Bragan Baldwin, Buyer’s Specialist

As a native of the Birmingham, Alabama area, Bragan is familiar with all aspects of Birmingham and their education systems. After graduating from Chelsea High School she attended Auburn University earning a degree in Communication. While at Auburn Bragan was a Diamond Doll, the official hostesses of the Auburn Baseball team, and worked for the Columbus RedStixx as the Director of Media Relations. Her internships included media relations in the Governor’s office, and in the sports department of NBC 13 in Birmingham. After graduating from Auburn, Bragan returned to Shelby County to work with EBSCO Industries, Inc. as their Publisher Relations and Marketing Coordinator. In 2006 Bragan took the experience she had in working on political campaigns and ran for a seat on the Shelby County Board of Education. Growing up with the influence of the interior design industry from her mother, Bragan was keenly aware of the real estate market and her desire to become actively involved as a Realtor®. As an active charter member of North Shelby Baptist Church Bragan met John Mejia and knew that once she took the steps into real estate the best place to be was with Providence Real Estate. With such a diverse background and experience, Bragan is more than qualified to help you with all of your real estate needs.

Continuing with our Mejia Group Bio series, here is a brief bio on buyer specialist Becky Edwards:

Becky is a native of Ft. Pierce, Florida . She has had considerable experience in relocating since her father’s job required numerous moves throughout her childhood and teenage years. Becky is a graduate of Ashford High School where she was active in cheerleading, health education studies and Beta Club. After attending the University of Montevallo , she transferred to Auburn University where she received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree in June 1999. While attending college, Becky was active in Phi Mu Sorority and Auburn’s Big Brother Big Sister Program. After graduation, Becky began a career in sales and now has seven years experience in the telecommunication, pharmaceutical and real estate fields. Becky is married to her best friend, Tom, and has been blessed with two beautiful, rambunctious boys. Her family is an active member of First Baptist Church of Columbiana. Becky has a passion for people and a service-oriented attitude. She uses these attributes to help those who are seeking to find the home that best fits their lifestyle and family needs. Becky believes that God has richly blessed her life and shows it in the way she conducts herself both personally and professionally.

We are now on facebook and twitter! Check us out!

(Courtesy of the Opelika Auburn News)

AUBURN – Auburn University will have an emergency preparedness training exercise the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 16, so university personnel and local first-responders can practice dealing with a campus emergency or disaster.

Perimeters will be set up around the area of the Student Center and Haley Center for a drill that will include role playing and emergency response by public safety agencies.

“We’ll have agencies from across the Auburn area participating in the drill,” said Chance Corbett, associate director of Auburn University’s Department of Public Safety and Security/Emergency Management. “We need to ensure that the university and public safety agencies are prepared and ready to respond to an emergency or disaster on campus.”

Participating agencies will include Auburn University, Auburn Police Division, Auburn Fire Department, Lee County Emergency Management Agency, Auburn University Medical Clinic and East Alabama Emergency Medical Services.

In addition, a joint information center will be activated on campus that will allow the university’s Office of Communications and Marketing to test its effectiveness in gathering and disseminating information.

“In the event of a large incident or an event that attracts national media attention, our department must be prepared to provide the public with timely, accurate information,” said Mike Clardy, director of communications.

University officials selected Dec. 16 for the exercise because classes will have ended for the fall semester and activity on campus will be scarce. The exercise is set to begin at 7:45 a.m. and should last until about noon.

(Contributed by Natalie Nettles.)

Link used: http://www2.oanow.com/oan/news/local/article/auburn_university_holding_emergency_preparedness_exercise_dec._16/116042/

Rebecca Bedsole of The Corner reported last month that Auburn is ranked number 16 among best small metro areas to launch a business, according to CNNmoney.com.

This isn’t the first time Auburn has fallen into the limelight for such matters, however.  U.S. News and World Report ranked Auburn among the top 10 places to live in 2009.

Phillip Dunlap, director of Economic Development for Auburn, first arrived in Auburn in 1984 when the population was just over 28,000 – closer to the number of students enrolled today at Auburn University instead of 56,000 current residents.

Auburn has nearly doubled in size in a quarter century!

Population growth had to come from somewhere; so how did folks get here?

Dunlap says that we have gone from 840 jobs to nearly 4,000 jobs, bringing not only people to the area, but revenue as well.

