July 19, 2021
Meeting Minutes
President Shanda Vaughn rang the bell and called the meeting to order. Jeff Flowers gave the pledge and invocation. Bill Keogh gave the Sunshine Report today. Club members introduced their guests in attendance today.
Announcements
President Shanda shared the upcoming meeting schedule which includes;
- 7/19/21 - AU College of Computer and Cyber Science Dean Alex Schwarzmann
- 7/26/21 - Veterans Cemetery Bob Young
- 8/2/21 - Burn Foundation Steve Chalker
- 8/9/21 - Ft Gordon Update COL Shaw Pick
- 8/16/21 - College Football Kick-Off
- 8/23/21 - United Way Kick-Off
- 8/30/21 - AU Pediatric Oncology Dr. Theodore Johnson
- 9/6/21 - No Meeting-Labor Day
- 9/13/21 - Rotary Foundation Hamsa Thota
Rotarian Highlight
President Shanda recognized and thanked TR Reddy for sponsoring a 10 bed ICU at the District Hospital in Wanaparthy, India. This is TR’s hometown and his contribution exemplifies the character of a Rotarian and demonstrates his service above self.
President Shanda asked everyone to please continue to contribute to the blue buckets on the table or online at mycartfund.org using the same login credentials you use with DACDB.
SAVE THE DATES
- GreenJackets Game-Friday, September 10, 2021 (game time is 7:05 pm)
- Top Golf- Monday, October 18, 2021 (11-2)
- Veterans Day Program- Monday, November 8, 2021(12:15-1:15)
- Rotary Family Christmas-Monday, December 20, 2021(12:15-1:15)
- Signature Fundraiser-Monday, February 14, 2022 TBD
- Annual Golf Tournament-Tuesday, May 3, 2022 TBD
New Member Orientation
- Tuesday, July 20, 2021 (4:30-5:30) at the Intellisystems Office
- Tuesday, October 19, 2021 (4:30-5:30)
- Tuesday, January 18, 2021 (4:30-5:30)
- Tuesday, April 19, 2021 (4:30-5:30)
Committee Updates
Susan Jernigan, Chair of the GRSP Committee, will be meeting with her Committee on Monday July 26 immediately following the Club meeting.
Haskell Toporek gave an update on the Hull Fund and introduced our two newest trustees, Aimee Hall and George Hall. He also thanked Eddie Booth and Connie Melear who came off the Board of Trustees when their terms expired in June. Haskell gave a special Thank You to Steve Hobbs who serves as both Secretary and Treasurer for the Hull Fund.
Veterans Day Celebration
The celebration will be held on 11/8/2021. If you are a veteran or someone in your immediately family is a veteran or currently serving in the military, please email President Shanda at vaughnshanda@gmail.com with your branch of service, rank and years of service.
Paul Harris Fellow Presentation
President Shanda presented a Paul Harris Fellow +2 pin to Connie Melear, PHF +4 pins to John Whitwell and Dustin Young, and she also recognized Mrs. Neita Mulherin for her PHF +7 designation.
Guest Speaker/Program
Chris Melcher introduced our guest speaker Alex Schwarzmann, Dean School of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Augusta University.
Mr. Schwarzmann spoke about the current state of cyber warfare and feels like we are already at war based on the continuous attacks. These attacks include ransomware, financial fraud/electronic theft, damage to critical infrastructure, scientific espionage, and election tampering. The vast majority of these attacks are actually performed by well organized groups with many of them state funded by other countries against us.
Mr. Schwarzmann stressed that people are the biggest threat to our cyber security efforts. Curiosity and carelessness by end users opens the door to bad actors trying to infiltrate our networks and databases.
Looking at our own elections, there are verified attempts to access voter registration databases and attempt to tamper with the process. He feels we are not doing enough to protect our current electronic systems, yet there is a push to explore online voting.
Mr. Schwarzmann then gave an update on the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Augusta University. The school has been in existence since the 1970s and in 1979 the first BS in Computer Science was awarded. This accomplishment occurred one year before Georgia Tech awarded its first degree. In 2013 a BS in Information Technology was introduced along with the Cyber Defender Certificate programs. In 2016, the school received its accreditation by ABET for the BS in Computer Science degree. And, in 2017 an MS in Information Security Management was created.
In the three-year period ending with fiscal year 2021, the school has tripled the size of the faculty, doubled enrollment, approved 3 new undergraduate programs, 1 new graduate program, and a PhD in Computer and Cyber Sciences program. For the 2021-2022 academic school year, there are 32 full time faculty, 14 adjunct faculty and more than 650 students enrolled in the department.
In closing, Mr. Schwarzmann shared that the school is looking to reach 1,000 students and double the size of the faculty in the next few years so that it can become a comprehensive research and education college and a leader in cybersecurity.
The speaker for next week will be Mr. Bob Young who will update us on the Veteran’s Cemetery.
President Shanda led us in reciting the four-way test and then adjourned the meeting.
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
