April, 2006

Beta Gamma Chapter

Skinner: Issue 8

For Key Women Educators

Approval, Installation Of Officers April 22nd

The nominations committee has prepared a slate of officers for Beta Gamma chapters 2006-2008 biennium. A vote will be taken at the April 22nd meeting for approval of these officers with installation to follow. The meeting will be held at the United Methodist Church in Manchester. Member sign-in and fellowship will be from 10 a.m. with the meeting beginning at 10:30. The committee recommendations for Beta Gamma officers are as follows. Lynn Skinner .............President Mary Burdette ...........Vice-President Frances McDowell .....Recording Secretary Charlotte Zuerner .......Corresponding Secretary Mary Nell Podgorny ..Treasurer Sallie Mabon ..............Parliamentarian Other nominations may be taken from the floor prior to voting. Dr. Hanna Fowler, Psi State president, will assist with the installation service and bring information from the state organization. Members are urged to attend this meeting to have a voice in the election of new officers, to support the officers that are elected, and to meet and greet our state president. Manchester members will be hostesses at our meeting. The cost of the meal will be $10. Your contact person will be calling you to get your reservation for lunch. Please be sure to inform your contact person whether or not you are planning to eat. Contact hostesses: please call in your count to either Mary Jane Wadsworth (706-846-2986) or to Geni Boswell (706-846-8749) by Wednesday, April 19, 2006.

Sign Up For Committee Involvement

The strength of our organization is in its members. The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International is for Key Women Educators. Each of us was selected for membership because of our giftedness in the field of education. As a result, each of us is expected to share our talents with our organization to improve ourselves, our chapter, our communities, and the field of education. One way to accomplish this goal is through involvement in a chapter committee. In the past, committee membership was made by assignment. This biennium, you will have the opportunity to select the committee which most interests you. Sign-up sheets will be available at our April 22nd meeting. You are encouraged to investigate our committees and their responsibilities so that you can choose the committee which will best utilize your talents. A chairman is needed for each committee, so dont be shy about requesting that position. More information about Beta Gamma committees can be found in a later article in this newsletter. Members who cannot attend the April meeting may contact one of the officers to sign up for a committee. Otherwise, a committee will be assigned. You are a key woman educator. You were selected for membership in this prestigious group. Your input is vital to our organization.

The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International Mission Statement

To promote the professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education.

Member Spotlight

Anne Threadgill Serves Beta Gamma Chapter With Wit, is a Anne Threadgill Anne taught in Florida for three years. It
Beta Gamma fixture. A long-time member, she has held many chapter responsibilities including chairing the scrapbook and membership committees, serving as president for two bienniums, and serving as corresponding secretary for several terms. Seldom missing a meeting or anything of any importance Anne is one of the people everyone gets to know and enjoy. Her wit and abrupt, straightforward manner are legendary. Underneath those keen observations, razor-sharp remarks, and Southern sass beats a heart of gold. Anne has taught generations of families and she remembers who they are and how they are related even though she has been retired for 26 years. Teaching is what I wanted to do, Anne recalls. One of Annes teachers was Miss Regina Pinkston, who was a charter member of Beta Gamma chapter. Miss Regina inspired Anne to become an educator. Anne attended Wesleyan College, primarily because it is the school her mothers father had wanted his daughters to attend. Circumstances prevented them from doing so, however. At Wesleyan, Anne had an English professor, Dr. George Gignilliat, who, like Miss Regina, encouraged Annes dream of becoming a teacher. Upon her graduation from college, Anne moved to Ocala, Florida, to teach. The curriculum director for that school district had a brother who lived in Greenville. The brother was instrumental in helping Anne get the Florida teaching position. Anne recalls a time when the curriculum director made a classroom visit and asked to see her lesson plans and materials. Evidently pleased with what he saw, he commented, Everybody doesnt do this. was a good placed to start, she remembers. She was assigned to teach seventh and eighth graders everything except mathematics which the principal taught. Both grade levels were in the same classroom. One year I would teach history and the next it would be geography, she said, so that within the two-year span, all students had been taught both subjects. She returned to Meriwether County in 1951 when her father had a heart attack and died. Her father and grandfather ran a store together, and when her father died, her grandfather had no help. Anne came back to fill in. Unfortunately, six weeks later her grandfather died of stomach cancer. Anne returned to teaching, this time at Luthersville High School where she finished out the school term. Anne taught a year in Jonesboro and then came back to Greenville where she met Herman Threadgill. Herman was a Greenville native, but Anne had not really known him growing up since he was six years her senior. Marriage followed, and then the couple had three children: Mary Lee, Mimi, and Alan. Both Mary Lee and Mimi followed in their mothers footsteps. Mary Lee taught elementary school for 20 years, and Mimi is still teaching high school mathematics. Alan, educated at Young Harris and Auburn, chose firefighting and construction as his career path. Having taught junior high in Florida, Anne applied for a teaching certificate for high school once back in Georgia. The state also had a provision at that time that a teacher who had taught for as many as three years on the junior high level could test for an elementary teaching certificate. Anne took the test and was awarded that certification as well. During her teaching career, Anne taught every grade from fifth through twelfth and every subject except higher math and foreign language.

