May 30 2007

John Wilkins with Glenn Landry - Executive Director Irmo Little League Challenger Program

Last Meeting
May 30, 2007

Reporter – John Wilkins

President Molly opened the meeting. Blount Shepard gave a wonderful invocation, as he always does when called upon. Lyman Whitehead provided us some Health and Happiness and had everyone laughing.

The June 6th Summer Social was announced and members were encouraged to check the blog for information concerning the event. It was also announced that there would be no morning meeting on Wednesday June 6th because of the Summer Social. President-Elect Beetle Bailey has scheduled the 2007- 08 Club Assembly for 6/13/07 at Carrabba’s. We were very excited to have three new prospective members in attendance this week!

Our guest speaker, Glen Landry, President of Irmo Little League, was introduced by John Wilkins. We learned that Irmo Little League is completely run by volunteers. We also learned that there were 377 players in the standard leagues and 30 players in the Challenger Division. Some of the changes that have been implemented since Mr. Landry took over last spring are; 100% background checks for volunteers, restored fields, and the Challenger Program. Mr. Landry became emotional when discussing the Challenger Program which is for children with mental and physical challenges. Irmo Little League hopes to expand the Challenger Program to 4 teams next year from 2 this year. They also plan to redo the canteen and put in sidewalks for the guests at the park. Mr. Landry closed his presentation with several questions from club members.

The meeting was adjourned by President Molly following the donation of a few Happy Dollars.

May 23, 2007

The meeting was called to order by Bettle Bailey. Jeff Baldwin gave the invocation. John Hanson announced that we had no guest. Due to not feeling well, Lyman Whitehead had to leave early but he left his task of Health and Happiness in the capable hands of Lyn Richards who did a marvelous job (GO…….).

John Adair announced that he had a birthday. Lynn Campbell gave the Rotary Magazine quiz for the month and unfortunately, we did not pass.


Ginny Barr introduced our speaker, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. Ginny informed us that Sheriff Lott does not like long introductions nor does he do power point presentations. Sheriff Lott spoke of how the criminal justice system was failing in his opinion. He feels that the system is measured by the number of individuals who are placed in jail rather than looking for ways to prevent crime through youth prevention programs. He believes that victims and the community here to fore have not been properly represented when crime is committed.

Sheriff Lott, Ginny Barr, Chip Lyerly

Sheriff Lott stated that law enforcement generally is reactive to crime rather than proactive in preventing crime. He also feels that once an individual is placed in the “System” that rehabilitation is difficult thus he has a strong opinion of developing and implementing prevention programs. The Sheriff shared that 5 high schools in Richland County this past year had established arbitration boards which would hear a case against a student and make a decision on the case that would best result in protecting the community and providing a more proactive approach to situations that could prevent other criminal activity. Next year all high schools in Richland County will have arbitration boards.



Lott feels that these type proactive solutions can be effective not only from preventing crime but also be more economic. He stated that it currently is costing $50,000 annually to have an individual in a corrections institution.



A number of questions were asked of the Sheriff. He was surprised that no one asked about the second largest cash robbery in United States history that recently took place in Richland County. He concluded that they had recovered most of the money but there was still a sizeable amount that had not been located yet.

May 16, 2007

Last meeting
May 16, 2007

Reporter – Noveita Roe

President Molly Cousins called the meeting to order. Barry Johns gave the invocation, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. John Hanson welcomed our visitors and guest. We had several Interact students visiting and were very glad to have them participate. Lyman Whitehead provided our Health and Happiness, with Carey Hite assisting.

Chris Joye and Harry Hafer provided an update on Harbison State Forest Park project. Special thanks to the Interact Club members who participated!

June 6th is the date of our Summer Social at Pine Island and we will not have a regular meeting that morning. We will meet at Shelter #9 at 6:00 p.m. Please mark your calendar.




Chip Huggins and Nathan Ballentine were our guest speakers. Chip spoke about the Court of Appeals race. He stated the person who wins this race will probably be our Chief Justice. He talked about bills that have been passed in the House to help reduce taxes and have been sent to the Senate. The cigarette tax will help reduce grocery tax. Income tax is being reduced from 7% to 6.8%. The coastal insurance bill will help reduce insurance rates and give tax breaks.


