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Russell Hampton
ClubRunner
ClubRunner Mobile
Speakers
May 19, 2020
John Gipson, Director of TV, MS Pub.Broadcasting
MPB
May 26, 2020
Keith Carter, Ole Miss AD
Impact of COVID-19 on NCAA sports
Jun 02, 2020
Jane Alexander, CEO, Community Foundation for MS
Community Foundation for MS
View entire list
Bulletin Editor
Bill Osborne
(If you have any comments or questions, please contact the editor)
Executives & Directors
President
Greg Campbell
 
Vice President
Lee Carney
 
Treasurer
Uriel Pineda
 
Secretary
Suman Das
 
Director - Foundation
Judy Lyons
 
Director - Membership
Matt Monsour
 
Director - Public Relations
Bill Osborne
 
Director - Club Administration
Larry Anderson
 
Director - Club Service
Lori Greer
 
Executive Secretary
Don Roberts
 
All club meetings until further notice will be via Zoom online. The Zoom meeting invites with the link and password will be sent to all club members on Mondays. The Zoom meetings will start at noon on Tuesdays with club member fellowship with the meeting starting at 12:15 p.m. If you have any issues connecting to the Zoom meeting or would like the link sent to you, please email me at gregcampbell2@comcast.net.
 
STAR STUDENT Follow-up
John Kees, a St. Andrew's Episcopal School Senior, who was one of the students we recognized in our club's Star Student and Teacher recognition program on May 5, was recognized as the Top All-STAR Scholar in Mississippi by the Mississippi Economic Council. Madison Ridgeland Academy Senior, Arnob Iftekhar, who was also recognized on May 5, was recognized by the MEC as 1st Runner Up.
 

Here are links to recordings of the Zoom meetings

If you have difficulty getting the video to open. Just type the address into your browser's address bar and it should work. I plan to work on the issue with the host (Club Runner). Bill O.
 
May 12. Lakeysha Greer Isaac, 2019-2020 President, Junior League of Jackson
 
May 5, Honoring North Jackson Star Students and Teachers:
 
April 28, Tavia Cavett, Director of MBHS's Employee Assistance Program:
 
April 21, David Mars, Pilot & Adventurer
 
April 14 - Haley Fisackerly, Pres. & CEO, Entergy MS
 
 
April 7: Bob Miller City of Jackson Public Works director
 
 
March 31: Nelson Atehortua, MD, PhD
 
Note from the Editor: If you are infected by the Coronavirus or if you know of other Rotarians who are infected by it, please let me know at wgoii2@gmail.com. They will be in our prayers!
 
Please look for service opportunities keeping with our Motto of "Service above self." Remember from our March 31 meeting that President Greg asked for suggestions as to nonprofits needing donations. Email, text or phone call to Greg will all work. 
 

Prayer. Loving God, we pray for those adversely affected by the Coronavirus and for those working to manage the disease it causes.

O God, our Refuge and Strength, we are grateful for the confidence with which we can live because you are the Source of our ultimate security and hope. Grant us those blessings in response to out tenacious holding on to integrity and faith. 

 

Help each of us to be among those who set worthy examples of integrity and compassion. Bless our gathering here today, including the fellowship which we enjoy. Guide us to better exemplify the Rotary motto, Service above Self. Amen.

 

Club Announcements:

 

We are thankful that Rotarian Seymour Pooley has returned home and is on the mend and we look forward to seeing him at an upcoming meeting.

 

Upcoming Events:
 
All planned events are either canceled or postponed. The Club Assembly, originally planned for May 19 has been postponed until June 30 when it will include the "changing of the guard."
 

Birthdays

  • Pat Vivier                    May 19
  • Virginia Carlton          May 20
  • Suzie Baker                May 24
Wedding Anniversaries:
  • None
Membership Anniversaries
  • None
 
Stories
Junior League of Jackson President Speaks to Rotary Club of North Jackson
 

LaKeysha Greer Isaac, Junior League of Jackson (JLJ), 2019-2020 president spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club’s May 12, 2020 meeting. She discussed the projects and accomplishments of the 2400 women strong organization. The JLJ is the largest women's organization in Mississippi and it is the 6th largest Junior League in the world.

