All posts by asutt

Wendy Moran, Open Heart Update

Speaker at the April 2 meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville was Wendy Moran, Clinical Manager of the Cardiovascular Operating Room (CVOR) at Gwinnett Medical Center. Wendy, an RN with 17 years of CVOR experience, shared information about the Strickland Heart Center at Gwinnett Medical Center. She gave the history of the Center
dating back to 1989, described the work done there, and used Power Point slides to show the physical facilities. The Strickland Center does stints, angioplasty, and now does open heart surgery. She gave details about the Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting and the Valve Replacement/Repair processes and praised the Center’s excellent record in serving heart patients. Each member of the open heart surgery team was described: the Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Cardiac Anesthesiologist, Physician’s Assistant, Perfusionist, R. N. (circulator and “captain of the ship”), First Assistant Technologist, and Surgical Technologist. She emphasized the signs of heart attack for both men and women and reminded the group that heart attacks are still the #1 leading cause of death in the United States.

https://vimeo.com/39668597

3-26-2012 – GRSP & Garden Plaza/Friends of Gwinnett Opportunity

Beatty McCaleb Speaks to RCL about Georgia Rotary Student Program (GRSP) 3-26-2012 from Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on Vimeo.
On Monday, March 26, the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville heard from three different speakers. First, Lisa Lewis, the campus manager at Garden Plaza, informed the group about the 10th Annual Silent Auction supporting Friends of Gwinnett County Senior Services. The event will be held on Thursday, April 26, at Delmar Gardens, 3100 Club Drive, Lawrenceville, GA. Tickets are $25.00, and sponsor opportunities ranging from $100 to $1000 are available. According to Lisa, “FRIENDS has been a dedicated supporter of the Senior Meals program, donating new full-equipped vehicles and special food service equipment, as well as sponsoring many seniors for meal delivery and helping meet emergency needs of seniors in crisis.”

Beatty McCaleb, the club’s New Generations Chair and an active supporter of Rotarian programs for young people, provided a Power Point update on the Georgia Rotary Student Program (GRSP). He introduced Rima Gedeon, the student from Beirut, Lebanon, currently sponsored by our club. Beatty reviewed the history of the GRSP program since 1946 and emphasized that it is not an exchange program. Currently 55 students from 20 countries are attending 27 colleges in Georgia. He explained that the program is funded through our individual assessments of $7.00, through club sponsorships, and through the Endowment Fund, which currently has a value of over $9 million. There is no Rotary International funding used for this program. Charts demonstrated the sharp rise in university tuition and costs over the last few years and outlined how the Georgia districts have responded to this rise. He described how individual sustaining memberships ranging from $100 to $100,000 help to fund the program. The Lawrenceville club has been 100% in its $100 per member donations over the past years. He closed by recommending that we contribute to the Endowment Fund and that we set expectations for the club that we would give. He then accepted questions from the group.

Finally, President Brian Edwards showed a video demonstrating the beauties of Hilton Head Island and Resort, where the District 6910 meeting will be held May 10-13. He encouraged members to get their reservations in soon.

https://vimeo.com/39605320

https://vimeo.com/39246057

Jamie Mackay Transamerican Life explands Retirement Planning

The Science of Retirement Income Planning” was the topic of the March 19 program at the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville.  Jamie MacKay, Regional Vice President for Transamerica Life, organized his presentation around the following topics:  Where We Are Today, Retirement Income Risks, Today’s Retirement Income Approaches and Considerations, and Moving Forward.  He emphasized several points for the audience. For one, more and more we will see privatization of retirement funds, and that will require intelligent decisions about where investments and savings should go. He noted that not enough people plan ahead sufficiently. Key retirement income risks are health care costs, inflation, volatility of the markets, and increased longevity. In looking ahead, he discussed the advantages of variable annuities and encouraged individuals to delay Social Security retirement until age 70, since that results in an 8% rate of return. He discussed changing attitudes about the 4% rule of drawing out retirement income and briefly talked about asset buckets and asset laddering. During the question period he expressed confidence in the future of Social Security.

https://vimeo.com/38799226

 

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3-5-2012 Judge Warren Davis Speaks to RCL about Work

Judge Warren Davis was the speaker at the March 5, 2012, Rotary Club of Lawrenceville meeting. Judge Davis’s topic was dealing with difficult people.

