Club Business
Dick O’Donnell convened our monthly in-person club meeting at Noon at Burlington Beer Works. Jim Cartner offered
a prayer and led us in the pledge of allegiance to our flag. Jim’s wife Gail was his guest today. Dick asked our newest member, Rick Moore, to share for a few minutes. He was Governor in 2018-19 in District 5390 in Montana, where he was member of the Helena Rotary Club. Rick has been self-employed since 1986 as an engineer who works mainly with nuclear waste issues. When he and his wife moved to Montana, he joined
Rotary as a way to make friends and serve his community. He said it was a great decision. Rick moved to our area to be near his daughter, who is a professor at Elon. We are really glad to have him.
Randy Perkins gave a short Rotary Minute talk all about Mia Farrow.
Dick presented Sam Powell with a plaque that honors his deceased sister, former member, and president of our club, Beth Powell. Beth orchestrated a joint-club project using a Rotary grant that sent two firetrucks to Mexico during her 2009-10 presidency.
Getting to Know Our Members
Phil Brown is a 48 year Rotarian and former District Governor. He first joined the organization when he lived in Cedar Rapids, IA. Later he moved to Galveston, TX and then Southern Pines, NC before coming to Burlington. His initial reason for becoming a Rotarian was to build relationships and bring people together to serve the good of the community. He was educated as a clergyman, earning two theological degrees. Later he earned a Masters in Aging and Administration in the Long-Term Care field. He served in the local church and as a chaplain at a retirement community, which led him to be more concerned for how the church ministers to its aging members. Not really a sportsman, Phil loves to travel. He made trips to China four times, twice to Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Israel, and the Baltic countries. Phil is 87 years old and loves to be thought of being the “ancient sage.” He wants to encourage older Rotarians to stay active in Rotary after retirement.
Jim Cartner married his high school sweetheart, Gail, forty-three years ago. Jim is a past president of our club, even though he has only been a Rotarian for five years. He joined for business reasons and to serve the community. He was born and raised in Alamance County. In 1973 he joined the Air Force and told us that he was proud to serve our country, for which he was applauded. The Air Force was where he got his start in electronics. Later he earned a degree at ACC. His favorite sporting event was attending the US Open in 2014 with his son. He wants to be remembered as someone who touches people and helps to make their lives better.
Program: Burlington Police Chief Jeffrey Smythe – Police Reform
Chief Smythe has been the Chief of Police since May 2013. He has served in law enforcement for 33 years with various units, including three years at Arizona State University, nineteen years with the Scottsdale, Arizona Police Department, and five years as the Chief of Police with the Show Low Police Department. He has held a variety of positions in law enforcement, such as undercover narcotics enforcement with the Phoenix-based Drug Enforcement Administration task-forces, as a supervisor for Bicycle Patrol and High Enforcement Arrest Team (HEAT) in Scottsdale, and the lieutenant over the training function and property crimes division in Scottsdale as well. During his tenure as chief with the Show Low Police Department, he led that agency to its first CALEA accreditation. This was his second agency to gain accreditation after Scottsdale in 1994.
He has a Bachelor of Science degree in justice studies from Arizona State University and a master’s in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University. In 2007, he graduated from the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command (Session 242), and he attended the FBI National Academy (Session 244) in 2011. As of January 2018, Chief Smythe will be sworn in as a CALEA commissioner.
Chief Smythe told the club that a lot of his time is spent interacting with people making requests and demands from the department in the aftermath of the George Floyd death. Fortunately Smythe has been spearheading reform efforts for many years and has the department ahead of the curve, being 100% in compliance with all recommendations by CALEA, the department accrediting institution. This puts the BPD in the top 4% of departments throughout the nation. Of the 18,000 eligible departments nationwide, less than 1000 are accredited.
Many requests for change come from an initiative called #8CANTWAIT.
Most of these were part of policy already, and the others have been implemented. Chief Smythe said he is open to constructive ideas to improve the department and has always been proactive in adopting measures to improve the safety and performance of his officers and the public. Training is a big key, but unfortunately the local commissioners cut his department’s training budget 60%. He hopes that will be upped in the coming year. He believes training is vital to maintaining a quality department.
Chief Smythe told us that encouragement spoken and demonstrated toward officers goes a long way to boosting morale, too.
Conclusion
Next week the plan is to meet via Zoom. Dick concluded by leading us in reciting the Four Way Test and told us to Exit to Serve.