Past Speakers

Our speaker, Burt Manning, a member of our club, is the Chief Appraiser for Fulton County, and, in effect, manages the staff of the Fulton County Board of Assessors. It’s that organization that appraisers all property in Fulton County and sets the Tax Digest. If you are unhappy with your appraised value and appeal it, it is his office (he has a staff of approximately 150 people below him) that responds to the first appeal. Assuming that appeal is unsatisfactory, you can then request a hearing before the Board of Equalization. Burt’s personnel are the county representatives who come to the hearings to lead the charge for the county against the "little people out in the public".

Seriously, this will be an interesting and educational program. I’m sure that we all have been aware of real estate valuations and appeals in the past, now you will get a hands-on lesson on how it all works and how to appeal from an expert.

Mrs. Mary Norwood, Citywide Councilwomen from the Atlanta City Council

Dr. Annette Cash – Director of the Translation and Interpretation Program at Georgia State University – Did you realize that Grady Hospital spends over $800,000.00 a year on interpreters – did you realize that Metro Atlanta has over 300,000 people who speak English less than "very well" -- did you know that the State (GA) Department of Family and Children Services estimates that it spent about $346,000.00 in 2006 for interpreters – Spanish French – they are just the common ones – but can you speak Russian, Asian languages, Mayan, Arabic, Portuguese – public and private needs for translators and interpreters are growing exponentially – Do you want a job – hope you can still get in the class – you might bring your personal interpreter for Tuesday morning’s program.

Saeed Raees – 9/11 From the Perspective of a Muslim. Our speaker, Saeed Raees, is a Muslim businessman who has lived in the United States and Atlanta for thirty-two years. Saeed, originally from Pakistan, owns and operates a bio-tech business in Atlanta. In speaking with him, Saeed told me that he and his family have avoided drawing attention to their Islamic beliefs. Early on following 9/11, he had his daughter stop wearing the traditional Islamic headdress that Muslim women wear; further, they had considered changing their son’s name – all of this as they did not want to draw attention to their Islamic beliefs and a concern in the growing prejudice of American citizens towards Muslims. Our speaker feels that the Muslims should engage in dialogue. He spoke recently at a church and at a synagogue about his faith. He has invited the minister and the rabbi to do the same at a nearby mosque. He said "We needed to have built these bridges a long time ago. We are paying the price for that." If 9/11 changed the pulse of America, it also reshaped the perspective of Muslims, particularly younger ones reaching adulthood amid negativity about Islam.

This Program will give us a unique opportunity to see how 9/11 has affected not only the typical American community, but also how it has affected our American Muslim community.

Millennium Gate – Brian Leary, Vice President and Rodney Cook, Jr., President of the National Monument Foundation. Did you realize that on the 30th of December there was a ground breaking ceremony for Millennium Gate, a six story classical stone monument which will be surrounded by a group of six bronze structures, all to be erected at Atlanta Station. Once completed, Millennium Gate will be the largest national monument of its kind built since the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. The National Monument Foundation will be overseeing the project which is expected to open in the winter of 2008.

Millennium Gate will provide an area for events, both public and private. It will be set up to provide a wonderful landscaped garden/memorial area for use for all types of events. We’ll have a presentation from both speakers that morning and an opportunity to learn more about Millennium Gate.

Anne Quatrano – Chef/Owner and Creator of Some of Atlanta’s Most Dynamic Restaurants. Thinking of going out for dinner – have you considered some of the top restaurants in the city? What about Bacchanalia? You may want to try Floataway Café, or you say you may want to pick up some gourmet groceries and take them home – try Star Provisions – or maybe you want to stop at the bar at Quinones at Bacchanalia. Now’s your chance to learn all about these top spots. Our speaker is the owner/chef who along with her husband, has created some of Atlanta’s, and certainly Georgia’s, most lavish eating experiences – gourmet jackpots where people savor sqaub, seared foe gras and $2,000-per-pound white truffles. Behind the kitchen doors is the woman who started these culinary gems who once lived in a Cartersville double wide and earned only $970.00 a year.

What an interesting program this will be. Anne and her husband/partner are among the south’s most acclaimed chefs known in the smartest food circles from San Francisco to Manhattan. Their three restaurants – Floataway Café, Bacchanalia and their 2005 venture Quinones at Bacchanalia are the darlings of the Zagat Survey, The New York Times food page and Gourmet magazine, which this past fall ranked Bacchanalia on its list of the country’s top 50 restaurants – and we only have bacon and eggs for breakfast – that’s okay. Maybe Anne will give us a tip on all the good eating for our evening out.

Bill Thompson, Director of Georgia’s Film, Video and Music Office – Do you want to be in the movies, do you want to be discovered. They said it happened to Lana Turner wearing a "nice" sweater in a drugstore in Hollywood, California. Well .... there may not be a drugstore here in Atlanta, but since the inception of the Georgia Film, Video and Music Office as a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, there have been more than five hundred major motion pictures and television movies filmed on location in the state. As a result, more than Three Billion Dollars has been generated for the state’s economy. In 2005 alone there were 261 productions including movies, television series, commercials and music videos which accounted for an economic impact of 145 Million Dollars in Georgia – hmmm – maybe we can get in the movies.

This should be a fun and informative program. It’s happening all over Georgia, and be on the lookout – you may be lunching next to an Academy Ward winner – you may even see Matthew McConaughey walking down the street. He just finished filming a movie here in the local area, or many others often can be spotted in the local watering holes. It is said that most major studios in Hollywood have bulldozed their back lots because real estate was so valuable, and now we in Georgia are offering them an additional back lot. This will be a unique asset for Georgia and the industry.

Be sure and be there that Tuesday morning – you, too, may be in the movies!

