January 25, 2008

[The management is happy to reinstate Tar Wheel Publisher Cooper Thornton into the writing rotation.  The following is all his fault.  Now he just has to learn to take pictures like Yours Truly.  Besides the  generic crowd scene, the mug shot of our speaker is from his blog, which can be found here: http://community.myfoxwghp.com/blogs/Neill_McNeill/ ] 

Well, well, well. And so we meet again. Scribing for the first time in many months, I am reminded of the Pearl Jam lyrics, “I just wanna scream, ‘HELLO! My gosh it’s been so long, never dreamed you’d return, but now here you are and here I am. Hearts and thoughts, they fade away…’” Maybe they do, but I’m happy to report that mine have never drifted too far from yours, Rabid Readers, and it feels good to tickle the keys once more.

Your Scribe sat with the formidable table of Steve Eblin, David Renfro, Diane Frost, April Thornton, Rodney Mason, Elizabeth Cox, and Phil Koonce. Someone complimented Diane’s red overcoat, which Diane has coined her Marlo Thomas coat. “I just think it looks like something she’d wear,” explained Diane, and it did. April was also cloaked in red, but I was too busy scribing (scribbling?) to ask if her coat has a namesake. No one else was brightly lit, although Rodney was still wearing the purple and yellow bruises of his healing black eye. “No more bar fights,” I teased Rodney.

“Bang!” went the bell, calling our meeting to order. President H.R. Gallimore began by thanking Joy for tickling the keys of a different sort. We took time to greet one another, exchanging smiles, handshakes, and other pleasantries. Russ Williams led the 4-Way Test, and H.R. the Pledge. Don Allred said a simple, but thoughtful prayer for nourishment, sustenance, and hope. Amen to that.

Mini Singh introduced Alan Pugh who introduced his own guests, the only guests of the day. His was a political round table consisting of N.C. Senators, Jerry Tillman and Fred Smith, and Smith’s Chief of Staff, DeVan Barbour. Alan joked that Jerry attended college at Elon for two reasons: He could throw a baseball 93 mph and could spell Elon. Whether he could do both at the same time wasn’t addressed, and with no student guests on hand, our introductions were concluded.

Back at the podium, H.R. bragged on some of our members for their recent recognition at the annual Chamber meeting, held last weekend. It was a red-letter day for Duffy Johnson who was inducted into the Chamber’s Red Jacket Club, and whose company, Carolina Bank, was awarded Business of the Year. Harold Holmes was named Citizen of the Year, and Kaye Bryant is this year’s Chamber President Elect. Congrats, hats (off), and pats (on the back) to you all.

“Won’t You be Mine Sweet” Valentine’s Day is just around the bend, and Russ Williams invited all of us to attend the Family of Rotary’s “Valentine’s Night” in Greensboro, fittingly held on Valentine’s night. That’s February 14^th to me and thee. Festivities to be the Greensboro Symphony’s Pops Concert, and Club members can purchase tickets from Russ for the discounted price of $15. Reception and dinner tickets are also available for $25, but you’ll have to ask Russ for more details about that.

Linda Cranford and the Social Committee are still taking-up surveys regarding your personal preferences about social meetings and activities attended by spouses. “I’m against them,” quipped someone from the table over, but I couldn’t tell who over my own chuckles. If you haven’t filled one out, pick-up your survey at the Back Table or see Miss Linda.

H.R. concluded the business end of our meeting with a stroll down Tarwheel Memory Lane. The year was 1943, the clever-as-ever Red Underwood was scribing, but Your “out-of-practice” Scribe missed the rest of the best while looking back through his notes for clarification on another subject. Pitiful. No excuses and no disrespect intended to the late, great Mr. Underwood or to our esteemed President. Red could play a tall, cool typewriter (or maybe he liked to write by longhand like me) and reminds us that it’s not always the tale, but he who tells it.

Mr. Leo Derrick provided an introduction of our Guest Speaker that belonged in lights. Neill McNeill started working at WGHP in 1983. That’s 25 years ago to you and me. It was around that time he did a story from the fire tower on the top of Dave’s Mountain, and I was nothing short of astounded when he knocked on my parent’s door to borrow our telephone. “Mom! Neill McNeill was in our house today!” Neill has worked in almost every on-air news position since joining the station, and has co-anchored morning, noon, nightly, and weekend broadcasts. In the 1980s, Neill helped develop the investigative franchise now known as “FOX 8 On Your Side”, and currently co-anchors the FOX 8 5:00, 6:00, and 10:00 News. I once told an out-of-town friend of mine that our local news anchor was named Neill McNeill. He was so amused by the name he started saying, “Hi, I’m Phill McPhill. Hi, I’m Bill McBill.” And so forth. I guess maybe you had to be there, but I thought it was hysterical.

Curiously, Neill chose not to talk about his career as a TV newsman, broadcast journalism, or even television in general. Instead he spoke about the characteristics and merits of being a good leader. Quoting from the popcorn movie, “Night at the Museum”, Neill recited a key line from the film: “Some people are born with greatness, others have it thrust upon them.” He mused about being unprepared for the spotlight in 2001 when Fred Blackman retired. Despite all of his years of grooming for lead anchor, Neill felt the full weight of the station on his shoulders. He was 40 years old and unhappy by what had been “thrust upon him.” It was then that things changed for the better. Upon attending a leadership seminar for TV news anchors, Neill received an epiphany in the form of 10 Questions that changed his life. Will they change yours? Well, that’s a question only you can answer. In no particular order, here are 10 questions to becoming a better leader:

1. Am I sharing the BIG PICTURE, and including my employees in it?

2. Have I specifically defined my expectations of my employees?

3. Do I provide frequent, specific praise?

4. Do I hold everyone on my team accountable, myself included?

5. Have I set a tone of optimism?

6. Have I set a tone of creativity?

7. Have I set a tone of integrity?

8. Have I provided my employees with the tools they need to do their jobs?

9. Have I encouraged the value of learning?

10. Am I listening?

Upon completing his list of questions, Neill opened the floor to further ones. Keith Criscoe asked if Neill had any sage advice for politicians who aspire to greatness for the greater good. Neill suggested a person can’t be elected without emotionally connecting with voters. Privthi Hanspal hit a nerve when he asked why most news is negative. Neill protested that many news reports are positive, but that uplifting stories are largely ignored.

He might of said more, but for the second time that day, I wasn’t listening.

January 18, 2008

Cold weather threatened, but didn’t cancel this week’s Rotary meeting. President H.R. warned the members to check the online Tar Wheel for the final word, in case of possible cancellation due to bad weather. I guess that’s a first- we really are in the 21st century now!

We’ve had a couple of bouts with snow this week- here a couple of shots of it coming down in big puffy white kleenex flakes in Franklinville. That was pretty, but it melted too quick and turned to ice; then there was a half inch on top of that. But this is our first real snow on the ground in how long? Years? I know we had nothing but a flurry last year; Roman thought this was Florida compared to Russia. At least this year it was enough to close school and scare off our student guests….

Phil Shore invoked the divine ear and preached a sermonette on Wintry Mix, and the fact that Rotary is the answer to eliminate those wintry mixes of the Soul.

Alice Cook was a guest at the Scribe Table; her host Kathy Homiller is now officially the new CFO of Randolph Bank. Alice was actually the very first employee hired by Randolph Bank, and is still going strong at the old stand. Emily Ledwell sat with her host Jerry Hill; Emily is the interim director of Merce Clinic of which more later. Madison Cox came with grandma Elizabeth Cox; President Bob Shackleford of RCC visited from the Randolph Club, and Past District Governor Jack Green of the Furnitureland club in High Point was visiting to inform a post-meeting meeting on the subject of a new Rotary breakfast club in these parts. Not a guest but back for his second meeting in a row was Tar Wheel Publisher and Corporate Overlord Cooper Thornton. Note: we peons want health insurance: see below.

Notices: There will be a special Valentines Day program sponsored by the Greensboro Symphony. Here’s their website but I don’t see specific info about that http://www.greensborosymphony.org/ .