Each year the JLJ welcomes approximately 160 new members, termed Provisionals. Members generally stay active in the League for 5-8 years. Isaac noted that she is completing her 10th year. Members who remain in the league after their active membership are termed, Sustainers. The predecessor organization to the JLJ was the Junior Auxiliary of Jackson which was organized in 1927. The JLJ itself was formed in 1941.

The purpose of the JLJ is to improve lives in our community by working with community partners to deliver services and assistance to those in need. It utilizes a Community Based Impact Model to select projects. All of its projects focus on at least one of the following three impact areas: early literacy, children’s health, and the social development of children and youth. All JLJ projects are staffed with JLJ volunteers. Provisionals are required to complete an intensive first year of volunteer service. Key service projects for JLG are the Batson Children’s Hospital, the Mississippi Children’s Museum, and improving High school graduation rates. Over 800,000 dollars are raised annually from JLJ events such as Junior League Jumble, the ultimate rummage sale, Touch a Truck Jackson, and Mistletoe Marketplace. JLJ just fulfilled a $1,000,000 pledge to the Mississippi Childres's Museum and made a $1,000,000 pledge to Batson Children's Hospital

We thank Ms. Isaac for her presentation to our club and for her extensive service to our community. She is shown in the following photo:
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Rotary Club of North Jackson Honors North Jackson Star Students
Posted by Bill Osborne on May 07, 2020

At its May 5, 2020, meeting the Rotary Club honored the Star Students from four North Jackson high schools: Jackson Academy, Jackson Preparatory School, Madison Ridgeland Academy, and St. Andrew’s Episcopal School and their Star Teachers. Those honored were as follow:

  • Jackson Academy, Carter Elliott, and his Star Teacher Richard West-Griffin. Mr. Elliott will be attending the University of North Texas where he will be studying Jazz Piano.

  • Jackson Academy - Miles Johnson and his Star Teacher Sarah Shaw. Mr. Johnson will be attending the University of Alabama in the fall to study Aerospace Engineering

  • Jackson Academy - Anna Kathleen Ray and her Star Teacher Judy Mckeigney. Ms. Ray will be attending Dartmouth College in the fall

  • Jackson Prep - Hannah Grace Biggs and her Star Teacher Lauri Byrd. Ms. Biggs will attend the University of Mississippi in the fall

  • Jackson Prep - Olivia Clapp and her Star Teacher Beth Watts. Ms. Clapp will be attending Mississippi State University in the fall to study in the Early Entry Veterinary Medicine Program

  • Jackson Prep - David Crews and his Star Teacher Corinne Ciacco . Mr. Crews will be attending the University of Mississippi in the fall to study Computer Science

  • Jackson Prep - Nicholas Dean and his Star Teacher Kimberly Van Uden. Mr. Dean will be attending the University of Mississippi in the fall to study Pharmacy

  • Jackson Prep - Leigh Hardin and her Star Teacher Marsha Hobbs. Ms. Hardin will be attending the Honors College at the University of Mississippi in the fall to study engineering with the objective of attending medical school.

  • Jackson Prep - Olivia Moore and her Star Teacher Beth Watts. Ms. Moore will be attending the University of Mississippi in the fall to study English.

  • Jackson Prep - James Underwood and his Star Teacher Hunter Upchurch. Mr. Underwood will be attending Harvard in the fall to study sciences with the objective of attending medical school.

  • Madison Ridgeland Academy - Holly Hendry and her Star Teacher Matt Bramuchi. Ms. Hendry will be attending the University of Alabama in the fall to study biology with the objective of attending medical school to become a pediatrician.

  • Madison Ridgeland Academy- Arnob Iftekhar and his Star Teacher Matt Bramuchi. Mr. Itfekhar will be attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham to study pre-med with the ultimate goal of becoming a neurologist.

  • St. Andrew’s Episcopal School - John Kees and his Star Teacher Thomas Riesenberger. Mr. Kees will be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the fall to study Music.

  • St. Andrew’s Episcopal School - Vinson Lu and his Star Teacher David Maier. Mr. Lu will be attending Rice University in the fall to study engineering.

