MINUTES: JULY 12, 2016
Posted by Lamar Evans on Jul 18, 2016
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President Jaclyn Adams presided over the meeting. Thanks to Allen Anderson who gave the invocation and to Ryan Kelly who led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Jaclyn asked Paula Brahan to come forward. Paula is the Milam S. “Sonny 34” Cotton New Rotarian of the Year. She was in Ireland when the awards were presented recently. Paula was thanked for her Rotarian service. She volunteered to become the club’s president-elect and will serve as our president next year.
Thanks to Sean Priebe and Chrissy Yelverton who served as our greeters today.
Tracie Fowler introduced our guests. Wes Brooks has as his guest, Samantha McCain.
Tracie noted that she’s modifying the “Whose that Rotarian” feature to “Three minutes of Awesome.” A Rotarian will be featured each week and asked to provide a three minute presentation about them, their lives, their careers or whatever they want to discuss.
Today’s Three Minutes of Awesome features Ryan Kelly. Ryan started a new company called Horizon Professional Services two years ago. At the start-up he had one client and he was the only employee. Today the company has twenty clients and seven staff members. The company provides consulting services, website design, membership management and a variety of other services. Ryan credits God with making his effort a success.
Tracie passed around volunteer sign-up sheets for other candidates for the Three Minutes of Awesome. She also asked for volunteers to serve throughout the year for meeting volunteers.
Ryan asked for volunteers to serve a program chairs for the coming year. If you’re interested, please see him.
Jaclyn then accounted that the new newsletter editor is Lynn Walton. She thanked Lynn for her service and noted how good the newsletter looks today. She also thanked Wes for his newsletter work over the past few years and noted that Wes will continue to process and distribute the on-line and electronic communications.
Jaclyn also reported that a new membership application has been received from Nathan Wallace. The application is now being processed and hopefully a new member will be installed in the very near future.
Jonathan Shemper asked for Bike-a-Thon sponsorships. Applications are available on each table. Members are encouraged to become a sponsor or to get the applications to potential sponsors in the very near future. The event is coming up on September 24.
Sean Priebe and Angela Herzog then came forward and recognized this year’s RYLA recipient, Julia Bishop. Julia was presented with a RYLA certificate and will return to the club after the RYLA event and tell us about her experience. Sean also recognized Julia’s parents, Joe and Jennifer Bishop.
Jaclyn then introduced today’s guest speaker, Katie Dixon. She is a Hattiesburg resident and a MasterChef Season 7 contestant.
Katie said she has always loved cooking and from her grandparent’s farm in Brookhaven learned to respect the farm to table movement first-hand. She works for Shine Café in Hattiesburg and will have her website up and running in the next few months giving everyone a chance to learn her recipes and eventually be able to purchase her creations.
A friend of her gave her a MasterChef application. Because of allegories she was unable to sleep one night and filled out the application. Very soon afterwards she was contacted by the show and within a few days was competing in Jackson for a spot on the show. She was eventually chosen as one of the first 80 contestants. She had to leave her husband and live in Los Angeles for nine weeks. During the nine weeks she was allowed one ten minute phone call to home each week, one shopping trip each week and all under careful supervision. She did not even have a key to her hotel room.
Season 7 of the show airs on Wednesday evenings. The season began with 80 contestants. Those have now been narrowed to 15 contestants, of which Katie is still one.
When she came back to Hattiesburg after the show’s production she came back looking for a future direction. She is excited about the possibilities created by the experience and is looking forward to her future. Although she says it may never happen, she has always had a dream of a little food truck with a big heart on its side traveling throughout Hattiesburg and offering healthy, nutritious breakfast and lunch choices.
To learn more about Katie’s future, visit her website at www.chefkatiedixon.com.
Jaclyn then adjourned today’s meeting with our motto, “Service Above Self.”