Owen George brought us up to speed on many different activities planned for Monday’s Martin Luther King Day celebration. The breakfast at Central Gym starts at 8AM; at 11:30 there will be a special commemoration of Leo Luther by Trees Asheboro near the junction of Salisbury Street and Old Cedar Falls Road. He promised Japanese “tycho drumming” and a speech by the Rev. John Gullett.

President H.R. shared with us the Tar Wheel of August 21, 1958, from the Presidency of Bob Bunker, who reported the disappearance of the club’s original framed charter, last seen during the presidency of John Bunch in 1955-56. Be ware: H.R. is determined to get ‘his’ charter back!

Al LaPrad introduced our program from Randy Swing, the new (since December) Outreach Facilitator of MERCE Clinic. MERCE- which is sort of an acronym for “Medical Resource Center”, doesn’t appear to have its own website, but here’s the United Way page it’s on, as a member agency: http://www.uwrandolph.org/partners.html .  The federally-funded clinic provides health care and dental care for uninsured and low income residents of Piedmont North Carolina. It has 2 doctors, 2 dentists and 17 service staff members. It is supported by the Federal Quality Health Care Center to accept medicaid under the “STAR” program, which determines co-pays from $20-$50 based on household income. The United Way partially supports the prescription drug program, where recipients can obtain generic equivalent prescriptions. Clients order meds at $3 for a 30-day supply, which arrives within 6-8 weeks. No antibiotics or narcotics are available; those referrals are made to Walmart, where generic antibiotics are available for $4.

The dental clinic on Brewer street is a purpose-built, state of the art facility with plenty of room for expansion; they would like to begin a pediatric dental program there soon. The dental clinic was built with funds from the Kate B. Reynolds and Cannon Foundations.

The MERCE patient load is 24 patients per day per doctor. Eligibility workers screen potential patients within 2 days of application; doctors see 2-3 new patients per day per doctor and are currently booked a month in advance. Merce takes a big load off the Randolph Hospital emergency room by serving the indigent and low income patients who have no health insurance. They work closely with CUOC, where Jerry Hill expressed an interest in becoming a dentist. Who’d volunteer to have Jerry’s big ol’ hands in your mouth?

Next week: Neil McNeil, of Channel 8 Fox News.

January 11, 2008

{No photos today… you’ll just have to picture the meeting through the eyes of special guest correspondent, Phil Shore:} 

 Although the sun was mightily shining as we began our meeting, Joy Menius regaled us with a batch of rainy day songs that bolstered our spirits and upholstered our conversation. The chatter at my table mostly had to do with a bunch of Carolina sports fans declaring it unfair to allow giants to play basketball.

Mini Singh introduced our guests.  Jim Biggers, Jackie Biggers, and Ann Grey were guests of Sandy Grey.  Carol Matney brought Christie Smith.  Emily Ledwell was the guest of Jerry Hill.

We hosted two student guests from Asheboro High School.  Brandie Tew is a varsity cheerleader, a member of the National Honor Society and the Key Club.  Her hobbies are photography and laying out in the sun.  She plans to attend either East Carolina, Western Carolina or Appalachian to major in physical therapy or exercise science. With her was Eric Araj.  Eric belongs to the Board Game Club.  He enjoys cycling, racing, soccer, and football.  He will pursue a major in engineering at a yet undetermined institute of higher education.

President H.R. noted that Carole Gilliam’s two daughters had written a note of thanks to the club for its concern and caring after Carole’s death.  They included a $300 donation to the Rotary Foundation with their message.  This was much appreciated by the membership.

Russ Williams called an area Rotary event to our attention.  There will be a Valentine’s Day dinner and concert offered shortly in Greensboro.  Stay tuned for more details.

We will have a vist from the Taiwan GSE team in April.  They will be in our area April 16-19.  Two host family homes are needed.  If you care to open your home to these exciting visitors, please let Rob know.