Nathan spoke about a school bill that passed. Students can take a class online if their school does not offer the class. There are a lot of rules and regulations that go along with the bill to be certain the students are actually doing the work. Nathan had concerns that students without laptops have the same capabilities of taking these courses, as those students who do.

Nathan and Chip closed their presentation by taking several questions from members. Chip thanked Johnny Jeffcoat for his services as a Lexington County Councilman. Both Chip and Nathan thanked our club for the hard work and community services we provide.

Larry Stohs announced the birth of his new grandson and donated five Happy Dollars.

With no further business, Molly adjourned the meeting.

May 9, 2007

Charles Bierbauer with Chuck Larsen
Photo by John Adair

Lake Murray-Irmo rotary Meeting Minutes May 9, 2007
Reporter - Herb Harrison

President Molly called the meeting to order. John Hanson introduced our guest which included a number of Interact Club Members and a special guest of Dr Carey Hite, Bill Brooks, who received a $500 scholarship in 1952 from the Bradenton FL Rotary club which enabled him to attend the Citadel. Mr. Brooks is a prospective member - and reads our blog. Lyman Whitehead once again counseled us on marriage with wisdom and inspiration. Beetle Bailey announced he officially retired May 8. Other announcements included our upcoming social June 6 and that our District 770, is close to raising the $1,000,000 goal for the Rotary Foundation. President Molly encouraged all to contribute to assist in attaining our goal. Harry Haefer is organizing and leading our clubs volunteers on the Harbison State Forest trail work project. President Molly mentioned it was five years ago that we began Happy Dollar and she was the first to contribute, celebrating the fact she had quit smoking. Congratulations Molly, with five years you may now qualify for UPNS life insurance rates!

Chuck Larsen introduced our speaker, former CNN correspondent Charles Bierbaur who is now Dean at THE University of South Carolina (’s) College of Mass Communications. Mr. Bierbaur spoke on several interesting subjects. First he asked “how do you convey what you do at USC?” Surveys conducted found that when asked about USC three out of four thought of the other USC. We are in a global age where USC needs to project itself to this global audience. Mass communication includes the College of Library and Information Science. They embrace traditional journalism as well as mass communication mediums such as the internet. He mentioned anyone can be a journalist however they attempt to teach professionalism and ethics in journalism. Journalism is frustrating due to the fact we are grounded in the first Amendment, 43 plain spoken words with broad implications. On the national stage Russia is pulling back from its recent reforms restricting the media by regulating what they are allowed to say. Nationally the Virginia Tec tragedy and how the media reacted illustrated in his words how the nature of media is changing. The media can become focused somewhat like a Cyclops without very good peripheral vision, focused on one event. Mentioning the manifesto released by NBC he discussed the responsibility of the media asking how the media discerns what information should be released and what should not. In politics he said it was interesting how politicians and media come together. The politician wants the media to get his message out with good publicity but the media will also look for bad news and inconsistencies. In closing he asked considering the number of sources and wealth of information from the internet, u-Tube and many other venues are we getting the right kind of information with sufficient quantity and quality.

President Molly adjourned our meeting after Mr. Bierbaur fielded several questions.

Your CART Fund at work

The CART fund board of directors awarded a $250,000. grant to the Mayo Clinic of Jacksonville, Fla. Representing the clinic and receiving the CART Fund check was Dr. Todd Golde. Dr. Golde leads and directs the work of the clinic’s Alzheimer’s research laboratory. John Adair and his wife Ellen participated in the event by photographing various Rotary leaders with Dr. Golde. Over 35,000 Rotarians from several states contribute weekly to the CART Fund. It was a proud day for every Rotarian.

  Group photo of district 7770 leaders with Dr. Golde
  $250,000. check
 

John & Ellen with Dr. Golde

May 2 2007

Irvin Ott, our reporter, reports that his dog ate the report of our last meeting. Highlights of the meeting (best I can remember): We presented our Rotary Scholarships of $4000 each to Eric Morabito and Lauren Martinez. Eric and Lauren and their parents joined us for breakfast. Our speaker was Dr. David Isbell, a cardiologist who gave a presentation on the latest wizardry available to diagnose heart disease. The meeting concluded with “happy dollars” (I think). Anyone with other highlights please send them to the rotarywebslave.



President Molly, Lauren, Sara and Manny Martinez
President Molly, Eric, Mark and Sally Morabito

Our speaker David Isbell, M.D.

President Molly