Newsletter - Archive  Jan 20, 2010

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Rotary Club Business and Member News

January 20, 2010

Opening:

Pledge       President Richard

Prayer        Bill D

Song          President Richard

Visiting Rotarians and Guests:

Wil Backes                RC of Munich

Allison Neal               Guest of Chip (& prospective Rotarian)

Mark Hassenpflug     RC of Raymond (& guest speaker)

Announcements:

Pres Rich     Our server is in a "Green Wedding Giveaway" contest at Clay

Hill Farm.  Vote online for her at www.greenweddinggiveaway.com .

                     The RI Convention is in Montreal this June.  Pres. Rich and Jackie are going.  Contact Pres. Rich if you wish to accompany them.

                     The RC of Falmouth has begun a Haiti Relief effort (details to come).  They, and the District, are proposing club donations of $1000.  The

District funds will go to Condit Sante, the second largest hospital.  The membership voted to send support.  John B suggested we take a look at the RI website for more information.  Our speaker's club has a Haitian member who could also provide information.

Anon.            There are also charitable arms of organizations on the ground there, e.g. the LDS, to which relief funds could be directed.

Happy Bucks:

Ron                  Son Ben made Eagle Scout, was accepted at the Whittemore School, and is painting his bedroom.

Candace           Late buck.  And spent 5 days in Nashville where PBA Charities donated $100,000 to Operation Smile.

Mark                 Democracy was at work in Massachusetts yesterday; a positive campaign.

Pete                 The Massachusetts election (results).

Allison Neal     Thanks to the club, and for the beauty of NH.

Bill D                Days in Colorado.

John (R?)         35th wedding anniversary.

Pres. Rich        Daughter texted him from the ski slopes.

Henry               Happy to be with the group this morning.

Program:

Mark Hassenpflug, Sr. VP, Wealth Management, Ocean Bank

Mark has been a member of Rotary since 1994, and he came to speak about the economy, banking and investments.

Mark described a financial state of affairs that sounded like today but which was actually a scene from the 1970's.  We're in a similar situation, and it puts today's troubles in perspective.  The world's financial picture is cyclic.  We may go through them from time to time, but we still have the best monetary system in the world.

This cycle is a little more complex, however, than others: 1. Tight money;      2. Bank failures; 3. High unemployment; 4. Many companies going bankrupt because of tight credit; and 5. The insatiable desire of Americans to spend money and not save.

World politics weighs heavily in our economy, and there are bright spots throughout the world e.g. Brazil. 

While all of the above and other factors, are all woven into the crisis, the good news is that we've turned the corner.  Washington did hold off a lot of the failures, and now we have to pay for it.

The Community Reinvestment Act, passed 15 years ago, provided that banks must lend to low-income people or be charged more to borrow on the overnight market.  ACORN and Barney Frank were primarily responsible for this.  It has put banks at risk because there is no guarantee of re-payment.

NH held its own through the crisis since our banks did not fall into the same pit.  They did better getting good borrowers.

Mark gave a history of credit swaps (contact him for what this was all about!).

Banks in NH and New England are strong and safe.

Megabucks:

Mark had the number, but no luck on the card draw.

Upcoming Programs:

Jan 27      Stan Swier, UNH Dept of Bio Sciences, Invasive Insect Species

Feb 3        Tom Ballestero, UNH Hydrological Engineer

Feb 10      Ted Kirkpatrick, UNH Justice Studies Program

Your Scribe: Chip