President Robert Olmstead III started the meeting at 11:59. He welcomed everyone to the best damn Rotary Club in Arden Arcade. He noted that this was his 28th meeting. He welcomed Jed Van Wagner back and then asked him to start the meeting with the pledge of allegiance. Les Gudger was asked to provide words of wisdom for the day. Les noted that, depending on who you talk to, it will be a short conversation. He also thank the Prez for the opportunity to practice spontinaity.
Secret Word
The Prez asked for the secret word and Lisa Asperger was ready to repond. She knew that the word was "Deliveries."
Introduction of Visiting Rotarians and Guests
Tim Cahill was happy to introduced his wife, Laura Bell Cahill. As it was Valentine's Day he thought it appropriate to invite her to enjoy the meeting. Unfortunately, the picture taker failed to take her picture so we are stuck looking at Tim in the photo to the left.
Tom Goode introduced Adrian Pontarelli, a return visitor and former member of the 20/30 Club. She is kicking the tires of different Rotary Clubs as the 20/30 club kicks you out when you turn 40.
Tom Goode also introduced Eddie Morlet who was recently approved for membership in our club. Eddie will be inducted to the club on Charter Night.
Al Cady introduced his friend Tom King. Tom has been approved for membership and will also be inducted into the club on Charter Night.
Announcements and Other Fun Stuff
Effie Yeaw Tortoise Enclosure Update
The tortoise enclosure was completed on February 17th. Great thanks go out to all of the volunteers that helped build the enclosure. A ribbon cutting party will be held with the Carmichael Rotary Club at a time yet to be decided. Cowboy Sparkles will be the guest of honor.
Effie Yeaw Tortoise Enclosure
Poker Tournament
Richard Goore reported we still need sponsorships as well as players. Please talk to your friends, family, neighbors, enemies as this is our biggest event of the year and we need a good turnout. He sent emails to his poker playing friends and then followed up with phone calls. By doing this he now has signed up 25% of the players... as there were only three people previously registered, his one player makes the 25%. The point is, phone calls work.
We are behind in sponsorships and need to make it up with players. Our goal is 175 players, up 40 from last year's 135. This is an all-hands-on deck premier fundraiser event. Please make sure all sponsors sign up their players as soon as possible. Spectators are welcome. Volunteers are needed. Please go to the website to register your players and claim your sponsorships: AllinForArdenArcade.com
Charter Night
Charter Night will be held on Friday, February 24th at the Del Paso Country Club. District Attorney, Thien Ho will be our guest speaker for the evening. The event starts at 6:00 pm with a no host bar and, thanks to John Gabriel, the lively sounds of jazz will be performed by the Rio Jazz Band. The dinner will follow at 7:00 pm. A sign in sheet was passed around and we have 30 signed up so far. We need a good showing so please plan on attending. Rotarian’s meals are free, so long as you are a member in good standing, guests’ meals are $50.
Off-site Lunch, CA State Library
Our next off-site lunch at the State Library for April 11. The exact time and duration of the lunch has not been finalized. A sign up sheet will be passed around towards the end of this month. You will not want to miss this opportunity to see the rare documents that few people ever get to see. Lunch will be provided in library cafeteria. Guests are welcome to attend.
Dictionary Delivery Update
Bill Hambrick reported that dictionaries were delivered yesterday to Cottage Elementary and Whitney Elementary schools. He thanked John Gabriel and Michael Caplan for their help in delivering them to the students. He also thanked the Prez for making an appearance... better late than never? We have place the Laurel Ruff delivery on hold. We are looking for another school to deliver dictionaries to. Does anyone know of a FedEx driver with a kid that needs a dictionary?
Michael
(I'm never late, you start the meetings early)
Caplan
John
(Glad to have him back)
Gabriel
Prez. Rob
(At least I show up) Olmstead III
Scholarship Lunch
John Gabriel reported we will be returning to Del Paso Country Club for the Scholarship Lunch this year. It will be held on Tuesday, May 9th. The hat will be passed in early April and weekly thereafter to help defray the cost of the lunches for about 35 guests; students, parents and educators. This is a great meeting, a fun time. We need a good turnout to show the sudents our support. We would like club members at every table. Please plan to attend.
