Spotlight 01-31-12, Vol. 74, No. 5

Posted by Elizabeth Walker 
 

 

Program:

Program host Stan Schafer introduced his sister, Lois Mahony, Professor of Accounting At Eastern Michigan University, who discussed “The 411 on Fraud.” 
 

Brighton Rotary Spotlight

Jane McManus, President

January 31, 2012, Vol. 74, No.5

 

Guests:           Barb Hess, wk4; Michael Southgate, wk2; Mike Murphy, Liv. Sunrise Rotary; Lois & Tom Mahony, speakers; Jane Schafer, Stan’s wife;

 

Announcements:

Stan Schafer needs help with Gleaners Food Bank this Saturday, February 4th from 8am-12noon.  He needs to do family errands that morning & needs Rotary volunteers to help at Gleaners.  Contact Stan to donate your time on Saturday!

The Rotary 6380 District Conference will be held in Holland, MI, on April 20-22nd.  We would like to have a group of Brighton Rotarians represented—contact President Jane if you are interested.  The Friday seminar will target new Rotarians, highlighting the benefits of Rotary.

Brian Donovan reported on the stairway and porch build project of last week:  All went pretty smoothly, although Raiders need to double-check addresses before starting work….. Thank you to all who participated!!

Peggi Tuggle is training for a Warrior Dash Event in Mt. Morris on July 29th and would like to assemble a team to participate in this fun event covering 5K in distance while tackling various obstacles.  Contact Peggi if this is your type of fun!

Tom Coates thank all who participated in the Spice Drive to collect food spices to send to his son’s troop in Afghanistan.  A large package was shipped last week and is greatly anticipated by the Marines!

Tickets for Tony n’Tina’s Wedding on February 25, 2012, are available at Cooper & Binkley Jewelers or at the website www.BrightonRotaryEvents.org. Approximately 200 tickets have already been sold, with only 500 available Mitch Zoldowski already has commitments/donations for about 15 baskets for the Chinese auction.  See Mitch if you can help!

The VINA fundraiser is scheduled for February 4th at the Johnson Center.  Included in the ticket price is a strolling dinner, jazz band, and auctions, both live and silent.  For more information or tickets, see Cathy Riesterer or www.VINADental.org

Assistant District Governor Jim Gilmore alerted the Club last week to the District Membership Summit on February 18th at our Community Building.  A special session will highlight “Things That Work” for attracting new members.  Pre-registration is requested, contact Jim Gilmore for more information.

It’s Junior Achievement time!  Mike Bourke needs instructors for classes start on 3/17 for 2-5 hours/week for approximately 5-6 weeks, usually from 1-3pm.  Generally needs 8 teachers & currently has 4.  If you think you can help, contact Mike.

January is Rotary Awareness Month and the theme for 2012-2013 is Peace through Service.

Upcoming Events:

02/18/12                            District Membership Summit at Brighton Community Building

02/25/12    6:30pm            Tony n’Tina’s Wedding at the Johnson Center, Cleary University

04/22/12                            District Conference in Holland, MI

05/5-9/12                           Rotary International Conference in Thailand

 

Program:

Program host Stan Schafer introduced his sister, Lois Mahony, Professor of Accounting At Eastern Michigan University, who discussed “The 411 on Fraud.”  Stan has four brothers and nine sisters who all grew up on a dairy farm.  Stan remembers how much his sister Lois loved to read and eventually became the valedictorian of her high school class.  After graduating with an accounting degree from Michigan State University and earning Masters and Doctoral degrees from Central Florida University, she came to Eastern Michigan University as an accounting professor.  One of her classes involves teaching students how to identify and control fraud.  Fraud is committed by employees in all types of business and services, but those employees that commit fraud are generally those that possess the most in-depth knowledge about the financial systems.  In banks, the people that touch the money are most likely to commit fraud.  The average organization loses seven percent of the annual revenue to fraud.  Companies with less than 100 employees tend to have average losses of $190,000.   In two-thirds of the schemes, a person acts alone, and 50 percent are employed in accounting or upper management.  More than half of those caught are older than 50 years, and often use a check tampering or fraudulent billing scheme.  There does not seem to be any correlation between the length of service and the timing of fraud initiation.  Most are first time offenders, and only seven percent had prior convictions.  Fraud is usually detected via Tips from other employees, customers, vendors, etc. (39.6 percent); Internal Audits (23.8 percent), Accident (21.3 percent), Internal controls (18.4 percent), External audit (10.9 percent) and other (0.9 percent).  Sometimes there are multiple ways that the fraud is detected, but warning signs of potential fraud can include:  disorganized operations in bookkeeping; unrecorded transactions; missing records; excessive voids or credits; reconciled bank accounts; and/or an individual’s failure to take vacations.  

 

Progressive 50/50 Drawing $1,120 pot in week 11, 22 cards remain. Jeff Billig drew the five of diamonds; Steve Bellinger drew the queen of clubs, and Lori Lalama drew the seven of spades.