Our speaker today was Dr. Larry Simpson, a history professor from High Point University.  Jamie Stitt asked him to return to bring us up to speed on events and causes in the Middle East.  Ladies and gentlemen, your humble scribe did not understand what he heard.  This was not the fault of Dr. Simpson whose presentation was brief, factual, and well organized.  It is the fault of too much information attempting to enter a much too inferior brain.  Dr. Simpson presented a paper to us on the underlying causes of tension between the US and Iran.  In his last visit, Dr. Simpson emphasized his opinion that there is a high likelihood of conflict between these two nations.

Today he delved beneath the surface to the economic and political reasons.  This has mostly to do with Russian and Chinese (PRC) support for Iran.  These three less than democratic entities have aligned their needs to form strengths.  China needs oil and is willing to invest in Iran’s production infrastructure.  Russia as an oil producer  seeks to stabilize prices and keep business flowing.  Beneath these subterranean currents, deeper still, there is trade in weapons and equipment to make weapons that may or may not be those of mass destruction, but who can tell?  It was a gloomy picture in any case, one of nations playing hegemony cricket, rugby rules.

I have feeling that the powers, thrones and dominions of the world would benefit from a copy of the Four Way Test.

January 4, 2008

There was joy at Asheboro Rotary last Friday, but no Joy- mainly because the piano was a couple of soirees away. The RCC Foundation employee appreciation brunch took up most of AVS and squeezed us into the southwest corner. It was cozy and turned out to facilitate the comraderie of our program. But it also has us better appreciate the fact that we’re not squenched together like sardines most Fridays. How did the club manage Back in the Day when the entire assembly shoe-horned itself into Red’s Chicken Hut, or the Kiwanis Teen Building? Our modern club has found itself in tight quarters even with the entire AVS building available– as at last year’s Mental Health Forum with the Chamber, for example. Is it just that modern Americans are bigger all the way around and require more liebensraum?

Elizabeth Mitchell, program-presenter-to-be, led the 4WT, and Phil Shore thanked God for cold weather that kills bugs. {I must also say, that when we all “exchanged pleasantries,” Phil said he wanted his back. Indian giver, indeed!}

Rebecca Redding welcomed guests Amy Byrd, with Dame Elizabeth; Christie Smith and Art Martinez with Carole Matney; and Linda Gunter with Owen George. Rodney Mason introduced our student guests Jill Allen and Ryan Lassiter. Jill, the daughter of Doug and Donna Allen, is up to a lot at AHS, plays trombone with the band, and intends to study nursing at UNC-W. Ryan, son of Bill and Sheila Lassiter, is on the varsity soccer team among many other things, and will be studying engineering at NCSU.

President HR congratulated fertile grandpere John O.H. Toledano on the occasion of the birth of another grandchild; that makes ten! HR then read us an excerpt from a Tar Wheel of 1948, where Red wrote about the “firehouse game” of McCrary Eagles basketball, and a question from the crowd about “the chasers”- those guys in long pants that blow whistles during the game.

The Rotary Information Committee was in charge of the program, and Queen Elizabeth was determined that we actually get a mother lode of info out of the day. Information- what is it good for? Learn from it/ file it away/ pass it along… SoLa Liz had invented “an interactive group exercise” for us. She handed out white envelopes containing a special rehetorical or philosophical question to each table; the table was to discuss the question, determine an answer, and present their answer to the group through a spokesperson.

Questions included:

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

What would you do if you won the lottery?

How to have your cake and eat it, too.

Why does a stitch in time save nine?

Why did the Titantic sink?

Who invented the internet?

What do we know about the life and times of HR Gallimore?

What happened on this day in history, January 4, 1983?

What are ten uses for a Rotary name badge?

Why is an American football called a pigskin?

What’s the Number One Word or Phrase of 2007?

Answers:

1.  The Egg, is the scientific answer; See http://science.howstuffworks.com/question85.htm ; but for the philosophical circular cause and causality dilemma first formulated by Aristotle, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken-and-egg_problem .

2.  “Give $50 to the Rotary Foundation and then move away”  was the table’s answer.

