President Lynn King called the meeting to order
Kevin Courtney offered the prayer and led the pledge to the flag. Thank you Suzi Oliver for the flag and Dave Pierce for the pole.
Announcements:
Creighton Stuckart and Suzi Oliver have been working on a water project. Suzi explained the oyster bagging project and there are possible dates that we can do it. Wednesday Nov 18, or December 9 from 3:00 TO 4:30 pm. They furnish the supplies we fill the bags. We need to bring masks, wear closed toe shoes and long pants. More information to come.
Kristin Keller - the raffle tickets will be available next week. The raffle will take place on December 22, which will give members additional time to sell tickets.
Evan Jeffords and Brian Neumann are finalizing the holiday basket project. Deliveries (to 50 families each time) will take place on November 24 and December 22.
Plans are being made for an off site meeting in November - to be held at the Sand Box.
Member Bev James will be out of town until after Christmas. She is reachable via email.
Christmas party plans are still being considered. Possible that it will be an Oyster Roast.
We will have a meeting on election day - November 3
Sergeant at Arms, Suzi Oliver collected Happy $$
Speaker:
Suzi introduced the speaker - VLR member Dick Storm.
photo credit Barry Davis
Dick worked for over 50 years in the Electric, mining, and power industry. His engineering firm, Storm Technologies is located in North Carolina.
He tries to inspire young people because he feels there is a disconnect between education and employers. Dick shared his wealth of knowledge about energy with us. Total energy consumed is about 90% from heat engines: Coal plants, nuclear plants, internal combustion gas turbines, internal combustion reciprocating natural gas , Bio-mass and landfill gas burning steam plants, diesel generation. Heat Engines are at the heart of driving the economies of both developed and developing countries. The US Government Department of Energy keeps track of energy produced and how it is utilized - which sources and where our energy originated and how and where it is utilized. Each American citizen on average uses about 330 million BTU's per year. There are about 100 Quadrillion BTU's total energy used per year. It is used for Transportation (28.2%), Electricity Production (37%), Industrial Production (26.4%), Residential (11.9%), and Commercial (9.41%). Cost of energy is a big deal. The cost of fuel has a lot to do with the cost of electricity. South Carolina is number 3 in the nation for nuclear power generation. In SC, nuclear power is 56.9% of the total energy - natural gas is 23.3%, coal is 13.3%, renewables 7.4% and oil is 0.1%. SC has 7 nuclear power units, four plants. One third of SC electricity is consumed to make metal - steel and aluminum. By comparison, China's capacity for steel and aluminum is more than 50% of the entire rest of the world. Jobs in energy production are important. Energy independence is important for National Security. Energy = quality of life. Follow Dick's blog: dickstormprobizblog.wordpress.com