The Rotary Club of Beaumont, TX, is a large and diverse fellowship of inspired business, professional, and civic leaders with significant community connections that foster the ideals of Service Above Self and high ethical standards.
If you are attending in person, we ask that you use this linkto make a reservation by Monday, April 1, 2024.
Dr. Jaime R. Taylor is the 16thpresident of Lamar University, which serves more than 17,000 students in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Before his appointment in July 2021, Taylor served as Marshall University's provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. Signature achievements during his time at Marshall include strategic planning and programming to support dramatic increases in first-year retention and six-year graduation rates, the development of new academic programs including a fixed-wing aviation program and a doctorate of business administration, and the doubling of university-wide research expenditures, the latter leading to a new Carnegie classification for Marshall as an R2 research institution.
Prior to his work at Marshall, Taylor spent a significant portion of his career at Austin Peay State University, where he served two years as interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, eight years as dean of the College of Science and Mathematics and eight years as chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Taylor is an award-winning teacher of physics and was honored as an Austin Peay State University Outstanding Alumni.
Taylor has had significant success in growing student enrollment and improving student success metrics at two different institutions across all levels of administration. Under his leadership, Marshall University achieved record freshman retention rates and six-year graduation rates, with year-over-year increases of 6% and 5% respectively. Likewise, Taylor oversaw a 26% increase in the Austin Peay State University freshman class while serving as interim provost after just one year of implementing a new plan that intentionally put faculty and academics at the center of recruitment efforts. He also oversaw an increase in the freshman retention rate at Austin Peay State University of 6%, and an increased retention rate of 9% for Black freshman.
Taylor is a natural collaborator and recognizes when people love what they do, they develop fierce internal motivation and are creatively invested in the mission of the institution. By fostering a campus culture that relies on shared governance and values the expertise everyone brings to the table, Taylor invites every stakeholder to own both the problems and the successes of the university. His collaborative leadership style resulted in Austin Peay State University being named to the Honor Roll of the Chronicle of Higher Education's Great Colleges to Work For, with particular recognition for Confidence in Senior Leadership and Collaborative Governance both years he served as interim provost.
Taylor received his Ph.D. and M.S. in engineering from the University of Tennessee Space Institute, his B.S. in physics and mathematics from Austin Peay State University and an A.A.S. in industrial engineering technology from Nashville State Technical Institute. He also spent four years as a NASA Faculty Fellow working on applications of soft computing.
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April 3, 2024
Invocation
Uliana Trylowsky
Development Officer
Lamar University
Pledges to USA & Texas Flags
Juan Zabala
Vice President for University Advancement
Lamar University
Introduction of Guests
John Rollins
Associate Director- Community Relations & Public Affairs
Lamar University
Introduction of Speaker
Becky Mason
Retired
Please volunteer for Head Table responsibilities through the
Board of Directors Meeting; 11:30- Elegante, Fountainview Room
24
Lauren Monitz, 100 Things to Do in Beaumont
26-28
District Conference
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Board Secretary Misty Fountain reported changes to membership.
Classification Change:
Bruce Walker, President, Big Thicket Associate Classification: “Associations-Big Thicket Associations”
The Board of Directors meets monthly and the meetings are open to all members. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, April 23. If you would like to attend the lunch meeting, please make a reservation in advance with the Executive Director.
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T. KELSEY LAMB AWARD FOR BUSINESS ETHICS
The T. Kelsey Lamb Award for Business Ethics is "presented annually to a Beaumont Rotarian who consistently exhibits the highest ethical standards represented by the Rotary Four-Way Test in his or her chosen vocation."
The 2024 recipient of this prestigious honor is Roger McCabe.
As described by Stephanie Shoemaker, who nominated Roger McCabe, this is what she writes.
