February 20, 2009

Today, Dr. Stan Dunagan will visit and give us an expert analysis on the dangerous Earth Quake Seismic Zone, know as "The New Madrid Fault". As all of you know who have lived in this area we are practically on top of this zone and have had many small earth quakes in the area. I am sure after today we will have a better understanding of this fault zone, his talk is entitled "When the Big One Hits? Impact of a large earthquake on West Tennessee."

Dr. Dunagan has lived most of his life in West Tennessee. Raised in Martin, he is the oldest son of Nick and Cathy Dunagan. Stan graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a BS degree in Geosciences in 1993. He completed his Ph.D. in Geology at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1998. He has taught at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Austin Peay State University, and the University of Tennessee at Martin, where he is the Assistant Professor of Geology

Stan is married to Dr. Stephanie Dunagan (a family physician in Paris, Tennessee) and they have 5 year twins (Taylor - girl; Austin - boy). In his spare time, Stan enjoys playing with his kids, working on his farm, and doing pretty much any outdoor activity.

Next Week, we can look forward to hearing from our local Police Chief, as Joe Garner, Police Chief, City of Union City visits.

Chief Garner is a Tennessee native, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice form the University of Tennessee at Martin. Hi is a graduate of the 188th Session of the F.B.I. National Academy and a 1997 Graduate of the Rural Executive Management Institute he has served as a Tennessee Law Enforcement Officer for over 32 years and as the Chief of Police for the City of Union City for over 15 years. He also currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the 27th Judicial Drug Task Force, Municipal Law Enforcement Advisor for the Tennessee Homeland Security District 9 Council and Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police Representative on the Governors Homeland Security Council.

He also serves as a Colonel assigned as the Director of Military Support for the Joint Force Headquarters of the Tennessee Army National Guard located in Nashville. Colonel Garner is a graduate of the Advanced Joint Professional Military Education Course at the Joint Forces College, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, the Armor Officer Advance Course & the Infantry Officers Basic Course.

Last Week, Union City Rotary received an up-date on it’s stellar project, The Rotary Scholarship Program, chaired by Roger Williams. Also we heard from Dr. Jerald Ogg, Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at University of Tennessee Martin.

Dr. Ogg began his talk by showing Rotarians some of the results of test papers which students have turned in in the past, and some humor in which students can come up with when the right answer is not available in their mind. He then went on to compare the cost of college now as compared to when he was in school at UTM. He said as you walk on the campus at UTM, a lot of things still look the same as it did 30 years ago. But he said some things have changed dramatically, for instance his tuition and fees in 1973 were $138.00, when he graduated in spring 1976, it had skyrocketed to $166.00, this semester at UTM it is about $2,620.00, and even worse is the cost of text books he said. He had records of every book he had to purchase while in school and what it cost him, for instance a book he bought for basic Spanish, he paid $3.95 and he sold it back to the bookstore for $2.60, so his real cost was $1.35. As a grand total he paid $186.50 for books the entire time he was in school. He said that one text book for one of the calsses he teaches is $135.00.

Dr. Ogg got his point across to Rotary, being that, in today’s financial situation which students find themselves, the Rotary Scholarships and other financial aid is very important to the average student.

After Dr. Ogg presented his portion of the program, Roger Williams took the podium and informed Rotarians that the Scholarship Program was a program which belonged to Union City Rotary and asked for input so that the committee could better serve not only students, but also Rotary Members. He went on to point out some of the things which were changed this year in the program, such as to avoid problems with the IRS, he asked that donors not specify that their money be given to any certain individual, and also that all applicants would have to file their entire application on-line.

Feb. 27 - Union City Police Chief Joe Garner

Mar. 05 - Ladies Night

Mar. 13 - Kid’s Day - Larry Mink, local Magician will be entertaining

Mar. 20 - Jo Ann Speers - Update on the Airport

Feb. 20 - Portis Tanner

Feb. 21 - Bob Stephens

Feb. 22 - Fred Wilkinson

Feb. 24 - John Clendenin