September 10, 2007

COMPUTER SECURITY

Today, we’re pleased to welcome Ray Vaughn, Endowed Professor in the MSU Computer Science and Engineering Department and Director of the MSU Center for Computer Security Research.

SECRETARY OF STATE TO SPEAK

Eric Clark, now completing his third term as Mississippi’s Secretary of  State, will be our speaker next Monday. The Smith County native  was first elected to office in 1995 after serving four terms in the House of Representatives.

AUGUST 27th MEETING REPORT

Invocation and Pledge: Kristi Brown.

Attendance: There were 132 members (94 actives, 37 exempt, 1 honorary) present. Missing were 41 active, 17 exempt, and 9 honorary members. One active member is on leave.

Guests: Guests of members were Jeff Adkerson of Brent Fountain and Lynne Richardson of Clyde Herring. Club guests were RYE Students Maryna Melnik and Negrita Caicedo, and Paul Sims (Starkville Daily News).

Makeups: Bill Foster and Gary Chism made up in West Point August 23.

Meeting Notes: President Ned announced that the Fall Social will be Monday, Oct. 8. It will feature the steak and Bingo combo that proved popular last year.
        Kudos for the day went to Rotarians Chris Latimer and Andrea Myles, participants in this year’s GSDP Leadership Forum.
     Ned announced brief meetings of the Board of Directors and the Membership Development and Membership/Classification Committees.         

OUR DICTIONARY PROJECT

        Cecilia Cook’s Rotary Minute explained one of our projects that supports this year’s emphasis on literacy. Starkville Rotary Club will present a dictionary to every third grader in Starkville schools.
         Cecilia explained that we are joining an effort started by a lady in Savannah, GA in 1992 that has grown into a nationwide project “to help children along the educational path.” She said third graders are targeted because “that’s the age of transition between learning to read and reading to learn.”
        Since its small beginnings in Georgia, the Dictionary Club has distributed more than 6 million dictionaries – 2 million in 2006.
        We joined the effort several years ago. Rotary purchases the dictionaries and PKA Fraternity members affix a label to the inside each front cover. The label tells the student the dictionary is a gift from Starkville Rotary Club and includes the Rotary wheel and Rotary’s 4-Way Test.
        Starkville is one of  seven Clubs in District 6820 supporting the project. Local telephone pioneers give dictionaries to third graders in our county schools.
        “This is a participatory project. It’s extremely  satisfying to see the excitement in the eyes of the third graders when we give them their own dictionary,” Cecilia  said. “Even if you aren’t on our committee, if you can spare an hour of your time to personally present dictionaries, please contact me or a member of the committee. Distribution will be in the next few weeks.”

COMPETING IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

       He said his message would be “rambling,” but State Economist Phil Pepper gave Rotarians an interesting and at times unsettling look at today’s ever-changing world, national, state, and regional economic picture in a 20-minute discussion that was straightforward and understandable.
        “We are in a global economy and there’s little the United States can do about it,” he said. Today, there are two economic drivers – China and other Asian countries, and U.S. consumers.
        China’s economy is now growing at a rate of 10 percent, more than triple that of the U.S. 3 percent growth. Earlier this year, lower priced Chinese goods kept interest rates low, the stock market continued good growth, and corporate profits continued strong. “Even high gas prices didn’t slow the economy,” he said.
        About March 1, our economy started slowing down. Interest rates began to rise and foreclosures in sub-prime mortgages began to accelerate. “We almost had a meltdown over the unavailability of money to borrow, but the Federal Reserve action kept the market liquid. If the market goes down in the weeks ahead, it will be an orderly correction,” he believes.
        Today, world markets are all tied together and world economies are interlocked. “We can’t do a thing about it. We’ll have to play by global rules and this impacts all of us. We must work within the market – the world demands that we change.”
        He believes education holds the key to being able to compete in the global economy. Other countries are becoming more pro-active in education, especially in the hard sciences. China now has three times as many graduate students as the United States.  Only 17 percent of U.S. undergraduate degrees are in hard sciences, the lowest of any of the eight largest nations.
        “We have to change and we have to become more competitive. In Mississippi, we have just now  managed to get back to the 2000 level of employment. We’ve lost 25 percent of our jobs overseas,” he said.
        Although the new manufacturing industries (Nissan, etc.) are great, we continue to see low skill jobs leaving the state. The picture Pepper painted isn’t pretty. He believes foreclosures will continue. Banking and engineering jobs are going overseas and he predicts that accounting, call centers, and other service jobs will follow. There will be competition in all sectors.
        Thirty-six of Mississippi’s counties have fewer people than they had in the 1930's. “Until the 1950's, agriculture held people in our rural communities. Not so today. We’re going to continue to have out-migration from rural to urban areas,” he said.
        All is not bleak, however.  Pepper said that commodities and raw materials will continue to be a bright spot in the U.S. and state  economy. In Mississippi, timber is especially a strength.
        “But we must raise the education level in Mississippi. Although 65 percent of our general fund goes to education, only 17 percent of that goes to higher education. We need to look at special funding. Most states have much more local government support of education. We all have to work together on education from k-12 through college.
        “We must change aspirations. People have to change the mind-set culture. It will be difficult. It’s human nature to view change as a threat, but we have no choice if we are to remain competitive in the global economy,” he concluded. He then responded to several questions from the floor.
        David Thornell introduced Pepper, who earned his BS and MS degrees in agricultural economics from Mississippi State and his PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois. He also serves as Assistant Commissioner for Research and Planning for the IHL Board.

A PROPOSAL AND A RESIGNATION

        Joe Blackbourn is proposed for active membership by Roy Ruby. Joe is retired and will hold the classification Education – Administration.  If no objections are filed within 7 days, he will be considered elected to membership.
        The Board of Directors has accepted with regret the resignation of Martha Ray Sartor, who has accepted a new job in Arkansas.

ROTARIANS WHO HELPED SWEEP UP

        Thanks to these members of the Rotary team who showed up at 7 a.m. Wednesday, August 29, for the “Get Swept Up” community cleanup day: Coordinator Susan Gamel, Debbie Nettles, Bricklee Miller, Betty Black, Peggy Buckley, George Buehler, Jim Tisdale, Warren  Housley, Briar Jones, Mike Mazzola, Ned Browning, David and Sherrie VanLandingham, Keith and Ruth Remy.