But again, it’s not just jobs.  Auburn City School Systems have been ranked in the top 100 school systems in the nation by Offspring Parenting.  Even better, Newsweek ranked Auburn High School in the top 2 percent of all high schools in the United States.

I always knew that Auburn, Alabama was the Loveliest Village On The Plains, but I had no idea how many honors it holds.

Links used: http://www.thecornernews.com/index.php/news/comments/among-the-best/

Leaders in struggling rural communities and small towns often pin their hopes for economic prosperity on the recruitment of a large manufacturing plant to “save” their town.  In Alabama, our success in attracting large automotive plants like Mercedes-Benz, Honda, and Hyundai has fueled such a lust for industrial recruitment.  Many small towns are sure that their big break is just around the corner, if only they can come up with the right financial incentives and recruitment strategy.

An unfortunate consequence of relying on strategies that focus exclusively on industrial recruitment is that many communities undervalue, or don’t understand, the importance of other determinants of a strong local economy.  Business retention and expansion, small business and entrepreneurial development, tourism and retiree attraction, for example, receive short shrift compared to industrial recruitment.   More significantly, local leaders pay too little attention to building community and civic infrastructure.  Put another way, many small towns overemphasize marketing and sales (industrial recruiting) without adequate attention to product development (improving the quality of life in the community). But prosperous small town economies are built upon the foundation of strong communities.

Strategies for Small Towns and Rural Communities

Successful development strategies in small towns will typically include the following elements: 1) Developing strong and diverse community leadership that is inclusive, collaborative, and connected; 2) Identifying local assets and creating and carrying out a strategic plan based upon these assets; and 3) Joining with other jurisdictions to maximize economic resources.

1.  Community Leadership: Create leadership that is inclusive, collaborative, and connected.

“Leaderful” Communities.

Successful communities all over the United States understand the importance of an expansive view of community leadership.  The traditional notion of the community leader – often a mayor or other powerful “position-holder” — as chief community problem-solver has given way to a new, more dynamic model of the community leader as catalyst, connector, and consensus-builder.

Dr. David Mathews, President of the Kettering Foundation, in summarizing the findings of the Foundation’s research on community politics, writes:

“What stands out in the high-achieving community is not so much the characteristics of the leaders as their number … The high-achieving community had ten times more people providing leadership than communities of comparable size. This [high-achieving] community is “leaderful”; that is, nearly everyone provides some measure of initiative.  And its leaders function not as gatekeepers but as door openers, bent on widening participation.”

This new leadership model recognizes that leadership is not confined to a few elected officials and business leaders.  Rather, successful leadership requires mobilizing the knowledge, talents, and perspectives of every segment of the community.  Successful communities tend to be full of leaders.

2. Community Assessment and Planning: Identify all community assets and create a plan to take strategic advantage.

Strategic Planning.

There is an old saying that goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”  Citizen leaders and stakeholders in high-achieving communities know where they are going.  They understand that an era of rapid social, cultural, and technological change requires a proactive approach to addressing current and future problems.  They engage in a strategic planning process to identify what makes their place special and to decide how to cultivate and promote their unique assets – e.g., a river, a lake, a mountain, or a unique history.  The result of this process is a strategic plan that identifies community priorities and outlines specific strategies to make best use of available assets and to address local challenges. It becomes a road map for the future and a benchmark for community progress.

The benefits of strategic planning are not limited to the final product.  In fact, one of the most beneficial aspects of strategic planning is the process itself.  A successful strategic planning process brings together a diverse group of stakeholders, who address basic questions for the community:  “Where are we now?” “Where do we want to go?” and “How do we get there?” There are few other occasions when representatives from throughout the community come together for an extended period of time to discuss shared hopes, dreams, knowledge, perspectives, ideas, and concerns.  Broad-based strategic planning is a ‘mega-crossroad” and one of the best tools available for building and strengthening community connections.

3. Local and Regional Partnerships: Connect Local Stakeholders and Join Forces with Neighbors.

From Planning to Action: Connecting Community Stakeholders.

The process must not end with the creation of a strategic plan.  If so, it would resemble most other community planning efforts.  The result would be a plan that looks good on paper, but ends up collecting dust on a shelf.  To prevent this, the community should create an entity responsible for seeing that the major objectives in the plan are actually implemented.  This group, which should include representatives from government, business, education, and faith-based institutions, should meet regularly to monitor the community’s progress on the plan and make needed modifications to ensure that the plan remains relevant to community priorities and needs. 

