WHEN DOES THE MEETING START? Here is the schedule:

 

1. At 12:00 pm the Zoom room will be available for our "breakout rooms/virtual tables" to have a conversation with other members.  President Pat will draw us all back into the main meeting room at 12:24 p.m.

 

2. At 12:25 pm the meeting will be called to order

 

3. At 12:30 pm Invocation & Patriotic Song

 

4. At 12:57 pm we will introduce our speaker.

 

5. Speaker starts at 1:00 pm.

 

WHO IS THE SPEAKER AND WHAT IS THE TOPIC?  Our speaker this week is Dr. Samuel Stanley, President of Michigan State University.

 

FOLLOW UP:  Please keep your microphone muted when you are listening.  Be aware of the lighting in your room, a well lit room with natural light if possible.  Please feel free to use Chat throughout the meeting.  If you have questions for the speaker, ask them through Chat.

Julie Pingston is the current President and CEO of the Grreater Lansing Convention and Visitor's Bureau and has been with the GLCVB for 27 years.  Her responsibilities included overall organization operations, as well as, direct oversight for convention services, membership, event coordination, the Greater Lansing Sports Authority, the East Lansing Visitor Center and the Certified Tourism Ambassador Program.

After graduating from Alma College, Pingston began her career at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration in Washington, DC.  She found her way back to Michigan in 1993, joining the GLCVB as the convention services manager.  Pingston has added increased responsibilities over her 27-year tenure including being named COO in 2006.  Some of Julie's most notable accomplishments at the GLCVB include:  creating the first Certified Tourism Ambassador Program in Michigan, developing Lansing's Sensory Friendly Destination initiatives which have been recognized as best practices at the state and national levels, and facilitating the development of the region's first master plan for tourism.  Julie resides in Holt, Michigan with her husband Steve, and has two adult children, Jacob and Allison.

Steven D. Japinga is the vice president of public affairs for the Chamber. Japinga is responsible for overseeing the public policy, government relations, marketing and communications functions for the Chamber. Additionally, Japinga manages and provides guidance to the Lansing Regional Chamber-Political Action Committee (LRC-PAC). He specializes in economic development, regulatory reform, health care policy, insurance, appropriations, PAC development, coalition building, and grassroots advocacy.

 

Prior to joining the Chamber, Japinga worked as Chief of Public Policy and Legislative Affairs for State and Federal Government Relations for the Michigan State Medical Society representing more than 15,000 Michigan physicians. Before working on behalf of MSMS, Japinga was the Managing Director for Capitol Strategies Group, a multi-client government relations firm based in downtown Lansing representing several trade associations and companies, including MSMS, Johnson & Johnson, Michigan State University and the Michigan Association of Independent Agents. Japinga graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree in political science pre-law and resides in Lansing with his wife Katherine and their two dogs Charlie and George.

Since 2011, Bob Trezise has been President & CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP), representing economic development efforts for the Greater Lansing region of Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties. LEAP also has a contract to manage the City of Lansing’s economic development department, including its Brownfield Authority, Tax Increment Finance Authority and the Lansing Economic Development Corporation (LEDC, as well as the region's SmartZone.

 

During Bob’s tenure, LEAP private sector projects have totaled more than $2.5 billion in investment and have created more than 5,500 direct jobs. Projects range from Fortune 500 national corporate headquarters, to small high-tech and biotech companies, to major mixed-use buildings, to large manufacturing plants. LEAP also operates a robust entrepreneurial business startup program and a placemaking program. I

 

From 2006 to 2011, Bob ran the City of Lansing’s economic development efforts as its President & CEO. During that time, the city has experienced massive revitalization ranging in the billions of dollars, thousands of jobs created, along with four straight years of population growth. From 2001 to 2006, Bob was the Managing Director and creator of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Community Assistance Team (CATeam).

 

Additionally, Bob was the founder of the Michigan Main Street program and worked on hundreds of community revitalization projects across the entire state. Bob also served as the Vice President of the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce (LRCC) and Director of Delta Township’s economic development department, where he played a role with the successful Keep GM campaign. Bob grew up in the City of Lansing, is married to Kerri and they have four children. He is also a published poet.

Stephen Sinas presented the changes on the no-fault laws.  This brochure was Steve's written materials for the presentation and is available from their website at this link and includes an option to request a hard copy.  The title is:  Making Smart Choices:  A Summary Guide to the New Auto No-Fault Law.  If you are interested in receiving the slide presentation Stephen used last Friday, please contact Cathy and she will forward to you.

 

In addition, Paul Rathbun has volunteered to answer any of your questions please contact him at Paul@rathbunagency.com

or his office number 517-482-1316.

 

If you are looking for employment or have an employee who you could not retain because of the COVID situation and would like to make our membership aware of your availability or availability of one of your trusted employees you can contact Cathy and she can give you more information on what can be placed in future editions of the Rotogram. 

Tim Daman's wife, Lisa passed away Saturday, May 30th at age 52.  A private, family service will be held at this time and a public memorial is being planned for a later date. 

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