I hope you are having a good summer and getting a chance to catch up on your belated travels.
It has been quite a summer in our country. The Supreme Court has taken actions to strike down established law in such areas as reproductive freedom and separation of religion and state. They have also made it more difficult to implement gun safety restrictions and to protect the environment. And, it looks like they are just getting started.
All of this has increased the polarization of our country into opposing factions and it is more and more difficult to find common ground with many of our neighbors. It is more important than ever to have an organization like the Skidaway Hamiltons, where men who share common values can connect with other like-minded men.
Over the last two years we have mostly been restricted to Zoom meetings which limited our members interaction. Now that we will be meeting in-person again, it will give us the opportunity to allow time for social engagement.
As you will see in this newsletter, we had another year of outstanding programming. We are hard at work to bring you relevant programming in a venue that allows for interaction with the speakers and each other. Our new program season and membership year starts in September.
Our current board members have agreed to continue serving for the 2022-2023 year.
Marty Grossman, President
Bruce Wallace, Secretary
Martin Halper, Treasurer
Jim Waterman, Program Co-Chair
Bruce Walker, Program Co-Chair
Rick Cunningham, IT/Website Chair
Ron Krannich, Communications Chair
Please get more involved with the Hamiltons this year – we need more members on the Program Committee, Membership Committee and to serve on the Board. Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Marty Grossman
martygrossman10@gmail.com
Skidaway Hamiltons in Review, 2021-2022
This past year we had speakers on a variety of interesting topics that primarily focused on local issues.
Shalena Cook Jones, Chatham County District Attorney The backlog was 28,500 cases when she took office, and the backlog problem was compounded when the State Supreme Court suspended grand jury hearings and jury trials for two years because of COVID.
Brynn Grant, Pres. United Way of Coastal Empire and Chair of the Task Force
Martin Freddy, Director Savannah Housing and Neighborhood Services Mayor’s Housing Task Force and Affordable Housing Initiatives in Savannah
Melanie Wilson, Executive Director Chatham-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission The critical issue of rising sea levels and flooding in the low country are affecting land development
Ms. Lindsey Grovenstein, Community Engagement Specialist with Inspiritus Savannah What Inspiritus is doing to relocate Afghan refugees in the Savannah area
Margaret Coker, Editor-in-Chief of The Current Reviving American Democracy: How In-Depth Local Journalism Fosters Engaged Citizenry
Bill Broker and Shaina Thompson, Georgia Legal Services Evictions: Landlord-Tenant Issues in Savannah
Coco Papy, Director of Public Policy and Communication, Deep Center of Savannah Criminalization of Poverty in Savannah/Chatham County
Judge Benjamin Karpf, Chatham County Superior Court Challenges Presented by COVID for the Chatham County Superior Court
John Holmquist, President of the Landings Association Housing and Infrastructure in the Landings
Dr. Lawton Davis, Director of the Coastal Health District of Georgia Understanding the COVID-19 Delta Variant and Vaccines
Summaries of the above programs are available on our website, SkidawayHamiltons.org .
Moving Forward
We have made arrangements to hold our meetings at the Messiah Lutheran Church on Skidaway Island starting in September on the third Tuesday of every month at 3:30PM.
September 20th, 2022
Chester Ellis, Chairman of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, and Patrick Farrell, our District 4 Commissioner will be coming to speak.
More information will be coming when we get closer to the date.
We are looking forward to another productive year focused on issues relevant us. We are in the process of finalizing the next few months of guest speakers who will be coming to address our group.
Wrapping Up
We also welcome your feedback, recommendations, and involvement with the Hamiltons. Please contact us if you know someone who would be an excellent speaker for our group.