October 12, 2006

UPCOMING PROGRAMS...
STRATFORD: - Meets Thursdays at 12:30 p.m. at Forsyth Country Club
Oct. 19: Dr. Volker Stieber, Asst. Professor Dept. of Radiology, “Body radiology: the next generation of non-invasive surgery”
Oct. 26: Penny Spry and Amy Kauhlm, Children’s Law Center of Central North Carolina
Nov. 2: Dr. Garry Green, President Forsyth Technical Community College
Nov. 9: Rotary Foundation Speaker
Nov.16: TBA
Nov.23: NO MEETING, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Nov.30: TBA
Dec. 7: NO LUNCH MEETING! HOLIDAY SOCIAL IN THE EVENING!!

WINSTON-SALEM ROTARY: - Meets Tuesdays at 12:30 p.m. at the Benton Convention Center
Oct. 17: Jeff Wood, Director of Investment Efficiences, Ford Motor Company
Oct. 24: Pamela King Cable, Author of Southern Fried Women
Oct. 31: The Official Unveiling of the “Wayne A. Corpening Freeway” sign followed by Classification Talks

REYNOLDA: - Meets Fridays at 12:30 p.m. in the Assembly Room of the LJV Coliseum
Oct. 13: Mike Drum, a WFU walk-on basketball player
Oct. 20: Juan Esteban Ugarriza, Rotary Peace Fellow
Oct. 27: George Bryan, CEO of the Methodist Children’s Home
Nov. 3: Dr. Jon Abramson from WFUBMC will speak on the FLU PANDEMIC
Nov. 10: TBA

CLEMMONS: - Meets Wednesdays at 7:00 a.m. at the Village Inn - Clemmons
Oct. 18: Classification Talk
Oct. 25: Dr. Gary Green, President of Forsyth Technical Community College
Nov. 1: Virginia Foxx, “5th District News”
Nov. 8: Christmas Showcase at L.A. Reynolds, Site visit at 6:30 p.m.
Nov.15: Kyle Swicegood, “Operation Smile”

ANNOUNCEMENTS, NEWS & INFORMATION................

DATES TO REMEMBER:
November 2 – Foundation Dinner, High Point Country Club
December 7 – Holiday Social

CONGRATULATIONS:
Happy Birthday:
John Babcock 10-01
Loy McGill 10-03
Mosby Vogler 10-05
Bill Avera 10-07
Bill Sexton 10-11
Gordon Spaugh 10-11
Greg Cox 10-19
Veronica Black 10-30
Lee Strange 10-31

WHAT’S GOING ON?……..We have three imports upcoming events. The Rotary Foundation Dinner is November 2, 2006 at High Point Country Club. Stratford Rotary Club will be honored and presented a banner for becoming a 100% Paul Harris Club. We would love to have our members attend for this recognition. Then, on November 9, 2006, at our regular lunch meeting, the speaker will be someone from the Foundation and he will present the banner to us again. ALL OF THE PAUL HARRIS AWARDS ARE NOW IN MY POSSESSION, and the Foundation speaker will present the Paul Harris Awards to those attending the meeting that day. Please try to attend that meeting if you have not received your award.

Our last special event is our Holiday Social, which is December 7, 2006. As those of you who were at the last meeting know, we now have the raffle tickets to sell. We will be selling them until the last week of November. The tickets are $5.00 each and everyone is asked to sell at least 10 tickets but you may sell more if you would like. You may buy the tickets yourself or sell them to someone else. The winner will receive a $1,500 gift card to Best Buy. The remaining proceeds will go to our International Project, Clean Water Wells in Nigeria. The drawing will be held at our Holiday Social, and you do not have to be present to win.

PROGRAM FEATURES............

October 5 – Our speaker today was Bill Dean, Piedmont Triad Research Park and Wake Forest University Health Sciences. Bill focused on Winston-Salem’s and regions successes and cited the recent Rotary presentations by Dr. Anthony Atala and Dr. David Carroll as the brainpower that is necessary to build a technology based economy. He talked about how science is advancing and new, lucrative applications are imagined every day from around the world. The Piedmont Triad Research Park is part of that movement with expansion plans being led by Dr. Richard Dean and Wake Forest University Health Sciences. According to Bill, the Research Park is a place that fosters technology innovation and commercialization and is a seedbed and catalyst for the development of cluster technologies. There are currently 36 companies in the Research Park employing over 800 people. Bill noted measurements of success as they related to the Forsyth County’s Blueprint for Technology Development commissioned by the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce and how it has been important to reshaping our future. To continue being successful, it will take time and resources. Leadership must have vision, focus must be on translational research, education (K-12) and workforce development are important, and continued communication, networking, marketing and recruiting at federal, state and local levels is key. Bill’s challenge, “Don’t forget how we got here and don’t lose sight on where we are going.”

October 12 – Dr. Don Martin was our speaker today. Dr. Martin, who is in his 13th year as Superintendent showed us a short video on the schools, those like Ibraham, that need extensive renovations and Sedge Garden that has too many mobile classrooms. Our schools are intended to have 43,000 students at capacity; our schools currently have 51,000 students. The school Board is considering raising the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18. Each year, the WS/FC schools see an average of 1000 new students and this could be more if the compulsory age is raised. Therefore, new schools and renovations are sorely needed. 45 of our schools were built over 30 years ago. A $250 million bond referendum will be on the ballot this fall, but even if it passes, the school board will still have to come back to us in 4 or 5 years for more money. The bond package would fund 7 new schools, 3 replacements, and 14 school renovations. The question is whether or not we are willing to invest in education.