District Governor International President
Larry Boyd Dong Kurn Lee
Brentwood, Tennessee Seoul, Korea
Today, Jimmy Williamson, of Dyersburg Electric System visits and will give us a power-point presentation on the current status of the Northwest Tennessee Regional Port Authority, also know as Cates Landing.
Cates Landing, near Tiptonville, is a 22 million dollar project, which has been on the drawing board since 1999, and has gone through legal process after legal process with the environmental approval procedure, and is now becoming a reality. The landing will consist of a 150-acre deepwater port and a 350-acre industrial park.
Williamson is the (Volunteer) Chairman of the Port Authority Board, which consists of representatives from Lake, Obion and Dyer Counties.
He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Martin, with a Masters Degree in Accounting. He is also a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Tennessee and a Certified Management Accountant. He is President & CEO of Dyersburg Electric System, and has been with DES for 43 years plus. He is married and the father of two daughters and has two grandchildren. He is on the board of Dyersburg Chamber of Commerce and the United Way.
Annual Fish Fry, Sept. 18. The event will be begin at 5:30 pm, and food will be served around 6:00 pm, on one of the lovely gardens at the home of Robert and Jenny Kirkland. If you have not signed up to attend, and would like to attend, you are asked to please e-mail Todd Stone at, tstone@collectionmgt.com, in order for him to get an accurate head-count.
In addition to Rotary Members there will be non-club members attending the fish fry this year, as the Promethean Foundation has invited several guests to attend in order to educate the community about the foundation and the tremendous work that it does educating our youth and building character.
In Two Weeks, Kathy Waggoner from the Promethean Foundation will be our Guest Speaker.
Cathy is a native of Union City. She graduated from UTM, with a degree in education and in her early career, she became interested in early childhood education. She worked with Kare Bear Preschool here in Union City for 20 years. She serves on the local school board representing Ward 4.
Since 2004 she has been employed by Promethean Foundation as administrator of scholarship program for at risk preschool children to attend daycare.
Last Week,
Rotarians received some agricultural information, as Will Wade of Union City presented his views and experiences on the ins and outs, ups and downs of farm commodities, futures trading and the hedging of these markets.
Will began by introducing guests who were present who were members of his family and business.
He said it would be impossible to discuss the commodities and grain markets without invoking the word "volatility", which has consumed the farm market for the last couple of years. The definition of the word Volatile, according to Webster is, evaporating rapidly, and according to Will that is what has happened to the grain market in the immediate past.
He said the markets we trade in our area consist of Corn, Soybeans, Soft Red Wheat, Milo and Cotton, and these are influenced greatly by Crude Oil and the Strength of the U.S. Dollar.
Historically there have been two main users of the futures market system, hedgers and speculators, he said. He put himself into the category of the hedger, being the one who has physical possession of the product he is trading. The speculator being just the opposite, or one who can trade any one of these assets, without having the product in-hand to back it up. These people are simply waging that the price of the product they are trading on are on the way up, and the market "needs both of these types of people to work", he said.
He said the speculators have driven the prices of wheat up for example, until they are not realistic, cash wheat right now is $2, less than the prices of the futures, and that is an extremely wide margin, therefore driving up the basis price, he said. Basis being the difference between the cash market and the futures market price, which he said is making the farmer very unhappy at the present time. Basis, also has to do with the cost of getting the grain from the local market to the markets in the larger cities, like Chicago, and with the cost of fuel, it has a great impact on the cost of transporting that product.
Coming Attractions
Sept. 18 - Rotary Fish Fry
Sept. 19 - No Meeting
Sept. 26 - Kathy Waggoner, Promethean Foundation
Oct. 03 - TWRA