Even though his examples came from the legal world, he contended that we all probably confront these same personality types no matter what our line of work. He referenced two books: Dr. Rick Brinkman and Dr. Rick Kirschner’s Dealing with People You Can’t Stand and Dr. Bill Eddy’s High Conflict People in Legal Disputes. Drs. Brinkman and Kirschner classify the problem people into 10 categories and discuss how best to bring out the best in the different types. Dr. Eddy, a psychiatrist and lawyer who heads the High Conflict Institute, emphasizes the importance of personality in conflict resolution and maintains the 20-80% rule: 80% will fit into one of his personality types. Among those types are the chronic blamer, the emotionally driven, borderline personalities, narcissistic personalities, anti-socials, histrionics, paranoids, and dependents. Judge Davis recommended the two books and maintained that recognizing the types can help those in leadership positions to deal with problem people more effectively.

https://vimeo.com/38099075

Clyde Strickland Speaks to RCL about Amercian Made 2-27-2012

Club Meetings

Speaker at the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on February 27 was Clyde L. Strickland, CEO of Metro Waterproofing, the largest restoration and waterproofing corporation in the Southeast. Clyde has taken as his mission to speak to audiences and employers about the need for consumers to buy “Made in America” products. Tying his discussion in with the Rotary’s Four Way Test, he said he was talking about taking actions that would be “beneficial to all concerned.” He emphasized how important it is to freedom and to the future of this country

that our citizens support businesses who have not moved their manufacturing to China, Indonesia, or other countries. He offered numerous examples of products that are “Made in the USA,” including New Balance shoes, Polo fragrancies and clothes, and greeting cards. He referred the audience to the website WhereWereYourShoesMade.com and to his handout “Create Your Own Future” which outlines ten things individuals can do:
1. Pray every day for America
2. Teach your family about “Vote with Your Wallet”
3. Buy “made in the USA” products
4. Share “Vote with Your Wallet” with your employee or employees
5. Get your church to announce “Vote with Your Wallet” to the congregation
6. Get your company to include monthly payroll inserts about “Vote with Your Wallet”
7. Convince your local retailer to stock Made in the USA products
8. Be a voice in your commiunity
9 Attend or start a local community connection
10. Contact someone outside of your state to spread the campaign to Buy American.

He left free copies of his book What Can I Do? Simple Advice to Change You and Your World on the tables for those interested and encouraged all to think about where their money was going when they make purchases.

PDG NATHAN CARMACK TALKS ABOUT HAITI

PDG Nathan Carmack spoke at the February 20th meeting of the Rotary Club Lawrenceville about the status of Rotarian support work in Haiti. Nathan has worked closely with relief efforts in Haiti since he was District Governor in 2007-08 and has maintained close relations with Haitian Rotarians, whom he praised highly for their dedication and leadership. He travels to Haiti three or four times each year. He began by describing the tremendous challenges faced by that country following years of disasters resulting from hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and an outbreak of cholera. He emphasized the enormity of the situation and reiterated numerous mistakes made by previous aid efforts which sometimes harmed more than they helped. He described efforts as “chipping away” at huge problems involving water, education, transportation, and communication but said efforts are becoming more organized as relief workers learn from mistakes. He spoke specifically of Rotarian support for the hospital in Pignon, which has proved a good staging area for aid. Hospital Bienfaisance de Pignon has particularly served amputees and had a positive impact on the city’s economy. He showed pictures of the hospital, which graphically showed the extreme need there and left the group with a clearer sense of the situation in Haiti.

https://vimeo.com/37133903