Meeting Recap for April 29, 2013
Monday was a day full of surprises, inside and outside Rotary Club of Sacramento.
---
Surprise #1 came from inside: President Peter Dannenfelser announced that RCS Executive Director Hal Shipley will leave his position in the next few months. A search committee co-chaired by President-elect-elect Susan Sheridan and Past-president Hal Bartholomew has been formed to find a replacement for Shipley, who has been E.D. about three years. Also on the search committee: President-elect Thom Gilbert, Past-presidents Beverly Brautigam, Walter Dahl, Rob Scherer and Ken Noack, Jr., former board member Diane Woodruff and Dannenfelser. Applications for the position will be accepted from now until July 15. Interviews will take place in August and September.
According to Dannenfelser, Shipley will be involved in the search process. Club members who might be interested in the position can contact a committee member.
---
Surprise #2 came from outside, but would have caused jubilation at Monday’s weekly luncheon at the Red Lion Woodlake Inn had the announcement been made there: The National Basketball Association revealed that its Relocation Committee voted unanimously to recommend that the NBA Board of Governors deny the request to move the Kings to Seattle. The Sacramento-based ownership group has promised to bring back the Sacramento Monarchs, the WNBA franchise with which RCS partnered on a number of projects.
---
No surprises in the remarks of our guest speaker, Sanjay Varshney, Dean of the College of Business Administration at Cal State-Sacramento (or to we alums, “Sac State”). Varshney was cautiously optimistic about the region’s economy. But he also sounded a sobering warning about what will happen if the area can’t attract and retain more manufacturing. “The bleeding has stopped, but there’s not much to celebrate yet,” said Varshney, who was introduced by Chair of the Day Brooks Erickson. “We foresee modestly positive job growth, but an unemployment rate that will be somewhere between 9 and 10.5% during 2013,” Varshney said. “We also see a rebound in construction and financial jobs, government stabilizing and maybe even growing marginally and consumer spending continuing to grow."
Despite all that, he says, California will continue to lag the rest of the country when it comes to economic recovery and our region will continue to lag California. “Our region has lost 130,000 jobs since 2008 and managed to gain back only 10,000,” he said. “Our labor force has declined by 19,000 since January of 2010. “We still have high commercial real estate vacancy rates but the residential market seems to have found a ‘floor’ and foreclosures are declining.”
Varshney also pointed to a statistic that highlights the dramatic change in the makeup of the region’s business community as we emerge from the recession: We are not going to be the headquarters location for a lot of large international corporations. “84% of the firms in this region have 20 or fewer employees.” What will keep these firms from growing to be Fortune 500 firms? Lots of concerns about the business climate: Higher tax rates for “S” corporations, which are often the most entrepreneurial business entities, and concerns over the Affordable Care Act.
So, what was the sobering warning? “We need more manufacturing in the region,” says Varshney. “Service sector economies don’t work—not by themselves. “If you want to see the proof of that, all you have to do is look at Greece or Spain,” he continued. “We have to find a better balance—unless you want it to look like that here.”
---
Also no surprise: The emotional outcomes of the latest Rotoplast mission, this time to Guatemala several weeks ago with the extraordinary financial support of Bill and Millie Stone. Clayton Lee, emotional at times, showed slides chronicling the stories of three recipients from among the 113 people who received service.
---
A true surprise: A visit from a Rotary Group Study Exchange team from South Africa during which it was revealed Rotary International is eliminating the program. “I think that’s stupid,” said Carl “CJ” Johnson, President of Folsom Lake Rotary Club, who brought the five-member delegation of educators to the RCS meeting. “I think this is a great program, totally in keeping with what Rotary is all about, but this may be the last GSE visit to our district.”
---
Timothy Mattheis was inducted as the newest member of RCS by President Peter. He was introduced by sponsor Larry Gilzean. Dan Cole also was a sponsor.
---
John McIntyre provided the thought for the day, Lee Castonguay and Kuni Chevrolet Cadillac sponsored the pre-meeting wine reception and past-president George Bayse provided the piano accompaniment.
---
There will be no meeting next Monday, being the meeting after Bids For Kids. President Peter asks to join us at the Center at 2300 Sierra Blvd this Saturday evening for a lovely evening of Rotary fellowship supporting a great cause - The Relationship Skills Center. And sign up for the District Conference the following weekend up at the Hyatt North Shore. The next meeting will be May 13 with a speaker from the Pac-8, or is it 10, or is it 12 conference? It gets confusing for me, even as a former sportswriter.