December 4, 2001

NEXT WEEK, MONDAY, DECEMBER 10... Ron Polk, Baseball Coach at Mississippi State University, willtalk to us about college baseball.

LAST MONDAY, DECEMBER 3... Darianne Wilson, Director of Tourism for the state of Mississippi, gave us some information about tourism in the state, which is a $6B (yep, that's right -- $6 BILLION) annual business. Darianne, who formerly headed up both the Jackson Convention and Tourism Bureau and the Mississippi Tourism Association, told us that Mississippi is now a travel destination, rather than a pass-through, and that people come to our state to experience the blues, to eat catfish, to see our antebellum homes, and - more and more - to gamble. Darianne's department also is responsible for the state's film office,and has a retirement division and an European office. Thanks to Beau Whittington for introducing this program.

OUR ANNUAL ELECTION… resulted in our choosing Howard Catchings to take office next July as President, Haden Hughes as Vice President, and five new Board members - Charlie Conerly, John McCullouch, Heber Simmons III, Sister Dorothea, and Billy Walker. We'll have a runoff at our December 10 meeting for the remaining Board position, between Keith Ferguson and Mickey McCardle. Congratulations to the winners, and also to the ones who were not elected. Quite a few have remarked that this was one of the strongest lists of candidates we've had in some time, and it's a shame they couldn't all have been elected.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO REMEMBER… Andy Covington, whose wife Becky is still in serious condition from injuries in the tornado that struck Madison recently. And please note that the fund set up for Andy and his family is at AmSouth Bank, not Trustmark as we told you last week. Any branch of the bank can give you information on how you can help this fellow Rotarian and his family.

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBER... number 19 of the new Rotary year. Introduced at the December 3 meeting was: