April 29, 2003

NEXT MEETING, May 5… Dr. Henry Johnson, Mississippi Superinten-dent of Schools, will be our speaker.

LAST MEETING, APRIL 14… Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck was our special guest. After expressing profound thanks to the troops in Iraq (and telling us about Senate Resolution 605 which did just that), she talked to us about her office, and about legislation that was and was not enacted during the recently-concluded Special Session. Her three major goals are quality education, building the state’s infrastructure, and maintaining a business-friendly environment. She talked about the need for quality healthcare, about the continuing need for highway construction, and the need to help the more than 40,000 small businesses in Mississippi. She concluded by speaking at some length about the need for Voter ID, and about the need for more extensive tort reform, in addition to that enacted by the Legislature. Thanks to Program Chairman Danny Williams for arranging and introducing this program.

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBER… number 37 of this Rotary year. Introduced to the club at the March 24 meeting was…
• Dr. Royce Boyer, Professor Emeritus from the University of Alabama-Huntsville (retired, and in the piano tuning business in Jackson). Royce was introduced by his proposer, Vickie Greenlee.

DON’T FORGET THE TENNIS TOURNAMENT… Chairman Rodney Chamblee has reserved courts for our annual tournament for Thursday, May 1, beginning at 3 pm at the River Hills Tennis Club. Players may sign up by e-mailing Rodney at rchamblee@aol.com, or by calling Chris (ext 221) in Rodney’s office at 939-1281.

THE MENTOR SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE… thanks Doug Hudgins of Nick Clark Printing for the massive job of duplicating all the scholarship applications. Doug did it gratis, in memory of his father, Doug Hudgins, Sr., who was president of our club when the scholarship program began. Thanks, Doug!

PRESIDENT’S CORNER… I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Meal Tickets Committee, Ronnie Holmes, Chairman, and the Attendance Committee, Jack Cleary, Chairman, for their assistance at the District Conference luncheon last Friday. Also, a special thanks to the 41 of our members who attended. We are very proud of the awards our club received – the Significant Achievement Award (for our scholarship program), the Sow the Seeds of Love Award, and the W.A. Price Award for the Rotagram, Bill Dawson, Editor (congratulations, Bill!). Responses are still slowly coming in regarding the change of location for our meetings. We have heard from 250 of our members, but we need to hear from 100 more. Please let us have your input. – Howard