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MONTHLY REPORTS
TO THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF TORCH CLUBS (IATC) by the Secretary of THE TORCH CLUB OF ASHEVILLE-BLUE RIDGE, NORTH CAROLINA Calendar Year 2 0 0 5 INTRODUCTORY NOTE This page contains reports of First
Thursday meetings January - December 2005 of the Asheville-Blue Ridge
Torch Club. 2005 is the club's second calendar year of activity.
In a new club every month brings new decisions, precedents set and the abiding challenge to find a permanent meeting place. Members come. Members go. Elections are held. Some are willing to be on the Board. Many are not. TPK 12/16/2005 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
MONTHLY CLUB REPORT
ASHEVILLE-BLUE RIDGE TORCH CLUB DATE OF MEETING, Thursday January 06, 2005 1. MEETING ATTTENDANCE : 13 MEMBERS 59 %of Total Membership (22); 6 GUESTS 2. MEMBERSHIP CHANGES: ONE "Prima Facie" (?) Member lost. ADDITIONS: None. DELETIONS Mrs Jana Goncharoff, 120 College Circle, Swannanoa, NC 28778 REASON: Mrs. Goncharoff had indicated her intention to become a charter member and had paid her $10. But she then decided that there was no compelling reason for both her husband and herself to belong, pay dues, receive two sets of documents, etc. Since our club is developing as one deliberately welcoming to visitors, this may have tipped the scales in her decision. In her mind she never formally accepted membership. But she comes whenever her ailing husband can make it. 3. LOCAL ADDRESS CHANGE: NONE 4. OTHER CHANGES (Club Officers, Meeting time/Place, Other): NONE PROGRAM REPORT Speaker: Joseph GEIGER, M.D. IATC Member Profession: MEDICINE and PUBLIC HEALTH Title of Address: HOW MEASURE THE AGE OF THE UNIVERSE? Subject: Precis and appreciation of Geiger paper submitted by Club President Willard B. Fishburne: "The concepts were challenging but the reward for grasping the implications of a red-shift spectrographic analysis of light from distant objects was great. In a nutshell: If the universe came into existence with a "Big Bang," then all the mass would be headed out away from the center at fairly stable speeds. Some objects, Quasars, would be going faster. Some, galaxies, would be going slower. Since there was just one Big Bang, the fast-movers would have to be further out by now. Slow-movers would be closer in. Except the fast-moving Quasars aren't far out at all. In fact, many/most of them are intermingled with galaxies. But their red shift shows they're moving fast, doesn't it? That's what Big Bang says. So why are some of the fastest-moving objects so close to us? And how did they get so intermingled with other galaxies? That opens the door to some very interesting thoughts about the age of the universe, and whether or not God had a hand in it. We'll leave the further conclusions to you." Will the paper be submitted by the Club Board or Committee for consideration for publication in The Torch? No. NOTE: although never before given publicly, Dr Geiger's paper is essentially chapter one in a volume shortly to be self-published as an e-book. He has, therefore, been and still is reluctant to allow the club to pass his text up the line to IATC. We hope he will change his mind. ----------------------------------- Secretary T. Patrick Killough Date 05/11/05 Other items of interest for the Regional Director: Our club continued to settle in for its third meeting at our second meeting place. The milieu of the seafood restaurant and its meeting room is anything but as upscale as, say, the country clubs where the clubs meet in San Antonio, TX and Greenville, SC. But members and guests can order whatever they want at reasonable prices. Mangement and wait-staff have been continuously welcoming to us and to the noontime Optimist Club. Our meeting room is supposed to be turned into a bar some time and will then no longer be available for closed meetings. But we enjoy it while we may. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- MONTHLY CLUB REPORT
ASHEVILLE-BLUE
