooler. Kelly Payne and a large contingency from the Dutch Fork Interact Club were also in attendance.

Lyman Whitehead introduced Barbara Willm and Stephen Wessinger, who were accompanying our speaker Michael Biediger, President and CEO of the Lexington Medical Center. Michael is a graduate of both Clemson and USC. He has extensive experience in medical administration and has received several awards. He came to Lexington from Florence, where he was the Vice President of the McLeod Regional Medical Center. Michael disclosed the mission and vision of the Medical Center and the strategic plan for success. The facility opened as a hospital in 1971. The Lexington Medical Center now has facilities throughout Lexington County, a conscious effort to locate services close to the community through the deployment of out-patient facilities. It employs over 4,400 individuals, with an operating budget of $400 million. The Medical Center has a much smaller shortage of registered nurses than the national average and it compares very favorably when benchmarked against a standard that includes 800 hospitals around the country. The Hospital operates the 3rd busiest Emergency Room in the State and the Medical Center includes the largest nursing home in the State. The recent construction at the Hospital was planned to accommodate projected growth over the next 15 years and cost $146 million. The Hospital now has 340 private rooms, which can expand to 470, and the 21 new operating rooms are state-of-the-art facilities. Over 600 physicians have access to the hospital and the medical center employs 122 physicians in 38 locations. Another hospital is not foreseen in the near term. There is enough room at the Hospital facility to allow constructing a couple of towers for future expansion.

Jan 10, 2007

Last Meeting
January 10, 2007

Reporter – Chip Lyerly

President Molly Cousins called the meeting to order. Ervin Ott provided the invocation and led our club in the Pledge of Allegiance. Lyman Whitehead read a humorous storey and said a few other funny things!

President Molly Cousins reminded members of the Board meeting on January 18th at Three Rivers Medical, 7:30 a.m.

Dr. Judy Johnson spoke briefly about the upcoming Art Auction which will be held at Saluda Shoals Park on Thursday, February 15th from 5:30 to 10:00 p.m. The club is looking for personal/corporate sponsorships ($25) and members were informed that each of us will be given 10 tickets (you can have more) to sell for $10 each. You will keep the money, as you will be charged (sale them or not!) on your next Rotary bill. We hope to have a large turnout for the auction, as this is our main money raiser for the year. (Note to Bill Danielson: please make sure you are there!)

Our guest speaker, Peter McKee, was introduced by Dr. Judy Johnson. Mr. McKee is an electrical engineer whose career began with Intel Corporation when Intel was first getting started (he was the 8th employee). McKee’s career eventually led him to Europe where he and his family lived in a number of different countries. There, he made his permanent home in Brussels, Belgium. Now “retired” from the corporate world, McKee devotes most of his time to the development of “social work places” for handicapped individuals. He has been instrumental in the opening of 32 different factories all over the European continent that currently employee over 3,700 people. These factories take discarded computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices and “disassemble” various components which are then recycled and sold to manufactures that put them back into new electronic products. McKee explained that the components from which the parts are harvested do not cost anything, and as a result, there is 100% profit on all the parts sold. However, he indicated that the goal was not to make a large profit, but to provide meaningful employment to handicap employees. It really doesn’t matter how handicapped the person may be, only that they have “fire in their belly,” as someone with this determination can me taught how to dissemble.

In conjunction with Vocation Rehabilitation, McKee has established three facilities in Columbia. This is how he and Judy Johnson crossed paths, as a number of these employees are from the Babcock Center. In addition to South Carolina, McKee helped establish a large disassembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, adjacent to a regional rehabilitation hospital. This facility has won a national award from the US Department of Labor for its mission and productivity. McKee is currently working with a number of state governments throughout the country to implement similar factories in those states.

Jan 3 2007 Happy New Year

Last Meeting
January 3, 2007

Reporter – Rosalie Browning

The first meeting of 2007 for the Lake Murray‑Irmo Rotary Club was called to order by President Molly Cousins. Barry Johns led the invocation. Lyman Whitehead presented some items of Health and Happiness.

President Molly discussed the wonderful opportunities our club provided for service and for fellowship in December, 2006. A Christmas donation to Homeworks supplied heating units for needy families. Everyone enjoyed the Christmas party hosted by Joel and Rhonda Collins and coordinated by Patty Cavanaugh. Another treat was the delightful Christmas program coordinated by John Adair at the December 20th meeting.

The next few months will provide even more opportunities for service:
· The first Wednesday in February will be Shadow Day, with activities coordinated by Chip Lyerly.
· Judy Johnson is coordinating the Art Auction, which is now scheduled for February 15th.
· Scholarship applications are going out soon to Dutch Fork High School students.
· The District Conference will take place at Hilton Head from March 23‑25 and will be a joint conference with the District from the upstate.
· Ben Herritage is coordinating plans for our Golf Tournament.
· The Interact Club is planning to coordinate the Father's Day Fishing Tournament.

Beetle Bailey requested suggestions for speakers for future meetings.

Happy Dollar Time brought good news from several of our Rotarians.

The meeting was adjourned by President Molly.

Dec 20th 2006

Last Meeting
December 20, 2006

Reporter – Michael Seguin

President Molly called our special Christmas/Holiday meeting to order, and explained what we were in store for. She led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and then called upon Jim Gadsden who led us in a very special Advent prayer. Harvey Hoots introduced our many guests; beginning with my wonderful wife Christy Seguin, Nicole Price, daughter of Joel Price, Katie Cousins, daughter of Molly Cousins, Joanne Whitehead, wife of Lyman Whitehead, Jim Browning, husband to Ros Browning, Caroline Staples, granddaughter to George Staples, Ted King, husband to Kris King, and Alex Moseley, son of Scott Moseley. Visiting Rotarians were all from the Five Points Rotary; Fred and Marcie Medway, and Bentley Murrell. Thanks go out to all our guests and visitors.

As always, Lyman Whitehead provided us with a good laugh with some Health and Happiness.

A big round of thanks and applause went out to Joel and Rhonda Collins for opening up their doors to their beautiful house and hosting one of our best holiday parties to date.

President Molly introduced a small bit of Rotary business as she announced our upcoming slate of officers to lead us in 2007-2008; Beetle Bailey as President, Eddie Robinson as President Elect, Ginny Barr as Vice President, and Judy Johnson as Secretary. A motion was introduced and voted unanimously by our group, accepting the incoming slate of officers.

President Molly then turned the meeting over to John Adair who introduced all who were to perform the special Christmas program that he and his wife Ellen assembled for our holiday meeting enjoyment. John introduced Director Windy Wimmer and her student performers from Ridgeview High School. Windy explained that The Polar Express, the production which we were about to see, was being used as a Holiday out-reach program to promote the true meaning of Christmas. The student actors and singers, as well as a trumpet trio were definitely enjoyed by all. Laura Adair then sang a tremendous solo. Also enjoyed by the group was a sing along of several wonderful Christmas carols.

President Molly and our group then stood and gave thanks to all of the performers for a wonderful show and to John and Ellen Adair for their hard work in arranging this special holiday production for us. In closing, Molly quickly reminded us that we would not be meeting again until January 3, 2007 and wished us all a very Merry Christmas and safe holiday season.