Coral Gables RotaryGram: Vol. 66 No. 48 Notes from the Podium

President's Time

For the last week of History Month, President Debbie thought that we'd like to know that it's 25 years since Rotary International opened membership to women approved by The Council of Legislation in May, 1987. Today, women make up 25% of the membership. Of 34,301 Rotary Clubs worldwide, 6,000 clubs have women as President! Another year of "Women on Top."

DUES ARE DUE and to take advantage of the 20% discount on the cost of your lunches, they must be paid on or before June 30th.

COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMITTEE is having their last meeting of this Rotary Year at Deena Bell-Llewellyn's house tomorrow night at 6 p.m. The meeting will be first and the socializing comes after. Bring wine and an appetizer and join the party. They're going to plan the summer's projects. Veteran's Bingo will be Saturday, June 16th from 1 until 3 p.m. But so far that's all we know!

SAVE THE DATE - 5th Friday - June 29th - for the Installation & Celebration for the 2012-2013 President (Walter Alvarez) and his Officers and Board. More details to follow.

South African GSE Team Member
Banner Exchange

We met Matt Heywood today. He's just passing through Miami after his Group Study Exchange to New Mexico from South Africa.

Matt's going to be here for a few days thanks to Yoli Woodbridge, who made housing arrangements for him with a number of Rotarians.

Quesenberry is Perfect!

At least for his attendance. Congratulations on four years of Perfect Attendance.

Rotary appreciates your devotion and service. Thank you Bill!

Only one, single Gemini birthday this week. Which is funny because with the Gemini twins you never get just one of anything! Natives are adaptable, lively, eloquent and inquisitive. Say Happy Birthday this week to Reza Ray Dehbozorgi on May 26th.

Introduction of Visitors & Guests

by Dick Bullman

Happy today he was! Many visitors to be introduced. Yoli Woodbridge brought the GSE Team Member Matt Heywood. Deena Bell-Llewellyn brought the Llewellyn part again today, husband Charlie with Frontier Satellites. THE Donald Trombly introduced us to Don Matthews from HR Consulting. Mead McCabe introduced Marcus Siaz from the Property Appraiser's office. President Debbie introduced us for real this time to Kent Crook of Wiremaster and Gloria Antia and Claudia from Citizens for a Better South Florida. Felix Pardo brought Oscar Cardona from Mercantile Bank.

Happy $$$

The Good Dr. Randy is back! For some reason he's really good at making Scholarships Groh, and today was no exception! First up was Judy Pantoja who was sooo happy about the amazing Bay Day that we hosted at Shake-A-Leg for 115 kids on Saturday. It's going to become an annual project for us, for sure. She was $20 (fish story price) happy about catching crabs and a 26 pound dolphin! Randy only cared about the crabs! Bill Oates was happy to bring back a banner from the Vida Cura Rotary Club in Santiago, Chile. While he was there he had a chance to catch up and have dinner with our old friend Clark Ainsworth. Chris Morrison wanted everyone to know that as of this morning, District 6990 has passed the $1 Million mark for total giving to The Rotary Foundation!! Terry Long is sad at the loss of her Mom but wanted to thank everyone for their generosity to the Scholarship Fund in her memory. She can now fund a full $1,000 scholarship in her Mom's name for some deserving high school student. Dan Scipione is back after his second round of treatment and he's ecstatic! The results are perfect. Dick Golden warned us that his joke would be a little "off color" today - but it was funny. You had to be there! Kelly Sastre brought us banners today too. Hers were from two clubs she visited in Jacksonville while playing Grandma (hard to believe isn't it!). The Deerwood Rotary Club doesn't have any female members so she was a little uncomfortable there, however the Downtown Jacksonville Club has more than 300 members and their meeting was a real treat! Carlos Bolado was happy to announce that he finally sold his first house since he got his real estate license. After 170 days he sold his own home and without another broker, saving a ton on the commission. Jim Roen updated us on son Brandt's status on the racing circuit. They filed a petition and the U.S. Rowing Association granted them the right to compeat in the Nationals in Tennessee. So the Light Weight Eight, the fastest boat in the country, is going to the finals! Steve Magenheimer, life long baseball nut had a really happy day on Saturday when he took the $10 tour of the new Marlins' Stadium. He urged everyone to go and check it out AND join in Rotary Night at the Marlins on June 9th. And finally, Carol Alexander was happy to have had the opportunity to go to the Rotary International Convention in Bangkok and she urges everyone to go to at least one Convention for the experience. The Convention was fantastic. The location was amazing. The networking and project sharing was never ending. And there were women everywhere! Can you tell she had a wonderful time? Happiness pays so keep on smiling!

