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June 3, 2008 No.
33 Vol. 86
This Week’s Program:
Darby Dickerson, Vice President And Dean, Stetson University College of
Law
Dean Dickerson received
her B.A. in government and history and her M.A. in government from the
College of William and Mary. She earned her J.D. in 1988 from Vanderbilt
Law School where she served as Senior Managing Editor of the
Vanderbilt Law Review and as a member of the Moot Court Board.
Dean Dickerson joined
the Stetson Faculty in the Fall of 1995, serving in a number of
capacities before being named Vice President and Dean in February 2004.
Dean Dickerson's research interests include higher education law and
policy, legal citation, and litigation ethics. Her articles appear in
highly regarded publications (too numerous to list) and her book, the
ALWD Citation
Manual: A Professional Citation System, was published in
2000 and has been widely adopted by law schools and courts.
Dean Dickerson is an officer and director of the Tampa Bay Chapter of
the American Red Cross and Scribes, The American Society of Legal
Writers. She has served on the boards of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce
and the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce. Recipient of numerous
teaching awards, she was also named the Tampa Bay Business Journal's
Business Woman of the Year in the Nonprofit/Social Services category.
Last Week’s Program:
Robert J. Morris, Jr., Chief Circuit Court Judge
Our
Kiwanian-of-the-Day, Judge Mark Shames, was the perfect person to
introduce our guest last Tuesday. To clear up a common misperception,
Shames told us that even though Judge Morris is the “Chief Circuit
Judge,” he is not the boss of the nearly 70 other judges in the 6th
Judicial Circuit. Although Judge Morris has their confidence and
respect, his real authority comes from his dual responsibilities to make
the assignments regarding which judge serves where and to ensure that
everything court-related across the 6th Judicial Circuit runs
smoothly.
Chief Circuit Court
Judge Morris familiarized us with the current court caseload figures: 69
judges and 250 staff members in nine courts from Dade City to Tyrone in
St. Pete serve the 1.5 million residents of this county, 415,000 of whom
will need the courts for traffic, criminal, adult drug, juvenile drug,
truancy, civil and other problems. The current budget of $27 million
barely covers the expenses associated with such a busy judicial system.
Even so, cuts passed by the legislature to go into effect July 1 further
curtail spending to the point that layoffs across the board will occur,
the St. Petersburg Law Library will cease to exist, and greatly needed
“special program” courts like Adult Drug and Juvenile Drug Courts, Girls
Court and others that address critical problems in broken families will
be shut down. Other courts, like evening Traffic Court, will have
reduced hours of operation. To further burden and slow judicial process,
most court employees make less than $40,000 a year and have had no
raises for three years. Combined with increased costs of living and the
price of gas, many court employees are leaving for other jobs.
Judge Morris had no
ready solutions to these problems, but is hopeful that educating
legislators, and the public, to the ramifications of such cuts will
result in restored services at some point in the future.
Guests and Visitors
A total of 55 people
enjoyed lunch and our program last Tuesday. One of the guests was former
member Steve Kirby who is planning to rejoin our Club. Way to go, Steve!
We’re glad to have you back.
What’s Happening?
Science Center
Receives Boys and Girls Committee Award
Maddie McNaughton,
Director of the Science Center, thanked us for the $500 grant the Center
received and acquainted us with some of the fine programs offered there.
The Science Center introduces children to scientific concepts through
experiential play and exhibits and hosts a summer camp to engage and
educate children with creative explorations of the fields of math and
science. Funds raised help underwrite the costs of projects and provide
scholarships for children from low-income families. Studies show that
girls who major in science or math make significantly more money in
their careers than their counterparts in other fields.
Jim Leavitt Program
Membership Drive
The Membership
Committee has planned a special membership drive for our Jim Leavitt
program on June 24th. To meet our goals for membership, it
requires that each of us make an effort to build our numbers and
increase our impact in our communities. Start talking to business
contacts, friends, relocators you’ve met in your neighborhood or job,
and other people you come into contact with you think might enjoy being
part of our great Club. There is no charge to you to bring a guest; in
fact, you are encouraged to bring as many potential members to the USF
Bulls/Jim Leavitt meeting as possible. Penalties do apply to
those who do not bring guests on that day!
Lunch In The “Park,”
Anyone?
Don’t hesitate and
don’t be late – join the Pinellas Park Club this Thursday at 12:15 for
an InterClub opportunity. Harvey or a member of the InterClub committee
will announce details at today’s meeting.
You Say It’s Your
Birthday, Well It’s My Birthday, Too, Yeah
And what could be
better than to attend the 4th Annual Jim Fischer Birthday
Bash on June 14th and score some “gifts?” Big Al K. updated
us on some of the exciting items up for bid on the silent auction tables
at the Bash including a lovely silver and turquoise bracelet of his
mother’s displayed and donated to the auction by Bill Holloway. All in
all, it sounds like you, our Club members, have donated an impressive
number of terrific items to help make this year’s scholarship fundraiser
a record-breaking one. The more auction items we collect, the more funds
we can raise. Help us give a gift of scholarship – and a future – to
deserving students in our community. How can you help? 1) Attend the
Birthday Bash on June 14th. 2) Encourage people to bid on
auction items and bid on some yourself!
Kiwanis News From
Ukraine
President Markus passed
along news from Lora Pavlenko, president of the Kiwanis Club in Ukraine.
Some highlights follow:
“We have now begun
prepares for programs for summer. We have plan to make camp for 20
teenagers in June. For this purpose we shall use the house which we
shall rent. The house is located near the Kiev. We shall make special
programs on the territory of children's homes, one week. We shall bring
meal, to play with children, picnics, to go with children to the river.
Also we want to make a picnic for homeless children. We want to go to
the West part of Ukraine, to take out 20 teenagers and spend one week at
mountains. Our Kiwanis club and volunteers assist us with these
programs.
If you can tell about
our projects to friends and they can support us by the finance we shall
are very grateful.”
TODAY’S QUIZ:
1.
Who started the first insurance company in America?
2.
In ancient Egypt, what was done with the brain when a dead person
was being “mummified?”
3.
How many countries will compete in the Beijing Olympics this
August?
4.
How long is a “league?” A. 36 feet B. 150 yards C. 1 ½
miles D. Three miles
LAST WEEK’S QUIZ:
1.
The former name of the country of Jordan was Transjordan.
2.
The Chandler Wobble is a small motion
in the
Earth's
axis of
rotation
relative to the Earth's surface, which was discovered by
American
astronomer
Seth Carlo
Chandler in
1891.
It amounts to 0.7
arcseconds
(about 15 meters on the Earth's surface) and has a period of 433 days.
3.
Mazzy Star, Death Cab for Cutie and Massive Attack are all
names of rock bands. Chicken On A Chain is a 1,900 lb. bovine
that won Professional Bull Riding’s World Champion Bull of the Year
award in 2007, and is slated to win it again this year.
4.
“Laying pipe” is a surfing term (disputed by some
surfers) that appeared on a surfing magazine cover in “Blue Crush,” a
2002 movie about female surfers competing in Hawaii. It has to do with
charging big waves in the Pipeline off Oahu and surfing into the “pipe”
or tunnel that’s created when the wave curls over into itself so that
the surfer is hidden behind a wall of water.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
(Lead Me to Peace)
Lead me from death to
life,
from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill my heart,
my world, my universe.
Amen. |
