All posts by asutt

Year 2013 – 2014 President Nancy McGill Club Assembly

At the meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on June 8, newly-elected President Nancy McGill opened the meeting with an announcement of the new Rotary International motto, “Engage Rotary. Change Lives.”  She then challenged the club to be more vibrant and active in the upcoming year.  She outlined her goals as follows: (1) to communicate more effectively, (2) to encourage experienced members to be a resource for leadership training and to be mentors for new members, (3) to improve fellowship opportunities among members, (4) to build club pride and involvement, and (5) to gain more community attention through the group’s service projects.  She then called on fellow officers and committee chairs for reports on plans for the upcoming year.  Each described his/her function and discussed projected activities for the year.

Come join us Monday Noon and Get Engaged in Rotary.

https://vimeo.com/69928359

Stas Preczewski

University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby announced today that he has appointed Dr. Stas Preczewski, currently vice president for academic and student affairs at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC), to serve as interim president at the Gwinnett institution.

Preczewski’s appointment, effective July 1, 2013, follows GGC President Dr. Daniel Kaufman’s recent appointment as the next president of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.

Preczewski has served in his current position since GGC’s founding in 2005. He was responsible for overseeing GGC’s process for initial regional accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which was achieved in 2009; and also helped GGC obtain initial Federal Financial Aid approval. He also supervised the hiring of over 500 faculty and academic staff.

“The System is full of exceptional leadership and we are fortunate to be able to call on Dr. Preczewski to lend his talents to this expanded role at Georgia Gwinnett College,” said Huckaby. “His presidential experience and his deep knowledge of Georgia Gwinnett make him the right person to serve in this critical interim capacity.”

Preczewski was interim president of Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, from July 2011 through June 2012, prior to the appointment of Dr. Steve Michael Dorman as the institution’s permanent president.

He earned a Ph.D. specializing in higher and adult education from the University of Missouri in 1997. Preczewski has a Master of Arts degree specializing in strategic planning from the United States Naval War College earned in 1998 and a Master of Science degree specializing in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of Massachusetts earned in 1987. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in agricultural engineering and economics in 1980.

Preczewski has received a number of recognitions and awards, including a fellowship from the American Council on Education, 2003-2004, which he spent at Wake Forest University. Preczewski has also presented a number of papers, authored and co-authored studies and held tenure as an associate professor at West Point.

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Laura George

Laura George actively works in the field of Emergency Management design specializing in the needs of persons with disabilities. Currently she works with Portlight Strategies for their “Getting It Right” Conference and prior to that for Disability Resource Group with Nancy Duncan.  She sits on local and statewide committees from all the way from Florida to Washington D.C. and volunteers her time weekly to Project Walk Atlanta.  She actively blogs at both Caregiving.com and Aftergiving.com, and has essays in all five of the Caregiving Book Series with a sixth one due to come out soon.

Laura has been awarded the 2011 Caregiver of the Year Award for the Atlanta Region ARC – Rosalynn Carter Institute and the 2011 HomeWatch Caregivers Northeast Atlanta Region.  Along with her husband she received the 2008 South Florida CIL: Advocates of the Year- “for their commitment and hard work to enhance services for People with Disabilities.”   Though her husband has passed on, she continues the work she started with him in his memory.  Laura George can be reached via email at educateandadvocate@gmail.com.

https://vimeo.com/69512442

RI President Ron Burton: Engage Rotary, Change Lives

Rotary International

RI President Ron Burton addresses Rotarians during the closing plenary of the 2013 RI Convention in Lisbon, Portugal. Monika Lozinska/Rotary International

By RI President Ron Burton

I’m looking forward to the 2013-14 Rotary year and the immense and humbling privilege of serving as your Rotary International president. During my presidential year, I’ll let you know on the Rotary International president’s Facebook page and in blog posts about some of my travels. I hope this will help you experience some of the magic of Rotary.

I have to admit, during my first year as a Rotarian, I almost missed the magic of Rotary. I didn’t always care for the food and programs at the weekly club meetings, and I thought I had better ways to spend my time. But then my club president asked me to chair the Rotary Foundation committee. Rotary started changing for me after that. I found that the more engaged I became in Rotary and the work of The Rotary Foundation, the more I saw the magic of Rotary and how it changed lives.

That magic may be a little bit different for each one of us, but it’s there for all of us when we really put our hearts into some aspect of Rotary service. For me, my heart is in the Foundation. I feel that every time you donate to the Foundation you’re saying, “It’s my resource, as a Rotarian; and it’s my responsibility.”

Your new governors already have joined me in this and led by example, with 100 percent of them donating to the Foundation. I thank them for their commitment to Rotary, which they’ve shown through their donations as well as facing the challenge of inspiring new members to get more involved and learn about the true meaning of Rotary.

When we really engage Rotary, that’s when lives change. And, at the end of the day, no matter how many lives you reach out to change, the life that will change the most will be your own.

That’s what our theme for 2013-2014 is all about. Engage Rotary, Change Lives.