The value of the group is not just that it checks items off of the list of community objectives.  It can serve as an important community “crossroad” where key community stakeholders have the opportunity to think, work, and act together.  Most communities have many excellent people, programs, and projects.  All communities have at least some institutional assets – city government, churches, schools, civic clubs, and Chambers of Commerce.  But far too often, individuals and organizations work independently, rather than in concert with one another.  The truly high-achieving communities are those that create crossroads where leaders from all of these community organizations and institutions can come together to accomplish shared community objectives.

Joining with other jurisdictions to maximize limited resources.

Because small towns and rural areas are sparsely populated, they lack a critical mass – of taxpayers, leadership, financial capacity, infrastructure, and skilled labor.  So if small towns are to survive, they must join forces and work together.  Small towns must learn to see their neighboring community as a competitor only for the Friday night football game.

While a holistic strategy for economic development is needed, attracting new businesses clearly should be one part of the overall approach.  However, small towns rarely possess adequate resources to be effective in the increasingly competitive arena of economic development.  Hiring a professional economic developer is an impossible dream for most small communities.  That is, unless they decide to partner with their neighbors.

Conclusion

Small towns, and larger jurisdictions for that matter, are best served by a holistic approach to economic development.  Industrial development may be an appropriate strategy, especially if done in partnership with regional neighbors.  However, it should not be the only strategy.  To be successful, small towns need to cultivate strong and diverse community leadership that is inclusive, collaborative, and connected.  They need to identify their unique assets, create and implement a strategic plan, and establish strategic partnerships among community stakeholders and with other jurisdictions. And they need to be proactive in creating community and regional crossroads — organizations, or structures, where leaders can connect on a regular basis to assess, plan, and work together.

If small towns aggressively pursue these strategies, they have excellent potential for success.  Many city-dwellers long for what people in small towns already have, and often take for granted: a slower pace of life, friendly people who know their neighbors, attractive open spaces and beautiful scenery, quaint shops, historic homes and buildings, parades, festivals, and streets that are safe and free of traffic congestion.  Many of our small towns still possess a sense of authenticity and charm that cannot be replicated in bigger cities.

These inherent quality-of-life advantages, enhanced by community leadership, planning, and partnerships, ultimately make the community more attractive to both existing and potential residents and employers.  In other words, investments in product development make the community much easier to market and sell.  The irony is that strategies emphasizing community development ultimately make small towns much more attractive in the competition for those large manufacturing plants they covet.

___________________________________

An expanded version of this article appears in the book, Building the Local Economy: Cases in Economic Development, edited by Douglas J. Watson and John Morris (Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia, 2008).

We’ve all heard the saying, “everything old is new again.” At our place, we’ve challenged ourselves to find inventive ways to repurpose materials that might have otherwise left behind. As a result, our ceilings, parts of our deck and even our conference table are crafted from wood that would have otherwise been left at our Florida projects.

Never have I seen a truer personal example than in Sam Mockbee, a pioneer in pragmatic design whose biography I recently received. He made turning old things into something unique and usable his life’s passionate work.

Sam or “Sambo” as he was known to his friends, understood the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” concept long before it became a slogan for sustainability and doing things right. He created the Rural Studio Program at the Auburn University School of Architecture, where students repurpose ordinary and recycled materials into houses and useful buildings for the residents of Hale County, Alabama. His creations take care of basic needs and in the process provide rays of hope.

Sam would tell his students that the places they create have got to be warm, dry and noble. He spent the last 10 years of his life building those spaces for many and that legacy continues. Using salvaged materials like lumber, bricks, discarded tires and hay bales, the Rural Studio produces inexpensive structures in a style that Mockbee described as “contemporary modernism grounded in southern culture.” As noted in this Metropolitan Magazine article, the process gives students hands-on experience in designing and building something real, extending their education beyond paper architecture.

Our Stewart Perry headquarters have always reminded me of Sam Mockbee’s work and about half way through the building process I found out why. I learned that Tommy Goodman, who designed our place and is now a professor or architecture at Mississippi State University, was Sambo’s business partner. The influence of the Rural Studio is woven all through our campus. We removed coal tailings from the lake and used them to repave parking area for a neighborhood church. Our hardwood floors are refurbished from a tobacco plant in Virginia. I feel our folks are always thinking of ways they can lower our environmental impact.

Are there opportunities to do similar things around your office, home or construction site?

