Greeter Schedule

Note: Members are reminded that if you are not able to serve as a greeter on your

scheduled date, please arrange for another Rotarian to take your place. 

 

 

District Conference Information

 

Pullman Plaza Hotel

1001 Third Avenue

Huntington, WV 25701

 

Make hotel reservations directly with the hotel. Room Rate is $89.00/night (includes buffet breakfast and two drinks/day) guaranteed until April 1. After that, rates may vary, depending on hotel fill rates. Call hotel directly and mention: “Rotary District 7550 Conference”

 

Hotel Contacts: 304-525-1001 (Tel)     1-866-613-3611 (toll free)     304-691-5418 (Fax)

 

---

 

 Agenda: (Conference Wear is Business Casual)

 

Thursday, April 22

       Noon -                          Registration (2^nd Floor Lobby)

       6:30 P.M.                      Ice Breaker Reception

 

Friday, April 23

       8:30 A.M. – Noon       Welcome and First Plenary Session

       Noon                            Luncheon

       2:00 – 3:10 P.M.          Second Plenary Session      

       3:30 – 4:30 P.M.          Board of Governor’s Meeting

       6:00 P.M.                     Reception/Dinner (Western BBQ/casual)

 

Saturday, April 24            

       8:30 A.M. - Noon         Welcome and Third Plenary Session

       Noon                             Paul Harris Fellows Luncheon

       1:30 – 4:30 P.M.           Optional Tours

                                              “We Are Marshall” movie and site tour

                                              Huntington Museum of Art

                                              Heritage Farm

      6:00 P.M.                        Reception/Dinner (Semi Formal/Business)

 

Sunday, April 25

         8:30 A.M.                   Memorial Service

         9:15 A.M.                   Welcome and Fourth Plenary Session

         11:00 A.M                  Adjourn

 

 

Membership:   Active Members:   59           Rule-of-85 Members:   9          Honorary Members:   9

 

 

Attendance This Week:     Present:   32          Absent:   27         Attendance Percentage:   54.24

 

 

Guests:

Brad Ferguson, guest of Karen Browning

Jewel Conner, Guest of Karen Browning

  

Make-ups:

Barbara Alvis, eClub

Charlie Carter, eClub

 

Announcements:

● Robert Perry reports that his recuperation following surgery is proceeding, but not as quickly as hoped, and he hopes to be back with us in two weeks.

● District Conference, April 22-25, Huntington, W.Va., Pullman Hotel. We need good attendance from Bluefield, WV Rotary.

● Congratulations to Karen Browning for being recognized by the Mercer County Board of Education’s “110 percent Club” as volunteer of the month in January.

● Basket money goes to Mercer County Bible in the Schools

● Rotto cards still missing. Today’s 50/50 pot of $10 was won by Mike Lilly. Rotto jackpot up to $317

---

 

The Program: Tim Velie, Identity Theft

 First Community Bank’s Senior Vice President Tim Velie, who works in Deposit Support Services, joined us this week to present a quick version of his seminar on Identity Theft.

 He said that most of the problems with identity theft are in the area of debit card fraud, and that it is the fastest growing area of crime in the 21^st century, with 748,000 complaints filed from January 2004 to December 2006, and $56.6 million in losses in 2006. Tim said he spends 30 percent to 40 percent of his time fighting fraud, something he never dreamed that he would be doing when he entered the business thirty years ago.

 Much of the information identity thieves want and need is not hard to get, he said, like your name, address and date of birth. More difficult, but much easier than we may realize, is getting your Social Security number or bank account or charge account numbers, which can be acquired through telephone, email, texting and Internet phishing expeditions, or by a watchful identity thief as you checkout from a store. Thieves sometimes attach data capture devices on ATM machines that read your data when you swipe your card to obtain cash, and take a video when you enter your PIN, too, so he warned us to look at ATMs closely before using them to be sure no such devices are present.

 Account numbers can be found on checks you write, and outgoing bills you put in your mailbox. And he said “dumpster diving” is another way thieves get your information, as well outright theft of your purse or billfold. Check printers other than your bank potentially can capture and distribute your account information.

 Once a thief has your SSN or account number and PIN, it’s a simple matter to steal thousands of dollars from you, or charge thousands of dollars to your account.

 In short, your information is more readily available than we may believe, much of it through activities we don’t realize are risky. Tim urged that we be very careful to protect our information, he recommended that everyone have a shredder, and use it to destroy personal financial data before throwing it away, and encouraged everyone to carefully monitor bank and charge account activity, and to report discrepancies immediately.

 Even though identity theft is a topic that we commonly encounter in the news media, Tim’s remarks were eye-opening and full of useful information. Thanks, Tim, for coming to our meeting and sharing this information with us.

---

 

Editor: James H. Shott, III - editor@rotary-bluefield.org 

Editor Emeritus: James M. Godwin, Jr.