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President Sue called our meeting to order at 12:26 – a few minutes early to accommodate today’s musicians. The invocation was given by George Siegle. John Dale Smith accompanied the club as we joined in singing our national anthem. Todd Gute took charge of the microphone for the introduction of visiting Rotarians and guests. Courtney Millbrook introduced two students from Everett, Win Oo and Paw Wa. Both are members of the National Honor Society and participate in the College Ambassadors Program. Win is the oldest of three; Paw is the youngest of eight. Both have been accepted by MSU and are waiting to hear from Michigan. Chris Swope introduced Jon Horford, originally from Grand Ledge where he was a basketball standout. He is currently running for a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives. Katie Krick introduced Andi Earl, who recently became the Executive Director of Hospice of Lansing. She also introduced Max Smeadly, another student at Everett, who enjoys playing soccer and golf. He is a member of the National Honor Society and has been accepted by MSU, while still waiting to hear from the Air Force Academy. President Sue led the club as we recited the 4-Way Test. Yours truly let the club know the health of the club is reported to be excellent. President Sue thanked Past President Julie for filling in for her last week before turning the podium over to Diane Sanborn, President of our Foundation. Diane announced that applications for local grants will be accepted from February 14th to 24th. The link to the applications will be in this Rotogram or directly from the club’s website. Organizations applying for grants must be a 501(c)3. Awards will be between five and ten thousand dollars. Ken Beachler introduced our special music but began by letting us know that we were marking the beginning of the 23rd season of special music at Lansing Rotary. If not for COVID, it would be the 24th season, but we lost 3 half seasons. Today’s edition featured Lauren Schorfhaar, a senior at Dewitt High School who has appeared in several musicals there. She will be appearing in Owosso Community Theater’s production of The Sound of Music opening later this month and is currently appearing in Dewitt’s current review, The Cabaret. Her selections for us were “The Winner Takes It All” from Mama Mia and “When It All Falls Down” from Chaplin. John Dale Smith, in addition to accompanying Lauren, let us know that our club has a personal connection to the second selection since Dave O’Leary went to school with Charlie Chaplin. He also predicted that we will be seeing Lauren on Broadway in the future. Her performance was excellent and none of us doubted this prediction! Scott Watkins, acting as both Chair of the Month and Chair of the Day, introduced his friend and mentor Patrick Anderson. In addition to being an economist and entrepreneur, Patrick is also a philanthropist, having recently founded Michigan Remembers 9-11 Fund to ensure that future generations remember September 11, 2001 as a day of loss and tragedy, and also as a day of heroism and sacrifice. He is a Michigan graduate who has spent the last 20+ years in East Lansing, as well as a husband and father of three. When assessing the economic climate in the Lansing area, Patrick’s firm, Anderson Economic Group or AEG, compares our data to 11 peer regions who are similar demographically. These areas are Ann Arbor, Columbus, Des Moines, Durham, Grand Rapids, Greenville SC, Hartford CT, Indianapolis, Madison, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Nashville. These areas are compared on a number of key benchmarks. Lansing is experiencing much slower growth than these peers. On the other hand, housing is very affordable. It is clear that we need to focus on attracting/encouraging more business startups. It is notable that the majority of jobs are actually provided by small businesses, not by the large companies that we work so hard to attract. You can access the full report by clicking here. The five trends for 2020 were identified as: • A need to broaden the types of industries that contribute to our economy • Retail sales were $500 billion per month for 12 consecutive months for the first time ever • Unemployment spiked during COVID and the number of jobs has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels • Consumer sentiment is that things are bad (in spite of record spending) • Auto production is tanking and inventories are near zero Looking ahead: • Inflation – not transitory o Government spending far exceeds revenue o Price spikes in construction, autos, others o Americans experiencing sticker shock – autos particularly • COVID-19 o We have had 4 previous pandemics in the last century o Outbreak in 2019, declared a pandemic in 2020 o COVID will become endemic • Protracted labor shortage o Initially a result of Federal Government supplemental benefits o Frontline workers are burned out o Vaccine mandate resistance o Great Resignation or Reshuffle – significant retirements • Extended Supply Chain problems • EV Transition o Significant risks and costs o 73,000 gas stations with convenience stores versus 5300 DC fast charging stations (no convenience store) nationwide o Not just a new car, but a complete change in thinking about your car Six things to watch in 2022: • Inflation is here, not transitory, first for this century, most of us have no adult memory of previous inflationary periods (although that is definitely not true within our club) • Worker shortage is real – we must step up our game to attract new talent • Auto industry faces big challenges from supply chain shortages, higher prices and wages, lower inventories, and the societal EV transition with considerable risks and costs • EV transition is risky – currently only 3% of the market, requires charging your car and how you deal with it • Michigan MUST compete more effectively – approve a budget on time, fix the roads, address talent attraction and retention, and compete energetically for new business • Lansing must seize the moment by attracting new business, increasing population growth, focusing on high tech employment and educational attainment Several of these items were also discussed during the Q&A period: • State budget adoption – This is really one of the only things that the legislature MUST do and it must be done on time. When it is not completed until September for an October 1st effective date, local governments and schools don’t know what funding they will receive and aren’t able to budget either. • In response to a question regarding investing in Bitcoin, Patrick stated that fortune favors the brave, but not the stupid. He suggested that you only invest money you can afford to lose as Bitcoin is a gamble. You need to know what you are doing. • Regarding concessions given/offered to attract business, Patrick stated that you can’t build your economy on employers that you have to buy. While local concessions can work fairly well (i.e., Lansing’s efforts to retain GM), other concessions, such as the film credit, have been a complete disaster. We need to build on our own workers and assets and not rely on government. • When asked about the effects of legalizing cannabis, Patrick indicated that AEG had conducted a study prior to legalization that predicted no tax bonanza, a shift to cannabis from other products and creation of local problems. This is exactly the effect that legalization has produced. When asked how long we should expect inflation to last, Patrick indicated that we were unfortunately out of time! President Sue thanked Patrick for speaking to us and let him know that we would be donating to our Foundation in lieu of a speaker’s gift. Our meeting next week will be on the first floor of the Lansing Center with former member Matthew Anderson speaking on “Leadership Coaching for Results”. And a ring of the bell, President Sue ended our meeting for another week. Linda Lynch's email is: linda.j.lynch@gmail.com |