___________________________________________________________________________

Merrill Stewart is Founder and President of the Stewart Perry Company, a commercial building contractor based in Birmingham, Ala. Contact him via email.

Researchers at Auburn University and Ford have teamed up to develop new accident-avoidance technology that allows satellites to communicate with a vehicles on-board electronic stability control (ESC) to prevent a crash.

Source:
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/10/satellite-is-my-co-pilot-on-fords-of-the-future/

Researchers at Auburn University and Ford have teamed up to develop new accident-avoidance technology that allows satellites to communicate with a vehicles on-board electronic stability control (ESC) to prevent a crash.

Source:
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/10/satellite-is-my-co-pilot-on-fords-of-the-future/

This week we’re adding a new feature to GonzoGeek.  Every Friday we will lay out a list of links that all us GonzoGeeks enjoyed in the last week.

And we’ll serve it with a side of cheesecake.

Enjoy.

A Q&A regarding Auburn football.  Thanks to Evan Woodbery.

And equal time for the Gators, courtesy of Jeremy Fowler.

Meet Sugar Dunkerton.  Gotta love a guy rocking a 70s Globetrotter gimmick.

And speaking of rocking, Living Colour is back!

John’s favorite Twitter feed.

A father is 3 is deployed to Iraq.  Follow him here.

Back to our roots.

Robin Trower from 1973.  Rock on!

And finally, Viva Los Straightjackets!

Interesting cyber security research.

The release:

Denial of service denial

New filtering system could protect networks from zombies

A way to filter out denial of service attacks on computer networks, including cloud computing systems, could significantly improve security on government, commercial, and educational systems. Such a filter is reported in the Int. J. Information and Computer Security by researchers from Auburn University in Alabama.

Denial of Service (DoS) and distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks involve an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. This may simply be for malicious purposes as is often the case when big commercial or famous web sites undergo a DDoS attack. However, it is also possible to exploit the system’s response to such an attack to break system firewalls, access virtual private networks, and to access other private resources. A DoS attack can also be used to affect a complete network or even a whole section of the Internet.

Commonly, attack involves simply saturating the target machine with external internet requests. In the case of a DDoS attack the perpetrator recruits other unwitting computers into a network and uses a multitude of machines to mount the attack. The result is that the resource, whether it is a website, an email server, or a database, cannot respond to legitimate traffic in a timely manner and so essentially becomes unavailable to users.

Methods for configuring a network to filter out known DoS attack software and to recognize some of the traffic patterns associated with a mounting DoS attack are available. However, current filters usually rely on the computer being attacked to check whether or not incoming information requests are legitimate or not. This consumes its resources and in the case of a massive DDoS can compound the problem.

Now, computer engineers John Wu, Tong Liu, Andy Huang, and David Irwin of Auburn University have devised a filter to protect systems against DoS attacks that circumvents this problem by developing a new passive protocol that must be in place at each end of the connection: user and resource.

Their protocol – Identity-Based Privacy-Protected Access Control Filter (IPACF) – blocks threats to the gatekeeping computers, the Authentication Servers (AS), and so allows legitimate users with valid passwords to access private resources.

The user’s computer has to present a filter value for the server to do a quick check. The filter value is a one-time secret that needs to be presented with the pseudo ID. The pseudo ID is also one-time use. Attackers cannot forge either of these values correctly and so attack packets are filtered out.

One potential drawback of the added layer of information transfer required for checking user requests is that it could add to the resources needed by the server. However, the researchers have tested how well IPACF copes in the face of a massive DDoS attacks simulated on a network consisting of 1000 nodes with 10 gigabits per second bandwidth. They found that the server suffers little degradation, negligible added information transfer delay (latency) and minimal extra processor usage even when the 10 Gbps pipe to the authentication server is filled with DoS packets. Indeed, the IPACF takes just 6 nanoseconds to reject a non-legitimate information packet associated with the DoS attack.

###

“Modelling and simulations for Identity-Based Privacy-Protected Access Control Filter (IPACF) capability to resist massive denial of service attacks” in Int. J. Information and Computer Security, 2009, 3, 195-223

Karl Krayer

Here is a brief excerpt from my interview of Krayer. The complete interview is also available.

Morris: Of all the business books you have taught and discussed thus far, which one do you most enjoy re-reading because, each time, you continue to find something of value that you missed before?