  • St. Andrew’s Episcopal School - Wake Monroe and his Star Teacher Ruth Holmes. Mr. Monroe will be attending the University of Mississipi in the fall to study biochemistry with the ultimate objective of attending medical school.

  • St. Andrew’s Episcopal School - Toni Oluwatde and her Star Teacher Wesley Saylor. Ms. Ouwatade will be attending Yale University in the fall to study French.

  • St. Andrew’s Episcopal School - Victoria Wang and her Star Teacher Dr. Krissy Rehm. Ms. Wang will attend the University of Mississippi in the fall with the objective of attending medical school.

The STAR Student program is a program of the Mississippi Economics Council and it seeks to recognize students for academic and ACT test achievement. Students are awarded a certificate and medallion as recognition upon becoming a STAR student.

The STAR student program does not directly award scholarships - any scholarship a student is granted is given through the Kelly Gene Cook, Sr. Charitable Foundation, Inc. or other outside organizations.

To be eligible for the STAR Student honor, a student may be a regularly enrolled senior or an approved dually enrolled student in an accredited public or private high school and or an accredited post-secondary institution. The student must be completing his or her last year of work and must be eligible to receive a diploma in the current school year. The student must have an overall ACT composite score of at least 25 and an overall average of 93 or above in selected subjects in the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and first-semester twelfth grades.

The STAR Student is asked to designate his or her STAR Teacher. The STAR teacher should be one of his or her elementary or secondary classroom teachers (active, former, or retired). The teacher selected is, in the STAR Student’s opinion, the person who has made the greatest contribution to the student’s scholastic achievement.

The Rotary Club of North Jackson congratulates these students and teachers. They are shown as a composite group in the following photo with Club President Greg Campbell who is second from the left in the top row.



 
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St. D. Emergency Department and Billy Brumfield Donations
Posted by Bill Osborne

 

 

The Rotary Club of North Jackson provided 30 meals from Aplos to the Emergency Department at St. Dominic Hospital Friday, April 24, 2020. The club wanted to thank the "front line" health care workers for their tireless effort during the pandemic. Shown from left, Malisa Walters, an ED nurse at St. Dominic; Greg Campbell, President of the Rotary Club of North Jackson and Jo McKeithen, administrative assistant, Patient Care Services Administration at St. Dominic.

 

 

Aplos Meals for St. D. Emergency Department

 

The Rotary Club of North Jackson donated 70 cases of water through Brown Bottling Group to the Billy Brumfield House on Monday, April 20, 2020. The Billy Brumfield House, a shelter for homeless men in Jackson, is a continuing project of the club. Shown from left, Walter Wilson, Brown Bottling Group and Christopher Heidelberg, dorm manager at the Billy Brumfield House.

 
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Baptist Health System's Director of Employee Assistance  Speaks to Rotary Club of North Jackson
Posted by Bill Osborne

Tavia McNair Cavett, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., CEAP, Director of Mississippi Baptist Health System's Employee Assistance Program, spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club's April 28, 2020 meeting. The subject of her presentation was the impact of the current COVID-19 on people's mental state and how to lessen its impact on them.

She started by saying that the pandemic is causing Stress on people. Why? They have grief, fear, financial uncertainty, they are required to shelter in place, and they have excessive fatigue. This stress can cause vicarious trauma; i.e, taking on someone else's stress. 

Her bottom line was some tips for coping with the current situation:  that people need to remain active, get plenty of rest, exercise reasonably, maintain a consistent routine, eat healthily, avoid overdependence on their electronic devices, avoid excessive alcohol consumption, and excessive smoking. They should cry when they feel like crying, laugh (laughter is the best medicine), watch and movies.

We sincerely appreciate Ms. Cavett's time, the points raised in her presentation, and her service to her Baptist Health System Colleagues.
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David Mars, Pilot & Adventurer Speaks to Rotary Club of North Jackson
David Mars, a pilot, adventurer, and aviation historian, spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club's April 21, 2020 meeting. He discussed his initial experience flying when he inadvertently accelerated an airplane at an early age causing it to go off the runway, his further experience as a barnstorming pilot when he took and still takes passengers for rides in his single engine planes, and his collection of early 20th century airplanes. He also discussed and showed photos of his experience hiking the full length of the Appalachian Trail, Georgia to Maine, about 2,189 miles.
 
