President Don convened the meeting and recognized Charlene Kammerer to introduce the guests and visiting Rotarians. Phil Van Hoy adroitly handled Health and Happiness with a few much-loved lawyer jokes. We "Rowed Our Boats" with Chuck Lineberry leading the way and the incomparable Thomas Moore accompanying us on the piano.
     Lamar Thomas mentioned the International Studies Program and President Don introduced the head table which included Susan Hutchins, Mike Crum, Will Pleasants, Tigger Alexander, Herb Klein, Darrell Stephens and Frank Timberlake who introduced our four Rotarians who told us "How They Got Where They're At."
     Mike Crum spoke first since his hall pass from Rotarian and City Manager Pam Syfert had a time limitation — he had to join the discussion with the Hornets management on the coliseum issue.
     For all of us, somebody or several somebodies have made a difference. For Mike, it was his father Dick, Harry James and Steve Camp. When Mike expressed an interest in athletics, his family was less than subtle in directing him away from it. He found a way to get involved in athletics without the headaches by majoring in sports and facilities management at Ohio University.
     Mike subsequently took a job at the Indianapolis Coliseum offered by Harry James. Steve Camp invited him to Charlotte where he was CFO for eight years at the Coliseum and was promoted to director 30 months ago. He joined Rotary at the urging of Joe Grier, Jr.
     Will PIeasants grew up in Rocky Mount, N.C. Among the people who made a difference in his life were his grandparents who instilled in him a strong value system and work ethic. His family moved to Salisbury and he graduated from Salisbury High School. Then he served in the army as a military policeman with a tour of duty in Korea.
     Will subsequently worked for the D.C. and later the Fairfax County (Va.) police departments. While he was with the police department he went to college full-time on the GI Bill. He joined Erols, a video rental company that was later sold to Block-buster Video. Will then joined Mattress Discounters as VP of national operations. He subsequently worked for Security Moving & Storage in D.C. and in March of this year joined Charlotte Van & Storage as vice president of sales and marketing.
     Tigger Alexander remembers starting off in a warm, dark and probably cozy spot in Ridge Spring, S.C. and moving to Charlotte in 1960. He went to Episcopal High School in Virginia and set several records — for demerits. He attended UNC and defied the EHS headmaster's predictions by lasting two years. The headmaster had predicted he would last only 18 months. After serving in the Marines he returned to UNC.
     In 1971 he married Poo Mullen. He said it was several months into their relationship that the Tigger and Poo connection dawned on them.
     He joined the Cato Group in the shoe department for five years and followed this with two years of Consolidated Shoe and then went into business for himself in 1974. He joined Charlotte Rotary in '77 and rejoined this year.
     Herb Klein comes to Charlotte from Germany by way of the United Kingdom and Pittsburgh. He contends his accent was picked up in Pittsburgh. He joined the Bayer Corporation in 1967, and under the German apprenticeship program he earned his BS in marketing. In '72 he and his family moved to Leicester in England and then Manchester, back to Germany and to Charlotte in 1983.
     Herb's career path took him to Bayer's U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh to set up a textile joint venture and later to Charlotte where the joint venture was acquired by BASF. He has been married for 34 years and has a daughter who lives in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
     President Don thanked the new members for an entertaining program and, there being no additional business, adjourned the meeting.

*    *   *

The Four-Way Test

     It was 1932, one of the dark moments of the Great Depression, and the Club Aluminum Company, owing $400,000 more than its total assets, was about to go under. The creditors employed Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor, hoping he could save the cookware company from bankruptcy. With a $6,100 loan from a Chicago bank, the company did make a comeback.
     But not without effort. Taylor and his associates recognized that "while we had a good product, our competitors also had fine cookware with well-established brand names." So they looked for "something which our competitors would not have in equal amount." If everyone connected with the business could be persuaded to govern his or her conduct by higher standards, the resulting improvement in efficiency and reputation might enable the firm to improve its position. It was not a matter of developing detailed rules, he decided. Rather it was the need for some way of reminding the individual, faced with a decision, of what he already knew was right. To provide this reminder he evolved a simple Four-Way Test and used it for a period in his own daily decisions. Then he suggested that his department heads try it out. They did — and found it helpful. Then he asked all the people he employed to learn it and use it.
     The Four-Way Test by which Club Aluminum would be guided was so successful that in 1942 Rotary International adopted the same test for its members. Simple and brief, the Four-Way Test is equally suited for a family, individual, church, or nation.

     The four simple questions have been publicized in more than 80 countries by Rotary International. They proved acceptable and applicable to people of all religions and in every kind of situation. They have been translated into many languages. Four-Way Test posters are displayed prominently on the streets of Bombay, in Japanese railway stations, and in the offices and plants of countless business and professional men throughout the world.

*    *   *

DID YOU KNOW?

*    *   *

Click here for photos of this Meeting