Krayer: I believe that history will place Good to Great as the best business book ever written, perhaps as much for its rigorous methodology and its insightful discoveries. Readers need to remember that this book does not predict success, but rather, report what led certain businesses to success, based upon historical data. I really enjoy the enthusiasm that Jim Collins shared in writing the unexpected findings from his team’s research. I like to re-read those sections so that I can paraphrase them accurately to my audiences.

Morris: Given the recent proliferation of electronic reading devices such as Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s PRS, has the bound volume become an endangered species?

Krayer: Not in my view. I believe books are also symbols, and people enjoy displaying them in their homes and offices as well as carrying them around to show people what they are reading, as much as they do actually reading them. You can’t do that with these devices. I think that customers who value autographed copies and who travel to book signings to meet the author and receive a signed copy will not tolerate digital signatures sent through e-mail. I think that retail outlets that sell books have more than met the challenge, and have created experiences for customers who will continue to frequent these stores. I have posted detailed explanations of these reasons on our blog at http://ffbsccn.wordpress.comKrayer. Go to Karl’s categories. I welcome your comments if you think I am wrong. Let’s talk about it!

If you wish to read the complete interview, please contact me at interllect@mindspring.com.

Atlanta based, Creative Incentives Gifts was recently tapped by Rize Brands to participate in the 2009 college branding campaign. This gifting program targets student residents in nearly 45 colleges and universities across more than 12 states. As part of this program we are giving away thousands of gift bags to students moving into our student housing network this winter.

Creative Incentives Gifts will be working with the following universities Mississippi State University, University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, Clemson University, Louisiana State University, Auburn University, University of South Florida, University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State!

“This is a great honor for Creative Incentives Gifts and we look forward to working with this market”, says Keisha McCotry.

About Creative Incentives Gifts
Founded by Keisha McCotry of Prominence Marketing Group, Creative Incentives Gifts is a premier luxury brand placement company, specializing in creating VIP branding campaigns for high profile events such as Award Shows, Charity Events, Fashion Events, Film Festivals and other target markets. For more information visit: www.creativeincentivesgifts.com

A daring heist took place over the weekend in Auburn according to The Auburn Plainsman.

It is 2:00 AM. You are drunk. Auburn is 20 something hours away from defeating the Mountain Mens of the Virginia to the West. Your night is fulfilled as you have had your late night McDonald’s and you are clearly alone. You are ready to go to bed. You need your rest for Game Day.  Thus you certainly don’t have time to wait for University Sponsored Tiger Transit’s schedule. The world is yours, as he who takes no classes on Friday must drink 2 cases of the Beast Light on the frat porch during the day and then 12 buttery nipple shots at Sky Bar at night to loosen the liver for the next day. Because of this you make the law and thus justly take the keys…

An Auburn University Tiger Transit bus was stolen in front of the McDonalds on West Magnolia Avenue after 2 a.m. Saturday.

“Somebody just didn’t want to wait, “ said University Manager of Transit Services Rex Huffman

You are damn right Rex. Waiting is for losers and sober folk. And our protagonist is clearly neither of those… so what did he do when he arrived home?

“The driver got out and ran from the vehicle, disappearing between a couple of buildings,” Chandler said. “Two passengers stumbled off of the transit – they had apparently gotten on asking for a ride to Supper Club.”

You can blame the two hoppers on what we like to call Post Binge Zombie Syndrome. You know, the guys who have been drinking so hard and so long that have no business still being awake and their brain agrees via cutting communication to the eyes and mouth, yet still allowing the feet and arms to function (albeit at an extremely reduced capacity). Only people in said Zombie state would believe a disheveled intoxicated dude with McGriddle like night sweats and distressingly slurred speech is legally giving rides to The Supper Club in a University owned vehicle.

The great part is that the main character in this Grand Theft Auto – Auburn, AL is likely going to get away with it and thus embolden him to try an even more elaborate heist next game weekend, hopefully leading to an even more exciting blog post.

Does the University own a helicopter?

[HT: collinr]

Sunday Service

Join us this week for lively worship and testimonies.  Campus Church meets on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. at the Loft. The Loft is located in downtown Auburn at 129 S. College St., Suite 5, above Quizno’s.

22 & Over Gatherings

Campus Church is not just for students! The first 22 & Over Women’s event will be at O’Charleys at 7 pm on Tuesday, September 29.  Join us for a fun night of talking and getting to know each other.

