Torch Club lights up Boone
By Jason Reagan
reagan@wataugademocrat.com

While the world watches the Olympic torch passes over continents and through controversy, another torch — a torch of intellectual conversation — is almost aflame in Boone.

The High Country Torch Club of Boone will celebrate its first meeting as a fully chartered chapter of the International Association of Torch Clubs on Monday, May 12.

More than 40 local people, representing a wide variety of professional talent and achievement have expressed interest in organizing the local Torch chapter.

Torch Clubs provide an open forum for people to share their expertise with each other by presenting a paper on a topic of interest. Meetings are held monthly, from March through November at the Broyhill Inn & Conference Center at 11:30 a.m.

Questions and comments are encouraged in the follow-up discussions. The best speeches collected from all the 70 chapters of the club are then published in the organization’s journal.

“In ancient Athens, thinkers met with followers to engage in the give and take of argument and persuasion,” longtime member Allan Powell said.

Along with his wife, Joanie, the Hagerstown, Md. member helped get the Boone-based club organized with two preliminary meetings in March and April.

“After the Dark Ages, patrons of the arts and sciences in France invited notable scholars and philosophers to educate listeners about the latest theories,” he added.

“In England, philosopher John Locke held discussions in his study with literary giants of his day.

“Later, in America, Benjamin Franklin formed the Junto in Philadelphia to provide a forum for budding colonial authors and inventors to share their creations. A modern Torch Club is a continuance of a tradition of intellectual sharing.”

In March, Powell kicked things off with a discussion of Keynesian economics and, like any economic discussion, several prospective members expressed their own opinion on the subject following Powell’s speech.

In April, George Conklin presented a speech titled “Thomas Edison and the Invention of Recorded Sound” and displayed some Edison-era equipment.

The May 12 meeting will feature James Gee discussing “The Bagpipe as a Symbol of Scotland” — a perhaps fitting prelude to the Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain in July.

James Buchanan serves as president while Bettie Bond is the vice president.

The club meets on the second Monday of each month except December-February. For more information, call (828) 264-4275.