January 25, 2013

Pledge of Allegiance: Roger Hansen
Blessing: Michael Ciavolino

We had two guests, Ed McNamee and Nicole Moreira

First bit of business was the induction of Michael DeJohn to the RCLB. Michael is the Craft Beer Division Manager of Shore Point Distributors. He lives with his wife, Joyce, and three kids in Rumson.

Joan Vas sent out an email looking for local Rotarians who can open their homes to visiting Rotarians from North Carolina. These people are coming up to assist in the constructing of homes for people who were affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Fatima announced the foundation dinner that she's attending that evening.

March 7th is the Lombardi dinner and we want to make sure we have two tables filled from our club. Vince Papaldi is 99% certain to be the speaker.

Lex Tucci spoke about the importance of continuing the food drive programs we have been doing. He compared it to the other large town projects we have been involoved with like the Ronald McDonald House and the Ice House at MU. Victoria Koontz from Shore Regional Interact is implementing home room challenges every ten days. The kids are then inspired by the competition to bring in the most non-perishable food per home room. Wells Fargo has offered a storage space for food we collect in their basement. Lex then introduced Nicole and Ed.

Ed and Nicole from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney spoke about our government debt, $120 trillion in unfunded liabilities, which includes $83 trillion in Medicare costs.  The growth rate of our debt is much higher than the current growth rate of our GDP. The McNamee Wealth Management Group feels that the US must decrease the rate of the debt’s growth by reducing some of the future obligations already promised to the American people.  This must happen with great care and over the long term. Ed went on to describe 10 solutions to lower levels of government debt.

Michael Schwartzstein won the 50/50 and the pulled the joker for the progressive.