Aaron Bass, Oct. 11

Aaron Bass will be speaking at Campus Church on Oct. 11. He shares with a heart to see people experience the fullness of what God has for them, while seeing them loved, empowered, and encouraged. Aaron is a staff member at Grace Center in Franklin, TN.

John Mark McMIllan, Nov. 6

John Mark McMillan will be doing a benefit concert at the Loft on Friday, Nov. 6.  Cost is $10/person. All proceeds will go towards building a well in Africa through the Zao water project. Providing safe drinking water can eliminate thousands of deaths that occur in children each year in developing countries. Our goal is to raise $5000 that will build one well and provide clean water for 1000 people.

Small Groups

Women’s Group: Our Women’s Group meets on Monday nights at 7:15 pm at 715 West Glenn, Apt 15. Email Ashley (arb0002@auburn.edu) or Kristin (kel0011@auburn.edu) for more info.

Men’s Group: The Men’s Group meets at 6:30 on Tuesday nights at the Loft.  Contact Lee (bradsje@gmail.com) or Alex (dykesal@auburn.edu) for more info.

House Church: Come to house church on Thursday nights at 7 pm for great food and discussion time. House Church is led by Kelly Fly and Torrey Trawick at Torrey’s duplex, 1170 Northwood Drive. Contact Kelly (kellyflyafs@gmail.com) or Torrey (torreytrawick@gmail.com) for details.

Get Involved

Conversation English Volunteers

Meet for an hour/week with an international student to help them improve their English skills.  For more info, contact martha_dees_2001@yahoo.com.

Campus Kids

Interested in working with kids? Volunteer in Campus Kids for a Sunday in October Email gingerhallmark@yahoo.com, if you are interested.

Well, its the night before I leave for Savannah once more. And once more I cannot sleep.

But for some reason, it seems like its harder to leave Auburn this time around than before. A lot of that probably has to do with the fact that I’m leaving a fiance behind for a while. But there’s something else as well.

For most of the Summer I’ve been scrambling to think of photo ideas. Sometimes I would look at the work of a peer and think “why am I not doing this?”, and it would trouble me. Deeply. I’ve been taking portraits of friends to keep myself busy, and that has helped a good deal, but it only took me so far. At times I would go so far as to say that I was in a deep depression.

My brother puts the fan in fanatic. He is an Auburn guru by all accounts, and has a true passion for the college and city. I’ve been speaking with him more and more lately, taking photographs for his new website, The War Eagle Reader. During the time I’ve been with him I’ve heard him talk about Auburn and what it means to him (specifically one memorable late night at Mama Goldberg’s), as well as what Auburn should mean to people. Its inspiring to say the least. He lives and breathes Auburn. With him its all about the nostalgia of past times, even if he wasn’t even close to being alive during those times, and experiences that he couldn’t possibly have experienced, for whatever reason, but experiences them anyway through other people’s accounts, stories, and slight gestures that indicate there is more to the story than they are telling. Some people would say that Auburn is his “thing”.

My grandfather has connections in Auburn University, my father went to Auburn University, both my uncles went to Auburn University, and two of my cousins went to Auburn University. My father grew up in Auburn, and I have done the same; at least since being 12 years old. I’ve loved Auburn for as long as I’ve been able to, but in my short 19 years of life I have never really loved Auburn. Until Now. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Thanks to my brother’s inspiration, and the re-realization of my orange and blue tiger pride, I’ve been able to rite myself and become stable again. Auburn, and specifically Auburn football, has become more or less of a distraction from the, at times, unbearable and probable phantasm that is the artistic and photographic competition I subject myself to constantly. In the past few weeks, not only have I been able to not worry about the work I have been putting out, but I’ve been able to forget about it; something I haven’t been able to do in a long time.

And for that I am thankful. I have something new to focus on, and perhaps obsess over. I have something to help prevent me from taking myself too seriously. I’ve found a new niche in the Auburn Family previously unavailable. Instead of worry, I have Auburn. War Eagle.

Georgia will beat Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech will beat Georgia. Auburn will beat Alabama. Alabama will beat Auburn.  That’s what the Rotary Club of Columbus Fearless Forecasters predicted last Wednesday.

They got laughs for their sometimes funny insults.  One of them said,  “An Auburn student died the other day from drinking milk.  The cow sat on him.”

Now, here are the Fearless Forecasters’ predictions for this season’s football games played by Georgia Tech, Auburn, Alabama and Georgia. Should you use their predictions when you place your bets?  Well, let’s just say … they try.

