Brent Williams to speak at Thursday's meeting

Brent Williams, the incoming Rotary Regional Foundation Coordinator will be our guest speaker this Thursday, May 13th. Brent has been an active Rotarian since 1989, and is past president of the Rotary Club of Gainesville.  He served as Governor of Rotary International District 6970 in 2006-2007.  Brent is a Major Donor and a member of the Bequest Society of The Rotary Foundation.

Brent is actively involved in Rotary Leadership beyond the district level.  He will serve as Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator for Zone 34 for a three year term beginning in this coming July, working with the 14 Rotary Districts in Florida, Georgia and the Caribbean Nations to build support for the humanitarian good work around the world made possible through the Rotary Foundation.  He represented District 6970 as a Delegate to the Rotary International Council on Legislation last month in Chicago.  He is currently serving a two-year term as the Chair of the District Governor Nominee Training Seminar for Zones 33 and 34, responsible for training incoming governors from 29 districts in the Southeastern USA and the Caribbean.  Brent is also a member of the Montreal 2010 Rotary International Convention Promotion Committee.

In addition to Rotary, Brent is involved in numerous other community service and civic activities, including service as past president and long time board member of the Alachua County Public Schools Foundation. He is also past president of the Gainesville Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association and is a graduate of Leadership Gainesville.

Brent is Director of Development for the public television and public radio stations licensed to the University of Florida: WUFT-TV, WUFT-FM and WJUF-FM.  He has been with the stations since 1977 and has had extensive involvement in national and regional public broadcasting affairs.

Brent and his wife Naomi have two daughters; Jarett, who works for CNN in Atlanta and Catherine, who works for a Marketing Agency in Jacksonville.  Catherine is a member of the Rotaract Club of Florida’s First Coast in Jacksonville.  Naomi, Jarett and Catherine are all Paul Harris Fellows of The Rotary Foundation.

After Brent speaks, Sara Conrad will provide our member craft talk.