Member Spotlight

Chapter With Wit, Humor, And Heart

When I started teaching, you taught what the principal told you to whether you knew how or not, she said. She recalled having to work with Glee Club and to coach girls basketball early in her teaching career. I could hardly carry a tune and I could hardly carry a basketball, she said, but she did what she was told. In 1980, Anne suffered a slight stroke. Her health convinced her to retire. She had taught for 28 years, 20 of those in Greenville. In addition to her time in Florida, Luthersville, and Jonesboro, Anne taught a year in Manchester. At her retirement, Anne held life teaching certificates for elementary through high school. A short while earlier, Anne had been installed as president of the Beta Gamma chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma. After the stroke, she considered resigning her position. She decided to follow through on her commitment, however. That decision proved to be a good one for her. Anne recovered completely from the stroke. Later that year, her husband had open heart surgery. Three weeks later their home burned. Doctors had to remove her husbands leg the next year. Being president of Delta Kappa Gamma gave me something else to think about, she said. Anne decided to serve as president a second biennium when she was asked to do so. So much had occurred in her personal life during her first biennium that she felt she needed to serve another term. Besides, it takes you that long to figure out what it is that youre supposed to do, she remarked. Anne has a keen interest in people, places, and history. She is well-traveled: she has visited the American West twice, New England several times, Canada once, and Europe four times. Greenville United Methodist Church and its ministries are an important part of Annes life. She served as president of her churchs United Methodist Women for nine years and as treasurer for 30 years. She has taught Sunday School at her church throughout the years. She currently teaches once a month at the nursing home. Volunteering at the Bargain House has been a long-term on-going project. Anne is active in her community as well. She has served as the American Heart Association fund chairman for her area for two years. She has been on the library board for six years. She is active in the Retired Teachers Association. Her biggest recent project was editing The Heritage of Meriwether County, a comprehensive history of Meriwether County and its families. Family plays a big role in Annes life. She has six grandchildren and two great-grandsons. Looking after her 101-year-old mother who still lives, thinks, and behaves independently keeps Anne busy. Up until a few years ago, Mothers memory was very clear, Anne said. That memory is beginning to slip a little. Mainly, though, mobility is her mothers area of difficulty, although she is too hardheaded to heed her daughters advice about using a walker. My sister comes up from Florida and spends ten days to two-weeks every month to help Mother, Anne said. Reading, playing bridge, church work, taking care of her mother, and Delta Kappa Gamma keep Anne busy these days. Two incidents of many similar ones point our the positive effect a good teacher has on her students. Many years ago, young man in his Navy uniform knocked on Annes back door. He told her what having her as a teacher meant to him. Recently a man saw Anne at Clintons Restaurant, stopped and got out of his truck. Anne had taught him years ago in summer school. He told me, You sure were hard, but you were fair, she said. Thats what makes it all worthwhile. I would do it all over again, she said.

