Rotary Ramblings - February 17, 2009

[SUSAN MILLER]

Rotary Ramblings –February 17, 2009
 
We were entertained by our own Bruce Williams.  The invocation was given by Mike Campbell and
Jimmy Weatherspoon led us in “America”
and “R.O.T.A.R.Y.”  There were no
birthdays but we sang Happy Anniversary to Kurt Godfrey in honor of his
daughter’s wedding on Saturday.
 
Harvey Brown introduced our numerous visiting Rotarians:  Sandy McNeal of Milwaukee, WI; Harvey
Michelman of Wharton, NJ; Harold Lipvoski from Berrington, Bob Johnson of
Oxford, OH;  Jay Ackerman from St. Clair,
MI; Willie Weber from Reiba, Denmark; David Simons of Saginaw, MI; Steve Yuko
of Summers, NY; Bob Brickman of St. Clair, MI and Lola LaByers of Dunwally, VA
were visiting Rotarians.  Willie Weber
exchanged a banner with President Bates.  His club is 60 years old.  Lola
Byers exchanged a banner with Lew Courier.  Her club, located just outside Washington DC, is a ballroom dancing club
with 31 members.  Although the club is fairly
new, she has been a Rotarian for 18 years.  Steve Yurko presented us with a banner.  His club of 16 members is 3 years old.  He is a friend of Freida Meyerson who visits our club every year.  Bob Brickman also presented a banner from his
South Haven, MI club.
 
Ire Fine made up at the Boynton Beach club and Sid Breman made up on
line.  Joe Milenkovic brought Capt.
Jevaro Simms from the Delray Beach Police Department as his guest and Dave O’Connell
introduced Judy Carlough a former Rotarian considering our club for membership.
 
Welcome back to District Govenor Betsy Owen.  She indicated she had a wonderful time, and
presented President Bates with a banner from the Rotary Club of Shandabar (sp.)
which was the host club for the Rotarians participating in the inoculations.  They housed them as well.  She also presented Steve with a  banner from Key West which was given to her by another
member of the team.  She will make a full
presentation at a later date.
 
Stock Report - Fred Bonardi indicated the Dow was down 275
pointes; NASDAQ was down 61 points, and the S&P down 51.  Oil is also down which is good.
 
Sergeant-at-arms report – Tony Allerton raised $132.00 from
various sources including final pro-am at Delray Dunes.
 
SAVE THE DATES:
3/7 – Paint up Delray – 8:00-12:00noon.  Lots of fun.  Sign up sheet is in lobby.  We
still need another eight volunteers to fill out our team.
3/19 – Bingo –The calling team of Brown and Denker have agreed
to MC the event.  Donations of auction
items are needed.  If you have a
business, please donate something.  If
you do not have a retail type business, please obtain a donation from a
business or restaurant you frequent or purchase a gift basket to donate.  We need this to be a successful fundraiser
since the Holiday Party was not.  Location:  Ellie’s  - Time:  6pm-10pm - $50 includes dinner, 1 drink, 1 Bingo card.  Additional cards available for purchase for
$5.00 each.  There is a sign-up sheet in
the lobby at Ellie’s.  Please support the
event.
3/26 – Achievement Center for Children and
Families.  Reading to the children and helping with
homework– shifts are 8am-9am; 9am-10am and 3pm-4pm.  Please let Bob Teninga know what shift you
want to help.  
3/28 – Habitat for Humanity – Rotary Day – 8am-1pm.  Please come out and help Mike Campbell with
Rotary spirit.
4/17-4/19 – Delray Affair.  Time to sell Rotary dogs and other delicacies.  Signups will be circulating as it gets
closer.
 
Candace Etzler is still collecting new children’s books for
kindergarten thru 5th grade aged children to be donated to Pine
Grove Elementary for their birthday club.  This assures these kids get something on their birthday.  We are working with David Cook at Hand’s in
Delray to try to obtain books at a discount, so feel free to make a monetary
donation if you would prefer.
 
Mike Campbell introduced the speaker, Todd Thomas, CEO of
B&T Asset Management.  He discussed
Risk Management, which is the process of identifying and monitoring market
risks in a manner that offers a risk/return relationship that is acceptable to
your financial goals.  Cutting losses is
very important.  Also is discipline.  Discipline yourself to buy and sell when reliable
indicators and disciplines tell you and not on hunches or “best guesses”.  It is also important to diversify not only
your portfolio and asset classes but also your account at different financial
institutions and to rarely use leverage in your portfolios.  Never assume you can buy and hold something
forever like your parents and grandparents did!  Your investments must be evaluated on at least weekly.  If you make a purchase and your gut starts
churning – exit the investment.    There have been 5 grizzly bear markets over
the past 100 years, which have lasted between 21 and 33 months.  It is fair to say that since history
generally repeats itself, we could be very early in the current bear market,
since we are only 14 months into it.  That means it could take several years to turn this around.  And yesterday’s important stocks are rarely
today’s.
 
Green hat contained $190.50 and Tony Allerton pulled the
card on Anne Bright’s behalf.  He did not
pull the ace.
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