January 23, 2004

Posted January 27, 2004

  Greetings on a cold and icy day–I hope you are taking it easy and careful on the roads because we need a repeat of last week’s crowd at the meeting.  See you there!

Please ask Pat Kilpatrick about his son-in-law’s new book about the Grand Canyon.  Pat has copies (by the car load) if interested.

 See you when the thaw comes–

 Philip

IN GEAR—January 23—The farm connection to Asheboro Rotarians seemed evident in the menu today as we dine on pinto beans, cooked cabbage, port, meat loaf (actually meat loaves stacked like firewood in the pan).  But the best part of the meal was the chocolate cake with chocolate icing served up for dessert!  In the background, Joy Menius transported us to another place with tunes from the Phantom of the Opera on the piano.  President Mike Freeland called us to order and we shook hands and extended greetings.  We put our hands to our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance and bowed our heads for the prayer offered by Jerry Hill.

            Our guests were introduced by Sergeant at Arms Prithvi Hanspal.  Kelly Garner was the guest of Jerry Hill.  Curt Lorimer, the new president of United Way of Randolph County came as the guest of Prithvi Hanspal.  Teresa Loflin was the guest of Linda Cranford.  Mickey Dhatt, Doug Allen and Brian Byrd were guests from the Randolph Rotary Club.  Talmadge Baker stood to introduce his guest Harold Holmes whose name missed the list.  We welcomed all of our guests with applause and wishes for a return visit.

            With only a brief mention of Tax Talk, President Mike announced that the American Red Cross needs help from volunteers in their blood drives.   See Mike for a contact name if you are available.  Richard Pugh thanked Jaci Betts, Kathy Homiller, Alan Pugh, Allen Oliver, Jim Culberson, Mazie Fleetwood, Janet Harllee, Pat Brown, Kemp Foster and Philip Shore for volunteering to proctor at Asheboro High School.

            Philip Shore invited Rotarians to attend the Randolph Arts Guild’s first lecture on the topic of Creativity by the Reverend Doctor Everett Thomas.  Lee Phoenix called a short meeting of the Membership Committee after our meeting.  Rebecca Redding asked to meet with the Family of Rotary Committee.  President Mike reminded us of the Rotary District Conference inAsheville April 22-25 and urged us all to attend.  As an incentive to do so, the club will pay the tuition of members who attend.  See Mike for details.

            Philip Shore was called to the podium to introduce our newest Rotarian.  This man, Philip said, NEEDS an introduction!  Richard Garkalns is the co-owner of Mid-State Insurance Agency with Randolph Rotarian Charles Swiers.  Richard is a past president of the Asheboro/Randolph Chamber of Commerce, past member of Asheboro City Schools Board of Education, past treasurer of the Randolph Arts Guild, past Campaign Chair and President of United Way of Randolph County.  He fulfills his farm connection requirement by having lived on a dairy farm when he was an infant.  President Mike presented a Rotary pin and The Objects of Rotary in welcoming Richard.

            John Revell took the speakers stand to introduce Asheboro Rotarian Linda Cranford who was wearing her Director of Leadership and Legacy Gifts for United Way of Randolph County hat as she presented our program for the day.  Linda is married to our own PDG Sam Cranford.  In addition to numerous community and church involvements, she has served on the Asheboro City Schools Board for 21 years—a position she says she was elected to at age 12.  Linda said it is wonderful to wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work and being a part of the United Way family.  Linda extended a big thank you to all Asheboro Rotarians who contribute and whose businesses allow in-house campaigns.  The focus of today’s program is on the United Way of Randolph County Foundation.  The Foundation hosted after-hours signature events at the North Carolina Zoo in 2002 and 2003.  The UW Board of Directors voted to be signature sponsor for this event in 2004.

            The United Way in Randolph County was founded on September 14, 1956, by a group of 44 individual which reads like a Who’s Who of Asheboro.  The goal that year was $35,000.  The goal this year is $1,620.000.  Over $55 million in today’s dollars has been raised since 1956.  The money raised in the campaigns comes in to the UWRC and is paid out to member agencies.  When the UWRC Board realized that there was nothing left over to fund special needs or to build for the future, the Foundation was formed.  It’s purposes are to stabilize funding, to assure on-gong readiness to meet community emergencies, to sustain and enhance current programs, to initiate special projects, and to provide donors with an opportunity for strategic philanthropy.  The Charter Member campaign raised over $250,000.  The Foundation recently received its first bequest from the estate of Asheboro Rotarian Bob Bunker.  There are currently five other benefactors.

            The Foundation will make its first grants in early spring from an application process which will begin soon.  Linda provided Legacy of Giving brochures on each table.  She closed by saying “Anyone can be a philanthropist…all it takes is a caring heart.”

            In response to a question from Jim Culberson, Linda answered that grant recipients will likely by UW agencies or non-members whose work dovetails with UW agencies.

