JEAN D. BIGGERS

25th President

2006-2007

As the twenty-fifth president of the Gwinnett County Retired Educators Association in 2006-07, many of the necessary components for running a smooth organization were already in place.  Additionally, my

Executive Board that included Debra Roberts, President Elect; Linda McQuaig, Secretary; Beverly Dryden, Treasurer; and Immediate Past President, Nancy O'Neill did a wonderful job.

Listed below are a few of the more active committees that helped make the year be so successful:

(1)  The Scrapbook Committee made up of Penny Buice and Vickie Wiley did a super job and received the Scrapbook of Excellence Award for their efforts.

(2)  The Student Scholarship Committee headed by Sarah Finger worked very hard and awarded the $1,000   to Jennifer Kristina Aho, a graduate of South Gwinnett High School for 2007 . Marie Beiser, head of the

Teacher Scholarship along with her committee, did a lot of hard work and awarded that $1,000 Teacher Scholarship to Susan Dodd, who is pursuing a Ph. D in Educational psychology.

(3)  Sybil Deacon, our Sunshine Chairperson, stayed very busy all year keeping up with the illnesses, deaths, and other family adversities.

(4)  The Auction Committee is another committee that worked very hard this year. Debra Roberts finally greed to be "in charge" of this committee the day before the auction and the day of the auction, but many,

Many of us worked in making this event be the success it was.

We made $6,236.60, which included checks written specifically for the Scholarship Fund. Brooks Coleman, our Auctioneer, played his role magnificently. As was mentioned in the January February "Newsline" his jovial, pleasant attitude really went a long way in helping get people to loosen up and bid for the items that were donated. 

By this time, we had gotten all the members divided into cluster groups with chairpersons( maybe one for each 12 members).  We did our best to see that each member was called to donate something and to be sure to

attend. Hamilton Mill graciously allowed us to use the extra room Thursday afternoon so that we could begin displayrng and pricing   before the Auction began on Friday morning.  Someone remarked that we had one of the greatest collections of high-quality items ever to be offered for bidding. We also had a number of people who allowed their personal residences to be used as drop-off locations to make it more

convenient for persons to drop off their donations ahead of time. Eighty-seven persons were in attendance, and a good time was had by all.

(5)  Carmen Martin and Carol Martin made up our Decorating Committee this year, and we could always look forward to a beautiful job well done.

(6)  The Community Service Committee was handled by Diane Lockwood and Anita Cole. They, too, did a great job.

(7)  Lorie Ziecker sent out the monthly E-Mails for us to get our reservations made at Hamilton Mill Restaurant as well as helping to keep us up to date on all the local information.

(8)  Linda Jenkins did one of the most entertaining programs of the year that’s he did for the Emeritus Members.  It was a Vintage Fashion Show. The show combined the fashion looks with the history of Education and its impact on women. The models did a terrific job, and Linda worked very hard on the program.

(9)  Brenda Bigham was our Liaison Person for GREA and Carolyn Fetner and Diane Hall were GRS Liaison Persons.  Robbie Cole was the Health Liaison person.  Virginia Krawiec was our Liaison for the Senior Citizens.

(10)  Ralph Greene and Phyllis Caffey coordinated the "Hands Are Not for Hitting Program" with Rosanna Szabo, the Solicitor of Gwinnett County.  Many of our members participated by being puppeteers.  It is a

Great program and seems to be very beneficial for control of the bully.

(11)  Ralph Greene helped keep us all informed about the actions taking place in the Legislature.

(12)  Many of us were involved with the work of the Membership Committee.  It was a big challenge to keep up with the changes of people's addresses, changes of telephone numbers, and changes of E-Mail addresses.

Beverly Dryden as well as Lorie Ziecker did a great job. If these changes were incorrect, we were unable to send messages to the members. At the May meeting we had 7l Renewals, 40 New Members, 4 New

Members who became Life Members, 284 Life Members making a Total Membership of 395.

