03/19/15 Deb Dulaney and Ann Blackburn
03/26/15 Cynthi Fraley and Don Gerhardt
04/02/15 Don Overly and Raj Grandi
04/09/15 Mitch Biederman and Jeff Senney
If you cannot greet on the day assigned, contact Kitty and she will schedule a replacement.
03/12/15
Club President Vas Appalaneni opened the Centerville Rotary Club meeting at The Clubhouse at Yankee Trace by leading the Pledge of Allegiance, Dick Hoback gave the prayer, and Lee Hieronymus led the singing of God Bless America.
The guests at the meeting included: our speaker for the day, Steve Popp, Director of Training for the BBB's Center for Business and Consumer Ethics: and three Centerville Rotary Club member's wives, who attended in honor of the visit from former Centerville Rotary Club member Mae Berkel, who now lives in Holland. Mae came with her granddaughter Shanel De Groot, who has just moved from Dayton to Bloomfield, Michigan; and two of Mae's best friends in Dayton, Ann Higdon and David Burch. Member John Callander's wife Bev, member Fred Weir's wife Cecila, and member Jim Brigg's wife of 55 years, Mary Ann, came to meet and greet Mae, whom they learned to know and cherish during her years with the club. Ryan Packett, employed by Skylight Financial, is a co-worker of Shelley Fisher, and came as her guest.. Mike Hayde is a past member of the club, having been a member for 22 years, shortly after the club was formed 40 years ago. Members who knew him then said they hope he will become a member again. John Callander noted that his wife Bev has recently been declared cancer free, and club members applauded her renewed health.
Among the guests at the May 12, 2015 meeting were Mae Berkel (far right), her granddaughter Shanel De Groot, to her left, and Dayton friends David Burch and Ann Higdon (far left).
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Club president Vas Appalaneni reminded club members that the Bruckner Shoes for Orphan Souls drive.that our Rotary District is participating in, needs members to bring in new shoes, socks, and checks to help buy such items. They can be dropped off at our club meetings during the month.
Club member John Beals said four talented Centerville High School students have been selected to attend The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program at Camp Kern under our club's sponsorship from April 10 through April 12. The club will pay for the $160 per student cost of the program. The students are Harsh Agrawal, a junior at Centerville High School, whose parents are Ashesh and Shrvani Agrawal; Sabrina Grandhi, a senior at Centerville High School, the daughter of club member Raj Grandhi and his wife Susan; Justin Flanagan, a junior at CHS, whose parents are Pat Flanagan and Sara Evans; and Joshua Holtz, a junior at CHS, whose parents are Tom and Susie Holtz.
Harsh Agrawal, a member of the Centerville Interact Club, was named Mr. India by the India Club of Greater Dayton, and hopes to go into a medical field as a career. Sabrina Grandhi was named Miss India in 2014 by the India Club of Dayton. She, like the others, has been involved in numerous leadership roles in high school and hopes to go into medicine or corporate law/consulting. Justin Flanagan, an accomplished cellist and pianist, hopes to become a physician, and Joshua Holtz, a soon-to-be Eagle Scout in May, is interested in law, politics and economics for his future career.
John also reminded members of the upcoming Rotary District 6670 Conference April 17 and 18 at the Hope Hotel at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (10823 Chidlaw Road)..at Gate 12.A. Registration forms were left on the tables, though you can also register on-line, he said.
HAPPY BUCKS:
Sgt.-at-Arms Erich Eggers collected Happy Bucks for the New Hope Church supply pantry.
Club member Mark Balsan noted he and his wife now have a new baby girl. Members gave Happy Bucks in congratulations to Mark, and lots of Happy Bucks for Mae and her granddaughter and friends coming to visit. Member Pat Beckel said he never saw the room light up so fast as when Mae entered the room. Mae's granddaughter said she hopes to come back to Centerville to help with the Pancake Breakfast fundraiser in the fall. Let's hope she and Mae don't forget us in the future. We look forward to Shanel helping out and wish her well in her Radiology studies in Michigan. The club of course couldn't help but chant "OH-IO" when she mentioned moving to Michigan. Then again, Shanel said she will always remain an Ohio girl....
SPEAKER: Steve Popp, director of the BBB's Center for Business and Consumer Ethics, speaking on scam awareness and avoidance.
Club member Ron Hollenbeck introduced our speaker, noting that he conducts trainings and presentations on such things as financial literacy and scam awareness and prevention tips. He said he was formerly the COO and director of operations for the BBB, serving Dayton and the Miami Valley. He is a member of the Ohio Mediation Association and the Ohio Consumer's Counsel and the Community Advisory Panel, and he is also co-founder and co-owner of a local sales, engineering and manufacturing company, and served as an officer of the corporation. He is a graduate of UD.
Steve said the BBB is 90 years old. This time of year is one for lots of scam activity, often involving investments, identity theft, IRS fake calls, etc., he said.
He started by holding up a coin that he said was a limited edition Air Force coin, with only 1,000 made. He had 100 of them and they had a guaranteed value of $500, he said. He said since the coin or whatever he might be selling was limited, it must be valuable, or at least, that's what people tend to think. They can easily be taken advantage of. with such thinking, he said.
With bank savings accounts bringing little interest, people are looking for investments with higher returns, he said. Usually the scam artist asks for cash or a personal check made out to them. People get distracted and let their guard down and then the scam artist moves in, he said. They will keep you on the phone and try to pull information from you. They might ask for your credit card number or Social Security number. Best to hang up and not stay on the phone, he said.
The majority of those scammed are men ages 55 to 65, he said. They are sometimes risk takers, often with college educations.
He told of a financial planner in his mid 40s who was dealing in oil commodities and got taken for 20 grand. "Invoices can be duped," he said. "If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is," he said.
He mentioned Ponzi schemes and said it's fine if you get pushed to the top of the pyramid, The people building the pyramid try to fly under the radar and when the pyramid collapses, and you lose all your money, the game is up. People get drawn in for a number of reasons, he said. The person leading the scam may have had a great track record, but the scheme depends on the continued entry of new people into the scheme and the privacy of the whole project.
With Spring comes door-to-door scammers, with tree cutting, lawn care, house repairs, driveway repairs, etc.
Last year saw a lot of phone scams with calls to grandparents telling them their grandson was in jail somewhere and needed money to get out. In one case, a courier was sent to get the money and three weeks later when the woman saw her grandson, she found he knew nothing about the scam.
He advised everyone to check their credit report frequently to make sure there is no activity reported that they didn't make. A police report has to be filed if there is an identity theft, so there is proof that there was a theft involved, he said. No one took Steve up on his coin offer, by the way. It was an Air Force coin, he said, but the other information he gave about it was just a scam.
.jpg)
