Pledge: President Paul
Prayer: Gerri Lewis
Song: Led by Bill McLaughlin
Brent's Flim/Flam: Low hand won by President Paul.
Guests & Visiting Rotarians: Past president Peter Manley and Steve Bates from
Essex Financial.
Raffle Winners: Peter Manley, Jason Smith and Andy Anderson.
Happy Dollars: Many just happy, some for improved singing, many for Bob Antoniac being
back, Peter Manley for winning raffle, President Paul very happy, Bob Hester for seeing
grand daughter's socker game in MA, Sandy happy for status of golf tourney but more
needs to be done, Steve Bates for his father's 93rd birthday, Dave happy to get change
back from his $20 bill.
Announcements:
District conference this weekend in Warwick, RI at the Crown Plaza. Unique features
are a luncheon for Paul Harris fellows and a 50 year Rotarian lucheon. Many other
worthwhile sessions and activities also.
O.S. Installation Dinner to be held on Wednesday, June 20th at Water's Edge. Cost
is $35 per person which includes appetizers, salad, coffee, dessert and four entrees
which are salmon, fettuccini, chicken cutlets and beef short ribs. Entertainment will also
be provided. A good price for a good meal at a great location. A signup sheet will be
available starting next week to make your selections.
Business Meeting: Dave Wight reviewed the club and foundation's status with spread sheets
covering both entities. A sheet covering our Essex Financial holdings and performance
was also available. A few questions were asked on all accounts and more detail to come
on the Essex Financial holdings during our program.
Scholarship Committee Meeting: will be held at the Acton Library at 5 P.M. tomight.
All members were sent e-mails of the meeting.
Program: Steve Bates from Essex financial discussed the world economic situation, our
investment strategy with them and fielded questions. He stated the volativity in the markets
today are due to the financial turmoil in Europe. Greece being the worst but not as important
as the problems in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Emerging markets such as China, India and
Brazil seem to hold the best promise for growth. Our portfolio is a 60/40 mix of fixed income/
equities. It seems to be currently yielding about 4% annually. We don't expect too much
capital appreciation since our focus is on income production. The 40% equity position with
good companies offers some downside protection but probably not too much upside growth.
Steve doesn't expect the feds to act on inerest rates anytime soon, maybe not for 2-3 years.
Interest rates are down and will probably stay down for some time. The 10 year treasury is
only yielding 1.8% and even a good 1 year CD is only about 1%. Their strategy with us is
to stay short term in the fixed income side looking for opportunities with variable interest
rates. Essex has the authority to change the funds we're in without review with our
Foundation board as long as the basic strategy stays the same. So far they seem to be
doing pretty well for us considering the state of the markets today. Their fee for our portfoloio
management is .5%
Golf Tournament: Sandy and Brent indicated our expenses are met. We now have 96
golfers with more expected to participate. We need more sponsors and donors to make
our budgeted target for the scholarship fund. We only have one week left to get this
done. Your editor feels we should be starting this activity in ernest in late March or
early April and to have team meetings early enough to get an 'all hands' production
going. Brent and Sandy seem to always bear the burden.
asl
THE FOUR-WAY TEST
of the things we think, say or do
First...
Is it the TRUTH ?
Second....
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Third....
Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Fourth....
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
