The following are summaries of weekly club meeting programs in the month of November, 2013. Thank you to participants and contributors!
November 5, 2013: Program – Captain Carl Leonard, US Coast Guard Reserve
Before introducing our speaker, Chris Winslow asked that all veterans stand to be recognized in honor of the upcoming Veterans’ Day and he reminded us that only 1% of our society today are veterans.
Capt. Carl Leonard has had a distinguished military career as an active duty and reserve officer in the Coast Guard. His civilian duty job was with the Chesterfield Police and now is with the Chesterfield Sheriff’s department. Capt. Leonard acknowledged his dad, who retired as a “Crusty old Navy Chief,” as well as one of his five daughters who is now in the Coast Guard.
Capt Leonard gave the history and mission of the Coast Guard and told the Coast Guard story through much of his own experience. It was the Coast Guard who coordinated the clean up of the Exxon Valdez Alaska spill. The Coast Guard is the only military service with “Law Enforcement Authority”. The Coast Guard had actively participated in Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and it was the coordinating service for the entire operation in NY City after 9/11 in 2001. The Coast Guard ran shallow water “Cutters” in Vietnam and serve today in Afghanistan. The Coast Guard established the security detail for Camp X-ray at Guantanamo Bay in 2002. Most significantly, it was the Coast Guard who operated all the landing craft in WWII. In short, Capt. Leonard said the Coast Guard is the service’s best-kept secret.
Capt. Leonard talked about the quality of the youth today in the military. He was recently reminded of the outstanding qualifications when he participated on an OCS Board and saw over 300 packets of candidates. On follow up he said it is the “Desire to Serve” that drives young people today to volunteer for military service.
Referencing veterans, he said today an average of 670 WWII vets die each day. Unfortunately the returning Iraq and Afghanistan 18-24 year old vets have the highest unemployment rate in the US…. this is unacceptable. He followed up by saying this high unemployment rate may be driven by employees being hesitant to hire vets where the PTSD rate is 12% although the general population now has a rate of 8%.
Capt. Leonard closed by saying you goggle www.H2H (Heroes to Hire), to get to the website maintained by the Department of Defense encouraging veteran employment. Also, he referenced the Virginia V3 program, (Virginia Values Vets) where Virginia provides incentives to employers for hiring vets.
November 12, 2013: Program – Wayne Woodcock — Rotary International Foundation
Following in Dene Kimball’s legacy, Wayne Woodcock, our Foundation Committee Chair, kicked off this year’s Rotary Foundation campaign with a presentation on the “Premier Charitable Organization in the World”.
At the 1917 convention, outgoing RI President Arch C. Klumph proposed to set up an endowment “for the purpose of doing good in the world.” In 1928, it was renamed The Rotary Foundation, and it became a distinct entity within Rotary International. In 1929, the Foundation made its first gift of $500 to the International Society for Crippled Children. The organization, created by Rotarian Edgar F. “Daddy” Allen, later grew into Easter Seals.
When Rotary founder, Paul Harris, died in 1947, contributions poured in to Rotary International, and the Paul Harris Memorial Fund was created to build the Foundation. Since the first donation of $26.50 in 1917, the Foundation has received contributions totaling more than $1 billion.
Over the past 3 years, District 7600 has contributed over $2,000,000 to the R I Foundation and ranks in the top 10% for Districts for giving. In 2012-2013, our Club contributed $18,634 for an average per member of $227. All time giving amounting to $398,000 makes our Club 6th in the District in total giving to the RI Foundation. Our Club by the numbers:
- 66 Paul Harris Fellows (234 all time)
- 7 Benefactors (11 all time)
- 2 Bequeath Society members (4 all time)
Wayne set our goals for 2013-2014 at $220 per member and 7 new Benefactors but most importantly we want to be an EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year) Club!
Checks should be made to Midlothian Rotary Club with a note on the check “for RI Foundation”. Please make 2013-2014 contributions by March 15, 2014.
November 19, 2013: Program – Classification Talk – Tom Padgett
On short notice due to the speaker having to cancel at the last moment and without notes, Tom Padgett gave a classification talk. Tom was born in Charlottesville and grew up in Portsmouth, graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School. Being an average student, Tom decided to enlist in the Air Force as a corpsman. After being station in Oklahoma and Alaska, Tom decided to go to college at Western Kentucky.
Much improved as a student, he then was accepted to Louisville Dental School. He subsequently joined the Navy (instead of the Air Force again) because “it had nice bases on the water and he wanted a ship going somewhere.”
He had to make a decision where to stay in the Navy and getting an Oral Surgery Residency at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital helped him to decide in favor of going for a 20-year career. After his training, he was station on an aircraft carrier that managed to get deployed to all the exciting “hot spots” where fighting was going on in the Middle East.
He retired after 20 years combined service to return east to be near family and aging parents. He joined Commonwealth Oral Surgery and practices here in Midlothian and has been a member of our Club for 13 years.
November 26, 2013: Program – Marc Moyers, KPMG Partner — on Private Equity
Chris Winslow introduced Marc Moyer, who is a partner with KPMG and the National Channel Leader for Private Equity. Marc explained that private equities are closed end investment funds that are not publicly traded. This asset class started about 25 to 30 years ago and 60 to 70% of the funds are held by large pension funds, endowments and very rich individuals. The minimum investment is about $10,000,000.
Marc explained that there are 2,800 Private Equity Firms (PEFs) in the US that buy and hold all types and sizes of businesses. They tend to look for companies with debt and problems they can fix. They like brand names and large companies that they can separate. The average holding time before selling is 5 years so they are not focused on watching the stock market and short-term returns. They want to double the value of the company in that 5 years and provide the investors approximately 10% annual return. Most IPOs recently have been public equity going public. There is currently debate about whether these profits should continue to be treated as capital gains.
Examples of 18,000 companies held by Private Equities are: Hertz, Dunkin Donuts, Weather Channel, Office Depot, Whole Foods Chrysler and Hilton, owners of the Double Tree where we meet.
Marc feels that PEFs are here to stay for a good while as the assets under management increased from 2.2 trillion in 2012 to 3.2 trillion presently.