            We were adjourned by President Mike.

Written by Elizabeth Cox

January 16, 2004

 Posted January 20, 2004

Hello, Survivors of “Rotary Meeting Gone Wrong!”  Thank you for laughing at us. 

Rebecca Redding is calling a meeting of the Family of Rotary Committee:

Mary Joan Pugh, John McGlohon, Patrick O’Hara.  After the 1-23-04 meeting.

Kudos to all those who volunteered to proctor  for the High School at the behest of Richard Pugh.

 See you Friday!

 Philip

 ———————o0o———————

                Asheboro Rotarians gathered with glee on this day as the cancellation of last week’s meeting for SNOW seemed a distant memory.  AVS provided a sumptuous meal and we are heartily.  Joy Menius provided spirited music on the piano and we applauded our appreciation.  President Mike Freeland called the meeting to order saying he missed us last week. Where were you? he asked.  Mike extended the invitation for us to greet one another with a handshake of fellowship and we greeted with enthusiasm.  We recited the Pledge of Allegiance and David Roudabush led us in a prayer of thankfulness to God for our many blessings and for His love and patience.

                Sergeant at Arms Prithvi Hanspal introduced our guests.  Kelly Garner of Ablest Staffing Services was the guest of Jerry Hill.  Harold Holmes, Chairman of the Randolph County Board of Commissioners, was the guest of Talmadge Baker.  The lovely Pat Allred was the guest of the less than lovely husband Don.  Visiting Rotarians included Fred Cole, Ed Bunch, Linda Brown, and Derrick Grantham of the Randolph Club, Phil Morris of the High Point Club, Ed Kiser of the Charlotte Club, and Patrick Eakes of the Greensboro Club.  Student guests from Southwestern Randolph High School were Brittany Allred and Kathleen Hall accompanied by Guidance Counselor Susan Yow.

 January Birthdays (from the January 2^nd meeting where President Mike asked all of the following to stand and they did so, not knowing why) included Kaye Bryan, Linda Carter, Mazie Fleetwood, Allen Holt, Lee Malpass, Bob Mason, Carol Matney, John Menius, David Roudabush, John O. H. Toledano, and Bob Walker.

 President Mike bemoaned the fact that due to the full agenda of the meeting Tax Talk was being deferred.  He was the only one moaning! Our Annual Meeting will take place on January 30.  Please see Mac Whatley if you haven an interest in serving on the Board of Directors.  Mike congratulated Talmadge and Sara Baker on their 50^th wedding anniversary and learned that Carl Phillips and wife Helen had celebrated their 60^th on January 15.  Applause all around!  Congratulations are also in order to Asheboro Rotarians honored at the Asheboro/Randolph Chamber of Commerce 78^th Annual Meeting on Thursday, January 15. Our Richard Brooks is the outgoing president; David Renfro is the incoming president; Diane Frost won the 2003 ATHENA Award and Al Laprade of Community Web accepted the award for Business of the Year.

 Derrick Grantham, representing District Governor Bob Newton encouraged us to attend the 12004 Rotary District Conference in Asheville, April 22-25.  He offered Rotary Bucks to those who shared good reasons for attending.  From Carol Matney—stay involved and know what’s going on.  From Sandy Grey—support Pat Allred’s husband.  From Philip Shore—fun and fellowship.

 Other happenings: Philip Shore invited one and all to the opening reception for the artists of Mixed Matters at the Moring Arts Center, Sunday from 2-4 pm.  Allen Oliver announced New Member Orientation on February 20 at 11:15 for those who joined during the Mac and Mike years.  Allen invited everyone to the January 26 meeting of the County Commissioners when the countywide Master Recreation Plan will be presented.  Also Allen has a program if anyone needs one.  President Mike said Richard Pugh and other Rotary volunteers were absent because they were serving as proctors at Asheboro High School exams.  If you have a change of address, please give the information to Alice Dawson.

 District Governor Elect Don Allred came to the podium to share with us that there are now 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide with 400,000 in America.  The international focus is growing.  In preparation for the PETS training later this year, Don debuted his version of A Rotary Meeting Gone Wrong.  It started with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to a lapel pin instead of the missing flag and continued with an invocation to Zoroaster by Patrick Eakes.  From there it was on to welcoming visitor Celestial Hovitch (Linda Brown) and then to slides—Don style—of the grandchildren whose lives are a mess!  There was a raffle to raise money for RI or maybe we would just keep the money.  After a bad blonde joke, Miss Hovitch was inducted as a member.  Philip Shore played our good legislative representative who not only solicited votes but also plugged his mortuary business.  The “meeting” ended with the four-way test—Is it Fair to the Goodwill?  Vintage Don Allred! He’s seeking our input on fine-tuning this.  Call him with suggestions.  You can remain anonymous.

