Rotary Bulletin
January 25, 2016
Meeting Minutes
President Billy opened the meeting and called on Barry White who led the pledge and invocation. Peter Buckley introduced the guests and visiting Rotarians and Thom Tuckey gave the sunshine report. President Billy gave thanks to last week’s Club Cart Challenger, Shell Berry, who helped us raise $216.62 for the fund. The Club CART Challenger for the meeting will be local Media Organizations. There is no Outside Challenger.
President Billy made the following announcements/presentations:
- There will be no meeting next week due to the UGA Economic Luncheon next Thursday. All are encouraged to attend.
- The Valentine’s Social is on February 13th.
- Zolt needs a ride to Atlanta on Thursday evening or Friday morning.
- There was a good turnout for the blood drive held last week at the Shephard Blood Center. Thanks to those who gave blood.
- The Club was reminded of three service projects: Lydia House (completed last Thursday), Phinizy Swamp, and Heritage Academy.
- Club members were reminded to register for the visit by John Germ, President Elect for Rotary International. He will be speaking on February 15th.
- President Billy asked the Club Members to bring people to the meeting to encourage them to possibly join. The goal is to help build membership and to get the word of Rotary out to others.
T. R. Reddy presented a Paul Harris Fellow to Dr. Ramesh Pai. Ed Presnell introduced new member Chris Bird. Chris is the General Manager of James Brown Arena and Global Spectra.
Lowell Greenbaum introduced the guest speaker, Dr. Angela Pringle, the Superintendent of the Richmond County School System. Her topic was a review of some of the achievements over the past 1 ½ years, the organization’s cultural challenges, and the Strategic Plan. She mentioned that the organization is focused on changing the organizational culture and disparities that exist. They have been looking at issues impacting progress and finding solutions for success in the future. Part of this overview has been to look at the vision and the creation of a strategy to reach goals. The belief is that organizational effectiveness drives positive results. As an example she stated that they have created a Communications Office as part of the strategy.
Dr. Pringle also pointed out some of the many successes they have achieved. These successes include:
- the elimination of furloughs,
- the increase in the graduation rate from 62% to 78%,
- improved SAT scores,
- an increase to $1.8 million toward gifted education,
- implementation of a cybersecurity pathway, and
- a new web and social media presence.
She also reviewed the challenges associated with the new “Opportunity School District” designations, which is a score-based system. More specifically, if the score in a particular school does not meet benchmarks there could be organizational changes. A plan is to address the OSD schools now to capture opportunity to change, e.g. early learning opportunities, extended day/year. Dr. Pringle furthermore stated that there will be many system priorities in the coming years. Some of the examples she presented include improving the graduation rate, helping all schools achieve a CCRPI of 80 or higher, ensuring competitive salaries for employees, improving SATs, and increasing safe-schools perception survey results.
Dr. Pringle closed with three basic statements:
- The system will be using a strategy approach to focus on educating our children;
- We still have challenges; and
- We will be focusing on strategic priorities.
President Billy ended with a book presentation to Dr. Pringle.
The meeting was adjourned with the recital of the Four-way Test.
Upcoming Meeting Topics
2/1/2016 NO MEETING: UGA Economic Outlook
2/4/2016 UGA Economic Update
2/8/2016 President Brooks Keel: Augusta University Pathway Forward
2/15/2016 Rotary International President Nominee John Germ - Presidents Day
2/22/2016 Dr. Ted Johnson: Pediatric Cancer
CART
CART buckets
Inside Challenger: All Media Challenge
NBC26 TV
WJBF Channel 6
WRDW Channel 12
Total
$162.96
$162.96
$162.96
$162.96
$651.84
Guests
Guest
Dr. Angela Pringle
Congressman Rick Allen
Brinsley Thigpen
Mukut Sharma
V. Karmath
Amy Kilpatrick
Lindsay Fruchtl
Emily Penninger
Xiu Lin
Martin Stein
Guest Of
Guest Speaker
Fran Forehand
Fran Forehand
TR Reddy
TR Reddy
Sheri Osburn
Barry White
Paul Dainer
Paul Dainer
Paul Dainer
Interact Club
Visiting Rotarians
Name
Club
Meeting Makeup
The following attended the Red Badge Orientation Meeting on Monday, January 25, held at Intellisystems. They will receive a make-up:
Clayton Jolly
Russell Keen
Krystal McGee
Daniel Rhodes
Andrew Williams
Billy Franke
Chris McKinney
Jennifer Pennington
Herb Upton
Kevin Wade
John Whitwell
Bill Kemp
The following attended the Rotary Board of Directors Meeting held on Tuesday, January 19 at Cranston Engineering. They will receive a make up:
Scott Williams
Billy Franke
Kevin Grogan
Steve Farmer
Absentees
Michael Ash
Brad Means
Susan Barcus
Connie Melear
Greg Capers
Ian Mercier
Tom Coghill
Peter Michenfelder
Charles Coleman
Marc Miller
Jeanette Cummings
James Osborne
John David
Susan Parr
Brenda Durant
Jonathan Powell
Bob Evans
Richard Rogers
Jeff Flowers
Jeff Schwab
Bobby Gagnon
John Sebby
Mark Gilliam
Walter Sprouse
Laverne Gold
Max Stachura
Aimee Hall
Stan Stanton
Randy Hatcher
Kevin Steffes
Steve Hobbs
Paul Wade
Susan Jernigan
George Williams
Russell Keen
Scott Williams
Krystal McGee