Kivi Bernhard – The Success Tracker. Our speaker, born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, has combined his acute business acumen and success in building a multimillion dollar multinational diamond business with his passion for Africa and its wildlife. Using the hunting habits and techniques of the African Leopard, perhaps the most successful feline predator on earth, he draws metaphors of personal and corporate success that will leave you spellbound.

Kivi is one of those unusual people you meet every once-in-awhile and never forget. He is an Orthodox Jew, a passionate family man, accomplished business entrepreneur and renowned speaker. He is the CEO and founder of Kivi International LLC, an international wholesale loose diamond distributor, with a business network which reads like a current addition of ‘Who’s Who?’ Tapping into this asset has allowed him access to the minds and spirits of some of the biggest names in the local and global business arena. A keen student of life with a large appetite for adventure, Kivi is an accomplished and published musician, Judo medalist and gemological consultant. His other true love is the African Brush, and it has become part and parcel of his fiber as a human being – if you want to see an interesting website, go to www.THEHUNTFORSUCCESS.COM.

This will be quite a presentation. Inspired by his passion for Africa, his successful business experience and his talent to share with others, Kivi offers a true experience – "The Hunt for Success".

Dr. Annette Cash – Spanish Miracles Stories

Aimee Maxwell, Executive Director of Georgia Innocence Program – and special guest, Mr. Pete Williams. You try to say your innocent but no one believes you – you are convicted, sent away to prison for years – possibly the rest of your life. You walk into the grayness of prison life and iron bars close behind you. That’s right – you’re there, you’re innocent, but no one believes you and for twenty-one years you suffered the depravity of prison life.

Almost by accident someone listened, someone heard your plea, someone took up your cause and with the advances in science and technology, a DNA test found that you were, in fact, innocent. The iron bars opened. After twenty-one years, Pete Williams is a free man having been wrongly convicted of rape – a rape he never committed and now he has been freed by new DNA testing and the concern of the Georgia Innocence Program.

What a dynamic program this will be. Not only will Aimee Maxwell, Executive Director of the Georgia Innocence Program, be with us, but also Pete Williams will be here to tell his own story of twenty-one years as an innocent man serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. Tell all your friends, let’s have a crowd, let’s be here for a most dynamic program.

Lorrie Smith – Georgia Transplant Foundation. If I might quote Shakespeare, in a soliloquy, Mark Anthony stated "the good that men do is oft interred with their bones". So true it is today. The good that so many of us could do, we fail to do. A kidney transplant, a cornea transplant, other organs which are desperately needed could be available and could enrich a life or lives of so many others after we have gone. The Georgia Transplant Foundation is the primary source for transplant patient assistance and support for all solid organ transplantation in the entire state of Georgia. Our speaker is herself an organ recipient having had a liver transplant some five years ago. Lorrie is now actively involved with the Georgia Transplant Foundation and will be speaking with us about the subject of organ transplants. Unfortunately, too few people are aware of the need as well as the ease in which one can become a donor. There may be various prejudices that people have to overcome before accepting the fact that they can be a benefit to so many following their death.

You might even say, possibly in a lighter vein, that transplant is not a new concept; it’s even Biblical. There was a guy named Adam who contributed a rib, and we know what happened then.

Seriously, this will be a very informative program and will provide information that we all need to know.

Brent Leslie, 1st Division Lt. Governor, Lt. Governor’s Report. Brent Leslie will be the guest at the club meeting on the 27th. Brent will bring to the club a report on the activities of the 1st Division as well as the District as a whole. He will seek information and input from the club as to its activities. This will be an important session, certainly for newer members, to learn more about the actual workings of the Division and the District.

Ms. Dean Crowe, President of Rally Foundation - Benefiting childhood cancer research. I could imagine that probably the most frightening word you could hear when a physician finishes his diagnosis of your child’s problem – the word cancer. Cancer is frightening and can be tragic regardless of who the person may be, but the thought of your child having cancer is more than merely traumatic. The Rally Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which is dedicated to raising awareness and funds for childhood cancer research through nationally-coordinated grassroots fundraising initiatives.

On the average, two classrooms full of students, about 46 children, are diagnosed with cancer every school day in the United States. Pediatric cancer is the #1 cause of death from disease in children ages 0-20 in the United States.

The Rally Foundation helps fill the estimated $30,000,000.00 annual gap in childhood cancer research funding. Rally supports the collaborative research of physicians, scientists and nurses at hospitals nationwide and supports all phases of cancer research from science at the bench (very early research) to Phase I, II and III clinical trials. More than 80% of children and adolescents with cancer are enrolled in clinical trials. Kiwanis contributions locally have helped Rally fund a senior research nurse who oversees 15 childhood cancer clinical trials at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

This may not be a subject that one likes to hear or learn about; however, pediatric cancer cannot be overlooked. We must be aware of its dangers and what needs to be done.

Captain Christopher Trombetta, U.S. Army. Capt. Trombetta recently returned from a tour of duty on the front line in Iraq and is now stationed in the Atlanta-Metro area. He plans to be with us with a series of pictures and maps, providing us a first hand report of Iraq from a soldier who was on the ground – this will be more informative than two hundred hours of CNN and Fox News together. We will get the straight info with pictures and maps along the way.

Anita Sharpe and Kevin Salwen, Motto Media. The Struggle For Shelf Life – that’s the key to a magazine’s survival. A few media entrepreneurs get rich – some get by – many just fail. So far, despite big challenges, Atlantians Anita Sharpe and Kevin Salwen have dodged that last category. They have struggled for shelf life and are finding it. Have you ever thought what it takes to get a publication off the ground, one that will be a success and one that will have its place on a shelf?

In 2004, the ex-Wall Street Journal staffers launched a business magazine initially called Worthwhile and now called Motto. Days before the first issue reached the shelves, the publication was sued by Worth magazines over the name. Sharpe and Salwen went to court, but eventually gave up in the face of pricey legal bills.