 John Menius came to the podium to introduce our real program saying he wished Don had let him go first.  Everett B. Padgett, Jr. joined the Triad Rotary Club in 1982 and was President in 1986-87.  He served as District Governor in 1991-92.  He presently serves as District Chairman of Major Gifts for the Rotary Foundation.  His wife Margaret Padgett serves as Executive Secretary for Rotary District 7690.

 Everett got off to a great start by assuring us that he was not here to ask for money.  His purpose in coming to our meeting is to give us an idea of what we’re looking at in the coming year with our own Don Allred serving as DG.  “This should be one of the best years in the history of Asheboro Rotary Club,” he said.  We will be on the inside of information that Don will get from RI.  We will be under the magnifying glass.  Every club in District 7690 will look to see how we support Don. We can support him in several ways.  Be at district meetings including the May 13 District Assembly, the District Conference, April 22-25, where we will be sponsoring a reception for Don and Pat, and the Don’s installation at Pinewood on June 17…  Don’s year of 2005 is also important because it is the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Rotary.  Everett challenged us to bring as many people to these events as the Triad Club brought for Everett when he served as District Governor.  Don will need help—Ed Clayton is organizing the installation.  These meetings are another chance to meet Rotarians for other cities.  The District Governors who have great years are the ones whose clubs give them great support.

 In honor of the Centennial Year and their commitment to Rotary, Don and Pat have become the 100^th members of the Bequest Society, Everett announced.

 Everett thanked us for having him on the program and said he always feels that he’s at his home club when he comes to Asheboro Rotary. 

 President Mike adjourned the meeting.  This reporter wondered, Was this just one meeting?

January 2, 2004

Posted January 6, 2004

 

Many thanks to Elizabeth Cox for writing the Tar Wheel this month–please let her know that you enjoy it.

Thanks to Allen Holt for editorial help.

With hopes that you had a wonderful holiday season and are looking to the new year with high expectations–see you Friday!

Philip

IN GEAR—January 2, 2004— Happy New Year! was the greeting of the day as Asheboro Rotarians gathered for the first meeting of 2004.  With temperatures near the 70’s, it seemed hard to believe we were returning from the Christmas holidays. The mood was happy, but alas, the piano was silent.  Hurry back, Joy!  President Mike Freeland gave a hearty gong to call us to attention and allowed us time to greet one another before we recited the Pledge of Allegiance.  He then called for a moment of silent prayer with remembrance of our blessings and loved ones and friends who have passed from this life in the past year. 

Sergeant at Arms Prithvi Hanspal introduced our guests.  From the Mocksville Club Teresa Voncannon with Piedmont Natural Gas in Salisbury and her husband Roger Voncannon were present as guests of Gene Johnson.  George Fleetwood of the Stratford Club and Ed Gavin of the Randolph Club were also warmly welcomed.

President Mike then asked that Rotarians stand as their names were called.  Carol Matney, David Roudabush, Bob Walker, so many names.  It turns out that this group is celebrating birthdays, and we applauded their happy fate. Richard Pugh stills needs people to proctor for Asheboro High School exams on January 15 and 16, 2004.  Training will be held next Friday after our Rotary meeting.  Richard will even call volunteers with a reminder.  He then followed up with a comment about having just attended the longest movie and we were led to believe that this volunteer effort would be less time consuming than the movie. 

The Scholarship Committee had responsibility for our first program of the new year.  Jim Rich, who chairs that committee, was enjoying an extended Pasadena CA visit with daughter Buffy.   So, he did what all good absent committee chairs do.  He handed off to the very capable Kaye Bryan of the committee for the introduction of our program.  Kaye  noted that we were very pleased to have Chris Yow, Chairman of the Asheboro City School Board, to bring us up to date on education in the Asheboro City Schools.

Chris is a lifelong resident of Asheboro.  He attended Asheboro City Schools and is a graduate of Appalachian State University.  He is married to Jennifer Newton Yow, who also grew up in Asheboro.  They have three children who have also all attended Asheboro City Schools.  Oldest son, Christopher, is a NCSU graduate and is a Consulting Engineer with a firm in Charlotte.  Middle son, Ben, is studying engineering at NCSU.  Youngest daughter, Rebecca, is in the eighth grade at North Asheboro Middle School.  Chris is in charge of Sales at Elastic Therapy Company in Asheboro.  Elastic Therapy manufactures high compression medical use hosiery.  Chris has just been re-elected to his second term on the Asheboro City School Board. 

Chris wished us all a Happy New Year and added, “May all of your troubles last as long as your New Years resolutions!”  Chris said that he was accustomed to introducing Rotary programs (he is in the Randolph Club) but this was his first time to actually be the program.  Although he said he could talk about Asheboro City Schools all day, he is also a Rotarian, and he noted that some of the most memorable programs are the ones that conclude about 12:55.

