The Bulletin

Home of
Immediate Past District Governor
Jim Squire
&
Past District Governors
Frank Bentley,
Ralph Thurmond,
and Barry Smith

Meetings

December is Disease Prevention and Treatment Month

Our Rotary Family
BIRTHDAYS

WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES

Rotary Online

https://sandyspringsrotary.org
https://rotary6900.org/
https://rotary.org/

ROTARY CLUB OF
Sandy Springs

LEADERSHIP

PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Welcome to the Sandy Springs Rotary Club

Welcome Sandy Springs Rotarians to the new Rotary year. It will be hard to top last year but we'll do it with your help & support. Kudos to past president Nancy Schroeder and PDG Jim Squire for your service and helping the club receive many awards at the District Celebration including our second "Club of the Decade" designation.

Some changes are being made in our club's meeting program to make it more varied & interesting. We will be adding the Sandy Springs Business Spotlight, a third raffle drawing, and wine one meeting a month. Members are now asked to come a little earlier as lunch will begin at noon with the program to start promptly at 12:15. Along with our traditional club events & projects we'll have a couple more service projects/media events, membership events (Rotary Pizza Night at Pontoon) and different Family of Rotary social events. I look forward to engaging with you to make it a exciting year.

Visitors are welcome to experience the Rotary Club of Sandy Springs' hospitality and energy. Meetings are typically the 1st, 2nd & 4th Mondays. Lunch is served at noon and the 1 hour program begins at 12:15. Hilton Perimeter Suites, 6120 Peachtree Dunwoody Road, Sandy Springs, GA 30328. Reserve a spot by going to our website at www.sandyspringsrotary.org. Join your fellow professionals, community and business leaders, and learn how Rotary can benefit your future. Experience Rotary Making Things Happen in Sandy Springs!

Upcoming Program
Janae Green - Community Relations for C-Span

On January 4th, at 12:15, Jenae Green will be virtually speaking the Rotary Club of Sandy Springs.

Jenae Green has been at C-SPAN for just over 5 years and is currently a member of its community relations team. She spends her time coordinating community-education events that engage students, teachers, civic groups, public officials and those interested in politics to share how C-SPAN’s unfiltered mission and resources can be used as a “Window on Washington” to follow the daily happenings of the Federal government.

Jenae began her time at C-SPAN working in the newsroom as a production assistant. There, she took calls from viewers, edited videos, and prepared event coverage video for what you see on tv.

Earlier in her career, Jenae worked as a freelance photographer and social media intern for the Washington Football Team.

She is a Virginia native and a proud 2014 graduate of Virginia Tech! Go Hokies! Jenae was born into a military family, taking her from California to Virginia. She currently resides in Alexandria Virginia and at this point, considers herself a professional Zoom birthday party attendee.

This meeting can be attended in-person or online.

MEETING ID 830 5329 7439

HTTPS://US02WEB.ZOOM.US/J/83053297439

More information about Jenae Green and C-Span can be found here: https://www.c-span.org/

Past Program
Oliver Porter - A founding father for the City of Sandy Springs

In photo from left to right: Mr. Oliver Porter and John Neill - 2020-2021 Rotary Club of Sandy Springs President

Oliver Porter spoke to our club on December 21st about the founding of the city of Sandy Springs. He was instrumental in the original design and structure and helped the new leadership decide to contract out many of the city services.

The city of Sandy Springs finally came to fruition fifteen years ago. That is when the first city Mayor and City Council had their first meeting.

For over thirty years the residents of the Sandy Springs community had been trying to create the new city. Like the dog that finally catches the car being chased, what do you do now! Oliver became the first Assistant City Manager. His challenge was to organize twelve task forces with 120 volunteers. Their charge was to determine services provided, the cost of the services and what the citizens expected from the new city government and the cost.

Searching for alternative ways to manage and run the new city was one of the primary goals. Oliver solicited major companies to give proposals for city services.

The Georgia governor helped by creating a five-person committee to help create the city management structure. They created training sessions for the new city council. Since the creation of the new city fifteen years ago there have been no tax increases. After ten years they managed to pay off all liabilities and long-term debt. These acts of financial responsibility have allowed our city to have an S&P rating of AAA. Only nineteen other cities in the US have this high of a rating.

Since the creation of the city of Sandy Springs there have been ten more new cities created in Georgia most of which are in metro Atlanta. Sandy Springs has proven that the use of private industry to run the city is a good model.

The Rotary Club of Sandy Springs would like to thank Mr. Oliver Porter for all that he has done to help Sandy Springs become the great city that we all know and love. 

A Look Ahead
A quick glimpse of our Rotary meetings next year