Rotary Log for January 12, 2017

 
Rotary Log for January 12, 2017
by Rich Greulich
Photos by Jim Rini
 
 
President James followed his opening gong with an Injury Report. John Bohenko begins six to eight weeks of recovery from heart surgery. Send cards to John in Room 221 at the Portsmouth Hospital. Jeff Marple is at Edgewood Center and doing better. Gene Doherty slipped on ice Christmas Day. She is recovering from her subsequent broken arm surgery.
 
 
Jen Seabrook led a decibel-enhanced singfest. Greeter Deb Anthony guided as in “The test.” John Rice delivered a thoughtful invocation that would have made Reverend Allen proud.
 
Joining us as guests were Mary Gail Sycamore (host Lindsey Hery), Madeline Warren (Cleo) and Wayne Semprini (Justin Finn).
 
Some Rotarians chose to get older this week. Birthdays were celebrated by Lynn McLaren (18 years in Rotary), Paul Careno (29), Mort Schmidt (37) and Leo St. Martin (44!).
 
Ramona Dow reiterated that the Basic Needs Committee is looking for worthy recipients of its overflowing coffers.
 
Our Board of Directors approved spending $250 to supply a large chess set to Greenland School.
 
As a reminder, members will vote next week to approve a $5,100 allocation from the Ray Jones Fund to the Portsmouth Historical Society. A matching grant will double the funds. The monies will be used to restore 12 windows at Discovery Portsmouth. As a corollary, a Rotary Hands-On Project will paint the facility’s exhibit space on January 28.
 
 
Susan Gold apprised us that the Communications Committee will be updating our website.
 
 
Chair Peter Grace announced that the 2017 Golf Event takes place at Pease on June 16.
 
 
Leo Gagnon invited members to our next Social Hour at one of Portsmouth’s newest restaurants. See you all at Braise Restaurant (located at the site of the former Radici Restaurant) on January 24 between 5:30 and 7:30!
 
President James is anxiously awaiting his upcoming Rotary NID Project trip to India. One aspect of the Project is the establishment of a school library. James is soliciting last minute donations to help buy the books. Let’s hope Customs doesn’t view his rupee exchange as some sort of money laundering scheme. Bon voyage, James!
 
Charles Bourdages won the $66 raffle. James was busy calculating how many rupees that would buy. No match ensued.
 
 
Sporting a spiffy new pair of spectacles, Dave Holden introduced our speaker. Chase Hagaman represented The Concord Coalition and explained its new Lookout Campaign. The Concord Coalition is a bipartisan organization. It is designed to educate voters and policymakers on the financial issues facing our country. The campaign moniker refers to encouraging these groups to “look out” for our fiscal future.
 
In his data-rich presentation, Mr. Hagaman made four salient points.
 
  1. Current debt levels are high. Publicly-held debt now equals 77% of GDP (highest since World War II).
  2. These debt levels will increase as automatic expenditures consume a growing share of the budget. The three big programs causing this are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Conversely, discretionary expenditures will decline from 31% of the budget in 2016 to 22% of the 2026 budget.
  3. Population aging is the largest factor causing this. The worker: beneficiary ratio is set to decline from 2.8:1 in 2016 to 2.3:1 in 2026.
  4. We can’t depend on economic growth to solve the problem. The arithmetic just doesn’t work.
It was a sobering presentation. Let’s hope our political representatives take heed.      
 
 
Respectfully submitted, Rich Greulich
 
 
 
 
 
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