Working Rotarians - May 24, 2012

Greeter - Carlos Ruiz de Quevedo

Registration - Steven Spann

Collections - Steven Spann & John Porro

Head Table - Rodney Langer

Open the Meeting - Rodney Langer

Invocation - Greg Martini

Pledge - Serre Murphy

Singers - Bill Quesenberry & Dan Scipione

DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - Elizabeth Lovables

Given to - Charlie Llewellyn & William Isaias

50/50 Raffle - Gloria Burns

50/50 Wnner - Hank Collins

4 Way Test - Steve Magenheimer

Today's Program

Pedro Garcia began his career as Miami Dade Property Appraiser on February 6, 2009. But he has spent his life in the business. A Real Estate Broker for 37 years, he has been a licensed Appraiser for more than 30 years. He spent 10 years as a Special Master for the Value Adjustment Board. His mission when elected to this office was to bring fairness and accuracy to the tax rolls.

His office is seeing some very exciting trends in the market. As of June 1st they will be ready to release the projected numbers for the tax rolls. While most of the cities remained flat there was substantial improvement in property values in Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, Pinecrest, Aventura and Miami Springs. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Builders are starting up again. Last year there was $1 Billion in new projects which was pretty good considering. This year it's up to $2 Billion. There will be no increase in the millage this year and no increase in value. Save Our Homes property owners will have an increase of 3%. The November election will decide whether we drop the cap on Homestead properties from 10% to 5%. His office sent out 30,000 letters to commercial property owners requesting income & expense statements in order to establish new commercial valuations. They evaluate the cost, the market and the income and then use that to establish the new value. He will continue this process if he's re-elected!

Homestead Exemption Fraud is a big deal for his office. Estimates range from $100 million to $280 million that the County is losing through people claiming primary residency for their rental properties. He has 16 people who work on this full time including six police officers. In 2008 they identified and placed $3,600,000 in liens for Homestead Fraud. For 2011 they filed liens for $7,950,000. For the first five months of this year the amount of liens is already up to $12,500,000. Between 2007 and this year they have filed liens for more than $40 million in Homestead Exemption Fraud.

If you have a problem, or want answers, or need an explanation of your tax bill, don't hesitate to call his office. Their doors are always open and he will be happy to meet with any citizen personally.

Thought of the Week

by Abe Horowitz

"Creative minds have always been known to survive

any kind of bad training."

Anna Freud

Rotary Club of Coral Gables

2012 Rotary Raffle Drawing

THE Donald Trombly volunteered back in August to run the Rotary Raffle to help us raise money for The Rotary Foundation of Coral Gables. He has worked long and hard to sell tickets. He has begged and pleaded with us at almost every weekly meeting since the Raffle started. He has repeatedly told us just how really good are the odds in this Raffle - and that was when we thought we would sell 300 tickets. Over the course of the last six months the odds got even better!

In March when we were planning to draw for the winner we had not yet sold enough tickets to allow us to give the winner a choice of the car, the boat or the cash. In April, the Board voted to drop the prizes and sell tickets only until such time as we could achieve "break even" and make the cash the sole prize for the raffle. So for your $150 ticket you had the opportunity to win $20,000. And only 135 tickets were sold, so the odds got infinitely better!

Here you see THE Donald preparing for the drawing at the meeting yesterday. In his right hand is the jar in which the 135 tickets were placed. He was shaking and mixing and stirring. Our speaker, Pedro Garcia, having no stake in the Raffle at all, was asked to draw the winning ticket. He did ...