For Auburn, Judge Bill Smith – he’s a retired Superior Court Judge, who still judges on a part-time basis - predicts Auburn will go 9-3 and beat rival Alabama 21-13.

Judge Bill Smith, Rotary Club of Columbus, GA (Courtesy: Jim Cawthorne, Camera1)

For Georgia Tech, Frank Etheridge, a retired banker,  got to crow a lot about Georgia Tech beating Georgia last year, even it was the first time in seven years.  He believes Tech will have a great season, winning 10 and losing 2 games.  He says Tech will beat Georgia 35-28.

Frank Etheridge (Courtesy: Jim Cawthorne, Camera1)

Mac Plummer, St. Francis Hospital executive, who never went to Alabama, fronts for Alabama because, while his college team is West Point since he went there,  he says if you live in South Alabama you have to be for either ALabama or Auburn, and he picked Alabama.  He predicts Alabama will go 11- 1, and will beat Auburn.

Mac Plummer, Rotary Club of Columbus, GA (Courtesy: Jim Cawthorne, Camera1)

And attorney Ron Mullins,  representing the Bulldogs, predicted Georgia will go 10-2, and beat Tech 38-24. 

Ron Mullins, Rotary Club of Columbus, GA (Courtesy: Jim Cawthorne, Camera1)

My prediction?  One of my alma maters, Mercer University, will not beat Georgia. That’s because it won’t play Georgia.  It won’t play anybody because it has no team. But, it did. In fact, the first football game Georgia played was in 1892 against Mercer.  The Bulldogs won 50-0.   Georgia’s legendary coach Wally Butts played on  Mercer’s team in the late 1920’s.  Mercer did manage to beat  Georgia Tech that year. It was also the first game played by a Tech team.

The Fearless Forecasters program always draws a lot of guests to the “downtown” Rotary Club.  After all, college football is big deal in our corner of Georgia and Alabama, and all of us need a few laughs to get us through the day.   

Now I’m not making any promises…Yall remember back a few months ago I ranked my top choices for a Doctoral program right? Choiced included Penn, Yale, Vandy, etc. Well all that’s scrapped. After working in the Master’s Program I realize that I would did and not make it through an APA-research based Doctoral degree. Its not what I want to do, so why waste my life? I DO want a PhD but what I want to do with my life has not changed…I want to be a therapist and I want to write books and teach. *ding*  So I’m going to get my PhD in a counselor education program, or perhaps counseling and higher education student affairs…something of that nature. Career aspirations haven’t changed, just course of action.  Now…finding a counselor ed. program isn’t hard…they have them at Bama, UT, UGA, Auburn* hmm lets stop there. I went to visit Auburn yesterday and kind of loved it. I’ve always held a special place for AU because I was supposed to go there out of high school but didn’t. In my senior scrap book I have pictures surrounded by my AU acceptance letter and welcome packet :-/  Now…I’m not ruling out other regions complete. But I’m being honest with myself. I LIKE big universites. I LOVE the south. I LOVE SEC football. Perhaps thats shallow or superficial but…its all true. And not that I don’t want to experience other things, but if I’m spending a considerable amount of time there I’d rather love it. So we’ll just say I’m making a NEW list of schools…and Auburn is on it.

Sunday Gathering: Wisdom of the Ant

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the details or don’t know where to begin? The Bible says to “look at the ant” an learn a lesson. On Sunday, Josh will begin a new series called “The Wisdom of the Ant.”

American Food Tour for International Students

Help us welcome new international students and families on our campus! The party starts at 7 pm at the Loft on Monday, August 24. 

Wednesday Night Prayer, 7 pm @ the Loft

Come pray with us as we ask God to touch the campus and city with the Father’s love. 

Thursday Night SHRIMP BOIL

Join us this Thursday night at 6 pm for a “low country” shrimp boil and volleyball at Moores Mill Park.  

House Church Starts September 3

Come to house church on Thursday nights for great food and discussion time. 

Small Groups

Build new relationships and grow together by joining a small group. Our Women’s Group meets on Monday nights at 7 pm, and the Men’s Group meets at 6:30 on Tuesday nights. These both start next week (August 31 and September 1).  

Fall Intramural Sign Ups

It’s time to sign up for fall intramurals. If you are interested, sign up in the back or contact Kibwe for more info email browki [at} auburn.edu.