Members at the noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on May 9 heard a presentation by Mark Carnathan, Manager of the Research and Analytics Division at the Atlanta Regional Commission.  He shared a wealth of information on the demographics related to Gwinnett County, past, present, and future.  Beginning with perceptions and opinions held by residents about problems, education, safety, and responsiveness of local government, he moved on to present hard data collected by the Commission on global and local trends.  He presented ten “Big Points”, which included these realities: we are in a fast-growing state and metro area; the population is growing older and more diverse; the job market is recovering but incomes are not recovering; jobs, both “new economy” and “old economy” jobs, are hot; the most educated are “winning” the future, but the middle class is not “winning.”  He focused on population growth and presented charts showing the breakdown by education, ethnicity, and age.  The future holds an increase in population and a more diverse population than in the past.

Economic Overview – Gwinnett County, GA

Guest speaker for the May 2 meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville was State Senator P. K. Martin (a member of this Club).  He brought the group up to date on activities and laws passed at the last legislative session.  He discussed the advantages and disadvantages of being in his second year and described the bills he authored and carried during the session.  Of the five he authored, two passed: SB 302 re: medical provider directories and SB 270 re: retired police officers from other states. He carried twelve House bills which passed into law.  He discussed a handout summarizing budget allotments for the next year.  He provided some background and predictions about the most volatile issues: the Religious Liberty Bill and the Campus Carry Bill.  He pointed out that they had succeeded in reducing school testing somewhat and in building up the Rainy Day Fund.

Assistant District Governor Tom Upchurch visited the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on May 2 to present awards from District 6910 and Rotary International.  The club received a Gold award, the top performance award from the District.  This award recognizes our achievements in these categories: administration, membership, public image, Foundation, service, vocational service, and youth service.  We also received the Literacy Award.  Most significant was the Rotary International President’s Recognition Award.  We were the only club in Gwinnett County to get both the Gold award and the President’s Recognition Award.  ADG Upchurch presented certificates to President Freya Myers and commended the group for work well done.

Our GRSP student, Juan (J. J.) Londono, reported on his experiences over the past eight months.  He praised his host family and showed pictures of activities with them.  He also reviewed the numerous student week-end activities he shared with fellow GRSP students from around the state.  He showed pictures of activities including the Conclave, trips out of state (Washington D. C., New York, Nashville/Asheville), and sports events.  After J.J.’s report, Randy Wilhite spoke to the group about Toys for Tots.  After a short history he described the process by which toys are gathered and distributed.  An amazing total of 752,000 toys were distributed last year.  Volunteers handle all the work.  He provided contact information for those who might want to have a box in their business or who might want to volunteer.

The District Conference was held in Savannah, GA, on April 14-17.  Members who attended from the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville reported to the group on their experience there.  David Freeman testified to the inspirational value of interacting with members from other clubs, seeing what projects they had accomplished, and experiencing the fellowship the meeting offered. In general, the Conference celebrated and showcased district accomplishments.  David described a tour of the Savannah Port facility, which impressed him with its volume and efficiency.  There was a golf tournament which raised money for the GRSP endowment and talks by various Rotary officers and inspirational speakers.  Al Hombroek reported on the GRSP activities, and Nina Freeman shared the awards received by the club: a Gold and a Presidential Citation.  Art Kleve encouraged members to attend next year and shared his positive experiences.  All encouraged members to look to the 100th Rotary International Conference to be held in Atlanta in 2017.  Cheapest reservation tickets can be secured during the window of May 28 to June 6 ($265).

Seven enthusiastic members of the Peachtree Ridge High School Robotics Team presented information about their activities to the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville on April 4.  The 80-member group is a student-led organization that participates in FIRST Robotics as well as VEX Robotics Competitions.  Members described how the competitions worked and how the group went about preparing their robots for the competitions.  The group is not only about engineering and business tasks; it is also about building relationships, developing leadership skills, engaging in teamwork, and doing outreach with the community.  They displayed two of their robots and showed a video about the “Robo Lions spirit” that won a prize at a recent competition.

A very enthusiastic Chantel Dunham shared information about the research libraries at the University of Georgia with the Rotary group on Monday, March 28.  The first Director of Development for the University of Georgia Libraries, Chantel described some of the remarkable treasures from the Special Collections.  In the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library are artifacts from the Colonial to the Confederate Era, with a tremendous Civil War collection.  Another collection documents the history of theater from around the world through costume and set designs.  The Library has the largest collection of Margaret Mitchell materials.  The Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies has over 300 collections of politicians, observers and political organizations.   The history of broadcasting is preserved in the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection.  Chantell emphasized that all of us have access to many of these materials.  Her slides showed some of the most valued pieces in the collections, including the original Confederate Constitution, native American materials, Confederate War diaries and documents, rare maps, a costume design collection, and information about the Peabody Awards.