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Minutes of the
August 13, 2015 Meeting
The Rotary Club of Mobile
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by club president Robby McClure at 12:20 PM. Jeremy Milling offered the invocation followed by Gordon Korb who led the club in song accompanied by Bill Oppenheimer on the piano. Tom Martenstein then welcomed visiting Rotarians and guests of members.
New Member: Rev. Wayne Miller, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, was introduced as the club’s newest member by Rick Harvey.
Announcements: Robby McClure made the following announcements:
• The board of directors will meet on August 20, following the regular weekly meeting.
• Mobile West has announced they will not meet on August 18.
• Please save the date of October 1, 2015 for the Rotary Gala to be held at the new Maritime Museum.
Touchpoints Recognition: Garrett Williamson recognized Bill Oppenheimer as the Touchpoints winner and announced that a donation in his honor had been made to St. Mary’s Home. Garrett encouraged members to increase their level of participation to win a donation to a charity of their choice.
Program: Future Growth in Mobile – County Commissioner Jerry Carl
Saty Putcha introduced District 3 County Commissioner Jerry Carl who discussed economic growth in Mobile. He noted that much of the new growth is happening in his district which includes the new Airbus facility. He credited the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce for their diligent work in recruiting new businesses including future arrivals of “sub-companies” doing business with Airbus.
Carl also stressed the importance of Austal and its workforce of 4,000 while noting the exciting plans to turn St. Louis Street into an IT hub. He also praised Mayor Stimpson’s announcement to spend city funds to repair infrastructure and said that in the past the county has been footing the bill for a number of paving projects which fall within the city limits.
After a series of questions and answers, Robby McClure thanked him for speaking to our club and told him that in his honor a donation had been made to the Augusta Evans School.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 12:55 PM.
Tom McGehee

Mr. Lichtenfeld began his talk with a tribute to the “Greatest Generation”, which is widely recognized as those who lived through the trying times of World War II. More than 16 million served the country during that war, 458,000 of whom gave their life. He then proceeded to ask whether the “Greatest Generation” should also include the 35,500 of our military and supporters who died in Korea, or the 58,000 who perished in Vietnam. Even further, he said, don’t those who served our country during the Cold War, Granada, Lebanon and throughout the Middle East be honored in the same manner.
As a rifleman in WWII, who was captured during the heroic stand known as the “Battle of the Bulge”, Mr. Lichtenfeld saw the greatest struggle against tyranny of all time. He is also a member of only 7,000 of the 144,000 POW’s still living today. In one of the coldest winters in the previous 50 years, he and his fellow soldiers survived unbelievable challenges with a lack of food, lack of proper clothing and coping with constant bombardment. Lack of sleep became one of the real challenges.
It became even worse after his capture by the Germans. His first emotions included great humiliation and shock. Among the worst feelings he described was the fear that your family would never know if you were alive or not, and that you may never see each other again. As a Jew, the likelihood of survival was even more tenuous.
The prisoners were separated in the camp according to their nationality. At one point, the American contingent was lined up and anyone who was Jewish was asked to step forward. In keeping with orders from their commanders, none of the soldiers stepped forward. This infuriated the Germans. The next time the order was given for the Jews to step forward, the order changed. This time “all” of the prisoners stepped forward.
Once they were eventually liberated by the Russians, they were subjected to a total lack of cooperation in reuniting with the Americans. Several weeks later, Mr. Lichenfeld and five others traversed more than 100 miles through German and Russian lines to find the American troops. By that point, he had lost 65 pounds, now only 100 pounds.
Finally, Mr. Lichtenfeld stated that one of the lessons they will never forget in the real difference between good and evil, and the true value of friendship. He closed with the “POW” Pledge of Allegiance.

Minutes of the Rotary Meeting
July 23, 2015
By Christopher Jones
The meeting was called to order by Robby McClure. Beth Stafford gave the invocation. Larry Sindel led in song with Bill Oppenheimer providing piano accompaniment. Tom Martenstein introduced guests and visitors.
Robby McClure made several announcements and recognized Jay Turner as a Paul Harris Fellow.
Introduced by Bill Sisson, Dr. Ulrich Weber of Airbus America presented on the Airbus 320 Family Final Assembly Line of Mobile. Having joined Airbus as an engineer in 1990, Dr. Weber has been a leader in the establishment of new production lines in China and now in Mobile. In his formal presentation, he first gave an overview of the Airbus Group, which employs 138,000 worldwide and consists of four lines of business: aircraft, helicopter, defense and space. Of those, the aircraft line accounts for approximately 2/3 of overall revenue with 55,000 employees who work in 11 production sites and 4 assembly sites. Dr. Weber then described the “family” of aircraft that share high commonality of design and components while varying in size and capability. The aircraft industry is growing consistently with a forecast of double traffic every 15 years, which equates to 32,000 aircraft needed over the next 20 years. The demand for the A320 – which will be assembled in Mobile – is very strong worldwide; however, it currently only has 20% market share in US while enjoying 50% market share in the rest of the world. The best selling and most profitable aircraft for Airbus, the A320 has a backlog of over 5,000 planes – more than 10 years of production. That backlog continues to grow as demand outpaces production. Last year 1,545 orders were taken but only 490 planes were delivered.
Dr. Weber reviewed the timeline of the assembly line in Mobile that will become the 4th such facility for the A320. Of great interest to all in the room, he provided the latest status: buildings and components are nearly complete and production is expected to start in September! The first delivery (to Jet Blue) is expected in the second quarter of 2016. Once fully operational, the assembly facility will deliver four aircraft per month. Interestingly, the constraint on production capacity is not the Mobile facility (which could deliver up to eight aircraft per month) but is the network of suppliers (such as engine manufacturers and other components) who are challenged to meet demand worldwide to Airbus as well as other manufacturers.
After his presentation, Dr. Weber graciously took several questions from across the room. Of note, he said that guided tours would eventually be offered once the facility is ready and it is safe to do so. In honor of his speaking, a donation was made to the Museum of Mobile.
Robby McClure adjourned the meeting.

