Rotary Club of Athens, GA, USA

Home
United States
Athens, GA
Rotary Club of Athens, GA, USA

Founded in 1920, The Rotary Club of Athens has served the community for over 100 years.

05/29/2026

Join us at the next Downtown Business Community & Athens Rotary blood drive Thursday, June 4, from 12-5 p.m. More information can be found on the flier and by scanning the QR code.

05/27/2026

We recently awarded our annual Rotary scholarships to local graduates.

The E.B. Mell Scholarship was awarded to Chizoba Stephanie Emegwam for noteworthy performance in academic achievement, leadership, and extracurricular activities. She's an honor student and class salutatorian at Cedar Shoals High School.

The Athens Rotary-Madelyn Forbes Service Above Self Scholarship was awarded to Devin Hubbard for his service to the community. Devin is also an honor student at Cedar Shoals High School.

Congratulations to Chizoba and Devin!

05/21/2026

Welcome to our newest Rotarian, Daniel Epting! Daniel is the owner of Epting Support Services and was sponsored by Elaine Cook.

05/19/2026

Our annual Rotary BBQ fundraiser was hit again this year! A special thank you to all our volunteers--especially club president, Ralph Johnson, in his impressive costume!

04/16/2026

David Gattie, UGA associate professor of engineering, visited Rotary last week to share more about energy consumption and power generation.

The demand for power is going to increase in the near future, said David Gattie, an associate professor in engineering at the University of Georgia.

The state is better equipped than the nation as a whole because of sound decisions made by producers and regulators. Energy consumption and power generation have been relatively static for the last 20 years, but he sees an increase, driven in part by data centers.

Georgia is better equipped to handle the demand because it has relied less on weather-generated power, such as solar and wind, and more on thermal sources, such as natural gas, coal and nuclear.

Reliability is the issue. Texas, he said, came within four minutes and 37 seconds of going dark. Without power. Texas would have become a disaster unlike any ever seen. “Imagine people dying, food spoiling, no water. We would turn all our attention to Texas, appropriately so.”

04/15/2026

Alison Ausband, Delta Air Lines' executive vice president and chief people officer, recently visited Rotary.

Delta Air Lines strives to keep climbing in all that it does, said Alison Ausband. Delta recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.

As chief people officer, Ausband is appropriately proud of Delta's employees. She believes they are the company's top superpower. Founder C.E. Woolman said that any airline could buy aircraft and comfortable seats, but they cannot replicate the Delta people. The eight subsequent CEOs have carried that emphasis forward.

04/14/2026

At the end of March, we were joined by Dr. Maryann Gallagher, Director of the Security Leadership Program within the Benson-Bertsch Center for International Trade and Security, as well as two of the program's impressive students--Mary and Abby.

The Benson-Bertsch Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia was established to empower students and professionals with the skills and knowledge needed to address complex international security challenges and navigate intricate global trade issues.

Maryann Gallagher explained the program aims students at solving the world's "most intractable security issues." Two students shared their perspectives on what they have learned from participating in the program. Only a handful of students are accepted into the program each semester. As part of the program, they travel to Washington, D.C., each spring.

04/02/2026

Grateful to Rotary District 6910 Governor Jessica Fleetwood and Assistant Governor Michelle Roberts Kelterborn (pictured with President Ralph Johnson) for joining last month to share district updates.

Gov. Fleetwood presented Rotarian Rick Parker with his Paul Harris pin (+8) and Rotarian Stephanie VanDyck with her Paul Harris Fellow recognition.

03/31/2026

We were recently joined by Jackson Spalding's Brian Long who reflected on a professional experience and the influence of AI on communications and crises.

The ink was hardly dry on the contract Norfolk Southern executed with Jackson Spalding as its agency of record when a crisis hit. A Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.

"What began as a typical industrial accident became something very different," Brian Long told the Rotary Club of Athens. "It became a preview of how artifical intelligence and bots can shape an existing crisis and how AI is already shaping our world."

A freight train derailed when a wheel bearing overheated, sending about 40 cars off the track. Some of the cars were carrying hazardous materials. The wreck burned for a few days. Fearing an explosion, Norfolk Southern evacuated residents within one mile of the site. The chemicals inside a compromised car were vented and burned off in a controlled release. Residents were returned to their homes without further incident. The crisis appeared to have passed.

Six days after the wreck, social media engagements connected to the derailment jumped from the thousands to the hundreds of thousands. Major news outlets like The New York Times, NPR, and CNN responded to the peak interest.

The problem was that outrage was being created, amplified and manipulated by bot networks. "It was a full-fledged foreign state misinformation campaign," Brian said. "We were looking at a coordinated effort to reshape the story and erode confidence in the response," he added.

"Misinformation spreads faster than any effort to correct it," Brian shared. It is very easy to spin up an army of fake accounts to create the perception of massive outrage. The misinformation harmed real people in real ways.

Jackson Spalding put boots on the ground in East Palestine to address the crisis. "We ramped up our response to rumors," he said. "Our goal was to outlast the bots. In the first year, we held 27 in-person media events. I made more than 50 news announcements. We operated at a blistering pace."

Brian said that the accessibility of deep-fake technology exaggerates the problem. Most organizations are not prepared for an AI attack. He recommends vigilance. Own your digital landscape. Post office social channels prominently. Google alerts can help you monitor your name, your brand and your business.

03/17/2026

Join us in welcoming our newest Rotarian--Brad Campbell. He is the Business Development Manager with RW Allen Construction and was sponsored by Tino Johnson.

Address

P. O. Box 5951
Athens, GA
30604

Website

http://www.AthensGaRotary.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Rotary Club of Athens, GA, USA posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your organization to be the top-listed Non Profit Organization in Athens?