Rotations October 21, 2014
President Sigur rang the bell on schedule. Bob Heely led us in filling the room with “Happy Days are Here Again”, followed by “Sing Rotarians”, and the Our Father God to Thee verse of “America”. After the pledge Barry Kesser rose to give an inspirational reading and offered prayer. School of the week was Richard Bowling Elementary School.
Ed Lilly gave the visitation report: Joe Massey had a bad fall on the stairs and did some bodily damage which will need therapy (Marty Raiss helped and he thanked her). Laurie Harrison had surgery and will be back soon. There were cards signed by all for Joe Massey and Jack Magee who has been having some heart problems and may be transferred to Harbor Point rehab.
Greeter Cy Grandy gave the visitation reporter: One Rotarian guest, Cathy Scherer from e-club New England, and two Rotarians brought guests: Eleanor Schoonover had three – her daughter Katherine Schoonover, plus Melina Matus and Captain Jake Johanssen.
President Sigur recognized two members for the successful recruiting of a new member. Bernie Cohen and Cy Grandy were each given an escutcheon (?) for their Rotary lapel pins.
Sigur also extended thanks to Adam Foleck who fitted seven people for dentures this past Saturday as part of our Rotary Smiles program.
Future plans: Our meeting on November 4 has been cancelled. We will have a holiday party at some location on December 16th. We received a partner of the year awarded to our club by the Life Enrichment Center. Rotarian Mark Johnson was there and so was Police chief Mike Goldsmith. He rose to share with us a program that they have developed where police officers volunteer some time to serve as reading tutors for children on a regular basis, a chance for those needy children to get to know a policeman.
Happy Bucks and fines followed. A few are included herewith: Sharon Laderberg gave a few for the pleasure of having her daughter with her now because the following day she was leaving for a year long (adventure?) in Thailand. Sally Hartman wanted some recognition for the light show at the Hermitage, she said we should go see it! Lorna Cochrane admitted to buying a new Lexus. Chip Vogan and Joe Boone came forth to share about their recent three week trip with their wives to France and Holland, including a frustrating effort to find a Rotary club which had changed its meeting date, and a reconnect Chip made with a Tiel family who had connected with our club here. Win Lewis reported a trip to Orlando and that he was 'pinless.' John Searing had an interesting event at a recent Admirals game where his daughter won a Ynot pizza sponsored race on the ice. Lisa Sands was in Wakefield to learn about the rising sea level. Marty Raiss honored her college Duke for a football game. Harry Taylor reported a successful trip to Colorado. Barbara Lipskis contributed a fine and time was passing so our president moved on with the program of the day.
Rotarian of the Day, Sally Hartman, currently our President-Elect, is employed by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and had the honor of introducing Dr. James Koch. James is a retired ODU president and well known for being a resident economist. He has a good handle on the local economy and came primarily to share his thoughts on our regional economy, and the financial impact of Mega Churches, plus some thoughts about our tolls.
Our local economy has suffered in comparison to many other parts of the state from the sequestration. We have been flat or down since 2009, when some of sequestration was given a temporary reprieve, things picked up, but that reprieve will expire soon. Our recovery is slow, the rest of USA is ahead of us on jobs. Some 30,000 fewer will be employed. He suggested the next few years Hampton Roads will not be too bad, but not doing well. Defense spending is constant now, no increase seen. Much of south Virginia has not recovered from 2010 slump, especially the textile mills and coal mines. There are fewer active duty military personnel today, although those we have are better paid. One thing that has helped, especially on the peninsula is the repair contracts of the two aircraft carriers, the Lincoln and the Kennedy. The modest downsize of the military may be, in part, due to more being sent to Asia. The cost of a military equipment has increased so much that less things are made.
On a commercial note our port is doing much better as we can handle ships other ports cannot, especially large container ships. Our TEU is up substantially, defined: ‘Port container traffic measures the flow of containers from land to sea transport modes., and vice versa, in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a standard-size container. Data refer to coastal shipping as well as international journeys. Transshipment traffic is counted as two lifts at the intermediate port (once to off-load and again as an outbound lift) and includes empty units. Google’ Other ports are scrambling to cash in, in New York they are elevating the Bayonne Bridge so bigger ships can be accommodated.
Mega Churches are a growing development. These are churches with about 2,000 or more at a service. Dr. Koch said they were similar to a franchise, often non-denominational and protestant. He considers this an economic phenomenon with activities for all. The atmosphere is that of a large theater, with entertainment, one church has a bowling alley. They appear to bring in $50,000 plus each week which has economic implications. How the money is used is not always made clear.
Dr. Koch noted tolls in closing. The burden on the residents of Portsmouth and Suffolk is much greater than Norfolk, and negligible for Virginia Beach. 65% of the people living in Hampton Roads work in a different city of the area. Tolls are a good tax because they are a user tax, the people who use the roads (tunnels) are paying for them. But, if the tolls increase too much, the economy of everyone will suffer.
During the Q&A he mentioned that the financial oversight of mega churches may be cloudy, there is some uncertainty as to where the money is spent. Pastors seem to live in comfort with expensive cars. Government spending long term is all right, good, but lukewarm. When asked about tolls, the automatic increase to 35% will be too much, currently the system is set to see that in the years ahead. Port traffic is very good now but it is also sensitive, the world economy affects it and right now the world economy is poor, much worse than USA.
Ted Baker won the daily raffle, and left big dollars to another day.