Posted by Chris Swope
President Pat called the Zoom meeting to order and shared the sad news of the passing of former Rotary President Jack Davis. He called on Mike Rhodes to provide some of Jack’s history to the Club. Mike shared that Jack Davis started career in large Chicago law firm, but then came back to his hometown, Lansing, where he spent decades striving to make it a better place. Jack was a promoter of the arts, was heavily involved in the efforts to retain GM, and helped create the Lansing Promise, among many other accomplishments. The Club observed a moment of silence in Jack Davis’ honor.
 
Kurt Guter delivered a heartfelt invocation in honor of the over 100,000 US COVID-19 losses to date as well as in honor of Jack Davis. We all listened to the patriotic song, My Country Tis of Thee. Diane Sanborn let us know that former Club member, Wayne Sternberg, had died from COVID-19.
 
Lolo Robison announced the May Birthdays. Lolo shared a story of a fortune cookie predicting her marriage and so had asked celebrants to share a favorite fortune. Laurie Baumer’s wish was for everyone make charity donation, and Sue Hansen had a proverb about laughing at one’s self. They have had an 83% participation in birthday gifts, with $1987 donated and an average donation of $132 each to date. Elvis sang Happy Birthday.
 
As part of the Rotary Connects program to keep us in touch during this time, Scott Duimstra made a presentation about his conversations with Dr. Clyde Carnegie. Dr Carnegie is the former Sexton High School Principal, a Lansing Police Commissioner. He is a former Rotary District Commissioner and loved attending Rotary conventions.
 
Teresa Kmetz talked about how the Capital Area United Way has used the Rotary Foundation Grant of $30,000. They have been able to leverage the donation to put every dollar raised into supporting the community and to garner new interest. She talked about Steve, who donated his stimulus check helping Cory and Chris who were 1st time folks who reached out for help with rent assistance. Her wisdom: communities don’t accidentally succeed; it takes planning and work.
 
Laurie Baumer on behalf of the Special Projects Committee, talked about how the City of Lansing’s budget has been hurt during the pandemic and that assistance is needed to plant the planters and with some other maintenance at Rotary Park. Please join the friends of Lansing Rotary Park Committee. There will be a planting party on June 4; email Laurie for details.
 
President Pat acknowledged Kelli Ellsworth-Etchison’s photo from last week at her Virtual Table where Kevin Schumaker dressed as “Elvis.” Kevin can’t resist the spotlight!
 
Jeff Crippen spoke about Jack Draper who recently celebrated 67 years as a member of the Lansing Rotary Club.
 
For our special music, John Person introduced the video of “I Can Zoom” by Dr. John Mulder, and President Pat introduced the hilarious video of “Social Distancing” (to the tune of “Islands in the Stream”). Both can be found on YouTube.
 
Paul Rathbun introduced our speaker, Stephen Sinas. Stephen is a Partner with the Sinas Dramis Law Firm, which was started by his grandfather.
 
Stephen Sinas gave a detailed overview of the “No Fault Insurance Auto Reform” which takes effect in Michigan this July. Everything is changing with Michigan auto insurance and everyone should review their policy before the next automatic renewal.
 
Mr. Sinas talked about the differences between No-fault, Tort, and Hybrid insurance systems and how economic and non-economic damages can be recovered under the different systems. He addressed the different amounts of litigation caused by the different systems.
 
One important decision to be made will be the amount of coverage to buy for allowable expense portion of medical and rehabilitation coverage. Personal injury protection (PIP) choices include $50,000; $250,000; $500,000; Lifetime/uncapped; $250K excluder opt-out; Medicare opt-out; Attendant Rider Care; and Managed Care. The cap is per individual in the household. 
 
He shared that seniors under the new law are left with keeping an expensive option or opt out of PIP because Medicare can’t be put “first” for auto coverage.
 
He addressed the need for people to stay with lifetime benefits and to make sure you have proper liability limits. Before this law change he recommended $1,000,000 liability limits to cover uninsured and underinsured drivers; that may need to be higher now.
 
President Pat thanked Mr. Sinas for his informative presentation and noted that in lieu of a speaker’s gift we will be making a donation in his honor to a local organization through our Lansing Rotary Foundation.
 
Chris Swope's email:  Chris.Swope@lansingmi.gov