RIDGE TORCH CLUBDATE OF MEETING, Thursday February 03, 2005 NOTE: A HEAVY SNOW STORM FORCED THE MEETING TO BE CANCELLED. THE SPEAKER (club member Shirley Cohen) and PROGRAM (The CRAFT OT ACTING) were later rescheduled for September 1, 2005.) 1. MEETING ATTTENDANCE : NONE. MEMBERS____%of Total Membership GUESTS_____ 2. MEMBERSHIP CHANGES: NONE 3. LOCAL ADDRESS CHANGE: NONE 4. OTHER CHANGES(Club Officers, Meeting time/Place, Other): NONE PROGRAM REPORT (None: EVENT CANCELLED) Secretary: T. Patrick Killough Date: May 08, 2005 Other items of interest for the Regional Director: Apart from the cancellation due to weather of our planned February 03 meeting, nothing of note happened this month. -OOO- MONTHLY CLUB REPORT ASHEVILLE-BLUE RIDGE TORCH CLUB DATE OF MEETING, Thursday March 3, 2005 1. MEETING ATTTENDANCE : 12 MEMBERS 55% of Total Membership (22); 3 GUESTS 2. MEMBERSHIP CHANGES: Professor George A. Yates abruptly resigned his club membership. His stated reason was a perceived political imbalance and one sidedness among some members during "table talk" and fellowship time at meetings. An intellectual, professional group, he thought, should reflect more open-mindedness to competing political ideas. 3. LOCAL ADDRESS CHANGE OF MEMBER: NONE 4. OTHER CHANGES (Club Officers, Meeting time/Place, Other): NONE PROGRAM REPORT Speaker: Pauline Lees, IATC Member Profession: Artist. Title of Address: Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) Subject: American Colonial preacher and champion of religion Anne Hutchinson was persecuted by Massachusetts Bay Colony in her day and killed by Indians in New York. Over time she was given her dues by Rhode Island. Will the paper be submitted by the Club Board or Committee for consideration for publication in The Torch: Very likely, yes. Pauline's excellent talk has already led to other invitations in other local fora for her to develop her theses about Anne Hutchinson. Secretary: T. Patrick Killough Date: 05/0/2005 Other items of interest for the Regional Director: The month of March 2005 saw the club's first loss from among those who originally pledged to be charter members. This was preceded by Professor Yate's surprise announcement at the March 3 meeting (where informal canvassing of members for next years offices was underway by the President) that he, George, declined to move up from President Elect to President of the Asheville-Blue Ridge Torch Club. Several days later he emailed the secretary (who had missed the March 3 meeting because of unanticipated grandparenting duties in Dallas, Texas) that he was also resigning from the club with immediate effect. NOTE: George Yates is a long-time collaborator with me in the Asheville World Affairs Council and other undertakings. I phoned him immediately, heard his reasons, urged him to reconsider and have met with him on other matters face to face since. I do not entirely despair of his ultimate return to membership and hope that he will. He is an enormously talented professional, highly respected in Asheville. This is no small loss. TPK 05/07/05 ===-=-=-- MONTHLY CLUB REPORT A P R I L 2 0 0 5
ASHEVILLE-BLUE
RIDGE TORCH CLUBDATE OF MEETING, Thursday April 6, 2005 1. MEETING ATTTENDANCE : 14 MEMBERS = 64% of Total Membership 10 GUESTS 2. MEMBERSHIP CHANGES: NONE 3. LOCAL ADDRESS CHANGE OF MEMBER: NONE 4. OTHER CHANGES (Club Officers, Meeting time/Place, Other): The Following Members were elected officers or director for 2005-2006 with immediate entry into duties: --Willard B. Fishburne (2nd consecutive term) --T. Patrick Killough (Vice President and President-Elect) --Mary K. Killough, Secretary --Pauline Lees, Treasurer (2nd consecutive term) --Richard Kruse, Director At Large (2nd consecutive term) PROGRAM REPORT Speaker: Don YELTON IATC Member Profession: Biology, Environmental Science Title of Address: WATER'S TRUE VALUE Subject: How measure water and its value delivered to customers? Access to water brings psychological, economic and ecological values, among others. Some dimensions of water systems