They spent much of 2006 retooling their magazine plans, learning from the successes and mistakes of Worthwhile. They came up with a new business publication called Motto and found ways to work better and cheaper. With their revamped plans they introduced Motto in November 2006, which now has a circulation of 70,000. Sustaining the magazine is tough, but Sharpe and Salwen project that Motto will be profitable by the end fo 2008. Hmmm – our speakers may be the business version of Hugh Hefner.

How would you go about starting a magazine? This will be the program to see.

Kenneth Kraus, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired). Ken Kraus, currently a detective with the Roswell, Georgia Police Department, is going to tell us about an event that happened many years ago – but as they say, "History Repeats Itself"– and it did just a few weeks ago.

Back on February 14, 1979, the world of young Sgt. Kraus turned into a nightmare. While on duty as one of the guards at our embassy in Iran, Iranian revolutionaries attacked the embassy. There was shooting; in addition to being wounded, Ken was kidnaped, charged with murder and thrown into a foul Iranian dungeon. There he waited, while the fusillades of a rooftop firing squad drifted down from above. All he could look forward to was his turn to be the next target.

Don’t confuse this embassy action with the much larger embassy takeover the following November of that year. The embassy was overrun again in November, and the 52 hostages endured 444 days of captivity. The February attack was a violent pre-curser of Iranian action to come.

After what must have seemed like a lifetime of hell, Ken was miraculously released. Back stateside in a special decoration ceremony, he was awarded the Purple Heart for his wounds and the Navy Commendation Medal for his actions on February 14. He says there was much more to what happened and to what is happening today than what you get from the newspaper and television reports.

Ken’s story will be fascinating and – just ask the British sailors and marines – History does repeat itself.

Kevin Oonk, President of Fräbel Studio, Fräbel Glass Art. The Fräbel Studio in Atlanta first introduced the world to "sculptural torchwork" where the discipline and skill of the scientific glassblower are merged with the imagination and spontaneity of the creative mind of the artist. Atlanta is home to the studio of the renowned hot boron glass sculptor Hans Godo Fräbel.

The Fräbel Studio is one of the more interesting attractions in Atlanta. Visitors can expect to see 9 highly skilled artisans (usually including Hans Godo Fräbel, the Studio’s principal artist) turning hot glass into the beautiful sculptures. The art is exquisite with prices ranging from $60.00 for traditional, tear drop vases to $10,000.00 for clown sculptures personally signatured by the principal artist.

Jo Anne Shirley – Mission to Vietnam Gets Personal.  Our speaker, Jo Anne Shirley, has taken four trips to Southeast Asia over the past two decades.  On her most recent trip in early March, Jo Anne lead a four person delegation to Southeast Asia seeking information on missing Americans – she’s an active participant in JPAC.

JPAC sounds rather official; it is.  It is the U.S. government agency known as the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command.  This is the governmental organization pressing diplomatic initiatives to persuade reluctant governments to provide more information of American service members still unaccounted for as a result of the Vietnam War.  Surprisingly, according to Jo Anne, there are still MIAs from the Korean War and even World War II who have not been accounted for.  Since the end of the Vietnam War, through the efforts of JPAC and other organizations, 795 sets of remains have been recovered and identified from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, but there are 1,788 Americans still missing in Southeast Asia, 34 from Georgia.

Jo Anne’s brother disappeared in Vietnam nearly thirty-five years ago.  Since that time she has become active in demanding accounting, not only for her brother, but for the 1,788 Americans still missing.  She serves on the Board of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, ever seeking more opportunity for sites to be found and excavated.  Jo Anne, with a non-profit Georgia group, the Georgia Committee for POW/MIA, is pressing appeals to officials of the governments of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to secure better access to previously off-limit areas including official archives to provide more information about the nearly 200 Americans known to have been alive at the end of the war but never accounted for.

This will be a most interesting program presented to us by someone who is vitally interested, not only for her own family, but for hundreds more.

Michael A. Schwraz, photo journalist and three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee.

Marjorie Harvey, High Museum of Art – Our speaker is the Manager of Exhibition and Design at the High Museum of Art.  She moved to Atlanta in 1982 to coordinate the move of the museum when it was located in the Memorial Arts Building to the new museum designed by Richard Meier.  Having worked at the High Museum of Art for twenty-five years, our speaker has seen major improvements in the arts at the museum and city-wide.

She began as the museum’s Registrar, the person in charge of safe handling of all art works.  After a few years she became the Manager of Exhibitions & Design.  In this position, Marge is responsible for exhibition contracts, budgets, schedules, and special exhibition designs.  In 1999 she was asked to be the Director for Architectural Planning & Design for the museum’s expansion designed by Renzo Piano.  In this position she worked closely with the staff, board, architects and builders to be certain they got the museum facility they wanted and needed.

Marge will give us a virtual tour of Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005; Cecilia Beaux, American Figure Painter; and The Gates of Paradise: Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Renaissance Masterpiece.  You will not want to miss this!

Sandra Putnam, Georgia Bureau of Investigation.  Do you know who your daughter – your niece – your granddaughter – possibly your son or grandson is chatting with on the computer – or rather, do you know who is chatting with them as they innocently don’t realize it is a potential predator on the internet?  Sandra and several of her co-agents are online pretending to be a 14 year old girl or young boy – trying to catch these predators.  They are part of the GBI’s Internet Crimes Against Children Program.

Did you realize that within 15 minutes of signing into a chat room, they will have these potential predators hitting on them – and its not to meet for ice cream and cake.

June 12th – Lauren Winborne, “It Won’t Happen To Me”.  Everyone in this country knows about the war in Iraq.  The number of soldiers who have been killed in combat related duties since its inception is over 3000. This number is one the internet; it’s on the television; it’s on the radio, and it’s in the newspaper.  What most Americans don’t know is that since the inception of the war, almost 23,000 teenagers have been killed in car crashes.  Why isn’t that number known throughout the nation?