Chapter Committee Choices

Noteworthy News
This column is devoted to sharing information about our members, celebrating their joys and achievements and sorrowing with them in their difficulties and grief. Mary Anne Harman is doing well on home dialysis. Lorin Atkins, Yvonnes daughter, was named Flint River Academys STAR student. Yvonne Atkins husband, Bill, has been to Emory with health problems. Bay Porter has fallen again recently. Tina Lilliotts daughter has gone to Nashville seeking a career in music. Marcel Lilliott, Tinas husband, has had surgery but is doing well. Sallie Mabons son, Aaron, has accepted a job in Indiana. Mary Burdettes father remarried recently. Keep our reserve members Polly Hall, Marilu Goolsby, Ruth Hilton, Millie Jones, Nelle Middlebrooks, and Patricia Yeager in your thoughts and prayers. If you have news to share, please be sure to call (770-254-8657), email ([email protected]) or write (60 Temple Avenue, Newnan, GA 30263). Part of the benefits of being in Beta Gamma is the support that we give each other personally and professionally.

Participate in Projects
Your continued participation in Beta Gamma projects is needed. Please remember to bring items for nursing home residents and childrens books to our April meeting. Collection boxes will be located near the sign-in table. Items will be distributed in the Manchester area.

Consider on which committee you would like to serve. Every committee requires a chairman, so please indicate if you would like to serve in that capacity. Society Business Finance o Past president serves as chairman. o Treasurer serves on committee. o Plans budget; oversees chapters funds Membership/necrology o Processes nominations of new members o Plans and performs initiation ceremony o Reports deaths of members Nominations o Seeks members to fill positions of leadership o Plans and performs installation ceremony Program of Work Program o Plans programs for biennium o Invites program speakers Personal Growth and Services o Promotes projects which encourage growth and understanding of self and others, growth in personal and professional leadership Professional Affairs/Legislative o Promotes projects which encourage mutual professional respect and cooperation and promote women in education o Initiates, endorses and supports desirable education legislation Research/History o Assists state/international organization in the development of educational research with particular emphasis on research related to the Society's Purposes Educational Services Communication o Reports on projects and programs to media Scholarship/World Fellowship o Selects student to encourage and assist Special Committees Women in Art o Encourages artistic expression, support for arts Scrapbook o Photographs and records chapter events Music o Provides music and leads singing at meetings

Life 101: Do It!

Purposes Of The Society

1. To unite women educators of the world in a genuine spiritual fellowship. 2. To honor women who have given or who evidence a potential for distinctive service in any field of education. 3. To advance the professional interests and position of women in education. 4. To initiate, endorse, and support desirable legislation in the interest of education and women educators. 5. To endow scholarships to aid outstanding women educators in pursuing graduate study and to grant fellowships to women educators from other countries. 6. To stimulate the personal and professional growth of members and to encourage their participation in appropriate programs of action. 7. To inform the membership of current economic, social, political, and educational issues to the end that they may become intelligent functioning members of a world society.

Get Off Our Buts

By Peter McWilliams To accomplish our goals, we must be willing to get off our buts, not butts, although that would be helpful as well! When the comfort zone creates limiting thoughts such as . . . But we are such a small chapter. But we are retired. But we are too busy. But we are too tired. But we have no contact with those who are teaching. But some of us cant drive anymore. But Ive already served; its someone elses turn. But, but, but . . .

We must change those buts to but Im willing to . . . I dont know how, but Im willing to learn. Im tired, but Im willing to find the energy.

The willingness to be of service opens the doors to knowledge, direction and achievement. Be willing to create, be willing to identify and follow our dreams. Lets keep our lights shining. Lets increase our membership. Lets nurture present members. Lets dare to dream about possibilities. Lets focus our cameras. Lets take action!

Lynn Skinner 60 Temple Avenue Newnan, GA 30263-2023