are more easily measured than others. But all dimensions are important. Will the paper be submitted by the Club Board or Committee for consideration for publication in The Torch: No (an oral powerpoint presentation without written text) Secretary Mary K. Killough Date May 06, 2005 Other items of interest for the Regional Director: At this meeting IATC President Wayne Davis from New York formally handed over our club's charter. He took the occasion to compliment us on our progress to date while giving tips on membership growth. Club President Bill Fishburne responded and presented Mr Davis with a "coffee table" picture book on the Blue Ridge National Parkway. IATC Vice President Anne Sterling also motored in from Richmond, Virginia, congratulated us and took numerous photos. We gave Anne a CD-ROM by a local musician. Region Four Director Edward Latimer and his wife Dot were also present from Columbia, South Carolina. Ed complimented the new club and promised future support. We presented him with a book on the history of the Asheville area. Dr Henry Howe and wife Blanche were with us from Greenvile, SC, home of our club's sponsoring torch club. Henry's help to us was early on, continuous and invaluable. Our club gave Henry and Blanche a book of area history in token of thanks. -=-=-=-=-=-=--=-- MONTHLY CLUB REPORT ASHEVILLE-BLUE RIDGE TORCH CLUB DATE OF MEETING, May 5, 2005 1. MEETING ATTTENDANCE : 13 MEMBERS 60 %of Total Membership GUESTS 10 2. MEMBERSHIP CHANGES:None. Two guests expressed immediate intent to join club. MEMBERSHIP ADDITIONS: None. MEMBERSHIP DELETIONS: None 3. LOCAL ADDRESS CHANGE: None. 4. OTHER CHANGES (Club Officers, Meeting time/Place, Other): None. PROGRAM REPORT Speaker: Willard B. Fishburne Select One: IATC Member (Yes) Profession: Communications Media Title of Address: ISLAM'S WAR ON WESTERN CIVILIZATION Subject: Judaism and Christianity picture the human race as made in God's image, therefore God's kinsmen. Islam by contrast portrays mankind as God's abject subjects with one underlying duty: blind obedience. All the world is to be made Muslim, either voluntarily or by force. This dynamic keeps the West in a perpetual posture of rational self-defense. Will the paper be submitted by the Club Board or Committee for consideration for publication in The Torch: The club suggested that this be done. Secretary: Dr Mary Klein Killough Date: 05/06/2005 Other items of interest for the Regional Director: There was unusually vigorous and intelligent general discussion of Bill Fishburne's clearly stated theses. At the close of the meeting, management of our meeting place (Coral Bay Seafood Restaurant) told officers that our meeting room (since last November) will soon be completely converted to a full time bar, no longer available for meetings by Optimists, Torch or other groups. This means we must find a new meeting place for our next meeting in September. The membership by voice vote appointed Patrick and Mary Killough to be the club's official delegates to the June IATC convention in Des Moines, Iowa. Two visitors requested membership application forms and three other visitors expressed strong interest in joining Torch in the future. -OOO- file: torch_A-BR_mo_05/05/05+ ==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= MONTHLY CLUB REPORT: 2005 June - July - August
ASHEVILLE-BLUE RIDGE TORCH CLUB DATES OF MEETINGS, NONE in JUNE, JULY, AUGUST 2005 1. MEETING ATTTENDANCE : NO MEETINGS 2. MEMBERSHIP CHANGES: NONE ADDITIONS: NONE DELETIONS: NONE 3. LOCAL ADDRESS CHANGE: NONE 4. OTHER CHANGES (Club Officers, Meeting time/Place, Other): The primary task of the club's board in June, July and August was to find a new meeting place (our third). Reason: our meeting place at Coral Bay Seafood Restaurant would no longer be available. The meeting room was being converted to a bar open to the public. We therefore selected Trevi Restaurant 2 Hendersonville Road Biltmore Station Asheville NC 28803 828-281-1400 info@TreviRestaurant.com http://www.trevirestaurant.com/ NOTE: We did this with fingers crossed because the physical layout made it doubtful whether our meeting room would be quiet enough. Looking ahead, our meeting in October 2005 was so affected by noise outside the room that we immediately cancelled future reservations and began our search anew, this time with very good results. PROGRAM REPORT NO PROGRAMS June, July, August 2005. -OOO- Secretary Mary K. Killough Date 12/14/200505 Other items of interest for the Regional Director: NONE =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5