“It Won’t Happen To Me” is a program that strives to get this message out to everyone.  As they inform, these deaths are preventable; this is America’s silent tragedy.  Seventy percent of all teen car fatalities didn’t have to happen.

“It Won’t Happen To Me” is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to reducing the number one cause of teen fatalities – car crashes.  The educational incentives help teens become more safer, more responsible drivers.  The foundation also strives to make parents aware of the importance of proper training and monitoring of their teens.

This will be a program that is important for all of us, whether it relates to our child, a grandchild, niece, nephew or the kid who lives next door.  We all need to protect teens from their number one fatality – car crashes.

Susan Anderson, The ArtReach Foundation.  Susan Anderson, our speaker, is the founder of The ArtReach Foundation.  When natural or military disaster strikes, leaving thousands of traumatized children in its wake, The ArtReach Foundation offers hope.

Even after the shooting stops, a child will deal with grief, trauma, and, in some cases, caretakers that are dealing with personal grief and unable to provide care.  At precisely the time these children may need special care and assistance, adults and social institutions may be least able to come to their aid.

In 2000, Susan went to Bosnia.  That is when she saw how war had burdened and traumatized so, so many children.  She realized that she had to do something, not for just the children in Bosnia, but for war ravaged children throughout the world.  She developed the program which works with children, and just as important, trains teachers how to work with these children.

ArtReach utilizes a unique model that is an integration of art, drama, and music therapeutic techniques and activities with the principles of group dynamics.  It is based on the assumption that creative artistic, imaginative, and self-expressive activities within the context of safe and supportive relationships with peers and adults, offer children an effective opportunity of returning to a path of normal and healthy development.

In the Fall of 2006, ArtReach announced the establishment of the first ArtReach Institute in collaboration with the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network (Femme-Art-Méditerranée, or “FAM”), an organization with formal ties to The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization known as UNESCO.

The goal of the Institute is to replicate the success of the ArtReach “Train the Trainer” model used in Bosnia where 500 in-country teachers were trained in five years.  Teachers and healthcare professionals from around the world will attend The Institute to learn ways to help children, traumatized by violence or natural disaster, heal, regain hope, and resume a path of normal growth and development.

What a program and Susan will be with us to tell her own story.

Susan Booth, Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre.  The crowd, finely dressed were gathered in a New York theater; with excitement and thrill they were there to participate in Broadway’s highest honor, the annual presentation of the Tony Award.  And now the announcement – ‘The Tony Award for outstanding regional theater is presented - the winner - the Alliance Theatre! On the stage to accept the Tony Award is the Alliance’s Artistic Director, Susan V. Booth, who says that the Tony Award for outstanding regional theater recognizes Atlanta’s support of “the national theater with the local address”.  For the Alliance, it was a moment to shine, recognition for years of work that has gone into building the thirty-nine year old Atlanta theater as part of the Woodruff Arts Center.  In addition to the silver disk with mask of comedy and tragedy on one side and profile of Antoinette Perry on the other, the Alliance got national television exposure and a coveted cash award, but that’s just the beginning.  The Tony will bring attention, artist and audiences for years to come.

The Alliance is not just a local theater, but rather it is a theater that is regional but national in scope.  This years Tony award to the Alliance marks its maturity in the regional and national theater world.

When you think of theater, it can be very New York-centric – when you say theater, many think only of Broadway.  Not only are the Tonys a recognition of excellence in New York theater, they are also a recognition of the great contribution of regional theaters.  The Alliance has earned a reputation for a level of diversity and its success is largely due to its strong reputation of doing work which it is community focused, yet nationally appealing.  Certainly, the Alliance’s Tony is long over due!

This will be a fascinating program as we will have an opportunity to meet the Alliance’s Artistic Director who has been responsible for so many new and innovative works at the Alliance.  This will be an opportunity to learn how the legitimate theater world recognizes its own through the Tony Awards and the excitement that is now.

Let’s all use this as an opportunity to celebrate the most recent acknowledgment of the Alliance Theatre’s successes.

Mary Williams, Storyteller.  Journey back to a time when everyone in the family would retire to the front porch after supper.  Members of the family would entertain everyone with stories that begin with, “Why I remember back when your grandmother was a little girl and...”

As you listen to Mary weave her tales, your transported to many places – some in our history and others in our fantasy world.

Let her share with you the joy of stories for all ages, because deep down, we all love to hear a good story.

FLUGTAG – Joe and Lauren Staley, Modern Day “Wright Brothers”.  We are all familiar with the story of the Wright Brothers as they pieced together bicycle parts and whatever else could be found around their shop to create America’s first version of the “flying machine”.

Modern day teams of amateur pilots, would-be Wright Brothers, who are doctors, lawyers, engineers, artists, exhibitionists or simply fun-seekers gathered in Nashville, Tennessee’s River Front Park several weeks ago for the annual contest called Flutag – that’s German for “flying day”.

Flugtag is an invention of Dietrich Mateschitz, the Austrian billionaire founder of the energy drink Red Bull.  After debuting in Austria in 1991, Flugtag has grown into a major brand promotion for the canned drink, the motto of which is “Red Bull Gives You Wings”.  Teams of participants create their individually designed “flying machines” and participate in Flugtag.

For the recent Nashville event, more than 300 teams submitted entries; only 29 were chosen, three from the Atlanta area.  Our speakers, Joe and Lauren Staley, married attorneys, were one of the teams selected.  Their team built a mock-up of a green John Deere tractor out of metal poles, cardboard, and topped it with Leonardo da Vinci-style wings stretching 30 feet.

At the Flugtag (in Nashville) the Staley team dressed like farm animals and did a little dance to the song, ‘She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy’, and then pushed the winged tractor off the ramp with Joe piloting with his brother, Dan, a nuclear submarine officer, riding the wing section like a hang glider as the cardboard tractor “flew” into the river.