3.The phrase’s earliest recording is from 1546 as “wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?” (John Heywood’s ‘A dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue’) alluding to the impossibility of eating your cake and still having it afterwards; the modern version (where the clauses are reversed) is a corruption which was first signalled in 1812. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_one’s_cake_and_eat_it_too

4. Meaning “A little preventative maintenance can eliminate the need for major repairs later. (see also An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.) From The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

5. On the night of April 14, at 11:40 p.m., The Titanic struck an iceberg and sank just under three hours later, at 2:20 AM, on April 15, 1912. The 1,517 passengers who drowned constitute the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history. The ship was cruising at a speed of 22 knots, and after sighting the iceberg, turned in an attempt to avoid it. The turn resulted in grazing the iceberg, and opening up a gash through six of the ship’s sixteen watertight compartments. The Titantic could remain afloat with any two of the compartments flooded, but since none of the compartment bulkheads extended above the waterline, all six gradually flooded and pulled the ship under. It was suggested in the 1912 Congressional inquiry that if the officers in charge had not attempted to avoid the collision, but instead hit the iceberg head-on, the ship would not have sunk. Recently metallurgists have suggested that an inferior grade of iron was used in the ship’s construction, and that otherwise the collision would not have popped so many rivetted hull plates in the first place. The descendants of the ship’s Irish builders in Belfast vigorously dispute this assertion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic

6. Twenty-five years (this year) ago a couple of guys at a then-obscure military agency named DARPA — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—switched over to a new computer standard called TCP/IP. The switch suddenly made it possible for small experimental computer networks all over the country to talk to each other — and that made the Internet possible. One of those guys was Vinton Cerf, who is commonly called “The Father of the Internet,” and he is interviewed on NPR here http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17872707 .

7. HR Gallimore, Jr. [Your Scribe is pledged as a member of the fraternity of Juniors not to reveal what the initials stand for, but hint: it’s the same as his father] joined us at Asheboro Rotary in September, 1995, on the recommendation of Wayne Thomas . [“What was I thinking?” Wayne has asked himself several times…] He was a member of the Asheboro High class of 1971, along with Kathy Homiller, and by all accounts was a WILD and CRAZY guy. He is married to the long-suffering Vickie Gallimore, and they own RE/MAX Realty here in Asheboro. It is reliably said by HR himself that Vickie tamed him, and that his daughter takes after her father and not her mother. His grandmother Inez Parks McMath was the first historian of Ramseur, and lived there on the corner on US 64 where Dominos Pizza is now. A high-powered car nut from a VERY early age, HR talked his loving grandmother into buying the first TransAm ever sold in Randolph County, for which Dan Thomas was grateful. Grandma went on to buy several other muscle cars, which young HR carefully looked after for her. Yes, there’s a lot more to that story.

8. In his first major speech, new Soviet President Yuri V. Andropov declared on January 4, 1983, that the Soviet economy had been hobbled by sloth, absenteeism and drunkenness, and that he was against all that. (See the New York Times for details.) Courtesy of Bonnie Renfro, a few other important milestones for that January: Tom Brokaw became the host of NBC Nightly News; the Final Episode of the TV show M.A.S.H aired on January 15, 1983; the first AEGIS class destroyer, the U.S.S. Ticonderoga, was commissioned January 22, 1983.

9. Frisbee; Paper clip; clothes pin; beer coaster; circle template; one cool earring; and 4 other things I didn’t write fast enough to record for posterity.

10. “Because calling it a pig’s bladder, which is what it actually is (or was), is a bit too real even for football players. In the days before vulcanized rubber, animal bladders were easily obtained, more or less round, readily sealed and inflated, and reasonably durable–just the thing if you wanted to play the medieval equivalent of soccer. In later years the bladder might be covered with leather (not necessarily pigskin) for added protection.” See The Straight Dope answer at http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_121.html .

11. “Don’t taze me, bro!” is the 2007 phrase of the year [http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid53162.aspx ]; “W00t!” (an exclamation of happiness and triumph used by internet and computer game players) is the 2007 word of the year [ http://www.m-w.com/info/07words.htm ]. [On the other hand, www.woot.com is a specialty shopping site, where one really awesome deal a day is presented for purchase.]