The Friendly Breakfast Club

No Meeting This Friday
Join Us for Thirsty Thursday at Culinary Dropout!

It's time for fun and fellowship! Join us this Thursday, August 14, from 5:30 to 8:00 pm at Culinary Dropout, 1231 Ashford Crossing, Building 900, Atlanta, GA 30346. And bring a friend who might want to learn more about the Rotary Club of Dunwoody!

Then sleep in a little Friday morning - as we'll not be meeting this week! That said, you won't want to miss next Friday's meeting - when District Governor Steve Ivory visits the club on August 22.

Spruce-a-tarian Alert: Next Gathering August 16

Bring your favorite garden tool and be ready to have fun at this Saturday's ultimate gardening adventure - sprucing up Bounds Gardens so it looks its best for all passing by the intersection just across from the Dunwoody Library. All the fun begins at 9:00 am on the 16th. 

Connecting with Your Dunwoody Digital Resources

As Mark Galvin and Jackie Cuthbert shared last week - there's a treasure trove of information to be found online to enhance your Rotary experience ... and a great opportunity to help spread our RCD story with the simple click of a "like" or "share. 

Follow this link to a copy of last week's presentation, with the links to our Dunwoody website, the District 6900 website, Rotary International's website, and our Facebook and LinkedIn pages. We have also created a one-pager about user names and passwords.

Getting to Know You
Neal MacDonald: From State Farm ... to Travel ... to the Whiskey Raffle

It's a pleasure to introduce Neal Macdonald, one of our newest members and a vibrant addition to our club. Neal, who works on the 11th floor of State Farm Building 2 (above Louisiana Bistreaux Seafood Kitchen) has recently moved to an apartment within a 10-minute walking distance of his job, a perfect setup for his busy life.

Service is a family tradition for Neal, who was drawn to Rotary by the example of his father, a member of a Lions Club. Neal fondly recalls his dad returning from Wednesday night meetings with a renewed sense of purpose, instilling in him the idea that community service is "a thing you do." When Neal moved to Atlanta, he was aware of Rotary but it wasn't until a chance meeting with a fellow member, Ed Holliday, at Costco that he felt inspired to get involved. He started attending meetings later that year and officially joined our club in March 2024.

Since joining, Neal has quickly become an active participant. He currently serves as the Sergeant at Arms and is the co-director of this year’s Whiskey Raffle. His favorite club activities so far have been the cleanup projects at Bounds Garden, as he values hands-on projects that are both social and constructive. Outside of Rotary, Neal and his fiancée, Amy, love to travel, with recent trips to Croatia, Mexico, and Jamaica. They are planning to elope, possibly around mid-February of next year with a trip to the Caribbean.

We’re thrilled to have Neal as a part of our community and look forward to his continued contributions.

Sip, Socialize, Support: 2025 Dunwoody Rotary Whiskey Raffle!

Thanks to your generosity, our 2024 raffle sold all 400 tickets and raised $10,000 for community projects. This year, we’re aiming even higher—$25,000—and we need your help to make it happen.

How You Can Help

• Build Our Prize Pool by October 7. We want to lock in at least six collections of 20 premium bottles by the first week of October. Headliners like Pappy Van Winkle drove last year’s sell-out of 400 tickets—let’s top that!
• Hosted Tastings in the Weeks before the Raffle. Our secret to doubling last year’s result? Progressive whiskey tastings across Dunwoody. They’ll be free or low-cost for guests, so we can pitch raffle tickets at the end. This is our way to help drive ticket sales outside of our membership. We need to have our prize pool well-established before we have these tastings!
• Spread the Word and Find Some Whiskey! Ticket price and quantity will be set once our prize pool is confirmed. Encourage friends, neighbors, co-workers—whiskey fans love to brag about their collections… so they should be easy to find!

How to Get Involved

• Donate Bottles! Early success here is the most important part! Ask early; ask often. if you have questions, contact Dave Burr or Neal MacDonald! We’ll happily collect, sort, and vet. And yes! We will accept liquor that isn’t whiskey!
• Volunteer: we’re happy to accept ideas, help, as well as bottles! Spread the word! Encourage friends, family, and colleagues—whiskey enthusiasts are never hard to find (they brag).
• Every ticket sold brings us closer to our $25,000 goal. And whiskey might just be a great way to introduce people to Rotary.

Save the Date

Thirsty Thursday, November 20! We’re targeting that last Thursday before Thanksgiving for the main event itself.

Public Image
Our Dunwoody Neighbor Article

Sunshine Revisited
Beyond the Call: How Cell Phones Predict Our World

Our smartphones are more than just communication devices; they're powerful data-generating tools that offer profound insights into both individual lives and the fabric of society. This was the core message of my recent speech, "Beyond the Call: How Cell Phones Predict Our World." The sheer volume of big data generated by our daily phone use is being harnessed to create a smarter, more predictive world.  

On an individual level, this data can be a personal compass. Apps can monitor our physical activity to improve health, and streaming services use our listening habits to recommend music and movies. For those with mental health conditions like bipolar disorder, passive data can even help predict mood swings. The data can also be used for smarter interventions, such as an app that monitors and indicates a child’s level of smartphone addiction. This same predictive power is used commercially to anticipate customer churn, allowing companies to retain customers more effectively.

On a societal scale, the implications are even more far-reaching. Our collective location data can predict traffic jams, informing apps like Uber and Lyft to anticipate demand for ride-hailing services. By analyzing human movement patterns and search queries, scientists can predict the spread of flu and other diseases. Urban planners leverage this data to forecast population density and migration, which is crucial for infrastructure planning. The sensors in our phones are also being used for environmental prediction. For example, the Android Earthquake Alerts System uses accelerometers to detect seismic activity, and changes in cell phone tower signal strength can even predict rainfall. This technology is also helping in the fight against wildfires by aggregating sensor data to calculate key risk factors. The applications are vast, extending to predicting trade area analysis for businesses and even assisting in crime analysis.

The data we generate, minute by minute, is helping us create a more informed and proactive world. It's a reminder that our phones hold a mirror to our lives and, collectively, to our society.