Minutes – July 16 2015
President Robby called the meeting to order and John Smith led the invocation. Gordon Korb led the singing accompanied by Les Greer. President Robby noted that six new members joined last week, a record for this club.
Les Greer introduced David Richey as our newest member.
We were encouraged to bring children’s books to our meeting to be used in our lending libraries now being set in several new schools.
John Dukes then introduced Dr. Joe Savage, Exec. Dean at the University of Mobile who spoke about “Millennials and Human Trafficking”.
Dr. Savage advised millennials can be best worked with by being direct in communicating with them, i.e. not coddling, building a caring relationship and by putting a challenge to them. These three factors are key to successful business and working relationships.
He then spoke about the student ministries at the University of Mobile, including volunteers working in the area of human trafficking. He noted thirty million people today are trafficked largely in sex trafficking and labor exploitation.
In the course of volunteering in the Ukraine, Dr. Savage learned of the problem of young girls at 16 years of age, being released from orphanages who were unprepared to live independently who then became victims of sex trafficking. Dr. Savage and the University of Mobile worked with a couple who had opened their home to three girls in what is now called “Emmanuel House”. The couple care for these young women as their own with no governmental support. Dr. Savage has worked to raise funds to upgrade this home to be more suitable for this purpose and they now have eight girls in residence at this transitional home.
He went on to described selected girls’ circumstances and their success at Emmanuel House and then surprised the club by asking a back table of young women to stand and come forward. We then met the girls he had recently been describing and heard from their house mother of her gratitude for all that had been done for them.
Respectfully submitted,
Rose M Johnson
7.18.15

Minutes of the July 9, 2015 Meeting
Rotary Club of Mobile
Passing the Gavel Ceremony
 
Call to Order:  Ken Robinson called the meeting to order at 12:15 and asked those present to stand and observe a moment of silence in remembrance of past president Bill Goodloe who died earlier this week.  Bill Kinnaird then came forward to offer an invocation and afterwards Gordon Korb led the group in the song and pledge, accompanied by Les Greer on the piano.  Tom Martenstein welcomed members’ guests and visiting Rotarians.
Special Announcement:  Ken Robinson announced that our former president, John Rogers, is headed home from M.D.  Anderson and offered a special prayer for him and his family as well as any of our members who may be ill.
New Members:  Possibly a record number of new members joined the club at one time today.  John Pisarkiewicz was introduced by Earl Jackson.  Melanie Susman and David Walker were introduced by Les Greer.  Finally, Michael Chambers presented Julee Waldrop, Ph.D.  and her husband, Tony Waldrop, Ph.D. as our club’s newest members.
Paul Harris Fellows:  Gordon Korb and Tom Van Antwerp were recognized as new Paul Harris Fellows with Edward Ladd inducted as a Paul Harris Fellow +2 and Steve Dill a Paul Harris Fellow +4.
Ken Robinson:  A year in Review
Outgoing president Ken Robinson reminisced on his year as club president which included the wonderful events surrounding the centennial with its gala and charitable gifts allowing a new playground at Augusta Evans, a display at the new Gulfquest and a planned Rotary labyrinth at the Mobile Infirmary.  He spoke of the 100 gifts to 100 Charities which gave $100 donations to charitable entities in our area as well as our club’s spearheading the new literacy project with nine small lending libraries now in place in area schools.
Behind the scenes a new website is in place and an upgraded accounting system was installed.  As of June 1 a Touchpoints program was inaugurated with the hope it will allow newer members to become more involved with the club and its projects.  The CART project with donations collected to help in Alzheimer’s research has now become a monthly event and over $28,000 was given by our members to the Rotary Foundation – or over $100 per member.
Ken noted that the club is in good financial health and concluded by thanking club members for a successful year.  Ken received a standing ovation from the members.
Passing of the Gavel:  The gavel was passed from the earliest past president (Russell Ladd – 1970-71) to Ken Robinson who passed it to incoming president, Robison C. McClure, Jr who stressed the need for new members and made the following announcements:

• A party honoring incoming District Governor Michael Chambers will take place next week at the Athelstan Club. Invitations have been emailed and it is mandatory that those wishing to attend respond no later than Friday, July 10.
• A board meeting will be held following the meeting next week on July 16.
• Introduced Frank Harkins who announced that July 28 will be Rotary Appreciation Day at Camp ASCCA. He encouraged participation by members and asked that he be called for directions and possible transportation to the event.  He reminded members that our club covers the cost of 100 participating campers annually.
• Rob Hackbarth then reminded the members that this is the week we take up CART contributions to assist in the research of Alzheimer’s.

Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 12:55 P.M. by president McClure.
Tom McGehee
.