Club Business
Katie Dukeshire, one of our past presidents, made another special guest appearance today, filling in for current president Jim Cartner, who is supposedly returning to take up the gavel again next week! Pete Beck led the prayer and the pledge of allegiance to the US flag. Katie shared some interesting historical trivia for this date. We had no visiting Rotarians or special guests this week. Next week Susan Watson has the program.
Click here to see all scheduled program dates and responsibilities.
April Birthdays and Anniversaries
5 | Cathryn Hartwell | 7 | James and Bonnie Honeycutt |
14 | Deva Reece | 28 | Cliff and Karon Parker |
17 | Trip Durham | 30 | Thomas and Lea Phelps |
Club Announcements
- Katie also encouraged us to make our annual contribution to the RI foundation, if we have not previously done so this year. This needs to be done by the end of April to count for this year.
- We are in the middle of a big push to raise funds for our joint Rotary Reads project. The four local clubs are selling $100 chances for a dream vacation for two. As of the Tuesday meeting time, 26 tickets had been sold of the 100 we set as our cut off point. We need to get this done by April 18th. Here is your link for more information and to purchase your ticket – http://www.grahamrotaryclub.org/2019-fundraiser.html.
- We need more people to sign up as volunteers to read to kids as part of our Rotary Reads initiative. So far 11 members of our club have done so. Don’t miss this great opportunity to serve. Here is your link… Rotary Club of Alamance Rotary Reads Signup
- At District Conference we will collectively support the Generations Group Home for Abused Boys in the Greenville area.
http://generationsgroup.com/- Needed supplies include Basketball Shorts (Any mens’ sizes, S, M, L, XL),
- Graphic Tees, Boxers, Briefs, Mens’ Socks, Towels and Washcloths.
- Please bring these items to the April 16th or 23rd meetings.
Happy Dollar Announcements
- No outspoken Virginia fans were willing to shell out a dollar to congratulate them on an outstanding season.
Club Member Providing Today’s Program: Philip Smith
Philip Smith is a CPA with Apple, Bell, Johnson & Company, where he has worked since 2009. He is a graduate of Elon University with a BS in accounting. His areas of expertise include tax preparation and planning, accounting and auditing services, and fraud examination. He has been married for 32 years to Rene. They now have three grandchildren. He has been a member of our club since 2009 and prior to that he was a part of the Randolph Rotary Club for two years. He is also a Paul Harris Fellow.
Program: Mike Farlow, Comtech Network Solutions – Network Security
Comtech Network Solutions has been providing network security and computer services to Alamance County for thirty years. Mike Farlow, a founding partner and the CEO, is a certified Microsoft professional and small business specialist, in addition to having other areas of certification. He compressed an hour-long presentation on cyber security into twenty minutes for our club, leaving us wanting to hear more. He showed us how hackers can easily steal personal and corporate information when poorly trained employees fall for their schemes. In his words, “Poorly trained staff can undo all your security measures.” He encourages businesses to teach their people how to recognize threats, giving us the following quick tips.
- Don’t click on every link you see or you might compromise your system unwittingly.
- Don’t open unexpected attachments.
- Never send confidential information via email.
- Don’t trust that every email or phone call originates from where it seems.
- Don’t allow employees to check personal email or connect their devices at work on the main network. Use a guest network for that. Otherwise problems on their device could infect the company network.
- Question everything. Hackers are getting more sophisticated, spoofing corporate websites, telephone numbers, and email addresses.
Mike said he offers training and sends out alerts to customers at no charge. You can view his PowerPoint presentation and brochure by clicking below.
Cyber Security Seminar – Concise
Conclusion
Brook Carpenter held the winning ticket in our weekly raffle, but failed to draw the Queen of Diamonds. Only 48 cards left! Katie adjourned the meeting by leading us in a recitation of Rotary’s four-way test.