MONTHLY CLUB REPORT ASHEVILLE-BLUE RIDGE TORCH CLUB DATE OF MEETING, Thursday September 1, 2005 1. MEETING ATTTENDANCE : NONE. Meeting was cancelled because of weather and massive gasoline shortage. Per public request by the Mayor. 2. MEMBERSHIP CHANGES: NONE 3. LOCAL ADDRESS CHANGE OF MEMBER: NONE 4. OTHER CHANGES (Club Officers, Meeting time/Place, Other): NONE PROGRAM REPORT (NONE: MEETING CANCELLED) Secretary Mary K. Killough Date December 15, 2005 Other items of interest for the Regional Director: Torch Club Member Shirley Cohen, had been re-scheduled to speak on ACTING. In 2004 she was snowed out! We have rescheduled her talk for March 2006. =-=-=-=-=-=--=-- O C T O B E R 2 0 0 5
ASHEVILLE-BLUE
RIDGE TORCH CLUBMonthly Report DATE OF MEETING, Thursday October 06, 2005 1. MEETING ATTENDANCE : 15 members = 65% of total membership. Seven guests (including one pledged to join). 2. MEMBERSHIP CHANGES: (5) --MEMBERSHIP ADDITIONS: (3) (1) Douglas D. Alden. 802 Fairview Road #300. Asheville, NC 28803. (2) Gerri M. Casse. 806 Twin Brook Drive. Waynesville, NC 28785. (3) Marshall L. Casse. 806 Twin Brook Drive. Waynesville, NC 28785. --MEMBERSHIP DELETIONS: (2) (1) Blair Ferguson. (2) Emily Ferguson. Reasons for leaving: Blair is a tennis champion with matches scheduled every Thursday evening (when Torch meets). Emily has recently relocated from another state and is overwhelmed establishing local clientele for her financial counseling service and readers for a weekly newspaper column. 3. LOCAL ADDRESS CHANGE OF MEMBER: (1) (1) Rubin Feldstein. 7 Prairie Path, Asheville, NC 28805. ph: 828 298-9782. email: rubinf@charter.net 4. OTHER CHANGES (Meeting time/Place): Noise outside our meeting room in October was so great that we sought and found a new meeting place for the following month (November 2005), namely the uptown location, upscale LA CATERINA TRATTORIA, 39 Elm Street, Asheville, NC 28801. ph: 828-254-1148. http://www.lacaterina.com info@lacaterina.com PROGRAM REPORT Speaker: Marshall L. CASSE IATC Member YES Profession: Diplomat. Economist. Title of Address: MORAL HAZARD: GOOD INTENTIONS GONE BAD Subject: Moral hazard arises when someone is insured against risky behavior, being thereby tempted to take risks (if not caught in a misdeed) and increasing the likelihood of bad things happening. After examples from fire insurance and flood insurance, the author probed the applicability of the concept of "moral hazard" to public policy in several arenas, especially health care. Public policy can limit otherwise good effects that come from purely private cooperation among individuals. Will the paper be submitted for consideration for publication in The Torch? YES. Secretary Mary K. Killough Date December 15, 2005 Other items of interest for the Regional Director: NONE. -=-=-=-=-=-=--=--
N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 5
ASHEVILLE-BLUE
RIDGE TORCH CLUBDATE OF MEETING, Thursday November 03, 2005 1. MEETING ATTTENDANCE : MEMBERS: 11 = 48% of membership. Plus seven (7) guests. 2. MEMBERSHIP CHANGES: NONE NOTE: Mark Crawford has moved 70 miles west of asheville and does not expect to attend any more meetings. He asks that his membership lapse as of April 30, 2006. 