I can imagine the 60,000 or so watching the different contestants enjoyed the afternoon with a lot of fun, gaiety and “bottled” entertainment.

This should be a fun program as Lauren and Joe will tell us about their adventures in Flugtag as well as other teams sharing pictures and memorabilia of the event.  Who knows – you may want to build your own flying machine for the next Flugtag.

Wi Fi – Andrea Arnold, Assistant City Manager, Decatur, GA.  Hi-tech time is here – if you’re in the right city, your internet system will work at home or away, at the coffee shop, at the gym while you are at play or even sitting on a park bench.  No hooking up, no wires, simply turn on your laptop or other electronic gadget and away you go with wireless internet sending messages next door or around the world.  No longer will it be necessary to find the coffee shop with internet connections for its patrons.

Our speaker, Andrea Arnold, is the Assistant City Manager of Decatur, Georgia.  She was on the front line in this new technology project as the City of Decatur became the first community in Metro-Atlanta to deploy a citywide Wi-Fi network.  Decatur recently secured permission to mount 18 wireless network radios atop DeKalb County Courthouse, and there are other transmitters being mounted on power poles and traffic lights across the city.  The transmitters will talk to laptop computer’s mobile devices allowing people to check their emails and surf the web on the go.

What’s it all about?  It’s new technology.  The Georgia Technology Authority selected Decatur and five other communities from among seventeen applicants for its Wireless Communities Georgia Initiative.  Decatur received a substantial grant towards the first year cost of $620,000.00.  Gwinnett County is the only other metro area to receive one of the technology authority grants and it hopes to follow Decatur.  The county wants to offer Wi-Fi services in about a thirty-three square mile area in Buford and in Lawrenceville.

Okay gals and guys, if you are not computer savvy now, you better get on the band wagon or else you are going to be left behind the at the coffee shop.

Edward Lindsey – Georgia Legislature – Co-Chairman of Georgia General Assembly Committee on Fulton County.  Say – is Fulton County a relic of the past?  What's the use of Fulton County? – Should Fulton County survive? If it does, what will it look like?  In the wake of four new cities in the county and with most of the county now incorporated, what should the county do?  In the next few weeks, sixteen people will begin answering those questions.  The group must tackle a variety of issues, such as looking at what services should be provided by the county and whether the county's form of government should be changed.  It won't be easy.  It involves politics and tens of millions of dollars of tax money which the county has lost because of the new cities.

Our speaker, Edward Lindsey, a practicing attorney in the city, is a representative in the State Legislature.  Edward represents the Buckhead area, but more importantly insofar as his presentation, he is the co-chairman of the committee which was set up by the General Assembly to review the overall situation during the summer and fall before making recommendations to the Legislature by year's end.  This group's recommendations could become law in 2008.

Whether you live in Atlanta, Decatur, Marietta, or other parts of the metro area the future of Fulton County is important to all.  This will be an interesting program.

Dr. Brian J. Corrigan, North Georgia College and State University.  Harry Potter — Did you know that Harry Potter’s birthday is July 31st – Did you realize that J.K. Rowling’s birthday is July 31st – I can even add a personal touch to the 31st of July, but what is important is Harry Potter.  Who knows, on July 31st, we might be able to change the Capital City Club into the newest Hogwarts, or even play a game of Quidditch.  Say –  you might want to bring your broomstick so we can fly and have a quick game of Quidditch.

Brian teaches a course on Harry Potter and the phenomenon it has created.  He is currently working on a Harry Potter encyclopedia and he is in contract negotiations with J.K. Rowling.

July 31 – what a date!  It’s going to be fun! – Don’t forget your broomstick!

Ann Farrisee, Georgia Communities Council – ‘Democracy Restored: Our History of the Georgia State Capital”.  This will be a ride through Georgia’s history told through the evolution of one State Capital building.

Today we will get a lesson in Georgia history through the change and evolution of the Capital over the years.  Who knows, we may even learn about the offices where Georgia was once governed by three governors at the same time.

Ann Hardie and Nancy Badertscher, Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  Lobbyists showered $931,000.00 in sixty-five days to curry-favor with the Georgia legislators.  This kind of buttering up is prohibited in fifteen states – in Georgia it’s gravy!

How would you like free meals for you and your spouse – maybe free tickets to the Braves, to the theater, to a hockey or football game – come now, certainly you want a free dinner at one of the more posh restaurants in the city.  Well, if you were a legislator, you might get it.

A family of four could eat for a week on what some lobbyists shelled out feeding House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, on a single night during the 2007 General Assembly – on February 28th three lobbyists chipped in $378.00 to cover dinner and drinks for Keen and his wife.  Keen is not the only one, he is merely a large ticket item among others, simply being one of the men in power.

Lobbyists “remember” members of the legislature in both parties, and they have not forgotten the executive branch of government – I only wish I could get free meals, don’t you?

These two Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters have conducted detailed research, written various articles for the paper and will now be with us to talk about the “Raining Freebies” – raining upon our legislators who are making decisions – decisions for whom, us or the companies the lobbyists represent.  Quite a program – it may be quite illuminating.

Richard Garner, Producing Artistic Director, Georgia Shakespeare.  To be or not to be – that is the question.  Whether or not you want to show up and get some “couth” or not show up and remain “uncouth” – that is the question.  But if you do come on Tuesday morning, the 21st of August, we have a bit of culture coming to us.  Our program,  Georgia Shakespeare, all started under a tent on an athletic field in 1986, that was the first season of what was to become the summer tradition of Shakespeare in repertory at Oglethorpe University.

The six month season includes seven plays which are performed on a dizzying rotating schedule.  For the audience, it’s a theatrical feast.  For the players, it means juggling multiple roles in multiple plays – often the same day.

