President Worth Williamson, Jr. opened the meeting and called on Tom Hutchins who gave an entertaining health and happiness report.  Tom settled the long-standing debate over which branch of the armed forces is superior. Next came Andy Fair with a current update of the news. Chuck Lineberry and Sharon King lead us in the song  "Carolina in the Morning". This is considered the unofficial State song of South Carolina. George Thompson followed with the invocation.
     Marilynn Bowler Chairman of the Membership committee gave a special award to Don Toney for his outstanding record in recruiting new members to our club. Don is the first recipient of this honor. Already this year he has brought two new people into the Charlotte Rotary Club.  Marilynn challenged EACH OF us to bring in a new member before the end of the year.
     President Worth welcomed Bill Kinney back to our meetings.  He was recognized as a past president.
     Jan Thompson, Chairman of the Rotary Projects Committee gave us a committee report.  They have identified a need to assist in making the public aware of the "Family Court System".  This program has been authorized by the State Legislature, but  lacks funding to inform the public of its existence. Our club has donated $5,000 to this  project.
     Jan also challenged our members to each make a contribution to the recent earthquake victims in Turkey.  "We don't have control over the elements, but we do have control of ourselves." Please make a check payable to Charlotte Rotary and designate it to be used for Earthquake Relief. "We will only be collecting these funds over the next two weeks".
     Harley Dickson introduced twenty guests and eight visiting Rotarians. These introductions were followed by the pledge.
     Peggy Wesp and  Ray Killian   reported on their recent visit to our Charlotte Sister City of  Arequipa, Peru (see Arequipa Project Update). During their visit, they presented a check in the amount of $1700 from Charlotte Rotary to the Rotary Club of Arequipa. This money is being used to help teach illiterate mothers from very poor suburbs to read and write. This is accomplished through a partnership with a local teaching university, which offers teaching experience to the students as part of their curriculum. They are participating as Rotar Act members. More than 500 women from 18 to 75 years of age are in the classes, which also teach basic hygiene and child  care.
     Seated at the head table were Brian Schick,   Bob Young, Jim Alexander, and Tom Hunter who introduced our speaker  Jim Hodges the Governor of South Carolina.  Governor Hodges is a fellow Rotarian.
      "It's my pleasure to be with you here today to recap a very busy and prosperous month for South Carolina business.  Earlier this month, I joined Commerce Secretary Charlie Way to announce a billion dollar day of economic development for South Carolina -- $300 million for Carolina Phone, a new wireless communications company in Greenville.  A $400 million expansion of Michelin's facilities in Greenville, Spartanburg, Lexington and Anderson, which is expected to grow to $900 million over the next decade."
     "There is a very strong lesson in these economic figures.   Our local economies are tied to our state economy, which in turn is linked to the global economy."  He added, "It's a lesson Charlotte learned years ago. Long before anyone spoke about the "global economy," Charlotte was busy positioning itself to be a "world-class city"."
     The Governor told a humorous story about a Texan who visited a farmer in South Carolina. The Texan could drive his truck all day and not get to the end of  his property.  The South Carolina farmer could easily relate to this situation.  He also had a truck like that awhile back .
     Governor Hodges continued by commenting on the effects of Hurricane Dennis. "The state stood pretty well in the path of the recent hurricane Dennis. There was little beach erosion and remarkably little physical damage. Unfortunately, the brunt of the storm may have  negatively impacted North Carolina ."
     While campaigning, the Governor promised to concentrate on funding the improvement of education in South Carolina.   His legislature has recently passed a $1.1 billion dollar bond package specifically to make improvements in education. "In South Carolina, there are too many children in poverty. But, we've won a great success in passing First Steps to School Readiness, an early childhood development initiative." He then gave credit to our Governor Hunt  for his pioneering work on early child development with Smart Start in North Carolina. "Over the years, I have looked on Governor for life Jim Hunt for guidance."
     "South Carolina is looking to its sister state of North Carolina, among others, to draw upon their successes as we begin our early childhood initiative.  However, make no mistake, First Steps is no carbon copy of Smart Start, nor is it meant to be a derivative program.  A key element in the implementation of First Steps will be local control at the county level."
     "Last week, we began a series of First Steps forums in every county in South Carolina.  These forums will be the first in a series of meetings designed to set up the structure of the First Steps initiative at the county level. During the countywide forums, participants will begin to select local membership to the First Steps Partnership Board in their respective counties."
      He then discussed the past poor ranking of his state in education. "South Carolina has been 50th in too many categories. Fortunately, we are now improving.  SAT scores have just come in for South Carolina 3 points higher in national rankings . North Carolina has improved by 4 points during the same time. This is while national average scores have decreased by one point. "One way to achieve better performance is to decrease class size to a reasonable number of students. It is our objective to have no more than 15 children in any  classroom. At the same time, we must elevate the quality of our teachers.   Discipline must return to education. There will be a policeman in every school and at the same time we are creating alternative schools to educate those students who have a violent or disruptive nature. The ratio of guidance councilors to students will  decrease. "We now have funding  in place to make these program changes while rebuilding our facilities."
     "In South Carolina, we've passed a school construction act that provides $1 billion for new schools without raising taxes.  Now we must ensure that each one of those classrooms is blessed with a quality teacher.  I have convened
a bipartisan Commission on  Teacher Quality, which is co-chaired by Senator Nikki Setzler, State Education Superintendent Inez Tenebaum, and CEO Larry Wilson of Policy Management Systems Corporation.  This commission will develop a statewide action plan to recruit the best and brightest teachers, address the teacher shortage in South Carolina, and celebrate teaching as a profession."
     "I'm also proud that the legislature has allowed the voters to decide on a statewide education lottery in the 2000 election.  I am particularly grateful to the South Carolina Chamber for their early endorsement of the lottery and their assistance in winning its passage.  The challenge next year is to pass lottery-enabling legislation so the voters are assured lottery funds will support specific education initiatives."
     The Governor was asked if  he would consider running for president? He said " I don't think Worth would like that!" He was then asked where he stood on the Confederate flag issue that has received national attention. "I support the compromise proposal that would move the flag from the State House an to a more appropriate place on the grounds. The problem is that there is not a lot of progress   in resolving this issue."
     In closing, Governor Hodges  placed these challenges before us  - to emphasize education, strengthen our financial network and expand our international trading relationships.   He stated,  "With your help, we can continue our remarkable economic growth and boldly enter a new millennium. With strong global partnerships, we can ensure the Carolinas continue to enjoy the kind of prosperity that has made Charlotte and cities like it the envy of the world."

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PARTNERS IN LITERACY

By Cindy Johnston

     Realizing that chronic literacy problems will not be solved in a day, a week, or by the year 2000, the Charlotte Rotary Club has embraced a challenge that will result in individual opportunity and a more educated and competitive workforce.

     Thank you to all Rotarians for their support, and to the past and present Rotary Literacy Committee members: Corinne Alien, Jim Appleby, Ron Bryson, Byron Bullard (1997 & 1998 Chair), Frank Carrese, Madine Pails, John Garcia, Ken Harris (1999 Chair), Cindy Johnston, Jim Kelley, Jim Kothe, Brenda Lee, John Morley, Gayle Smith, Eric Smith, Phil Volponi, and Tony Zeiss.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Club attendance for the month of July was 85% and ranked 7th out of 42 clubs for the district! Reminder: Members were asked to contribute toward the relief fund for Turkey. If you go through the Club with your contribution, be sure that you indicate on your check what it's for.

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