We thank Mr. Mars for his presentation and for his contributions to aviation and to "thru hiking." A video of his complete presentation can be viewed on the club's website.
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Entergy MS President & CEO Speaks to Rotary Club of North Jackson
Posted by Bill Osborne

Haley Fisackerly, President & CEO Entergy Mississippi spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at its April 14, 2020 meeting. The subjects in his presentation were: how COVID 19 & the most recent storms have affected Entergy Mississippi and how the company is preparing itself for the future.

Fisackerly has said that COVID-19 has greatly affected how the company works. Anyone who can perform their function from home is doing so. Field employees are adhering to the social distancing rules and where three field employees would have shared a truck to go to a work location, the three employees are using three trucks to get to the site.

COVID-19 could not have come at a worse time. The GrandGulf Nuclear facility is down for major work including refueling and a turbine control system upgrade.  The plant was recently re-licensed by the NRC for 20 years extending its plant life to 2044. During the pandemic, Entergy is providing extensive customer assistance, including suspending disconnects for nonpayment of bills.

With respect to the recent storms, he said that outages in their service area were not as bad as they could have been. The damage was much worse north and east of their service area. Most of Entergy’s damage was in the northwest quarter and the Delta. Damage to their Arkansas sister company was much worse with over 110,000 customers without power.

Fisackerly said that Entergy is nearly complete with a project to replace all of the meters in their system in a project called  Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The new meters permit automatic billing, better outage reporting, and anticipation of system problems. They are also able to measure and report both the consumption and production of electricity by customers.

Entergy recently received regulatory approval to build a multi-acre solar farm in the Mississippi Delta and is looking at ways to reduce the cost of electrical energy. For example, he discussed the installation of high-efficiency gas turbines which use 50% less energy than the ones they are replacing.

We thank Fisackerly for his presentation and for his leadership of Entergy Mississippi.

 
 
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This Week's Rotary Thought is about How the
Rotaractor’s app separates pandemic fact from fiction

Posted on 

Members of the Rotaract Club of Dehli Rajdhani test features of the app, designed to provide users with reliable information through a computer-simulated chat.

By Uday Nanda, past president Rotaract Club of Dehli Rajdhani, New Dehli, India

As a social entrepreneur in New Dehli, India, I have been watching the overload of information coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be hard to sort out good information from bad. People have been misled by false news and inaccurate claims. As a member of Rotaract who has received recognition as a product designer in the fields of education and technology, I wanted to do something to help people sort fact from fiction.

With the support of my Rotaract club, I set out to design a Chatbot that could answer people’s questions about the pandemic. A Chabot is a software application that simulates an online text conversation with a live person. You can ask questions and receive information as if you are chatting with a real person, only via artificial intelligence.

When you use the Chatbot, you are initially asked a few questions about your status as a Rotary member or not, and what district you are from. You can then request various kinds of information about different subjects, and the Chatbot will link you to health-related information from the World Health Organization or Rotary-related information from Rotary.org.

Subjects that you can search for or fact-check include:

  • Prevention Tips
  • Informational Videos
  • Myths Debunked
  • Travel guidelines
  • Rotary events affected
  • WHO updates

Based on the initial feedback, we are working on enhancing the user experience to allow the Chatbot to assist with booking doctor appointments, link the user to testing labs, and help locate food or supplies.

Healthcare systems around the world are feeling the pressure from COVID-19. At the same time, the ability of communities to adapt and confront challenges is constantly on display. The human spirit is shining through, from Italians singing from their balconies under quarantine to healthcare workers putting in overtime to save lives. People everywhere are sharing tips on getting through this pandemic while being isolated at home. There are countless stories to be told, and Rotarians are in the midst of them.

You can try the Chatbot on our club’s Facebook messenger page. If you have suggestions on how we can improve it, or you want to incorporate something similar on your website or Facebook page, contact me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or by email udaynanda.rotary@gmail.com