May 22, 2019
Meeting Minutes
President Elect Scott Williams rang the bell and called the meeting to order. We kicked off the meeting with an early Memorial Day tribute as Connie Melear led us in the singing of the fight songs for all branches of the military. Travis McNeal gave the pledge and invocation. Jeff Simless welcomed our guests and visiting Rotarians. Thanks to our inside challenger, Chris Etterlee and the outside challenger, Fuller Frost and Associates, the club raised $273.00 for CART at our last meeting. This week the inside challenger is Forrester Adams and our outside challenger is MAI Risk Advisors. Richard Rogers gave our Sunshine Report.
Announcements:
- A membership survey and Committee list are located in the blue buckets on the table. Please take a few minutes to complete.
- The Red Cross is hosting their annual Hero’s Breakfast at First Baptist Church. Our club has a table for eight in case you are interested in attending.
- There will be no meeting on the 27th in observance of Memorial Day.
New Members:
Anna Reeves introduced our newest member, Brad Williams, Regional Director for Shared Space, to the club.
Program:
Brenda Durant introduced our guest speaker, Sean Edwards, Executive Director of the Augusta Land Bank. Sean has served in this role since January of this year after serving in multiple roles with the city of Augusta and being named the 2013 Employee of the Year.
Sean’s primary duties with the Land Bank include promoting the city to potential investors and developers in order to create more opportunities for growth. He shared that Forbes magazine recently named Augusta as one of the great places to be for the business, industrial, and education sectors.
Another study showed Augusta has a better cost of living index in the areas of food, healthcare, housing, and transportation than the Georgia averages.
The Land Bank focuses on depressed and underutilized properties that could be attractive if given some attention. The Land Bank has the powers to contract with developers, invest in properties, and borrow money if needed. It also has the power to extinguish property tax debt in order to facilitate selling properties with large amounts of back taxes.
Sean’s immediate focus in his short time with the Land Bank is on aggressively acquiring properties and developing partnerships with both developers and investors. At the same time, he wants to continue to rebrand Augusta by focusing on all of the positives and eliminating the negatives.
In the last several months, the Land Bank has a new Board of Directors, a new website, and a new office located in Enterprise Mill.
Following the presentation, President Elect Scott Williams led us in reciting the four-way test and then adjourned the meeting.
Our next meeting will be June 3 and our speaker with be club member Dr. Angela Pringle with the Richmond County Board of Education.
Easy links to pages on our website
Rotary schedule of meeting dates and speakers
Member Proposal Form
Online directory - Find a member or update your information
Bulletins - Weekly bulletins from 2014-current
CART
CART buckets
Inside Challenger: Forester Adams
Outside Challenger: MAI Risk Management
Total
$95.80
$95.80
$95.80
$287.40
Guests
Guest
Sean Edwards
Betty Toole
Guest Of
Guest Speaker
Larry Toole
Richmond Academy Interact Club
Westminster Interact Club
Augusta Tech Rotaract Club
Visiting Rotarians
Name
Club
Meeting Makeup
Wes Brown 5-20-19 On Line Make up
John Whitwell 5-03-19 Martinez Evans Rotary
Felita Brady 5-20-19 Red Badge Orientation
Mac Bowman 5-20-19 Red Badge Orientation
De Pierce 5-20-19 Red Badge Orientation
Leland Malchow 5-20-19 Board of Directors Meeting
Dustin Young 5-20-19 Board of Directors Meeting
Julie Ferguson 5-20-19 Red Badge Orientation
Ed Presnell 5-20-19 Red Badge Orientation
Absentees
Forester Adams
Brooks Keel
Erin Armstrong
Russell Keen
Robert Baisden
Tom Kiernan
Bob Baisden
Tony Lever
Jim Becton
Rick Lowe
Clay Bednarz
Leland Malchow
Shell Berry
Ben McElreath
Conley Braun
Robetta McKenzie
Dave Brendza
Linda McKnight
Carl Brown
Gene McManus
Wes Brown
Sam Meller
Nate Cartwright
Betts Murdison
Gretchan Caughman
Anne Catherine Murray
Patrick Cullinan
Robert Osborne
Rob Dennis
Sheri Osburn
Chris Etterlee
Natalie Paine
Bob Evans
Sue Parr
Julie Ferguson
Jeff Partl
Rick Franza
Jennifer Pennington
Mark Gilliam
Leigh Porterfield
Kevin Grogan
Jonathan Powell
A K Gulati
Ed Presnell
Gould Hagler
Angela Pringle
Faye Hargrove
Daniel Rhodes
Chad Harpley
Tariq Robinson
Tripp Harrison
John Sebby
Randy Hatcher
Stan Shepherd
James Heffner
Deborah Sleeth
Janice Jackson
Steve Smith
Judy Kaye
John Snider
Kevin Steffes
Kyle Titus
Phil Wahl
Hawthorne Welcher
George Williams
Margaret Woodard
Dustin Young
