Bob Trezise has been President and CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) since November 2011. LEAP is a private/public 501 (c) 6 representing Metro Lansing (Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties). It is one of ten appointed (by Governor Snyder) Collaborative Development Councils representing the leadership of the state in economic development. Since Bob's tenure, LEAP projects have helped the private sector create 3,348 direct jobs, ranging from Fortune 500 corporate headquarters, manufacturing plants, mixed use community development urban buildings to new high tech firms. Project value is $836 million. Programmatically, under Bob's tenure, LEAP instituted numerous new programs and initiatives including: Ag Development, Particle Accelerator work, Diversity Lansing, FundLansing, management contracts to staff and run the Lansing Regional SmartZone as well as the city of Lansing's entire economic development efforts, a region wide brownfield program and funding (EPA) and a Regional Innovation Network of incubators.
In 2011, Bob was named by the Michigan Economic Developers Association (MEDA) as the state's Top Economic Development Professional and received two awards from the International Economic Development Council recognizing the "Accident Fund" project in downtown Lansing as the world's best economic development project in two different categories, the only one to do so in 2011.
Prior to LEAP, Bob served as President and CEO of the Lansing Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), as well as manager of both the Tax Increment Finance Authority and the Lansing Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, appointed by Mayor Virg Bernero in January of 2006. Bob completely reorganized the LEDC into a dynamic organization, resulting in 50-year historic achievements for the city in economic development, helping, through this day, the private sector create over 5,200 jobs, rehab scores of abandoned buildings including the long vacant Power Station plant in downtown on the riverfront into the new national corporate headquarters for Accident Fund, and all totaling over $700 Million in private investment. During this time, Bob also became the interim manager for the Principle Shopping District and reorganized this agency into a Main Street organization. Bob also oversaw the development of Mayor Bernero's nationally recognized Linking Lansing and "U" program, linking Michigan state University and the knowledge class with the City of Lansing, as well as creating other innovative programming.
Frances Bennigan has been a professional singer and musician since 2009. She performs regularly as a singer/songwriter and has been recognized with several awards for her original songs. in addition to writing and performing, she gives private vocal lessons at the Guitar Center in Lansing.
Luke Wendle is a guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been performing professionally since 2006. He has also earned several songwriting awards. Luke and Frances have been playing together since 2011.
There will be a Scotch Tasting event for the Haslett Okemos Rotary Club. It will be guided by District Governor Rick Briscoe at Dusty's Bordeaux Room, 1839 Grand River Avenue, Okemos on November 5th at 6:00 p.m. with heavy hors d'oeuvres. There is a 50 person limit, tickets are $100 per person.
If you have an international project that you would like to have considered for the 2015-2016 fiscal year, then submit your proposal for funding following the outline set forth below. We are looking for a one to two page narrative that responds to the outline, plus a project budget. Your total submission should not exceed three pages. To be considered, proposals must be received no later than November 1st, 2015. Please submit your proposal via e-mail to: jdubey.wellnessdirector@gmail.com or Umakanth@GoSymbiosis.com.
Project Significance
a. What area of need will the project address (ie: food, shelter, clothing, education, health, or environmental issues)?
b. Who are the intended beneficiaries?
c. Provide a one paragraph summary of the project.
d. State any benchmarks or measurable outcomes.
Project Administration
a. Name the Lansing Rotary Club Member who will sponsor and manage the project for our Club. [This person must be willing to attend international committee meetings and be the champion for this project].
b. Name any state-side organizations or entities that are willing to assist in implementing and monitoring the project.
c. Is there a Rotary Club in the project area willing to assist in implementing the project?
d. Who are the contacts at the project site?
e. Are other Rotary Clubs in the Lansing area considering this same project?
Project Implementation
a. Will the beneficiaries take an active part in implementing the project?
b. Who will monitor the project?
c. What is the implementation time frame?
Project Budget
a. Attach the detailed budget for this Project, including the proposed funding sources (e.g. Private donations, Rotary District grants).
b. Identify which funding sources have already committed funds to this project’s proposed budget?
c. What amount are you requesting be funded by the Rotary Club of Lansing? [Please be aware that prior grant awards are in the range of $500 to $3000
d. In the event that we are unable to fund your full request, please list priority items with dollar amounts.
Project Organization/Entity
a. State the legal name of the organization/entity who would receive the funds.
b. Is this a 501(c)(3 organization, church, school, governmental unit, or Rotary Club?
We gathered at the Lansing Center, with the meeting being called to order promptly at 12:30 pm by President Lisa Smith. Our club sang “God Bless America”, following an invocation from Al Yambor.
Terry Terry took the microphone around for guests and visiting Rotarians. Two Rotarians from the DeWitt Sunrise Club asked for volunteers for their club project to have an opportunity for one on one mentorships with Lansing high school students. If interested, please contact the DeWitt Sunrise Club for more details, but the basic commitment will be 2 hours every two weeks. I know it can be challenging to mentor high school students as I am currently mentoring two with my wife, except they call us mom and dad on most days or if they feel the need some mentoring from her purse or my wallet.
