STATE TREASURER RICHARD MOORE
By Jim Kelley
 Mac
McCarley introduced Richard Moore, who is serving in his second term
as the Treasurer for the State of North Carolina, managing the
state's debt and the pension fund for over 700,000 government
employees. Treasurer Moore has an undergraduate degree and a law
degree from Wake Forest and a master's degree from the London School
of Economics. The Moore's have three children - 16 and 12 year old
sons, a nine year old daughter. He still teaches Sunday School in a
small Episcopal Church in his home town.
Treasurer Moore began his presentation by telling us that he had
promised his nine year old daughter that he would test two of her
jokes with audiences over the next two months. The first was 'there
are three kinds of people in the world -those who can count and
those who can't.' The second joke asked 'why did the boy bring a
raisin to the dance - because he couldn't find a date.' There were
several comments from some tables that these were better jokes than
we hear in some of our own health and happiness stories.
Treasurer Moore is from Oxford, NC, a small community near the
Virginia border, where he grew up with a great sense of community
and family. His mother for example has over 1,000 cousins that she
knows by name. Before being elected State Treasurer he was first a
federal prosecutor and later the Director of Crime Control and
Safety for the State.
The Treasurer's primary job is to protect the state's pension fund.
In discussing the state's financial resources, he made several
points. He mentioned that the state brings in between $4 and $6
billion dollars a year in tax receipts. Currently his office manages
almost $80 billion dollars in pension funds for over 700,000 public
employees. That represents one of every eight people in North
Carolina. The NC pension fund is the only unified plan in the
country and is seen as one of the strongest in the country.
Standards and Poor rank it as the second best pension fund in the
country next to Florida. In North Carolina that means there is money
projected for future commitments.
Treasurer Moore also reported that Moody's has given North Carolina
its AAA rating again, one of the few states in the country with that
designation. Five years ago Moody's had downgraded our rating
following the deadly hurricanes. That high rating allowed the state
to borrow money for recent bonds at a 4% interest rate saving the
state $325 million dollars in interest over the life of the bond.
In discussing the state's economy, the Treasurer remarked on how
things have changed in one generation, saying more people are
working than ever before and more of those people are multi cultural
than ever before. We have moved from an agricultural and textile
economy to a more diverse economy. Our unemployment rate is 4.6%,
the national average.
In closing, Treasurer Moore did something that no speaker had ever
done before. He actually gave money away. A number of members in the
club learned they had unclaimed money from the unclaimed property
fund totaling $29,000. Statewide, the unclaimed property fund has
over $500 million dollars in it and the interest off that money
helped 50,000 students attend college in North Carolina last year.
Head Table:
Erskine Harkey, Natalie English, Luther Moore, Mac McCarley, Don
Steger, Rob Wright; Invocation: Meg McElwain
Visitors &
Guests:
George Robinette; Health & Happiness: Fred Brown; Music: Thomas
Moore and Pam Daigle
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POLICY ADOPTED BY
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The following policy was adopted by the Board of Directors at
the March 13, 2007 meeting.
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Over the last several months, there
have been more and more requests from the membership for agenda
time to discuss projects or community interest activities. A
policy was adopted that if a request is not relative to a club
sanctioned project or does not directly reflect objectives of
Rotary International, the request will be denied. Further, the
board feels so many requests have become distracting to the
weekly meetings and ultimately cut short the time allotted to
the speaker.
Handouts will be limited to the check-in table. Brief
announcements may be submitted to the Rotary Office for
inclusion in the Reporter (when space permits). |
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Rotary Club of Charlotte
841 Baxter Street, Suite 118, Charlotte 28202
chltrot@bellsouth.net 704-375-6816 |
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þ
Pam Meister introduced
the club's newest member, Liz Irwin,
who is Vice President, Advertising for The Charlotte
Observer. Liz served as president of the Overland Park South
Rotary Club in Overland Park, Kansas and is a Paul Harris
Fellow. Contact Liz at
eirwin@charlotteobserver.com.
þ
Thomas Moore
will be the keynote speaker at the AYC Europe conference in
Garmisch, Germany. Attending the conference will be teachers
of young children on US Military bases throughout Europe;
Gregg Walker has started
a new business. The Interface Financial Group provides
working capital to small growing businesses. Please update
your Roster: 6913 Huntfield Dr (28270); 704-365-4485;
gwalker@interfacefinancial.biz;
Don Millen and Dragonfly
Capital have started a land-acquisition arm, Dragonfly
Capital Real Estate Partners, which was set up to buy land
in Southeastern markets; The March issue of Greater
Charlotte Biz (John Galles)
has an article about Don and Jan
Haack's daughter, Julie Haack Kral, taking the
helm at Donald Haack Diamonds.
þ
Matt Joyner introduced
Suji Kim, the club's
exchange student from South Korea. Suji is a Junior at
Charlotte Country Day School and will deliver a program on
her year's journey to the club on May 1st. Matt thanked his
wife Betsy for her
support and also recognized the other host families -
David and Lynn Erdman,
and Paul and Jane Schmidt.
þ
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES:
Bob Culbertson is serving as a mentor to
students attending the Performance Learning Center
and says there is tremendous need for at least five
additional volunteers. Call Bob at 704-334-2700, ext 303 for
more information; Tony Marciano
is working with leaders of houses of faith, corporations,
and business organizations to ease the gap between races and
cultures through the Friday Friends program. To
participate in the program, you are asked to have lunch with
someone of another race, religion or culture on the last
Friday of each month for 6 months to build a relationship
together. The launch date is March 30, 2007 with a goal of
500 people (250 pairs) partnering to have lunch on the last
Friday of the month from March 2007 through August 2007. To
sign up or gain additional information, log on to
www.fridayfriends.org;
Volunteers are still needed for the Habitat House.
Click here
to volunteer or get directions to the house. Call
Ken Samuelson if you
have questions: 704-334-2700, ext 302;
John Bradberry and the Rotary Scholarship
Committee are working to raise $20,000 by the end of
MARCH. If they are successful, an anonymous donor will
contribute $10,000 to the cause. John, playing off March
Madness, has thrown a challenge to alumni of Davidson,
Carolina, Duke and Clemson to set the pace for fundraising.
As of Tuesday, donations have reached $5345. Still a ways to
go. To donate, checks are made payable to The Rotary
Foundation DAF. Please show 'scholarship fund' in
the memo section. Checks can be mailed to the Rotary office.
The Group Study Exchange
team will arrive from London on Saturday, March 17th. Peggy
Wesp and her committee have made sure every possible detail
has been attended to. Charlotte Rotary has not served as a
GSE host club for about eleven years. What better way to
make the team feel welcome than for them to come into a full
house on Tuesday.
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Attendance
Record |
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3/13/07 |
3/14/06 |
| visitors &
guests |
20 |
9 |
| club
members |
190 |
165 |
| total
attendance |
210 |
174 |
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New Members | Resignations |
Tom Hodges
Tom Templeton
Liz Irwin |
n/a |
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Wedding
Anniversaries |
24 Amy and Mark Norman
26 Jane and Paul Schmidt |
| Birthdays and
Birthplaces |
23 David Barnhardt,
Charlotte, NC
23 Darrel Stephens,
Kansas City, MO
24 Jerry Blanchard, Monroe, NC
24 Matt Joyner, Durham, NC
25 BG Metzler, Pittsburg, PA
26 Mike Crum, Warren, OH |
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