Roger McCabe's work serving our community through tireless work and dedication to the Jefferson County Bar Association's pro-bono law work in family law and his service as a mediator with the Jefferson County Dispute Resolution Center is worthy of being honored with the T. Kelsey Lamb Award. As a US Veteran, he takes particular interest in serving Veterans by donating hours to address family law, social security and veterans benefits legal issues. Roger McCabe presently focuses his practice on family law and the mediation of family law disputes. He has tried several contested child custody issues for his clients. When not representing his own clients, Mr. McCabe serves others in the mediation of family law matters. He is a certified Mediator and also a Certified Parenting Facilitator. In 2016, Mr. McCabe was honored as Mediator of the Year by the Jefferson County Dispute Resolution Center. Following four years on active duty as an officer in the United States Navy JAG Corps, Mr. McCabe joined MehaffyWeber in 1973. He is a shareholder in MehaffyWeber PC. Mr. McCabe graduated from Marquette University with a Bachelor Science, cum laude, and obtained his law degree from the University of Iowa with a Juris Doctorate, cum laude. He has been Board Certified by the Texas State Board of Legal Specialization in Personal Injury Trial Law (1978-2015) and the Texas State Board of Legal Specialization in Family Law (1980). He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. He is an active Rotarian, having served as the Beaumont Club’s President in 2001-2002 and Rotary District 5910 Governor in 2008-2009.
His leadership and contributions that he has made to our club and in other volunteer roles has affected our community. Diane Bass did a great job in describing the impact he has made. Congratulations to the recipient of the T. Kelsey Lamb Award for Business Ethics, Roger McCabe.
Rotary Goes Home, the popular fun event where the weekly Rotary meeting is moved to Rotarian homes, will take place April 8-12 in place of the Rotary meeting on April 10. This traditional event is always a great fellowship experience, getting to know fellow Rotarians in a completely different setting.
There is another conference while we are at South Shore. Rooms may be limited if you wait too long. South Shore has given us a conference rate of $151.42 per night inclusive of tax.
Jeff Dyson, current Vice President of M&D Supply, serves on numerous non-profit boards in the community, and worked at the Lamar University College of Business teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses along with several other roles while there.
Jeff spoke on ethics and how he applies these concepts in his family business using the context “The Speed of Trust – The One Thing that Changes Everything” written by Stephen M. R. Covey.
Mr. Dyson stated Covey notes that ethics is not a soft skill, it is an economic lever. He noted that Covey states ethics and business equate to faster speed and lower cost by defining it as a trust dividend. The reverse of a trust dividend is a trust tax; low trust slows things down and increases cost. An organization’s systems, policies, and practices become powerful symbols that can create or destroy trust. Ethical leaders constantly work to create symbols of trust and remove symbols of distrust. An exercise Dyson does in their organization is at least once a year; each area creates a T chart and identifies the symbols, systems, policies, signs, rules, etc. that create trust or distrust in their functional area. He states that when they do this speed goes up and cost goes down and they become a better place to work and shop.
Mr. Dyson stated that ethics is the number one competency in leadership today; if you are not ethical, you are not relevant. Mr. Dyson referenced how in his lifetime the economy has moved from the industrial age to where primary drivers of success were machines and capital (things) to a knowledge worker age where people have discretion with respect to how much of themselves they give to their work depending on how they are treated. He stated that four chronic problems that are nagging organizations today include low trust, no clear purpose or vision, bureaucratic misaligned systems, and under-utilized talent and potential. The key takeaways from this are to inspire trust, clarify purpose, aligned systems, and to unleash talent.
He noted that Covey stated that the one thing that changes everything is four essential cores of creditability and how they work together to show someone that can be relied on.
The winner of this year’s T. Kelsey Lamb, Sr. Award for Business Ethics was described as a person of integrity that bends over backwards to be truthful; a person with intent who in everyday and everyway exhibits the 4-way test; a person of capability that obtained a doctoral with honors and professional accomplishments have been widely recognized. After the close of this portion of the program, Roger McCabe was honored as the recipient of the T. Kelsey Lamb, Sr. Award for Business Ethics.
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