President Ronnie called the meeting to order at 12:40 p.m. Roy Currie introduced the guests and visiting Rotarians. Roy Dellinger asked for a moment of silent prayer for our beloved Tom Warren who died March 23 and held our club together for 23 years. Instead of our normal funny stories, Roy shared some thoughtful reflections regarding life that Tom’s death raised for him. He mentioned that so many of us are waiting to be happy after some event - getting our driver’s license, graduating from high school and college, getting a job, getting married, having kids, having kids leave the home, having our spouse get his or her act together, etc. The point is to be happy and grateful for each day and the circumstances you’re in and share that happiness and gratitude with others. Roy also announced that President Ronnie had been elected President of the Joint Rotary Council for the 12 clubs in Mecklenburg County. Congratulations, President Ronnie.
     President Ronnie led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Ed Ellis led us in a brand new international Rotary song. It was interesting to note that the song was still named R-O-T-A-R-Y but the words were quite different. President Ronnie thanked Ed for his creativity. (or was it forgetfulness?) Dr. Julian Aldridge gave the invocation saying a special prayer for Tom Warren and encouraged us to follow Tom’s example by always taking advantage of opportunities to renew our selves and serve others.
     Our president introduced the head table, which also included Gayle Smith, Pete Lawson, Dr.Julian Aldridge, Chip Hemingway, Chip Gwynn, Scott Anderson and Barry Miller, who introduced our program, "How I Got Where I’m At".
     Chip Hemingway started us off. Chip H. began his comments by quoting Socrates reminding us and him that it is better to be silent and thought a fool than speak and to remove all doubt. Nonetheless, he proceeded to speak. Chip was born in Columbia, S.C. in 1947 and shortly thereafter moved to CT. He was the middle child of five children and has 32 first cousins. While he lived in CT., went to private schools in the northeast and attended college at Waynesburg College in PA., he and his family always had and still have a special second family home in Maine. He graduated from Waynesburg with a BA in English and proceeded to go to work for Aetna in CT. He came to Charlotte in 1971 to work with a friend and run the Burris office here. In the late 70’s, he went to work in the executive referral business and has been in that kind of work since then. A year and a half ago, he went to work for Carnegie Worldwide, an international executive search firm.Chip H. is pleased to be in Rotary as service is an important part of his life.
     Scott Anderson went next. Scott had a comment about this exercise too, calling it a brutal exercise for new members. He titled his comments, "the itinerant migrant banker". Scott graduated from East Meck in ‘73, went to Furman for two years and then transferred to Chapel Hill where he graduated two years later. He continued at Chapel Hill to get an MBA degree since he had a "worthless liberal arts" degree. Afterwards, he went to work for Forsyth bank in Winston-Salem as an assistant collector, helping to repossess microwaves in Pageland. In 1981, Southern National bought the bank and Scott ran ten of their branches. Then he went to Charleston as the city exec, moving from repossessing microwaves to repossessing a director’s Porsche. From there he went on to Raleigh, where he learned that the western border of NC ends in Mebane. In 1994, still a member of Southern National, he learned about the merger of equals with BB & T. He moved to Durham in 1995 and spent two years there with BB & T before coming to Charlotte again in 1997 to run the Bank of Mecklenburg.After living in five houses in seven years, Scott is ready to settle down in Charlotte.
     Chip Gwynn finished up. Chip G. was hoping that his presentation would be barely entertaining. Chip is a consultant with Osprey Systems. He knows that consultants take a lot of heat away from lawyers but they really do important and meaningful work. Chip was actually born in Charlotte and was a typical ‘60’s and ‘70’s youth. He graduated from East Carolina with a degree in English, calling East Carolina the best six years of his life. He did not take a predictable course to his work doing computer software consulting. He moved around geographically from San Francisco to Berkeley to Nashville to Charlotte. He worked in wholesale, retail, sales, teaching, and training. That kind of diversity makes him a perfect fit for the world of computer consulting.

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