Unfinished Business
The Prez aksed Tyler Johnson to come to the front of the room to receive his offical "Welcome to Rotary" packet and red badge. He suggested that Steve Turner might be willing to explain just what he has to do to transition from the Red Badge to the Blue Badge.
Bell Ringers
Happy Bucks
Sad Bucks
Jed Van Wagner
Jed rang the Bell in honor of acumulating a second grandchild on January 6, 2023. Both grand children are of the female persuasion. The first one officially made him a grandfather last year.
Thomas Goode I
Was a Happy Bucks contributor because last week he announced that he was attempting to donate baby formula that did not meet the high standards of his daughter. Some of the more cynical members of the club considered it an attempt to relieve himself of the formula that was unfit for his infant to consume. This was not the case. He is very happy to announce that he was able to off-load, correction, donate, the formula to Jenny Davini for her new granddaughter.
Emily Ballus
Emily contributed happy bucks for being away last week, visiting her nephew in Chicago as he was graduating from the Univercity of Chicago, getting his masters. He also educater her about current events, as he used to attend Georgia Tech where he was in the Baloon Club.
Ben Fox
Ben is a happy bucks contributor... he felt he had to be as he was happy to escape being fined for joining the meeing while it was in progress... "Better late than never!"
John Gabriel
John was especially happy to suggest that we need many spectators, especiallly this year, to heckle last year's poker tournament winner, the father of one our newest club members, Gary Johnson.
Bruce Stimson
Bruce is happy to be leaving town Wednesday morning to go to Washington D.C. to go to the NAYEN (North American Youth Exchange Network) Conference. As if that was not reason enough, Bruce noted that he is particularly happy to be able to see his granddaughter while back east.
Bill Hambrick
Bill was happy because he had three potential Rotarians show up at the Dictionary Sticker Party.
Al Cady
He piggybacked onto Bill Hambricks Happy Buck, actually he hijacked it, and reported that he is a member of TA, Tools Anonymouse, for those with tool adictions. Bill contrituted,enabled, Al's fettish for tools, introducing him to an estate sale that had more tools than any normal person should have. Al ended up with lawnmowers, tillers and a billygoat commercial vacuum and many other items that he is in the process of selling and donating the proceeds to our club. He got Emily Ballus' atention with the Billygoat. The Prez thanked Bill and Al for their efforts to raise funds for the club and reducing Al's fetish inventory.
Eddie Morlet
Eddie, not-a-member-yet, Morlet was happy to contribute to the club's coffers because he was very happy to report that he is going to have a second baby boy! They have scheduled his world debute for July 10th. What a world we live in today, where you can not only pick the sex of the child but also the day of the delivery. We are not sure of the time of the event... stay tuned.
President Robert Olmstead III
The Prez was happy to report that his favorite soccer-forward-son once again played in a soccer tournament, this time in San Leandro, and scored 7 goals over 4 games. There is no truth to the rumor that the Olmsteads are funding his soccer career in hopes that they will not have to pay for him to go to college.
Announcements and Other Fun Stuff
Continued
French Toast
Al Cady offered a Frech Toast... that is he shared a toast in French, saying Avotre sante, to your health, in honor of all of our sweetie-pies and especially for our favorite sweetie-pie Christine Jensen for providing the chanpagne for the club. The secret word is "Avotre."
Better-Late-Than-Never Sad Buck
Michael Caplan, realizing that he was sad and missed the assigned time to express his sadness, interrupted the introduction of the guest speaker to donate $1.00 to the club. Michael was profoundly sad that the Prez failed to mention his significant birthday. He waited over a month just to see if the Prez would redeem himself but no, it was not to be. So, in view of the egregious oversight of his 80th birthday on January 12th, Michael felt it only appropriate for the Prez to make a donation on his behalf. The Prez fell into Michael’s trap, offering to match whatever Michael donated. It was at this point-in-time that Michael changed his $1.00 sad buck to a $100 Bell Ringer.