What you see when you go to the theater is what you get, but what got it there is a completely differently story.  There are props, costumes, casting, rehearsals; there are a myriad of activities for the cast and crew; for them it’s long and fatiguing hours, but — those hours provide hours of pleasure and excitement for us, the audience.

Richard Garner, the Producing Artistic Director, is a co-founder of the Georgia Shakespeare now in its 22nd season.  He will be with us to tell us about the workings of the theater, its production, and “all about it”.  Not only will this be an interesting presentation, but quite entertaining.  How well do you know your Shakespeare?  It might be with you everyday and don’t even know it.

Beth Woodward, Atlanta History Center.  Benjamin Franklin – one of our towering founding fathers, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, an Ambassador to France, an inventor, a philanthropist and a “cutter” in his own right, a man who was the quintessential American he’ll be interesting to learn about. Our speaker is the Atlanta History Center’s Museum Outreach Coordinator.

Through one speaker we’ll experience the international traveling exhibition, Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World.  The exhibit at the Atlanta History Center is a unique exploration of Benjamin Franklin and his achievements through a combination of more than 40 hands-on activities, state-of-the-art interactives and 240 original artifacts, including five of America’s key founding documents, all originally signed by Franklin; a printing press; bifocals; lightening rod; and Franklin’s musical invention, the armonica.  We’ll learn of Franklin’s life-long desire to improve the world around him and understand the wit, genius and wisdom of one of America’s favorite founding fathers.

The Atlanta History Center is the only southeast venue to host this exhibition – Atlanta is lucky to have gotten this exhibit, and we are lucky to have get a program about it.

Dr. Max Miller, Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Human Communications from Cuneiform to Computers: The Story of Writing. We never stop to realize how very unique “our” communication is – “our” the human race.  When man began to write, it completely set him apart from the other animals in the world.  All species seem to communicate; however, we are the only ones who write.  But wait – how did it all begin?  Before you can write, you must have words – before you have words, you must have letters or an alphabet of sorts – say, how did it all begin?

Dr. Miller directed Emory’s Graduate Division of Religion (Emory’s Ph.D. program in Religion) from 1983 to 1992.  In 1999 he joined the staff at Fernbank Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Miller combines interests in Ancient History, Archeology and Biblical Studies.  At Candler, his courses focused on the historical and archaeological backgrounds of biblical times.  Among archaeologists, he is perhaps best known for directing an archaeological survey of the region of ancient Moab (in present-day Jordan).  The results of this survey, conducted between 1978 and 1983, were published as Archaeological Survey of the Kerak Plateau (1991).

In addition to his extensive travels in the Middle East as an archaeologist, Dr. Miller has, for the past twenty-seven years, directed the Middle East Travel-Seminar.

As an archeologist and ancient historian, we should get the “true-rule” on how our communication began – who knows, some of our members may have been there when it all began – say, John, where were you?

ATTENTION!  TODAY, MONDAY, GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, THE COMMANDER OF ALL GROUND FORCES IN IRAQ AND THE UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR, RYAN CROCKER, WILL BE GIVING THEIR DETAILED REPORT TO CONGRESS.  This is a report that not only Congress, but the entire American population has been waiting for.  What’s happening?  Is it working?  What do we to do?  Where do we go from here?

Listen to the news on the news reports.  You may have watched the report on television or tuned in to your computer at CNN.  Whether you saw it or not, certainly you have time to read the paper before tomorrow.  Tomorrow mornings program will be a discussion on Iraq and the United States, General Petraeus’ comments, Ambassador Crocker’s comments, and what do we all fee that is happening and the direction that should follow.

Dusty Miller and Ray Nixon will lead the discussion, so be prepared, watch the news and we will all be able to look at their report and discuss what our future will be.

Capt. John Bailey, Mr. Posey Miller, Aviation Career Enrichment Camp.  At the coolest aviation camp in town, African-American teenagers get their chance to “TAKE FLIGHT”.  Can you imagine the thrill of a young teenager as he climbed into the Cessna 182F?  As he starts to sit in the cockpit, the instructor stops him.  He is holding two phone books.  He wanted his student to sit on a makeshift booster seat.  And he did, a fourteen year old ninth grader who has never operated a car, much less an airplane, is learning to fly!  This young man will have to wait to drive until he is old enough for a leaner’s permit, but his summer he got the chance to learn to fly.  He was one of sixty teenagers at one of the coolest camps around.

The ACE camps (for Aviation Career Education) was started by the organization of Black Airline Pilots.  The ACE camps are stagged around the country to encourage young African-Americans to consider pursuing jobs in aviation.  Locally, the ACE camp is overseen by Delta Capt. William Davis.  As if the students needed any motivation, a recent alumnus came to one of the sessions at the camp wearing his Air Force Academy uniform.  This young man first flew at an ACE camp four summers ago.  Two others have gone on to the Air Force Academy and one to the Naval Academy.  The Atlanta camp, sponsored by Delta Air Lines, takes student’s on behind-the-scenes tours of Delta’s operations.  They explore the FAA control center and watch fighter jets scream in and out of Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

The campers are taken on a day trip to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.  But the highlight of many students come when they are allowed to take control of the plane for the first time.  These camps, now running full force each summer, open up the skies for aspiring pilots.  One of the young students who was recently given his silver wings which were pinned on after his flight, he had just received a half-hour of flight time toward his pilot’s license, exclaimed with a great deal of excitement, “That was way better than a video game.”

Kathryn Johnson – The reporter who always gets her story!  What a fascinating program this will be about Kathryn Johnson, one of the “early days” Associated Press reporters – early days when the reporters were typically males, not charming young ladies.  Kathryn covered a world in the state of change hitting many of the sensitive stories of the 50's and 60's, stories on the civil rights movements and other changes in times.  She can tell the story of a meeting with Coretta King, a casual meeting with Jacqueline Kennedy, and she as a young reporter donned bobby socks, sweater, grabbed an armload of books and headed for the University of Georgia campus to appear as a student for an eyewitness account of Charlayne Hunter’s first day of classes in 1961.

