Category: Uncategorized

The Civil War Facts or Fiction …

April 6, 2010: Andy Brack provided an overview of the new Civil War lecture series that was kicked off today with a presentation by The Citadel History Professor, Kyle Sinisi. He provided a compelling overview of the timeline of how historians since the 19th c. have qualified the genesis and justification of the conflict (aka, “the great unpleasantness,” “the war between the states…”). Andy introduced lecturer, Kyle Sinisi, professor of History at The Citadel. He listed the other installments of the new series on the Civil War:

May 18 — Dr. Nic Butler, Charleston County Public Library, who will discuss material from an upcoming book he is writing that looks at militia music in the South during the Civil War: Music played mostly by African-American musicians that served as a precursor to Jenkins Orphanage bandstand later, Charleston’s brand of jazz.

June 15 — Dr. Bernard Powers, history professor at the College of Charleston, will review “Slavery and the Coming of the Civil War.”

July 27 — Dr. Stephen Wise, Director of the Marine Corps museum at Parris Island, will speak about blockade running during the Civil War. He is author of a highly-acclaimed book on the subject, Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil War .

Dec. 7 — Dr. Eric Emerson, Director of the S.C. Department of Archives and History, will discuss South Carolina’s secession in Dec. 1860 (150 years earlier). He will bring the original copy of the Ordinance of Secession to the meeting. Eric is a former member of our club.

Professor Sinisi spoke to the rapt audience about the various views of the Civil War by historians over time. He provided an interesting overview of how historians have studied and assessed the reason for the war, the role of secession and the differences in values, or “belief sets” of the north and south (e.g., industrialization vs. agrarianism, art, music, government, etc.). One summary illustrated the shared responsibility in the start of the war due to regional beliefs. He cited the role of good and evil in the war as compared to World War II, where evil was more obvious and concrete. Interestingly, it wasn’t until the post WWII era that historians began studying the Civil War through the lens of good vs. evil and rested on slavery as the main source of that tension.

Submitted by: Mark Danes, Keyway Committee

Growing the School of Business, at the College of Charleston

March 30, 2010: Valerie Morris introduced Dr. Alan Shao, Dean of the Business School of the College of Charleston. Dr. Shao indicated that, prior to taking the position of Dean of the Business School of the College of Charleston, he taught at the U. of Alabama and was Dean of the Business School at the U. of North Carolina for 19 years. He said that he has traveled to China more than a hundred times, often as a business consultant to many major companies who do business with the Chinese. In 2005 he was listed in the Journal of Advertising as one of the most influential leaders in the country. Shao stated that his mother is from South Carolina though his ancestry in China.

Dr. Shao said that the number one challenge in higher education today is competition from for-profit schools. From 1988 – 1998, growth in for-profit schools grew by 319%. From 1998 – 2008, growth in for-profit schools grew by 664%. An example he cited was that the U. of Phoenix currently has 455,000 students on the rolls. For-profit institutions have grown at a rate of 9% per year over the past 10 years. He said that the reason for this is that these schools are: 1) Student focused; 2) Convenient within a community; 3) Make up 7% of all college enrollments.

In South Carolina, Dr. Shao said that there is a minimal support for state run schools – 10%; and maximum control of the C of C by the state – 100%. Only $424 million is offered in financial support to all schools in the entire state. Whereas, $458 million is given by the state of Georgia to the U. of Georgia alone.

Dr. Shao then showed an excellent video highlighting qualities of the C of C Business School. He boasted that only 5% of the business schools in the entire United States have as high of a certification as the C of C. Currently he is celebrating his first full year as Dean of the business school. He said that a current and ongoing goal is that of globalization. He wants to strongly market the school outside of the United States.

Dr. Shao then outlined five goals that he has for the business school. They are:

Step 1: Globalization (they are currently working closely with China).
Step 2: Increasing graduate programs.
Step 3: Increase community partnerships.
Step 4: Train students to “think differently.”
Step 5: Increase online education opportunities.

These steps are a snapshot of where he sees the future of the business school heading. He added that they are also attempting to become less dependent on state support and provide a more student-oriented educational experience. When asked about how much money the business school wanted from the state, he responded by saying that he wanted the school to become 100% independent from state resources and that to do that he will be generating funds from private sources. He wants to reduce dependence on the state and become self-supportive.

Reported by: William K. Christian, III, Keyway Committee

Defense Contracts Sustaining Small Businesses

March 23, 2010: Bill Crowe spoke to the club about gaining traction in small business during the current recession. Bill gained valuable experience spending several years running his own company, Aerotech, and in 1998 he retired and went to work for an IT company in Virginia. Recently Bill, accepted a position as the Vice President for the South East Region of the Copper River Native Association, an Alaska Native Corporation. Bill’s remarks focused on the utilization of government contracts as a stable source of income for small to medium sized businesses, his theories are based on the thoughts that follow.

