Pic from Dec 3 2008

The meeting was opened by President Eddie Robinson. Skey Caskey gave the invocation by leading the Club in the Lord’s Prayer. Lyman Whitehead offered health and happiness. Most notably, Lynn Richards told us that it was her birthday. President Eddie informed the club that Lynn Campbell’s wife was undergoing surgery and asked that we keep them in our prayers. Ginny Barr gave us instructions about the meeting on 12/10 at DJJ. They have a new Visitors Center , which changes where we will meet and the procedures involved in entering the facility. Emilie Keene reminded us of the Christmas Party on 12/15 and said she would email directions to the site. President Eddie announced that Kevin Adams received a promotion and would be moving his Rotary membership to Lexington. Best of luck to Kevin. President Eddie and Ginny Barr inducted a new member, Irmo Police Chief Bryan Buck. Victories in the previous Saturday’s football games brought in many happy dollars from fans of Georgia Tech, NC State and Clemson.
Carey Hite introduced our speaker, John Singerling. John is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Palmetto Health Richland. He has been with Palmetto Health since 1996 and became executive vice president and chief operating officer for Palmetto Health Richland on January 1, 2006. He previously was vice president of operations for Palmetto Health Richland. Prior to that, he worked as corporate director of planning and system development and assistant to the president and CEO for Palmetto Health. Singerling earned a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and a master's degree in Health Administration from the University of South Carolina. John recognized Judy Smith, Corporate Communications at Palmetto Health, who accompanied him to the meeting. He noted that a number of the Club’s members work at or are affiliated with Palmetto Health.
John told us that Palmetto Health is South Carolina's largest and most comprehensive not-for-profit health resource. Palmetto Health is composed of three outstanding hospitals—Palmetto Health Richland, and Palmetto Health Baptist in Columbia and Easley. The 1,247-bed system is a JCAHO accredited institution with more than 9,000 employees and 1,200 physicians.
Each year, the three hospitals treat more than a half million patients, welcome more than 7,200 babies into the world, treat more than 82,000 pediatric patients and 3,000 cancer patients, accommodate more than 142,000 emergency department visits, perform nearly 50,000 mammograms, and make nearly 38,000 home care visits. They provide all services except they are not a burn center and do not perform transplants.
Two years ago, Chuck Beaman was promoted to President and CEO of Palmetto Health. Under his leadership a new 3 year plan was developed to improve service. Top performing employees in the system drafted Standards of Behavior and each employee must sign this document or be terminated. A Leadership Institute was also launched and approximately 1,000 employees have attended over the past two years. Since enactment of these measures, Palmetto Health has seen a marked increase in its quality ranking, significant improvement in employee morale and increased results for patients. They recently received an award as one of the best places to work from Modern Healthcare Magazine. The Children’s Hospital has finally opened after 20 years and the State granted them authority to build a 76-bed hospital in Irmo, Parkridge Hospital; however, Lexington and Newberry are challenging that decision. The challenge will be addressed early in 2009. John offered many statistics to substantiate the improvement at Palmetto Health over the past couple of years and to show the significant growth in their business.
Blount Sheperd announced that the Club would have its final road-clean-up of the year on 12/13. Meet at Blount’s business in Ballentine at 8 AM for coffee, donuts and a surprise. In conclusion, Jim Wellman asked that everyone complete the survey that was email to the Club regarding future projects.

Feb 18 2009

Meeting was called to order by President Eddie Robinson. Invocation was delivered by Jeff Baldwin that was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
John Hanson introduced Cynthia Robinson, Chris Spearman, and Lori Alexander as guests.
Health and Happiness was given by Lyman Whitehead.
Reminder by President Eddie of the Board Meeting being held Friday February 20, 2009 at 7:30 at Panera Bread.
An update on Bill Kopelman was given to the club.
Judy Johnson reminded the club of the bowling tournament to be held Saturday February 28, 2009 from 2-5 at Anchor Lanes. Sponsors and volunteers are needed.
Happy Dollars were given by Eddie Robinson, Ginny Barr, Dr. Carey Hite, Barry Johns, Dr. Balbir Minhas, Beetle Bailey, Lyn Richards, and Larry Stohs.
President Eddie introduced Christina Melton, Principal of Nursery Road Elementary School “Champions”. Presently there are approximately 540 students enrolled at Nursery Road Elementary and they range from 4 year old kindergarteners to fifth graders. Fifty-five percent are Caucasian and 45% are African American with a few students classified as “other”. Thirty-eight percent of these students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Nursery Road Elementary offers a variety of programs to motivate students. Some of these include: PreGame, GOLD (Goal Oriented Leadership Development), and pinning ceremonies. They also face many challenges. Their PACT scores decreased 13% in language arts, math, science, and social studies; they have missed their AYP Federal requirements two years in a row; and District 5 reports a 2.8% dropout rate for high school students.
Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary Club has chosen to partner with Nursery Road Elementary School to offer additional funds and donate time to assist with programs and/or students. President Eddie will discuss their specific needs at a later meeting.
Meeting adjourned by President Eddie.

Feb 11 2009

Ginny Barr, Chris Joye, Dr. Kathleen Hayes

Lake Murray – Irmo Rotary Club Meeting February 11, 2009

Submitted by Harold Crawford

President Robinson called the meeting to order. Si Amick opened the meeting with a prayer that was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

John Hanson introduced all visitors, and Lyman Whitehead entertained us with Health and Happiness.

President Robinson asked each of us to remember Bill Kopelman who is beginning his treatments. We will all keep Bill in our prayers.

Judy Johnson spoke of the upcoming bowling event on Saturday, February 28, at 2:00 PM at Anchor Lanes in Irmo. Rotarians can sponsor teams or play individually.

President Robinson reminded everyone of the District Conference Friday Luncheon. The club will be picking up the expense for the lunch.

Classification Talks were delivered by both Chris King and Ray Hunt.

Former President Chris Joye introduced our speaker, Dr. Kathleen Hayes, State Director of the SC Department of Social Services. Dr. Hayes has dedicated her professional career to improving the wellbeing of the state’s most vulnerable citizens, especially at risk children – in child protective services, foster care, adoption, and to those in the custody of the juvenile justice system.

As director of DSS, Dr. Hayes oversees an agency of 4400 employees which serves more than 800,000 citizens in South Carolina, with an annual budget of $1.2 billion. The DSS programs she supervises includes: child welfare services, including adoption, foster care, child protective services, family preservation and case management; adult protective services, protecting and maintaining the safety of vulnerable adults from abuse and financial exploitation; child support enforcement, including the establishing of child support orders, collection from non-custodial parents, paternity establishment and parent locate services; child care regulatory and licensing services; and temporary assistance to needy families in the form of SNAP benefits, and monetary assistance.

President Robinson adjourned the meeting and wished all Rotarians a good week.

Feb 4 2009

Publish Post

Jan 28 2009

January 28, 2009
Reporter Si Amick

President Robinson called upon Scott Mosley to open the meeting with a word of prayer followed by the pledge of allegiance. John Hanson asked that all remember to contribute to the cart fund each week and then introduced the visitors. Lynn did a wonderful job with health and happiness and now we all know we still have a major problem in Washington.

Remember the district conference is May,19 2009. Please see Jeanette Coulter about registration.

We had two classification speeches by Mr. Jeff Baldwin and Chief Brian Buck. Both did a wonderful job and it is always interesting to learn about the personal lives of our members.

President Robinson presided over the induction of our two newest members Zeke Riddle and Michael Cromer. Zeke is with Prudential Palmetto Realtors and Michael is with First Community Bank. A warm Rotary welcome to you both.

Lynn Richards introduced her husband, Dr. John E. Richards as our speaker.

Dr. Richards is the Interim Chair at USC’s Psychology Department where his primary studies are the brain activities of infants. He has been instrumental in obtaining major grants for the USC’s Psychology Department for this important work. He performed test on Ginny and Eddie, which they both passed with flying colors. We must remember these are the same test that one year old children routinely pass.

Dr. Richards is currently the principal investigator on two research grants. A grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, focuses on the development of sustained attention in infants ranging in ages from two to six months. Dr. Richards also received a grant from the National Science Foundation, Major Research Instrumentation Award, to develop a high-density EEG/ERP laboratory for the study of developmental cognitive neuroscience.

Dr. Richards has three related research themes:
• The first theme is the development of sustained attention in young infants. This attention phase may be distinguished from other types of attention (e.g., stimulus orienting, automatic interrupt, attention termination). Sustained attention shows developmental changes from 2 to 6 months of age and is closely related to changes in the brain centers controlling attention.

• The second theme is the development of extended fixations to television programs in the first two years. Young infants do not distinguish between abstract patterns and story-like television programs, but at the end of two years young children do.
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• Third, Dr. Richards is now using EEG and ERP in the study of saccade planning, its development in the first few months of infancy, and its relation to cortical areas controlling eye movements. He also is using structural MRI of infants along with ERP to study the cortical sources of the behavior associated with planned eye movements.