Held at Civic Center
President Michael Courey opened meeting at 6 p.m. and asked speakers to go through the buffet lines first. Barbara Carew and Joan Crothers manned the sign-in table. Several dues were paid.
Attendance: 62—46 members and 16 guests.
Speakers: President Courey introduced Dr. Drew Van Horn, President of Young Harris College. Dr. Van Horn said the College is now offering a Masters Degree. Most of their students come from a 100-150 mile radius in Georgia and they partner with the adjoining five counties’ high schools with college courses their student can take. These students can also attend YHC for $10K/yr; with the HOPE Scholarship it is only $5K/yr. They want to keep their skilled students in North Georgia.
Dr. Van Horn then introduced YHC Baseball Head Coach Stephen Waggener who spoke about their “major success” in baseball last year.
Clean Sweep: Liza and Chuck Strub gave an update on their first project: uncovered trucks at Towns County Transfer Station. With their campaign, uncovered loads have gone down in the last two months from 47% to 16%. General County cleanup will be two weeks this year, April 15-27.
Fire Wise: Frank Riley spoke briefly about spreading the word about Towns County’s success with Firewise Communities and the reduction in wildfires it has made.
Business meeting: Pres. Courey reminded everyone that minutes are on our website along with other information. He gave the Treasurer’s Report as bank balance of $3,962.77.
By-Laws: The three amendments to TCCA By-Laws were explained and voted on with unanimous “Yes” vote.
Survey for donations: La Jean Turner talked about the survey members were asked to fill out as they came into the meeting as to donations to be made with their dues money. She will report the results at the February Board meeting.