Wednesday, May 10, 2017

The History of Beaufort College - Geni Flowers

The History of Beaufort College was the title of the presentation given by  Geni Flowers on May 9, 2017.  Along with photos, stories, and historical articles, Geni entertained us with the College's history.



The Beaufort College was chartered in 1795 as a local school for the sons of wealthy planters who preferred not to send their sons away to Europe or up North. The first college chartered in SC was the College of Charleston in 1785 and the Beaufort College was second, chartered ten years later. The founders of the College were among South Carolina’s most influential men.

Instruction began at the Beaufort College in 1803. The College boasted an excellent faculty, full classes and an impressive list of alumni. When the economy did well, the school thrived but hard times reflected negatively on enrollment. Beaufort College became widely regarded as a first rate preparatory and feeder school for SC College, later to become the University of South Carolina, and premier colleges of the North such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Columbia. 

Though the College never functioned again after the Civil War as it was originally intended, the trustees reorganized in 1866 and have remained active for the past 221 years in promoting higher education in Beaufort and designating the board as the oldest incorporated body in Beaufort. A brief history of the Beaufort College can be viewed in bas relief on the façade of the Sandstone building on the USCB campus.
 

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Newsletter - May 2017



The Sage Society 
                                     
May 2017  Newsletter

·       Our next Sage Society meeting is on Tuesday, May 9 at 4:00 in Room 124 of the Sandstone Building (the OLLI Room) at USCB.  Come early to socialize!  
·       Geni Flowers will give her presentation on The History of Beaufort College. 
·       Donna Armer is our current Vice President.
1.    She has not been well.
2.    She continues to progress and will attend when she can. *** We look forward to seeing her when she can attend. She will retain her membership.
3.    Donna feels that she needs to step down as Vice President.
4.    The officers have discussed how to progress with the rest of our year. (September, October, and  November)     *** Elections are in January.
5.    The officers would like to give a “willing member” the opportunity to a volunteer to step in and complete the year as Vice President.
6.    If you would like to volunteer, please let me know. I am inserting the Description of Duties.


Description of Duties

Vice-President:
a.       Serves in the President’s absence
b.       Schedules the speakers.  (This is already in place for this year and the next.) *If there are date or presentation changes, the speaker will notify the VP or the VP notifies the speaker. (The President is also notified.)
c.       Keeps a log of speakers and topics. Gives to the Historian at the end of the year for her notebook.  (Geni , our Sec/Historian/Treasurer, already has this.)
d.       Meets with the new members after the February meeting to sign up for monthly presentations for this newly elected group of members. (That is after our next election.)
          Explain to New Members:
1.    presentations are 30-45 minutes
2.    a/v is available
3.    Larry Koolkin can assist with the a/v
4.    After their presentation, they need to give the historian 2 copies of a paragraph that briefly details their presentation for the BLOG  - that Larry will update monthly. The other copy is for the Historian’s notebook.
e.       Gives the Secretary and President a copy of the Presentation Schedule. The Secretary will communicate the schedule to the membership when she sends the Annual Meeting Minutes to the membership. (February) (Done!)
f.        Contacts the President with any schedule changes. (Basically, this would be your job. We want the membership to continue to contact the VP with any changes. We want to keep this procedure in place so that we don’t deviate from our established procedures. AND….. Hopefully, the volunteer will be happy be placed in nomination for the following year. This opportunity will be “advanced training” for the role of Vice President.!) 😊


·       Guests are welcome. We ask that you invite the same guest only twice in the presentation year (February-December). Please notify the President and secretary so that we can welcome your guests.

·       You can nominate someone for membership at any time. Turn any nominations in to the secretary, Geni Flowers. We will solicit brief biographies of potential new members in November. All potential new members will be put on a waiting list and voted on at the annual meeting in January. The top “vote getters” will fill the open spots. The others will remain on the waiting list.

We have three openings now. Filling those vacancies will bring us up to our “total” of 21 members.

·       I am attaching the April minutes. Please read and send any corrections to Geni, our Secretary. We will approve the minutes each meeting before our speaker is presented.


Stuart Heath
President, Sage Society
May 3, 2017
 



Meeting Minutes - April 11, 2017



Sage Society Minutes
April 11, 2017
OLLI Classroom 124 - USCB

MINUTES


Sage Members in Attendance:
                                                                                   
Stuart Heath, President
Jerry Stocks, Past President
Geni Flowers, Secretary/Treasurer/Historian
Kathryn Brown, Member-at-Large
Rebecca Davenport
Barbara Hathaway
Nimmie Huber
Carol Lauvray
Andrea Sisino
Melba Thomas
Martha Weeks
Carolyn Witkosfsky

Larry Koolkin, Honorary Member

Members Absent:

Donna Armer, Vice President
Claudia Cornett
Patsy Deer
Diane Gallagher
Carla Marsh
Julie Schmidt


Stuart Heath called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm.

The roll was called and those present answered with their favorite Easter candy.

The minutes of the March 14th meeting were approved.

Stuart shared with the group a note of thanks received from Whitney Johnson, School Counselor at Beaufort Elementary School, for the donation Sage members gave toward their counseling program.

Andrea Sisano gave a brief presentation on the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) program at USCB after which Geni Flowers conducted a walking tour of USCB which included the Library, the Center for the Arts (with remarks from Bonnie Hargrove, CFA Director) and the Beaufort College Building.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 5:15.

The next regular meeting of the Sage Society will be held on Tuesday, May 9th at 4:00 pm in the OLLI classroom (room 124 of the USCB Sandstone building.) 


Updated list of upcoming programs, presenters and topics:

May 9th                       Geni Flowers                          History of Beaufort College
September 12th           Martha Weeks                        Slavery
October 10th                Julie Schmidt                          Frank Lloyd Wright
November 14th                    Diane Gallagher

TBD                            Donna Armer                          Mosaics

2018

February 13th                        Claudia Cornett
March 13th                              Melba Thomas
April 10th                    Barbara Hathaway
May 8th                                       Patsy Deer
September 11th           Nimmie Huber                        TBA
October 9th                  Carla Marsh                            TBA
November 13th            ** will be a new member 2019 or Carol Lauvray

The Sage Society blog can be found at: https://thesagesociety.blogspot.com/

Respectfully submitted by Geni Flowers, Sage Society Secretary
April 17, 2017