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Minutes of the February 18, 2016 Meeting
The Rotary Club of Mobile
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by club president, Robby McClure at 12:15 PM. Wayne Miller offered the invocation and then Larry Sindel led the group in song. Tom Martenstein welcomed guests of members and visiting Rotarians.
Youth Merit Award: Jared Hunter, a senior at Satsuma High School received the Youth Merit Award. He plans to attend Jacksonville State University where he will major in computer science.
New Members
• Monica Motley, PhD, the President of the Alabama School of Math and Science was introduced as a new member by Darby Luxenberg.
• Michael Finan, M.D., was introduced as the second new member by Michael Chambers. Dr. Finan is a gynecological oncologist, and Director of the U.S.A. Mitchell Cancer Institute.
Announcements: Robby McClure made the following announcements:
• The board of directors will meet immediately after today’s regular meeting.
• Members are encouraged to greet the Amtrack train scheduled to stop near the Convention Center at 1:15 PM. today.
• Please contact Aimee Risser should a member know a potential candidate for RYLA.
Program: Andy Newton, President and CEO, Southern Light, LLC
Cart Blackwell introduced Andy Newton who presented a power point program and discussed his growing business which provides fiber optic cable to businesses along the Gulf Coast. Southern Light is one of the ten largest providers servicing four states with over 6,000 miles of fiber optic cable. He explained that just one fiber has more capacity than a six foot diameter copper cable.
One of the newest developments in the business he said was the addition of numerous small cell towers to improve wireless transmission. He explained that there are currently some 500,000 tall towers and it is estimated that by 2020 over 2 million will be needed.
After answering a number of questions from the audience, Robby McClure thanked him for speaking to our club and noted that a donation in his honor has been made to the Mobile Infirmary Foundation. The meeting adjourned at 1:00 P.M.
Tom McGehee

February 4, 2016
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by President-elect Les Greer. Bill Kinnaird gave the invocation, followed by an a capella presentation of America the Beautiful by Tommy Blankenship. Tom Martenstein introduced our guests along with visiting Rotarians.
Student Guest: Saty Putcha presented our student guest, Emily Large, from Saraland High School.
Announcements: Rob Hackbarth made a plea for our CART fund, which helps fund Alheimer’s research. Bo Mattei discussed the Rotary’s contribution to Camp ASCCA.
Program: The speaker’s daughter, Kate Carver introduced our speaker, Mark Johnson, who was with the Mobile Police Dept. and served as former Director of United Way of South Alabama. Mr. Johnson has written a book titled, Apprehensions and Convictions, Adventures of a 50-Year Old Rookie Cop.
In 1995, Mark Johnson was hired to run the Mobile Area United Way, after serving in Waukesha, Wisconsin with the United Way. He spent 20 years in the United Way. In his 23 year career, his efforts helped raise more than $100 million. After so much time in the fundraising business, he began to feel burnout.
It was time to find another way to make a difference to his community closer to the front lines. This is when Mr. Johnson decided to join the police force. After being deemed unfit by the Albequerque, NM police force, he eventually was accepted by the Mobile Police Department. Mark saw the difference between the abstract (United Way) and the reality (MPD) in a first-hand manner.
The disadvantages of his age became an asset to be appreciated by his fellow recruits. In a show of “respect”, his first squad car was an elderly person’s scooter. He explained that in one particular situation, he was given a commendation for the same event in which he received a disciplinary letter.
Mr. Johnson’s book is based on his twelve years of experience with the MPD. He spoke about being wounded by gunfire while pursuing a cop-killer. His pistol was damaged by gunfire in this incident. Ultimately, Mark wrapped up his talk by saying, “A cop has the opportunity to meet evil face-to-face and actually do something about it.”
The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 pm.

Brad Israel discussed “Values-Based Leadership” today by reflecting on his experience in Afghanistan and the Middle East conflict. He stated that Leaders must “walk-the-walk” because people follow leaders well before they follow the plan. As a Special Forces Detachment Commander, he was active during Operation Winter Stand in Afghanistan. His mentor was LTG Samuel V. Wilson who said, “Take Care of the Men, and the Men Will Take Care of You!”
Brad was also influenced by such people as John Maxwell, quoting him, “True leadership cannot be awarded or assigned. It must be tirelessly earned through respect and influence.”
Mr. Israel said, “Leaders must have shared values with their followers, whether in military or civilian life. Leaders must listen all the way to the lowest level of followers to be truly effective.”
According to a Deloitte study, culture and engagement are the most important issues facing companies throughout the world. He brought up the problems faced by Best Buy just a few years ago. Micro-management by its leaders brought about huge turnover within that company. Eventually, two key employees helped reverse the situation by recognizing that each employee should be treated as a leader individually.
Mr. Israel then discussed the key point from Umair Hague’s book, Betterness: Economics for Humans, which is that profit has its place in business, but more importantly for long-term success, your impact is ultimately more important.
Finally, he ended by quoting Winston Churchill, “To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”

Todd Greer holds the title as the Chief Catalyst for The Exchange 202 facility in downtown Mobile. Mobile’s first true “co-working” shared space developed with the impetus from John Peebles and Allan Cameron. The facility at 202 Government Street opened officially on October 5, 2015.
Todd explained, “Because of today’s technology, more and more workplaces have evolved into sharing centers.” Since, in many cases, we can work from virtually anywhere, we’ve lost the ability to converse on a personal level with others. Innovative ideas come often from bouncing ideas off of other people.
According to Mr. Greer, by 2020 nearly 60 million people will be freelancers, consultants and other “contingent workers.” Even though technology has made us the most connected society ever, we remain the most disconnected because of the lack of real community. In what may be one of the most intriguing aspects of this new system, community takes place among what may seem to be totally different businesses.
What makes this so interesting is that Exchange 202 can accommodate all types of needs, from the one-person entrepreneur, to the not-so-small business requiring meeting space and individual offices. There is a price level that fits most any need for today’s entrepreneur. As Todd mentioned, the world of coffee and community now exists alongside the world of technology.