Speakers

Richard Montgomery—who was this man whose name today identifies our county and 15 others in the United States? Join Robert Plumb as he presents the life of General Richard Montgomery, the first general officer killed in the Revolutionary War and what, if any, connections he has with Montgomery County, Maryland. Plumb will discuss Montgomery’s arrival in the American Colonies, his role in the American Revolution and the ill-fated American Northern Expedition into Canada. The speaker will also cover Montgomery’s relationship to slavery as practiced in 18th century New York.

Robert Plumb is a resident of Montgomery County, Maryland and a long-time member of the Historical Society and its Speakers Bureau.  After a career with GE and Fannie Mae, he wrote Your Brother in Arms: A Union Soldier’s Odyssey.  Published by the University of Missouri Press in 2011 it was released again in 2013 in softcover format.  His current work, The Better Angels, was published by Potomac Books, an imprint of The University of Nebraska Press, on March 1, 2020. Plumb’s writing has appeared in The Montgomery County Story, Hallowed Ground, the magazine of the American Battlefield Trust, and the Washington Post, and Washington Post Magazine.  He holds a BA in history from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an MA from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. From 2014 to 2017 and in 2019 and in 2022 he attended the Yale University Summer Writers’ Workshop in residence.  He is a member of the Montgomery County Civil War Round Table, the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia, and the Society of Civil War Historians.

Thrive Montgomery 2050 is the first complete overhaul of Montgomery County’s general plan since 1969. It is a long-range policy framework to help guide, over multiple decades, how Montgomery County should respond to future opportunities and challenges while maintaining its important assets. It defines the basic land use setting and context for all public and private actions in the county and directly addresses the land-use and planning framework for the next 30 years. As a general plan it sets a common vision about how we should grow but does not specify detailed actions and strategies for implementation. Those are done by subsequent plans and other initiative by a variety of state and local entities.

This presentation will start with a brief update on the events that took place since the transmission of the Planning Board Draft to the County Council on April 8, 2021—Council public hearing, Council listening sessions, Council’s Planning, Housing, and Economic Development (PHED) Committee worksessions, the Office of Legislative Oversight report on Thrive, and the Council’s decision to conduct more outreach. It will then cover the status of the Council review of Thrive and potential timeline for upcoming milestones and next steps before the Council is expected to approve, with some modifications, Thrive before October 31^st, 2022.

John Kolm is an innovator of 21st century team productivity programs, a best selling author, a former intelligence officer, and fomer member of the Rockville Rotary Club.  Originally from Australia, he is the CEO of Team Results USA, a company focused on increasing team productivity by using modern methods that are measurable and sustainable.  He is qualified in Psychology from the University of Melbourne, and in mathematics and statistics from the U.S. National Cryptologic School, where he also taught.  John's presentation will focus on the primary school in Haiti that the Rockville Club assisted in recent years.