Ramblings August 4

Wed Aug 12 10:59:33 EDT 2009

Here's the last 2 weeks of the Ramblings
Thanks to Dave for his assistance! 
________________________________

Ramblings August 4

Bruce Williams serenaded us beautifully

Sid Breman did our invocation

Jimmy led us in 2 songs - #34 He's Got the Whole World in His Hands and

                #35 Home on the Range (complete with accompanying howls
from someone?)

No birthdays or anniversaries this week

Harvey Brown introduced our visiting Rotarians and Guests

Olivia and Lucian are with us again from Romania

Mil-Jean Bennett was a guest of Lorie Garland

Make-ups:  Mike Campbell(Coral Springs Club), Pat Robertson
(Shortsville, NY), Sid Breman (OL)

Bob Teninga presented Leo Phillips his award for 7 years perfect
attendance

Ernie Simon did the Sergeant at Arms report.  Our collection was $54.00
for the day.

August is membership month.  Please bring a guest that you would like to
see join Rotary.

Betsy and Bob want each of us to bring some books for the Cat Island
Library in the Bahamas

Our own Tom Stanley introduced our own Harvey Brown to talk about
insurance and hurricanes

Harvey talked about the August and September months being the busiest
months of the hurricane season.  Because of the way in which the state
of Florida oversees insurance companies doing business in this state,
all of the well capitalized companies have left us.  State Farm will be
the last one to pull out.  Many people think it's good that State Farm
is leaving because they feel like the company is trying to take
advantage of the residents by charging rates that are exorbitant.

The media and government have vilified insurance companies to the extent
that they are fighting a double edged sword.  Insured people want
affordable premiums and the gov't limits what can be charged and at the
same time, stock holders expect a fair return on their investment.  Most
of us don't think about the cost of what a storm really is for the
insurers.  The 2004 hurricane season caused 20 billion in losses to
insurers.  In 2005 Wilma caused 20 billion in paid claims.  Between the
claims of '04 and '05, the claims paid out (40 billion) is more that
over 30 years of premium collections.  Hurricane Andrew in Aug 1992 was
over 20 years in gross premium collections.

In order to make sure Floridians were insured, the government set up
Citizens.  Citizens is not as well capitalized as it needs to be.  The
Florida legislature set up a new law that requires insurers to be
reinsured by a fund set up and administered by the state.  The fund, FL
Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, was scheduled to have 16 billion funded.
Unfortunately, only 2 billion is funded.  Now the government has
increased the fund to 30 billion but it doesn't do much good if there is
no money there.

This is all very frightening for us.  If we have a large strong storm,
we are going to have a lot of problems with the insurance companies left
here.  If there is too much damage, the insurance companies left here
could go insolvent very quickly.

For other tips on storms, go to mysafeflorida.com.

Catherine and Hans gave a report about the progress they are making on
starting a Rotaract Club.

Pat Archer talked about a fundraiser at Delray Garden Center on Sat, Aug
15th from 3-7 PM to raise money for a little girl stricken with NF Type
1 which causes tumors to grow on her optic nerve.  She will eventually
go blind.  The family has found a Dr. in Boston that has developed a
treatment for her condition.  The insurance company considers the
treatment to be experimental and won't pay for their trip to Boston or
the medical expenses resulting.  Please come out and support this family
if you can.  There will be a tent and bands during the day.  Please
help!

Green hat was $900 and change.  Kurt Godfrey drew the King of Spades -
pretty darn close but no cigar!  See you next week.....

Meeting Minutes for 8-11-09

Bruce entertained us 

A special thank you to Hack Allen for doing the invocation for 17 years.

Two songs # 57 ROTARY, #69 Smile

Happy Anniversary to Hack Allen, 62 years!

Visiting Rotarian: Gay Voss, from Boynton Beach-Lantana club

Jesse Sowards had an on line make-up

Fred Bonardi gave a stock market report. The DOW Industrial Average was
down 100 points to 9250

Hack Allen contributed $62.00 for his anniversary, thanks Hack!

Fred reported we had 5 AWOLS. Fred Bonardi, Ira Fine, Nancy King, Joe
Milenkovic , and Dave Harden

Bob had three announcements:

*         The budget was briefly discussed. We currently are running a
deficit.  We may need to adjust the price of lunch to $15.00 to help.
The issue will be revisited in 3 months. We need new fund raising ideas!
Please help us raise some funds!

*          The Foundation/Membership Seminar for District 6930 will be
held on Saturday, August 15 from 9 am - 1 pm at the Emerson Center in
Vero Beach.  All interested Rotarians are invited to attend, and club
officers and Foundation and Membership chairs are especially encouraged
to participate. Please register on the District website.  After logging
in, go to Calendar for this event and register there. After the seminar
the GSE meeting will be held on the beach.

*         We are collecting books for the Cat Island Library in the
Bahamas. Please bring in your books.

Tom Stanley introduced our guest: Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services
(GCJFS). Nadia Stewart, manager, and Joyce Kuwea, volunteer coordinator
talked to us. Some interesting facts that we learned about GCJFS is:

*         GCJFS has been around since 1960.

*         Local office is located at 220 S congress Suite 200 Delray
Beach FL 33445

*         Serves all Floridians regardless of race, creed, or religion.

*         Assists more than 50,000 Floridians a year - has 800
employees.

*         Main focus in PBCounty is integrating Haitian and Cuban
families into US life.

*         Programs include:

o        Geriatric Care Management

o        Children

o        Mental Health Services

o        Employment and Job training

o        HIV prevention

o        Florida Center for Survivors of Torture

o        Affordable Housing

o        Gulf Coast Adoptions

*         One of the best ways to get involved if you are interested is
to contact Joyce Kuwae at 561-266-6655 and sign up to be a trip
chaperone.

*         They also need bilingual folks to help.

Green Hat is climbing ever higher again!  It is around $950.  No cigar
this week...8 of hearts is out of the pack...Better luck next week.

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