To paraphrase the Canadian Royal Mounties slogan “they always get their man”, this program will be about a reporter “who always got her story”.  A first hand report of the experiences of a reporter in a venue new for females covering events in a new world.

Just a bit of news from your program guy, we’ve got good programs coming, let’s keep the members and guests coming.

Jack Harris – Junior Achievement. Junior Achievement is a program which functions with volunteers and uses hands-on experiences to help young people understand the economics of life.  In partnership with business and educators, Junior Achievement brings the real world to students, opening their minds to potential.

Junior Achievement worldwide annually reaches approximately reaches 7.5 million students.  Through age appropriate curricula, Junior Achievement programs begin at the elementary school level teaching children how they can impact the world around them as individuals, workers and consumers.  The programs continue through the middle grades and high school, focusing on the key content areas of entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy.

Our speaker, Jack Harris, has been with Junior Achievement since 2002, and most recently is serving as Chief Operating Officer for Junior Achievement of Georgia.  Also, part of the program will be some of the volunteers who have been involved and are involved with the Junior Achievement program.

This plays right in hand with many of Kiwanis’ objectives.

Administration Program.   Installation of 2007-2008 Officers.

Ram Ramgopal, Senior Editor for CNN International and works with CNN International Europe Lineup.  He’ll share his experiences as a correspondent for CNN and his travels throughout Asia and the middle-east, including Iraq.

Naomi Katz, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stimulates leaders and citizens to confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy.  A public-private partnership, federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanence, and donors nationwide make possible its educational activities and global outreach.  The Museum provides a powerful lesson in the fragility of freedom and the myth of progress, the need for vigilance in preserving democratic values.  With unique power and authenticity, the Museum teaches millions of people each year about the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need to prevent genocide.

The Museum works closely with key segments of society that affect the future of our nation.  Professionals from the fields of law enforcement, the judiciary and the military, as well as diplomacy, medicine, education and religion study the Holocaust, with emphasis on the role of their particular professions and the implications for their own responsibilities.  Since its dedication in 1993, the Museum has seen more than 25 million visitors, including more than 8 million school children and 84 heads of state.  Today 90 percent of the Museum’s visitors are not Jewish, and the Museum’s web site had 15 million visitors in 2006 from an average of 100 different countries daily.

Our speaker, Naomi Katz, is on the staff of the Museum; she along with George Hellman, another staff member, are going to be in Atlanta in mid-October.  They were speaking to several groups, and we were able to have them join us on the morning of the 23rd to present a program.  This will be a fascinating program to learn about the Museum.  If you have visited the Museum, you’ll learn more about the Museum, its goals and also the manner in which, architecturally and otherwise, it was developed, built and presents information.

October 30th – Mr. Herb Bridges, Member of Board of Margaret Mitchell and Collector of Gone With The Wind Memorabilia.  Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler Revisited.  You all remember the famous line as Scarlett sat on the steps with pleading eyes looking up at Rhett and he looking down at her, replying “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”  As he walked out, Scarlett replied, “...after all, tomorrow is another day.”

Well, the 30th of October is another day, and we’ll have another opportunity to again see Rhett, possibly Scarlett and some other Gone with the Wind persons. Now, some seventy-one years after Gone with the Wind put such fictional Georgia spots such as Tara and Twelve Oaks on the map, it never goes out of print.  There is a new “retelling” of the saga from Capt. Rhett Butler’s perspective and it officially goes on sale on November 6th.  Like Scarlett O’Hara, who couldn’t wait to doff her widow’s weeds prematurely and dance at a ball during the Civil War, Peachtree Atlanta will get an early jump on celebrating the new book, “Rhett Butler’s People”.  There are a lot of activities and  plans and overall excitement over the publication of “Rhett Butler’s People”.  Our program on the 30th of October is fitting in the overall excitement.

Speaking to us on the 30th will be Herb Bridges.  Herb is quite involved in the Margaret Mitchell Home.  He has part of his memorabilia collection there and some of it at the Road to Tara Museum.  This should be a fascinating program ... and yes, “frankly my dear, this will be a good program.”

Gordon (Duke) Duquemin, MG, USA (Ret), United Service Organization (USO) -- General Duquemin, a retired Major General, who we all know as Duke and as a past president of the Atlanta Club, has been actively involved with the USO in the local area.  Duke will tell us of the significant role the USO plays in our military and also how many of us can become involved.

You may not know that since before the United States entered World War II, the USO has been the bridge between the American public and the U.S. military.  In times of peace and war, the USO has consistently delivered its special brand of comfort, morale and recreational services to the military.  The USO, a congressionally chartered, private, nonprofit organization, relies on the generosity of individuals and corporations to support USO activities.

For 66 years, the USO’s mission has remained the same.  The USO will support U.S. troops and their families wherever they serve.  Across the United States and around the world, the America military knows that the USO is there for them.  We have all known of entertainers going to the troops at the front during time of war – Bob Hope and other major entertainers providing entertainment to the troops – a USO service.  By supporting the USO, Americans show their appreciation and express their gratitude to the men and women who defend us.

Gen. Duquemin will present a program that should not be missed.

David Pless – Biker, from Tybee Island to Santa Monica, California.  Are you ready to hop on your bike and take a trip across the country?  That’s what David Pless did, a young 16 year old student at Lovett School.  David didn’t look like he had pedaled across the country, he just looked tall, and in photos, the 6'5" Lovett student towered above everyone else.  The bike looks good too, to have made a trip from Tybee Island to Santa Monica, California in over six weeks.  That’s right!  Biking the entire way.