In the tri-county area, Spawar, The Naval Weapons Station and the Air Force Base there are between six and eight billion dollars worth of defense contracts available to sustain local businesses and our economy by providing valuable jobs to our citizens. To illustrate this impact Bill shared this observation “North East Virginia is the hub of defense contracting and the employment rate in that area is less than 1%” this is a powerful statistic in this current recession.
Because 85% of small businesses fail within the first five years of opening, and bank financing is slim and private funding is expensive, Bill points out that consistent contracts are a way for small local companies to “gain traction”. In recent years there has been a noticeable shift in the thinking of contracting officers, as they realize that small businesses can team up with large corporation to fulfill their needs, and the agency works towards its quota to small disadvantaged businesses. There are additional benefits for companies denoted as service disabled veteran owned companies, and Alaskan Native Corporations.

In summary Bill stated the government is going to be the meal ticket as the country continues climbing out of this recession, and businesses in the lowcountry may as well take advantage.

Reported by: Elizabeth Wooten Burwell, Keyway Committee Chair

Investing in the Leaders of Tomorrow

March 16, 2010: A new charter school for gifted and talented students will help the area develop tomorrow’s leaders for the area, according to organizers of the Palmetto Scholars Academy.

“If you are not helping gifted students, you are holding them back,” said Rotarian Win Gasperson when introducing the meeting’s speaker, Dr. Shelagh Gallagher of Charlotte. “There is no middle ground.”

Gallagher observed that with big changes going on in the world, strong leadership is needed more than ever. For today’s students to turn into tomorrow’s leaders, they need a where they can learn to “sustain innovation, think historically, appreciate complexity, communicate clearly across cultures, respect diversity and practice ethically.”

But hundreds of talented students in the Lowcountry aren’t challenged enough to help them develop to their potential, in part, because current schools focus on bringing the bottom of classes up to the expense of those at the top, she said.

It’s a myth, Gallagher said, that these gifted students will be OK – that they’ll figure out how to be challenged. She asked members to think how a talented basketball player isn’t left to his own devices as less-talented ones are brought up in skill level. Instead, the talented player often gets extra help.

“If Michael Jordan had not had that kind of support, it’s very likely he would have become kind of bored,” she said. “Why can’t we do this for the areas of society that will actually develop our civilization rather than just entertain us?”

Gallagher said a school that targets gifted and talented students will help them to develop intellectually and become the leaders of tomorrow.

The Academy is seeking to open in August for students in grades six through eight. Eventually, it will run through high school.

“This school is going to be a national model in bringing the business and technology communities together to reverse this trend,” noted Stacey Lindbergh, a North Charleston Rotarian who chairs’ the group putting the new school together. More info: www.palmettoscholarsacademy.org
ALSO TUESDAY, the club welcomed a GSA group from the state of Parana in Brazil. In a short slideshow presentation, members heard from the five visitors – two educators, a business administrator and two dentists. Among the statistics they provided: Brazil has almost 200 million people. It takes up 47 percent of the land mass of South America. Parana has 84 Rotary clubs and more than 2,000 Rotarians .

Mark Smith gave the invocation and pledge. Tom Clymer provided information on the charity Duck Race. Sue Sommer-Kresse introduced the GSE team.
Reported by: Andy Brack, Keyway Committee

Come Laugh with The Charleston Riverdogs

March 9, 2010: Dave Echols introduced Mike Veeck, Owner and President of the Charleston Riverdogs, as our guest speaker.

Mike began by telling several Rotary jokes and a few jokes about Club Rotarians that he knows. He then told several jokes and humorous stories about his days in Chicago.

His theme was that for the past 14 years he’s been trying to make the people of Charleston laugh. He said that people love the sound of laughter. His goal is to try to make people laugh to bring them into the stadium to see ballgames.

Mr. Veeck’s presentation was a series of unrelated stories and humorous experiences he has had in life, particularly revolving around his career in working with several baseball franchises.

Mr. Veeck stated that he has been in Charleston for 13 years now and that attendance at Riverdogs games has increased every year that he has been here.

Mr. Veeck stated that these are not the worst of times but the best of times. Before his father died he told him to “be happy.” He said that he tries to share compassion and joy with others… that’s what life is all about.

In the question/answer period, he was asked what it would take to go from a single A team to a double A team. His answer was that they would like to become a double A team, however, to obtain that status, the Riverdogs would have to maintain a 300,000 per year attendance record. Currently the attendance is at 280,000 annually.

Reported by: William K. Christian, III Keyway Committee