The Excelsior Rotary Club meeting on June 2, 2020 was held in a Zoom format with President Michelle Seets presiding. Steve Frazier was Greeter and Opening Marshal and Steve relayed his experience with Taps Across America. We had two visitors: Mark Maloney and Suzi Howe who are interested in joining our club. Our next meeting will be Michelle’s last meeting as President and she has done a terrific job! We had seven announcements with several actions by our Board of Directors:
1. Steve Frazier reported that we will have a golf fundraiser again this year with the AM Club taking the lead. Steve will represent our club in the leadership organizing and ask members to contact him if they are interested in serving on the committee and/or helping with the event. The basic structure will be highly virtual with many events being on-line so our main need is people proficient in Social Media, Graphics and Website construction. The main organizing looks like this:
- Social Media
- Graphics
- Website
- On Line Auction coordinator or Auctioneer (virtual administrator)
- Money Person
- Scheduling
- Golfer coordinator
- Sponsor coordinator
- Hole sponsor
- Large Ticket Live Auction coordinator
- Committee Leads (Pat H., Steve F, Mike D., Mike M.). Golf Course Coordinator
2. The Board decided to approach the South Shore Community Center for Club Meetings starting in July with Red Sauce providing our catering. This venue allows for social distancing. We will also continue to broadcast our meetings in Zoom for those who Covid 19 cautious.
3. Molly will organize two socials. One will be a car parade and lawn signage celebrating members and a Happy Hour at Maynards in July with social distancing.
4. The Board voted to give emergency funding of $2,500 for signage at MCEC .
5. The Board voted to have this year’s golf charities be $2,000 each to His House, MCEC Scholarships and Tyronne Carter’s STEM Program.
6. Clips were shown of the MHS Award Program of STRIVE and Make A Difference scholarships.
7. A Rotary Human Trafficking On-line Club will start as of June 18th at 10 AM on Zoom. Michelle will send out a link for the event.
Our Program on June 2nd was Thomas Parnell of J.P. Morgan speaking about a “Good Market and Market Perspectives” and using many graphs and charts discussed the roller-coaster ride of the market and his perspective on recovery. He explained how the market fell 34% on February 19th and started its recovery in March and April and we can look for a more gradual recovery in the coming months with some up’s and Down’s in the Bull Market. He also believes that we are through the worst as we are with the Covid 19 pandemic. He gave us a lesson on how the stock market reflects the state of our economy with the worst hits in the 2nd quarter and then rapid improvement in the 3rd and 4th quarters. He discussed the history of the markets and GDP from 1970 on and the 2007 recession but the 2020 recession will be twice as bad but then improve rapidly. The Federal Reserve initial actions did not happen quick enough but now responding better. Congress got involved finally and through the CARE Acts pumped 2.4 Trillion into our economy and will need to enact 3 trillion more. In response the market started going up and helping our country to come out of the recession. His advice is not to panic and not sell-off but to stay with your portfolios and adjust it with the advice of your financial planner.