Salem Rotary - The Spoke - Archive (Sep 8, 2009)

Paying a fine for her new Mercedes Benz R350. Also her kids start school this week and her son scored 3 goals in a soccer tournament this past weekend.

BRUCE WHEAR

Went up to Maine last weekend.

RANDY BURBA

Also went up to Maine.

ROBERTA CANTOR

Wanted to thank everyone who participated in the second Salem Mission Dinner.

RICH EISNER

Took his children to Storyland and Santa's Village last week. His son knee boarded while there.

JOHN QUINN

Celebrated his birthday this past week. In his words, he exceeded the number of keys on keyboard by 1. We wish you many more John.....

JOHN NEELY

Although there were visa problems for the Rotary International students, everyone made it home and safe and sound.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Rotarian of the month is Ken Rothwell. Thanks Kenny for spearheading the return of the poker tournament and for donating and cooking the food for the children at the Mary Jane Lee Park.

Frank Campbell is taking reservations for the poker tournament that will be held 9/17/09. Please see the upcoming events/save the date of this newsletter for the complete details.

We had our second monthly Salem Mission Dinner held last Thursday evening 9/3/09. Special thanks to Beth Bower, Jim Bailey, Kathie Strout, Bob Dionne, John Neely and especially Team Leader Roberta Cantor. Roberta also donated the cost for the food. On behalf of the Salem Rotary Club, THANK YOU ROBERTA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brenda Smith is making her way across the country as we speak. Her and Hank are having a blast as they always do. If you are interested in following her journey to the west coast, she provided her blog information for people to see.

http://brenda-undertheradar.blogspot.com/

Board Meeting next Tuesday 9/15/09 @ 10:45am

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SALEM ROTARIANS

Rich Blazo - September 6th

John Quinn - September 12th

SPEAKER/PRESENTER OF THE WEEK

Rob Lutts (Scholarship Fund Update & State of the Economy)

In our quest to build the value of this fund the Board of Director's of the Scholarship Endowment Fund has made a gift commitment challenge of $5,000.00. This Board will match dollar for dollar each contribution given by the membership of the Salem Rotary Club.

The long term goal for the scholarship fund is $500,000.00 by 12/31/2013. If we can earn current income of 4% (90% payout would be a 3.6%) this would provide our Scholarship Committee with $18,000.00 per year paid out to scholarships.

If 50 members of the club are able to donate $100.00 toward the Scholarship Fund this would create new contributions of approximately $5,000.00 which would then be matched up to $5,000.00 by the Board Members contribution for a total of $10,000.00 in new contributions to the Endowment Fund. This would be a nice increase in the fund toward our goal of $500,000.00 thus creating a permanent source of funding for our annual scholarship giving! Please consider making a donation. Thank you!

Rob mentioned a few factors associated with the current economy. First, there has a been a 12 year no profits in stock. We have not seen a trend like that since the 1970's. Before that it happened in the 1930's as well as the mid 1800's. The cash pile is as big as its ever been at 3.6 trillion dollars. Everyone is is on the defense from ordinary people just cutting back to local and state government. Housing affordability is a disaster. We are down from 2 million to 500,000 units sold which is a 75% decline. The highest affordability since 1972. For those with cash its a great time to think about purchasing real estate. It appears the housing market has bottomed out.

Lock in to your interest rate now. They are not going to stay. They are expected to go higher in the future. The US Government is manipulating the interest rates. Invest your dollars in other countries. He also mentioned energy and technology will be good investments in the future. Finally, banks are making their way back. It would be a good idea to get back with banks.

Thanks Rob for sharing your input on the economy and all the hard work that goes into the Endowment Fund as the Treasurer.

UPCOMING EVENTS - SAVE THE DATE

Please visit the calendar section of our web site

for additional important dates.

Salem Rotary Poker Tournament

Thursday September 17, 2009

Ward II Social Club, Salem

6:00pm

$100.00 Buy-In (Includes Dinner and Drinks)

Proceeds to benefit the Salem Scholarship Fund & Polio Plus

(PLEASE SEE FRANK CAMPBELL FOR SIGN-UP)

"QUOTE OF THE WEEK"

"We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know."

-W.H. Auden (1907-1973)

STUMPER OF THE WEEK

If a farmer raises wheat in dry weather, what does he raise in wet weather?

LAST WEEKS STUMPER

What are three things you often eat that you can never have for breakfast?

ANSWER TO LAST WEEKS STUMPER

Lunch, Supper and Dinner

Please email all announcements to be added to the Spoke and/or feedback to salem_rotary@yahoo.com by Noon on Wednesday. Also, feel free to contact any of the committee members listed below.

Committee Chairman: Bob Dionne

Newsletter Editor: Bob Dionne

Photographer: John Quinn & Juli Lederhaus

Graphics and Photo Editing: Rich Eisner

Commitee Members: Denise Flynn, Jim Haskell and Sandy Heaphy

Salem Rotary Club

PO Box 608

Salem, MA 01970

(978) 744-9070