Meeting Recap 07/08/2010
by lou on 12/07/10 at 5:56 pm
Upcoming Events Storyland & Jazz; August 28th. It is now time to sell those tickets!!!
Next Week: Oct. 15 speaker will be Professor Shahrokhi, talking about the Euro with the implications of the International business outlook.
October 22nd will be a special program on the Wheelchair Foundation. Bob Bitter, Madera Sunrise, will talk about Rotary wheelchairs taken to Costa Rica.
Out of State Traveler, Paul Dyer is not letting any grass grow under his feet. He has been making up all of his meetings, while on a Leave of Absence. He writes that life is great in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He got outfitted for fly fishing and will be heading off to the Pecos River. He volunteered at the Rotary “Pancakes on the Plaza”. They made $25,000 and expect $40,000 next year. (Hopefully, PAUL, will bring back some of their secrets). He said there are a lot of hungry tourists and had a perfect location.
Also on LOA is Sherian Eckenrod. She and Gerry arrived in Montana on May31. They have had visitors including Ron Dustin and Past President Brian Mc Cully and his wife Marty. They have traveled to Glacier National Park and Logan Pass, where they had ten foot banks of snow! Life is full of activities including remodeling and expanding their patio, playing poker, shuffle board, craft fairs, festivals, and entertaining friends. Sherian continues to keep her 100% attendance by making up and attending local meetings. Sherian says “Come see us in Montana!”
Meet Rotarian PAUL READ
PAUL was born in Denver Colorado, served in the Army Air Corps during WWII. He graduated from University of California at Berkley with a degree in accounting. He then accepted a position with a new company W. M. Lyles, in Avenal, CA where the first office was in Lyle’s garage. Paul met and married the love of his life, Betty. They have three grown children. Paul retired from the Lyles Diversified Corporation after 49 years. PAUL has faithfully served Rotary 54 years and has 54 years of perfect attendance. He has been President of the Avenal Rotary Club as well as North Fresno. PAUL states his best asset is the friends in Rotary and at Peoples Church. He says the craziest job he ever had was getting paid while he slept as an irrigator. His personal heroes are Betty Read, Elizabeth Lyles, and Ed Baloian. PAUL says the best advice he ever got was “use your head to save your heel”.
Meet Newer Rotarian EVE LIU
EVE grew up in Southwest China in a city of Chengdu in the Sichuan Province. Chengdu is a high density and urbanized environment. She attended Jiatong University, School of Architecture. After 5 years of study she earned a Bachelor Degree in Architecture. Eve worked for seven years and was awarded the John Parkinson Scholarship to attend the Masters Program at USC. She is employed at Integrated Designs by SOMAN, Inc. working on school projects and a 700 acre mixed-use commercial project with the Motor Speedway and Dragstrip in Tulare. EVE is the Chief Designer of the company, mainly working on building design, site plans, and overseeing 3D renderings of the projects. The thing she admires most in the world is culture (including Art, music, architecture, and much more). A friend recommend that she join Rotary to meet people and serve the community. She is doing both very well!
Have you seen it??? Does anyone know where the Banner for the Endowment Fund is located? It has been missing for a number of months and we need your help. Please advise Janet Powell, if you know where it is. Thanks!
Rotary Pins: It’s gonna cost you. Wear your Rotary pin to meeting, JANET is checking. Not to get caught, last Thursday, PAUL READ and DICK ELLSWORTH were seen pinning each other in the foyer.
Club Service reports that the Membership Committee is gearing up and will be giving each of us an idea of who/what we are looking for, as far as good Rotarians. We need the names of prospects so they can be contacted by the Committee. Remember, if you bring a potential member to the Club, NFR will pay for their lunch.
Vocational Service is looking for volunteers to talk about their craft or profession. This is your time to advertise and not get fined. They are also looking for a site for a field trip. Does your company have something interesting that the Club would like to see? (Possibly a tour of Honorary Rotarian Ed Baloian’s new facility). Contact Chris Wong or Shannon Stiner.
Pancake Report: What a great event, with lots of happy faces and bustling Rotarians. This has to be one of the best things our Club does. Hats off to the Event Coordinator Scott Lowe. It is still too early to see what the profit was, but we served 1140 breakfasts. Word on the street is that we even ran out of batter. The Fun Run was the most successful to date with 225 runners. Good job to Lou Smaldino and his team. Please turn in your tickets and money to Bernadette Hansen on Thursday! There are 21 who have not returned their tickets. Remember if they are not returned, you will be charged.
Meeting of July 8th: Our speaker was Daniel Doyle (that is not a typo) who is President and CEO of Central Valley Community Bank, formerly Clovis Community Bank. The topic was the recent financial meltdown. Dan was Chairman of the California Bankers Assn. during the crisis and spent considerable time in Washington DC meeting with our nation’s leaders. He advises that the recession lasted 21 months and is now over. He states most want to know the cause of the recession and he believes it was the housing crisis, leveraging and risk taking. Many people believed that the house prices would increase forever. The blame is spread between Congress and National Policies, poor lending and underwriting practices, mortgage brokers, investors, and borrowers. In 1994 the spike in home ownership coincided with the spike in home values.
Dan advises that banks are beginning to make money now that most foreclosure and bad loans have been dealt with. He believes the bottom has been hit but will bounce around for a while. The key is the unemployment number.
This was a very interesting meeting. If you weren’t there, you missed a good one!
Dave Reuland, reporter
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