The Asheboro City School Board, Chris stated, is our school board because they are eleven officials elected by the people.  They meet the second Thursday of every month at 7:30 pm in the new Professional Development Center (the former Sir Robert Hotel) immediately behind the high school.  This has now become known as the northeast corner of the AHS campus.  (The students refer to it as Comet Corner).  Board meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying out the official business of the school district.  They are open to the public.  Time is set aside at the beginning of each meeting for public comment.  The Asheboro City School Board is well represented at the state level.  Joyce Harrington currently serves on the NCSBA Legislative committee.  Asheboro Rotary’s own Linda Cranford is currently serving as President Elect of the NCSBA and will ascend to the Presidency next November.  Chris said both Joyce and Linda represent us well and we are very proud of them. 

What is Asheboro City Schools?  We are over 4,400 students, 600 employees (330 teachers), one high school, two middle schools, five elementary schools and one additional site for preschool and alternative school.  Our student population is currently 56.4% white and 43.6% non-white.  Our annual budget is $33,000,000.  We are in the education business, the health care business, the food service business, the heating and air conditioning business, the transportation business, the cultural arts business and the child care business.  We are diversified but focused on one goal – Student Achievement.  Two years ago a process called Planning for Excellence – a Strategic Five Year Plan was initiated.  (Brochures on tables explained details).  The steering committee was co-chaired by Ken Leonard of BB&T and Pam Hill.  Over 375 members of the community met in small groups to answer one question.  ‘What would the “best” school system in the world look like, feel like, and be like for students, parents, teachers and the community?’  From that process five key goals were identified: (1) High Student Performance (2) Safe, Orderly and Caring Schools (3) Quality Teachers, Administrators and Staff (4) Strong Family, Community, and Business Support (5) Effective and Efficient Operations.  The board uses this information in annual goal setting.  Progress is being made on all the benchmarks.  Some have already been achieved.  The 2002 – 2003 Report to the Community was mailed this week, providing valuable information on the progress toward reaching the goals outlined in the strategic plan.

Chris closed with a Blueberry Story by Jamie Vollmer: “If I ran by business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t be in business very long!”  I stood before an auditorium filled with indignant teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute.  I represented a Business Roundtable dedicated to improving public schools.  I said that public schools were antiquated and that teachers and administrators were a major part of the problem: they resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by a monopoly.  They needed to look to business.  We knew how to produce quality.  Zero defects!  Continuous improvement!  TQM!  As soon as I finished, a woman’s hand shot up.  She appeared polite, pleasant – she was, in fact, a razor-edged, high school English teacher who had been waiting to unload.  She began quietly, “We are told, sir, that you manage a company that makes good ice cream.”  I smugly replied, “People Magazine chose our blueberry as ‘The Best Ice Cream in America,’ Ma’am.”  “How nice,” she said.  “Is it rich and smooth?”  “Sixteen percent butterfat,” I crowed.  “Premium ingredients?” she inquired.  “Super premium!  Nothing but AAA.”  I was on a roll. I never saw the next line coming.  “Mr. Vollmer,” she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to the sky, “when you are standing on your receiving dock and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?”  In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap.  I knew I was dead, but I wasn’t going to lie.  “I send them back.”  “That’s right!” she barked, “and we can never send back our blueberries.  We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant.  We take them with ADHD, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language, We take them all!  Every one!  And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it’s not a business.  It’s school!”  In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides, custodians and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, “Yeah!  Blueberries!  Blueberries!”  And so my long transformation began.  I have learned that, unlike business, schools are unable to control the quality of their raw material, they are constantly mauled by a howling horde of disparate, competing customer groups, and they are dependent upon the vagaries of politics for a reliable revenue stream. 

Chris closed by saying, “We are the public schools and we accept all who enter our doors.  We will always strive to be a system of excellence where students are honored, learning is valued and our community is dedicated to the success of all.  Thank you!”

President Mike thanked Chris for a most informative program and asked if there were questions from the audience for Chris.  Mike Miller noted that ACS have had block scheduling for ten years or so.  Is there any suggestion that this be reviewed?  Chris answered that ACS pioneered this and he is not aware of a need for it to be reviewed.  Superintendent Diane Frost also said there are no indicators which would call for a review.  Wayne Thomas asked what percentage of high schools use block scheduling.  About 60% to 70% was the answer.  Katherine Homiller asked what is the status of previous pressure to merge the county and city school systems.  Chris said there are no real costs savings to this and there is no action at this time.  Bonnie Renfro asked about the dropout rate in the county/city in terms of economic development and the huge impact there.  What can our club do?  Chris said to encourage everyone to VOLUNTEER in the schools.  The Randolph Club has been involved in this.

 President Mike Freeland adjourned us in a most timely manner, thereby setting a great precedent for the year!

By Elizabeth Cox