Young Professionals of Dublin Laurens County

 Meg Greer Young Professionals of Dublin Laurens County
Following graduation from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, Meg Greer moved to Dublin in 2013 to begin her career in law. The granddaughter of H. Dale Thompson, a long - time Dublin attorney, Meg worked in Estate Planning and Administration and Real Estate law before founding Warren Greer Law in 2017.
A summa cum laude graduate from the Honors College at the University of Alabama, she was named Greek Woman of the Year in 2010 and was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority and The XXXI. Since planting her roots in Dublin, Meg has served as the President of Dublin ’ s Junior League from 2014 - 2015. She was a member of the Dublin - Laurens Leadership Class of 2014 - 2015 and served on the Dublin - Laurens St. Patrick's Committee as the Vice President of the Order of the Blarney Stone.
She has been a Board Member of the Dublin Laurens Distinguished Young Women Scholarship Program since 2014. Meg served as President of the Dublin Bar Association from 2014 - 2016 and is a founding member and the current President of the Young Professionals of Dublin Laurens County. Last year, Meg was selected as a member of the Fall 2016 Class of Georgia Forward's Young Gamechangers program. In the Summer of 2017,Meg joined the Dublin Rotary Club as one of it ’ s newest members.

The Future and Impact of Technology

Dr. John Girard holds the Peyton Anderson Endowed Chair in Information Technology at Middle Georgia State University ’ s School of Information Technology. His research interests include how technology, leadership and culture enable knowledge management, innovation, and globalization. He has traveled to over 100 countries to witness globalization in action. John is founder and Chief Knowledge Strategist of Sagology ( www.sagology.com ), a firm dedicated to connecting people to facilitate collaboration, learning, and knowledge sharing through keynotes, workshops, and consulting. He gained valuable insights about university leadership as a dean, executive program director, and as the faculty advisor to the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education. John is very proud of his service in the Canadian Forces; he retired at the rank of Lieutenant - Colonel in 2004 after 24 years in uniform.

District Governor Visit

District Governor Hamsa is the president of Innovation Business Development, Inc. (IBD), an innovation management training and consulting company. His company helps client organizations to sustain growth with new products and services.
Hamsa has been a member of the St. Simons Rotary Club since 1978 and served as its president in 1983 - 84. In 1985, he received Rotary International District 6920 Governor's New Club Builder Award for starting two new Rotary Clubs: the Rotary Club of Jekyll Island and the Rotary Club of Camden County. He served as the Coastal Georgia Area Coordinator for the first Polio Plus Campaign during 1986 - 1987. He served as the Governor ’ s Group Representative for five District Governors during 1984 - 89. In 1988 - 89 Hamsa served as the District Group Study Exchange (GSE) Chairman and exchanged GSE Teams with India. The St. Simons Rotary Club recognized him as the Man of the Year for outstanding service to the Rotary and the community in 1991. In 2002 Hamsa received the Four Avenues of Service Citation from Rotary International.
District Governor Hamsa served the Georgia Rotary Student Program (GRSP) as a Host Family, Line Trustee (1993 - 2000), District Endowment Vice - Chairman (2001 - 02) and District Chairman (2003 - 2009). He is currently an Emeritus Trustee of GRSP (Since 2010).
Hamsa led the Group Study Exchange (GSE) team to India in 2010. He organized the Polio camps in his grandfather ’ s village in South India (2004 - 05) and constructed latrines and drinking water wells for the village poor (2001 - 02). Under the Future Vision program and with funds from the Rotary Global Grants projects (2011 - 2016), he distributed wheelchairs for Polio victims, sewing machines for village women, and partnered with D3150 in India to transform government run schools in Andhra Pradesh (south India) into Happy Schools

Luke Christian CEO/Founder of Surcheros

Luke Christian is the CEO/Founder of Surcheros Franchising Corporation in Douglas, Georgia. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 2001 with a BS in Psychology and opened his first restaurant in Douglas in 2007, then named Rancheros Fresh Grill. The build - your - own style Tex - Mex restaurant quickly gained popularity. Therefore, in 2008, Christian opened a second location in Waycross. Then, in 2012, a third location in Tifton.
With the desire to grow and branch out to more areas, the decision was made to begin franchising. Franchising would mean moving into not just rural South Georgia, but nation- wide. Because of this, it was determined that a re - branding was necessary. This involved changing the look of the company and the name. In November 2016, the existing Rancheros restaurants changed their name to Surcheros and the first official Surcheros opened in Dublin shortly thereafter. More Surcheros locations have since opened in Moultrie and Jesup with Brunswick, Valdosta, and Kingsland to follow in 2018.

State of the State

Speaking to the club about various issues were Representative Matt Hatchett Georgia House of Representatives District 150, Senator Larry Walker, III Georgia State Senate 12th Congressional District and Congressman Rick Allen U.S. House of Representatives District 20.

Steve Franklin

Steve Franklin is an author, educator, speaker, business man and Certified BBQ Judge. Though "semi-retired" from business he works with North Point Ministries creating environments to cultivate increasing generosity among business leaders and families. The former associate dean at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, Franklin, who lives in Atlanta, not only travels for fun with his wife, Elaine, but also in his role as chairman of the governing board for The American University in Dubai, a member of the board of regents at Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College, and as a frequent judge at barbecue competitions across the South. He has consulted with and delivered hundreds of keynote speeches to major organizations throughout North America, Europe, South Africa and Dubai including Coca-Cola, General Electric, Federal Express, Northwestern Mutual, UPS, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, IBM and Chick-fil-A. He also logged a lot of miles to research a book he wrote titled Celebrate 100: Centenarian Secrets to Success in Business and Life. “I went to probably 50 different cities for the book and did 200-plus videotaped interviews,” says Franklin, 70, whose goal is to live to be 120 and keep traveling as long as he’s able.

GRSP Student Sofia Stahlfors

Sofia Stahlfors is this year’s GRSP student from the very southern part of Sweden where she lives with her parents and older sister Emma. The upcoming year, she’ll attend University of Georgia in Athens, but also spend a lot of time with her host families: the Walkers in Dublin and the Osbornes in Greensboro.
Sofia is 18 years old and goal-oriented, joyful and ambitious. She is excited to take classes in subjects she's never studied before as she would like to experience courses other than natural science which she is studying at her school in Sweden.
Beyond her involvement in several councils at school, Sofia is active in a local assembly for youths which hosts events such as outdoor cinemas for almost 3,000 people and works to strengthen the contact between politicians and teenagers.
This year is a dream come true for Sofia since she has always wanted to experience life in the United States.