Better-Late-Than-Never Bell Ringer
Les Gudger, got so excited that he too wanted to ring the bell in honor of Michael's birthday and the fact that the Prez got sucked in to Michaels diabolical trap. Not only did he pay for the bell ringer in cash but he gave Michael a big belated birthday hug.
Guest Speaker, Rene Jacques
Tom Goode reintroduced Rene Jacques to the club. Rene has been tomany meetings and has been a poker tournament sponsor for many years. Rene is the owner of Golden Bay Mortgage, a great friend, hard worker with a great family. Tom relies on him for any information he needs regarding mortgages or the mortgage industry.
Rene loves to talk about the mmortgage industry. He will be talking about the mortgae industry and real estate in general.
Rene Jacques began working in real estate in 2003, after starting work at a title company in 2002. In 2005, he earned his broker’s license and worked 13 years in the industry for two major mortgage companies. Prior to opening Golden Bay Mortgage Group, he was the top producing loan agent at each of those two mortgage companies during that span of time. He takes great pride is using the combination of experience in purchase transactions and real estate investment properties to help his clients find exactly the right property and get the best deal.
Rene started off his presentation by stating that 2022 was a very different year when it comes to real estate. He polled the club members to see what they thought about 2022.
The median house price in Sacramento was $558,000. What was the change from the previous year? Guesses included 11% increase, 15% increase. The median price is now $533,000, down 4.5%. There was appreciation of about 8% for most properties.
In January of 2022 the number of sales 1,610. How many sales were made in January 2023? Guesses were 300, 2,00, 500. There were 889, down 34%. This shows that public perception is not reflecting reality. We need to keep a good perspective. In December 626 homes sold that means sales went up in January.
Mortgage rates were in the twos in November 2021. They started climbing that month and never went down. The interest rate increase from March of 2022 to July of 2022was the largest ever recorded over a four-month period of time. Additionally, refinancing to access equity has a higher rate than a home purchasing rate. Rates are higher and there is a penalty for taking money out of your equity.
Which year do you think had the lower number of mortgages, 2008 or 2022? 2022 had fewer mortgages than 2008 at the height of the crash because people were upside down in value. Volume will improve as rates lower.
In January, properties on average sold 6% lower below original list price. We are seeing a correction in the market and prices will continue to decline for some properties. Gone are the days of properties selling thousands of dollars over asking price. The more desirable properties are still selling quickly. The less desirable are taking much longer to sell. We have returned to a “normal” market.
As of this morning the inflation rate is still higher than hoped for and it looks like the interest rates will continue to climb. We are presently experiencing 6.1% to 6.125% for a no cost loan origination loan. Rates will go up and down this year. The outlook is good. Many feel that later this year rates will return to the mid 5%.
It was at this point that Rene started the question and answer period, none of which are reported here.
The Prez thanked Rene Jacques for the informative presentation.
Future Events
February 21st, 2023: Tim Kebervaz, Owns an A/V Company/Corporate Consultant
February 28th, 2023: Frank LaRosa & Scott Marsh, Sacramento Area Sports Commentators
March 7th, 2023: Gem Munro, Amarok Society Co-Founder
March 14th, 2023: Clay Nutting, Owner Canon East & Franquette Restaurants
***We have held several Off-Site Lunches at Canon.***
March 21st, 2023: Kelli Sequest & Alex Byrne, Sacramento County-Department of Waste Management & Recycling
March 25th, 2023: Poler Tournament, Niello BMW
March 28th, 2023: DARK, Week after the Poker Tournament
April 11th, 2023: ***OFF SITE LUNCH***, CA State Library/Historical Documents Tour
May 9th, 2023: Annual Rotary Scholarship Lunch, Del Paso Country Club
President Robert Olmstead III thanked everyone for coming and rang the club bell closing the meeting at 1:06 p.m.
Respectfully (more or less) submitted by,
Mike Grace
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