Jeannine Lowery is the Grassroots Coordinator for Georgia Watch

President Mark Hasting and Jon Manns listen intently from the head table

President Mark Hastings gave an introduction of our guest speaker, Jeannine Lowery, who is the Grassroots Coordinator for Georgia Watch, the state's leading consumer group advocating for Georgia's citizens and families and working to give families a voice in critical public debates.

Jeannine was born and raised in the lower east side of Manhattan. In 2005, she moved to Georgia to attend college and recently graduated summa cum laude from Georgia State University with a degree in public relations and marketing. As the Grassroots Coordinator, Jeannine organizes statewide consumer education workshops, resolves consumer disputes and builds and manages relationships with Georgia Watch Members. In 2008 she orchestrated 50 consumer workshops on identity theft, reaching more than 6,000 consumers in 17 counties.

Jeannine Lowery opened her talk about how consumers can protect themselves against identity fraud by using credit freezes by explaining the mission and history of the Georgia Watch organization, which has been in existence for five years now. The non- profit group has a staff of eight and has on its board several prominent figures including former Governor Roy Barnes, consumer expert Clark Howard, and former public service Commissioner Angela Spier.

Ms. Lowery explained that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes being perpetrated, particularly the setting up of new accounts by fraudsters using stolen information from unsuspecting individuals. The credit frees concept was put into effect in 2008 by the legislature and allows a person to freeze anyone from checking their credit without the permission of the consumer. The cost of the freeze request is $3 per credit reporting agency and a charge of $3 to unfreeze the account when the need arises to apply for credit. The freeze is free for senior citizens and for victims of identity theft. She pointed out that credit reports are requested now for a variety of reasons by insurers, utilities, health providers, in addition to the usual users such as banks and credit card companies.

Ms. Lowery was very generous is allowing an extended period of questions from the members in attendance, reminding us that if we are a victim of identity theft, we should file a police report in our jurisdiction to assure that there is a record of the theft. She also pointed out that parents may want to go ahead and get a credit freeze put on their children to remain in effect until they are age 18, since many thefts are now happening using the social security numbers of minors.

Following our speaker's talk, President Mark presented the DeKalb Library System with The Truth About Identity Theft by Jim Stickley in our speaker's honor.

Reported By John B. Kline

Photographs By Mark Burnette

Happy February Birthday

• February 10: James Brewer-Calvert
• February 13: Frank Matthews
• February 15: Buck Buchanan
• February 19: Rick Meyer
• February 23: Bill Painter
• February 23: John Shelton
• February 24: Brenda Leder
• February 26: Cynthia Becker
• February 26: Walt Bryde

After the meeting, Decatur Rotarians asked Jeannine Lowery about Georgia Watch

Alan Dishman and Daren Wang discuss a good book!

Welcoming Guests

Tony Dowd introduced our visiting Rotarian: Chris Brand of the Stone Mountain Club.

Guests of Rotarians:

Steve Ortlip introduced as his guest Paige Mathis the director of the Young singers of Callanwolde.

Officers for Decatur Rotary:

President - Mark Hastings

President-Elect - Bryan Downs

Past President - David Ewing

Secretary - Vee Nelson

Treasurer - Jason Conn

Sergeant-at-Arms - Doug Torbush

District Governor - Ted Propes

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

OPPORTUNITY TO ATTEND THE ROTARY LITERACY CONFERENCE

On Saturday, February 21st, 2009, from 8 AM to 4 PM, the three RI Districts covering Georgia are co- sponsoring the Rotary Literacy Conference at the Carter Center 's Cyprus Room (One Copenhill Lane, 453 Freedom Parkway NE, Atlanta 30307). Lunch is included for any of our members who will to attend; our club will pay tuition. Our delegation is headed by Eric Lucas and Barbara Tedrow. The seminar tuition must be paid by our club in advance through a registration process, and our deadline is quickly approaching. So please inform Eric Lucas (erlu@mindspring.com or 404-373-3695) by tomorrow to qualify for admission.

The conference will review the current pathways that Rotary offers to involve our clubs in many types of literacy-enhancing programs and processes. There will also be a flow of ideas between the Rotary clubs in attendance that may have the effect of better motivating our own club's involvement in literacy- improving activities. This avenue of service has not been as fully accessed at Decatur Rotary as we would like, so please consider getting involved in this meeting. We will be with our District 6900 companions and the other two Peach State Rotary Districts.

Our internal club deadline for registration, which can occur with a simple e-mail or phone call, is this Friday, February 13th. We encourage you to register, but please be aware that your participation will cost our club $50 without a refund option should you have to cancel. Thanks for considering this opportunity!

Bob Byrd announced that the club was hosting a group study contingency from Korea on April 4-7, 2009, and that volunteers are needed for host families.