I challenge any of you, not only to come to the program, which I’m sure you will, but to get your bike out and think of a trip across the way.

Bob Wiesman, Executive Director of Northside Shepard - Meals on Wheels – A very active project within Peachtree-Atlanta Kiwanis Club is its participation in the Meals on Wheels program.  Our members have been involved in this very, very important project, and the program on the 20th of November will provide an opportunity for the entire club to learn more about the Meals on Wheels program and also in so doing, recognize those of our members who are active in this program.

William Rawson Smith – “Villa Clare: The Purposeful Life and Timeless Art Collection of J.J. Haverty.” & Our speaker, Bill Smith, recently wrote a book which tells the epic story of the timeless art collection of J.J. Haverty and his passion for collecting art. J.J. Haverty regularly invited the public to view his outstanding collection of American realist and Impressionist paintings and sculptures at his home, Villa Clare, which was located on Peachtree Street where Shepherd Clinic is now located. Mr. Haverty’s efforts to raise awareness about arts led to the establishment of the High Museum of Art in 1926.

Did you ever stop to wonder how the High Museum, now considered one of the fine art museums in the country, first got its start? It all started because of an art collector who wanted to share the beauty of his collection with the world.

Georgia Tech Solar Decathlon House.  Burrrr – As the cold wind blows, stay warm and toasty.  Oops – those OPEC fellows have turned off the oil faucet – Hey!  They can’t turn off the sun.  What you need is a solar powered home.

Our speaker is Dr. Franca Trubiano, an assistant professor in the College of Architecture, Georgia Tech who was the Project Manager – Design and Construction – for the Georgia Tech Solar Decathlon House.  But what is this Solar Decathlon House?  This year Georgia Tech participated in the Solar Decathlon 2007.  Sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, this is an international competition between twenty universities from around the world to design, build, and transport an 800 square-foot solar-powered house on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  The house was designed and built at Georgia Tech by over 100 students and faculty.  The house was then transported to the Mall to compete this past October against the other schools in 10 competitions, hence the decathlon.

Georgia Tech was the only university in the Southeast selected to participate in this competition – and the Tech team came in sixth place which is an excellent showing for its first time competing. 

Lisa Cremin, Director, Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund.  In 1992 The Community Foundation and the Metro Atlanta Chamber came together with a common interest in building and sustaining the arts in Atlanta.  This nationally unique partnership between a foundation and a business membership organization was formed to address a gap in Atlanta’s arts funding.  As a longtime trusted grantmaker, The Community Foundation was asked to be the steward of the endowment.  Through the Arts Fund, donors found a way to add to the stability of metro Atlanta’s hundreds of small and mid-sized arts organizations.  Grants in the amount of $150,000 were awarded to arts organizations in 1993, the first year of grantmaking.

Fifteen years later, the Arts Fund in addition to grants have established programs to provide stabilization to arts organizations.  One program is the Arts Stabilization Toolbox, a management consulting program that provides arts organizations with the tools and knowledge necessary for a highly functioning staff and board.  In the 15 years, the Arts Fund has made a difference to nearly 200 arts organizations and to the overall arts community in Atlanta.  Since establishment, the Arts Fund has given $5.1 million in financial grants, awarded 43 Toolbox Awards valued at $400,000, and provided loans at times of critical cash flow needs for arts organizations.  The Arts Fund’s grantmaking endowment has grown to $8.6 Million with contributions ranging from $50 to $1 million from hundreds of donors.

Our speaker, Lisa Cremin, Director of Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, will tell us about the Fund’s activities and its grants which provide financial stability, strategic support and technical assistance to the 200 plus organizations that make up the core of the arts community.

Surely, each of us probably have enjoyed music, theater, dance, galleries, or other arts activities which this organization has been able to aid and assist in their continuance.  This will be an interesting program.

Clare Richardson, ---- Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.  What an interesting program this will be – search back in your memory for the 1988 movie “Gorillas in the Mist” starring Sigourney Weaver.  That movie was a story of Dian Fossey, and her work with gorillas.  The movie was a movie, but the facts are real.  Our speaker has been head of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International for a number of years.  This is an organization dedicated to the conservation and protection of gorillas and their African habitat and it is home-based here in Atlanta.  Our speaker works out of the non-profit’s headquarters on the grounds of Zoo Atlanta; she travels to Africa about three times a year to meet with the staff there and to see the gorillas she describes as “magnificent”.

The Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda founded forty years ago is the organization’s flagship.  The Center conducts research, anti-poaching patrols and educational efforts.  Dian Fossey, conservationist who founded the organization that now bears the name, was later killed in Africa.  Her story was portrayed in the 1988 movie “Gorillas in the Mist”.

Clare has said that this job is the hardest job and the most rewarding she has ever taken.  She reminded that their work was in Rwanda which was just emerging from a brutal civil war and genocide in the ‘90's; everyone remembers the war and the genocide that took place in Rwanda.  In some respects it was difficult to separate the Foundation from what was happening around them; they knew that they, Karisoke and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, needed to be a part of the rebuilding of Rwanda, and to need to work between the lines so to speak to keep their project going and to keep their employees paid.  At times that meant that the support of the military and convoys taking salary to the trackers and guards in the northwestern region, which was still insecure, was needed.  It was turbulent, yet luckily they had a Board of Trustees who had been associated with the organization for a long time and knew Karisoke very well.  Many of the Trustees had actually been to Rwanda and had been with Dian Fossey before she was tragically killed.  Clare tells that the organization has gone on from them and now have not only the Karisoke Research Center, still operating in Rwanda and doing wonderful work, but they have major collaborations with the National Wildlife Authorities of Rwanda and the Educational Authorities in Rwanda.

This will be a fascinating program.  Unfortunately, there won’t be any gorillas with us that morning, only the few monkeys who belong to our club, but the program will be fascinating.

No meeting - Merry Christmas!