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.