3. LOCAL ADDRESS CHANGE OF MEMBER: (1) (1) Mark Crawford. to: p.o. box 2405, cullowhee, nc 28723, ph. 828-293-0780 email: 4. OTHER CHANGES (Club Officers, Meeting time/Place, Other): NONE PROGRAM REPORT Speaker: Carl S. Milsted, Jr. IATC Member Yes Profession: Physicist. Also Chairman of Buncombe County, NC Libertarian Party Title of Address: HOW THIRD PARTIES CAN WIN ELECTIONS IN THE USA Subject: Drawing on a number of original charts, Dr Milsted laid out conditions under which third parties can build conscious strategies to win elections by filling in important gaps between the Republican and Democratic parties. The winning third party might not currently exist but have to be constructed. Will the paper be submitted by the Club Board or Committee for consideration for publication in The Torch? YES Secretary Mary K. Killough Date December 15, 2005 Other items of interest for the Regional Director: None. -=-=-=-=-=-=--=--
MONTHLY CLUB REPORT
ASHEVILLE-BLUE RIDGE TORCH CLUBDATE OF MEETING, Thursday December 1, 2005 1. MEETING ATTTENDANCE : MEMBERS 15 = 65% of Total Membership (23); GUESTS 13 2. MEMBERSHIP CHANGES: NONE 3. LOCAL ADDRESS CHANGE OF MEMBER: NONE 4. OTHER CHANGES (Club Officers, Meeting time/Place, Other): NONE PROGRAM REPORT Speaker: T. Patrick KILLOUGH IATC Member YES Profession: DIPLOMAT, U.S. Department of State (retired). WRITER. TITLE of Address: ROTARY AND SERVICE CLUBS:
MASKED AND UNMASKED BY TWO MEN AND TWO VILLAGES Paul Harris’s Wallingford, Vermont and Sinclair Lewis’s Sauk Centre, Minnesota see http://www.patrickkillough.com/history/twovillages.html Subject: There are twelve families of service clubs, including Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, Optimist, Pilot and Soroptimist. Americans created them all between 1905 and 1921. Sinclair Lewis satirized them in four novels: BABBITT, ELMER GANTRY, THE MAN WHO KNEW COOLIDGE and IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE. Sinclair Lewis had laid the groundwork by unmasking stiffling aspects of American villages in 1920's MAIN STREET. Why did private associations for doing good to others anger Lewis? Today’s service clubs are the result of a debate between that 19th Century Vermont village which Paul Harris deliberately reconstructed in 1905 as the Rotary Club of Chicago and Sinclair Lewis’s Minnesota town purified of its "village viruses." Will the paper be submitted by the Club Board or Committee for consideration for publication in The Torch? YES. Already submitted. Note. The talk grew from an adult education course for Montreat College, NC, co-taught by torch club members Patrick and Mary Killough on NOVELS OF SINCLAIR LEWIS. Discussion by members and guests was brisk and heart-felt. Other items of interest for the Regional Director: This was the Asheville Club's second meeting at its newest (and fourth!) location, La Caterina Trattoria in Asheville. Service is excellent. Meeting space is good. We hope this is our permanent home. Curiously, the Optimist Club moved to la caterina before we did, when its (and our) former meeting place at Coral Bay Restaurant was converted to a bar. Dr Mary Klein Killough Club Secretary 12/15/2005 ===-=-=-- Send to: Mr James Strickland, Executive Secretary, International Association of Torch Clubs, Inc., Strickland & Jones, P.C., 749 Boush Street, Norfolk, VA 23510 - 1517, Phone: 757.622.3927, 1-888-622-4101, Fax: 757.623.9740, E-mail: iatc@infionline.net And to: Region 4 Director, Edward B. Latimer, 6617 Macon Road, Columbia, SC 29209-2053, Phone: 803.776.4765, Fax:804.783.0849, E-mail: Dick1040A@aol.com file: torch_A-BR_mo_12-02-04 ++++++++++++++++++++++ ADDENDUM: 23 MEMBERS (and one PLEDGE)
OF ASHEVILLE-BLUE RIDGE TORCH CLUB AS OF DECEMBER 16, 2005 --Doug Alden --Gerry Casse --Marshall Casse --Shirley Cohen --Mark F. Crawford --William Currie --Rubin Feldstein -- Willard B. Fishburne -- Joseph Geiger --Nicholas Goncharoff --Leith Holloway -- Atticus Killough -- Mary Klllough -- Patrick Killough -- Richard A. Kruse --James Lees --Pauline Lees --Carl S. Milsted, Jr. --David Morgan --William R. Porter, Jr. --Oscar Shoenfelt --Henry Stern -- James Donald Yelton (total members 23) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= PLEDGED TO JOIN: (1) --Dame Beryl Windsor -OOO- TPK 12_16_2005 file:torch_aville_shortlist_12/16/2005.rtf |