All About Bees

Club Meetings

Tommy Bailey, a member of the Beekeepers’ Club of Gwinnett County, talked to the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville at their June 24 noon meeting.  He introduced himself as a Lawrenceville native whose father had honeybees.  He has 75-100 boxes of bees located over an area from Dacula to Jackson County with 40,000-50,000 bees in each box. He joined with others who shared his interest in beekeeping to form the Beekeepers’ Club, which has 215 members on roll and meets monthly at Hebron Baptist Church. According to him, beekeeping connects people to the rural roots of Gwinnett County, enables families to share a hobby or activity, and provides a fascinating look at the complex and ordered life of bees, in which he sees God’s hand.  He talked about the difficulties for the few native bees to survive in our urban areas.  There are several ways to create a beekeeping business:  sell the honey (his is available at Brownlee’s Feed Store), sell the bees, or raise queens to sell.  Fielding questions from the audience, he described the life cycle of the bee, the care in feeding them, the threat from African bees, and the certainty of getting stung.

“Lobbyist” is NOT a 4-letter word

Kathy Kazava, President of the Georgia Food Industry Association (GFIA), spoke to the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville at their noon meeting on June 10 about the role the GFIA plays in promoting the food business in Georgia.  The organization serves all involved in the food industry, from supermarkets to suppliers.  In addition to providing networking activities, GFIA lobbies the Georgia Legislature on behalf of the food industry.  A lobbyist for 24 years, Kazava cited the need for a trustworthy reputation and for personal contacts with legislators. A main goal is to educate legislators about the impact and effect of certain bills that would impact the food industry.  She offered some examples of recent concerns.  In one case, developers were planning to build a subdivision around the Blue Bell distribution center, which has heavy and loud truck deliveries late into the night.  A legislative bill was passed that gave precedence to the pre-existing entity and freed it from complaints about noise.  The bill allowing grocery stores to sell beer and wine on Sundays was a major victory for the food industry.  Currently a bill allowing pharmacies in grocery stores to offer increased immunizations is before the Legislature.  Kazava offered these examples to demonstrate the role of lobbyist organizations like her own.  Another area where they are active is in studying regulations imposed by government agencies on the food industry.  She creatively used the Four-Way Test as a way to talk about her goals as a lobbyist.

https://vimeo.com/68078461

Lea Rolfes – Girls on the Run

Club Meetings

Lea Rolfes, Executive Director of Girls on the Run in Atlanta, spoke at the noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on June 3.  She shared the history, goals, and achievements of this group which strives “to inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running.”  This program, organized in North Carolina in 1996, has over 200 locations in the country and 65 sites in Georgia.  Girls meet twice a week after school for twelve weeks, and each session ends with a 5K run.  She described the lessons in the program which cover such subjects as valuing teamwork, choosing friends, getting involved in community service projects, and relating to the world.  The program helps girls in the third through eighth-grade to develop self-esteem and confidence and provides strategies for handling obesity, pregnancy, and drug/alcohol issues.  A goal is to get girls actively exercising at an early age.  Volunteers serve as coaches and help with the organized runs.  Contributions and volunteers are welcomed at the website www.girlsontherunatlanta.org.

https://vimeo.com/67597908

Home Safe Georgia

Cynthia Harrison, from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, spoke at the noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on May 20 about the HomeSafe Georgia program.  This is a federally funded program which seeks to provide temporary mortgage payment assistance to unemployed or underemployed homeowners who are suffering because of the recent economic downturn.  She spent some time clarifying the term “underemployed” and explained that these are people who are self-employed or who have had their hours (thus their income) cut back from full time or who once out of a job had to take a job for less pay than their previous one.  These people often have trouble meeting their mortgage payments.  HomeSafe Georgia offers 18 months of mortgage payment relief for people who meet the requirements for the program.  (Those requirements can be found at www.HomeSafeGeorgia.com.) Money is paid to participating mortgage servicers on behalf of the homeowners; if homeowners stay in the house for five years, there is then no payback required.  The application process is free but requires some patience in waiting for processing.  This program has assisted 3500 Georgia families, and Harrison asked that Rotarians help get out the word about this service to anyone they thought needed this kind of assistance.

https://vimeo.com/67553951

Justice for the Mentally Ill

Judge Karen Beyers spoke at the May 6 noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on the Mental Health Court currently operating in Gwinnett County.  She was instrumental in forming this court to solve some of the problems inherent in dealing with prisoners with mental health issues. Previously, information was scattered among various sectors, but with this Court, a “wrap around” service is available to help provide answers and resolve problems with prisoners suffering from Access I level mental problems.  The service involves a team approach where all professionals involved meet around a table and make decisions about individual cases.  Currently, 11 people are served by the program.  These prisoners are convicted for low level offenses and are referred by the District Attorney to the Mental Health Court.  For 2 or 3 years they will have intensive supervision and aid from mental health care professionals.  The Court was funded by the Governor, who ear-marked funds for various types of accountability courts, and has the capacity to serve 50 individuals.  The main problem to date is finding housing for the individuals after they leave jail.  Judge Beyers completed her talk by answering questions from club members.

https://vimeo.com/65636223