Michael Truncale is widely recognized for his leadership and involvement in civic, cultural, and church organizations in Southeast Texas, and we are pleased to welcome him as the speaker.
Michael will speak about his recent trip to China and his historic meeting with the Chinese high court judges. He has some extraordinary photos to share and the stories of his interactions with the Chinese judges are remarkable.
Michael serves currently as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Eastern District Bar Association. He is a recent President of the Jefferson County Bar Association. Michael also served as the President of the Jefferson County Young Lawyers Association, and he was a member of the Alumni Advisory Council to the Southern Methodist University School of Law. Also, he is a former Chair of the Local Bar Services Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and he also served on the Law Focused Education Committee of the Texas Young Lawyers Association.
Plan to help deliver flags on Thursday, September 11. The Flag Committee is anxious to know they can count on you to help with this great project. Please let Pat Anderson or Travis Brewer know you can volunteer.
The Membership Lane, with leadership from Chairman Craig Lively, is undertaking an effort to assess your satisfaction with the Club. Make your voice heard.
To make it convenient for you, there are several ways to respond:
a. complete the brief questionnaire with online responses;
b. print the attachment, complete at home and return to the office or bring to the next meeting;
c. plan to complete a printed copy which will be available at the next meeting you attend.
Rotary Homecoming was a great deal of fun! We were delighted to have Kathleen Jackson, former member of our club as the speaker. Moreover, several members were warmly welcomed back after an absence, and we were thrilled to see them!
The Rotary Foundation's oldest and best-known program is Ambassadorial Scholarships. Applications for the 2015-2016 Rotary Foundation Academic-Year Ambassadorial Scholar Global Grants are now available from the Rotary Clubs in District 5910.
DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
Since 1947, more than 43,000 men and women from 100 nations have studied abroad under its auspices. Today, it is the world's largest privately funded international scholarships program. More than 650 scholarships were awarded for study in 2012-13. Through grants totaling approximately US$20 million, recipients from some 69 countries studied in more than 64 nations.
Kathleen Jackson made a Homecoming appearance to talk about what the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) does and how it operates. “Overall TWDB is an outreach for conservation and responsible water in Texas.”
In 2013, voters in Texas approved setting aside $2 billion from the rainy day fund in order to further develop research for the future for water resources for the state. They will be providing grant funding and low-cost loans to communities in search of long-term solutions to water management for the state and the people living in the state.
Every day 1,000 people move into the state and the TWDB is preparing for the future with safeguarding our water, developing strategies to be more efficient in the use of water, researching the development of new water possibilities and conservation of the water that we have now.
TWDB has an implementation fund and has an infrastructure bank that will be the source of revenue for TWDB bond programs. It is a cash-flow mechanism which will utilize grants and low-interest loans for communities presenting projects for approval to the Board. The $2 billion fund hopes to stretch to $57 billion through the years by constantly turning over loans and collecting loans. The rules for the loans and grants have stated priority lists and they will be adopted in March of 2015 by the state legislators. They have attempted to streamline the process with new templates that are easy to understand and will enable communities to more easily complete the process.
An area presently in need of assistance is Wichita Falls which is below 20% capacity on all three reservoirs. They are working on a system to convert sewage by chemical treatment into potable water. That city is in drought condition and in need of a future plan. Corpus Christi is experiencing major growth in the manufacturing area, and water is needed for manufacturing as well as new residents. Desalination projects are being considered and research is underway to attempt to make the process more cost effective. For more information go to www.waterdatafortexas.org.
Rotarians elected Kathleen Jackson (by stealth ballot collector Craig Lively) Homecoming Queen for 2014.
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