(13)  Nancy O'Neill was a committee of one who did the huge job of getting out the Newsline by monthly. Not only did she collect the news from everyone, but she typed it and put pictures with it, ran it off, and

Even helped fold and stuff the envelopes going to our members. This was such a big help and without it, many of our members would not know much of the GCREA News.

(14)  Sue Pritchett headed up the telephone committee for us which helped take care of the communications with those persons who did not have E-Mail. This service was very helpful notonlyfor luncheon reservations, or any kind of major change to but also to keep us informed of family illnesses that we needed know.

(15)  Due to the untimely death of Carson Melvin, Marlene's husband, Marlene was unable to do the Memorials for us this year. Instead, we had a committee of eight whodid a very nice booklet called

"Moming of Remembrance Gwinnett County Retired Educators 2006-2007".  The booklet contained a picture of each person along with a short biography, which was necessary this year because of the large number. The necrology follows: Frances Daniel 1918-2006, Dora Mae Elliott 1916-2006, Irene Fowler 1925-2006, Faye Glenn 1936-2006, Don Herndon 1926-2006, Omie Jackson 1907-2007, Betty Keene

1934-2006, Carson Melvin 1936-2007, Jennifer Mims 1952-2007, Elizabeth Nix 1925-2006, Ruth Puckett 1917 - 2006, Collier Westmoreland 1942-2006.

(16)  Pat Major did the History of our GCREA Unit this year. It was a very nice job and has been very useful on several occasions.

(17)  Clarissa Rice did a wonderful job on the Scholarship Fund Drive.

(18)  In addition to keeping up with our money and the investments, Beverly Dryden also helped compile our Handbook Directory. I don't think I could have gotten through the year without it.

As might be expected because of the fine job the committees did, the Gwinnett County Retired Educators Association received nine awards at the Convention including the Unit of Excellence Award as well as the Scrapbook of Excellence Award.

Other awards included were for individuals. Marlene Melvin, who travels to downtown Atlanta every day and dresses up like Mrs. Woodrow Wilson to jointly teach a law course to as high as eighty kids from 9:00 -3:00 O'clock was awarded the Outstanding Educator's Award.

The Senior Citizens Award went to Nancy O'Neill, who is one of the most helpful persons I have ever met.

The Community Service Award was given to Phyllis Caffey for all her hard work with the "Hands Are Not for Hitting Program."

Also, our organization had some excellent programs each time we met. --

September found us being entertained by the Collins Hill Orchestra Ensemble, a fine group indeed!

In October we all went to the Gwinnett Arena for our annual Reunion hosted by the County Office folks.

November - We had the earlier-described Auction.

December - We enjoyed Christmas Music by the McConnell Middle School Chorus under the direction of Renee Costigan.

February - Emeritus Members Program - Emeritus Day Fashion Show.

The March Program is when we celebrate "Reading Across Gwinnett". A group of students from Dacula High School presented a program called "Poetry Out Loud." Also, a group of students from Collins Hill High School presented an excerpt from "Thoroughly Modern Millie". Both performances were delightful.

Scholarships were awarded in April and recipients were in attendance.

May was left for Memorial Services and the Installation of New Officers for 2007-2008. The New Officers were as follows: President, Nona Patterson, President-Elect, Dianne Lockwood; Secretary, Linda McQuaig; and Treasurer,  Beverly Dryden.

When the key to the Suwanee Center and the gavel were presented to the new President, Nona Patterson, She quickly thanked everyone and adjourned the meeting.

I, too, would like to take this opportunity to thank you for letting me be your President-Elect with Nancy O'Neill and your President the following year. It was a great experience for me, and I really appreciate all the hard work and support I received from each of you. Also, thanks to my patient, loyal husband, Robert. Without him, we would not have had the bulletins done so nicely nor most of the computer work. (at least

for one-half of the year).