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November 6, 2014 – Meeting Roundup – Debbie Hammond, Author

This week, former Rotarian and Berkeley County Administrator Deborah Hammond will be speaking to us.

Deborah is a 1980 Cum Laude graduate of Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, with a double major in history and political science, and a 1982 graduate of the University of Virginia with a Master of Planning. She also received the Certificate of Highest Merit from the West Virginia Leadership Academy. She worked for thirty-one years in local government positions for the City of Wilmington, North Carolina and Berkeley County government respectively before retiring in March, 2014. She has been fulfilling a lifelong dream to write since March. She lives in Falling Waters with her husband Bill Hammond who is also a former member of our club.

At the November 6th Rotary meeting, Deborah will speak about her new novel “In the Eye of the Storm” and about the writing process; where the ideas originate and the process of developing story lines and characters. She has a second book currently in the edit and formatting process and four more books in development at the present time. Deborah’s books are available at Amazon.com in both paperback and kindle versions.

The following is a brief description of her book on Amazon: Elizabeth Majors sets upon a fateful voyage from her home in Wilmington, North Carolina to London, England to secure her inheritance held in trust with London solicitors. She is thrust into a web of intrigue and danger far beyond her knowledge and ability. The simple mission to obtain her inheritance leads to threats upon her own life and to the lives of others she comes to hold dear. In her quest she relies on the trust and affection of Captain James O’Rourke who has transported her far beyond the shores of post-Civil War Wilmington, North Carolina. Will his love be enough to save her from plots against her life and her fortune in the ever widening Eye of the Storm?

Find out more at the Purple Iris this week.

Club Assembly

President Chris began the club assembly by stating the goals she set at the previous club assembly and where we stood on these goals. The goals that have been accomplished include: a successful golf tournament; applying and receiving a district grant for a community project; and chartering an Interact Club at Hedgesville High School (at one time they had an extremely active Interact Club).

The goals that have yet to be completed include establishing a Rotaract Club at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College and having an increase in our membership by a net of at least 16 members. With the help of Sherri Janelle, we are well on our way to establishing the Rotaract club. Under Robin Zanotti’s lead, we have 11 new members with only the loss of a couple of old members.

Robin reported that we are also establishing a spouse membership (this will require a change in our by-laws) where a spouse can join, pay the appropriate dues, and pay for meals when the spouse attends the meeting. The spouse would have full voting privileges. She also asked members to bring guests who might be interested in joining. In fact, the guest form has been altered with a box to check if your guest wants to join our club.

Robin addressed retention by talking about our orientation program and renewal of the mentoring program.

Margaret Cogswell and Elaine Bartoldson are heading up the Health Screening program this year.

Mike Hite reported we are solvent. On the downside, 87 members are past due on their dues.

Cogwheels

Answer to last week’s question:

The first member of our club to become a Paul Harris Fellow was N. Blaine Groves who was also the first member of our club to serve as district governor. He also was responsible for our club being the first in the district to host an exchange student.

This week’s question:

Blaine Groves was the first member of our club to serve as district governor. Who was the only other member of our club to be district governor?