Michelle Reynaert gave our September birthday report. Which was odd, since she was not born in September and we were meeting in October, but hey there was cake to be doled out, so our September Rotarians did not seem to mind. Michelle did not even know what the question of the month was until she read the answers to figure out “what is your favorite movie line of all time”. I see a Jeopardy audition in her future. The September Rotarians donated $800, so far, but since participation was not yet 100% there is still time for more and the club has assured us further donations will be accepted.
President Smith regained the microphone to update us on our Facebook and other social media training, now titled “Service above Selfie”. Additional training is being considered at the request of club members, the additional training will be announced at a later date. President Smith challenged the club to upload 100 selfies in October as part of our 100 year celebration. Some uploaded them before she finished the presentation, so it’s easy. Upload your selfie at @rotarycluboflansing and use #serviceaboveselfie in your upload.
Jenn Dubey updated the club on our September 100 year project to walk, run or sprint 100 miles for Rotary. Club member covered between 3 miles and up to 26.2 miles to get the club’s total to 104 miles, well done to those who contributed to the goal and I hope all were able to get a foot massage for their effort. Julie Pingston gave us our October challenge of donating 100 books in the month of October.
Mark Hooper then ascended to the podium accompanied by Ken “Benson” (most call him Beachler) to lead us in the signing of the Michigan State University fight song accompanied by John Dale Smith on the piano.
Chair of the day, Berl Schwartz introduced us to A. Brad Schwartz, author and filmmaker of “Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News”. Before I go further you might notice that our speaker and the chair of the day have similar last names, but they assured us there is no relation in their family trees.
Brad Schwartz spoke of growing up listening to old radio broadcasts which sparked his interest in media and its effect on our society. When he began attending the University of Michigan he discovered that the university had acquired a collection of Orson Welles personal papers and documents, which had grown into the largest collection of these documents. Many of us were taught that the War of the Worlds broadcast caused panic and mass hysteria across the entire east coast, when in fact the listeners to the program was relatively small and while some did panic and begin to call or visit others to warn them about what was happening, many did know the broadcast was a fictional program. In reality most of the hysteria was from people retelling the story that was broadcast to others and as they retold the story the facts related became more believable and real to those being given the information.
What happened after the broadcast was more a story of the media exaggerating the public response to the event with factually incorrect reporting, as Mr. Schwartz reasoned, was more of the newspaper medias concern that radio was replacing newsprint as the public’s source of information. What Mr. Schwartz found in examining over 1,400 letters to Orson Welles and approximately another 600 letters received by the Federal Communications Commission, that many listeners felt duped by the broadcast or were embarrassed that they called others to warn them of what was happening due to the broadcast. However, many others wrote in support of the airing of the program.
Mr. Schwartz mentioned that at this time our country was becoming used to broadcasts being interrupted for news bulletins about what was happening in Europe with Hitler and Mussolini and the response of other European leaders to their acts and demands. Therefore in the 1930’s the public was accepting radio as a trusted source of news and information for the general public and not just a source for daily entertainment. Mr. Schwartz surmised that since radio could bring this news more timely than print media, the newspaper industry was quick to overreact to the War of the Worlds broadcast as a means to convince the public they were the only true and trusted source of the news. The moral of the story is that we receive much of our information and news today from media that tries to be quick to the story with attention grabbing headlines that only scratch the surface of the true story, as happened after the 1938 broadcast by other media outlets available at that time.
Mr. Schwartz left us to ponder that we need to take in our news with a dose of skepticism and analysis before jumping all in on the story and sharing it with others as the gospel about what has occurred with respect to a particular event. Mr. Schwartz had us watch a short video presentation he produced about his new book and then answered questions from the club members.
President Smith adjourned the meeting with a reminder that next week we are at the Lansing Center and our speaker will now be Bob Trezise, since Mayor Bernero is attending a conference that conflicts with our meeting.
Bob Trezise has been President and CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) since November 2011. LEAP is a private/public 501 (c) 6 representing Metro Lansing (Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties). It is one of ten appointed (by Governor Snyder) Collaborative Development Councils representing the leadership of the state in economic development. Since Bob's tenure, LEAP projects have helped the private sector create 3,348 direct jobs, ranging from Fortune 500 corporate headquarters, manufacturing plants, mixed use community development urban buildings to new high tech firms. Project value is $836 million. Programmatically, under Bob's tenure, LEAP instituted numerous new programs and initiatives including: Ag Development, Particle Accelerator work, Diversity Lansing, FundLansing, management contracts to staff and run the Lansing Regional SmartZone as well as the city of Lansing's entire economic development efforts, a region wide brownfield program and funding (EPA) and a Regional Innovation Network of incubators.
