THE LIONS ROAR REINCARNATED

Edited by Mark Ripplinger

Photos by Don Wood & Mark Ripplinger

November 17, 2008

Lions President Mark Miller

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE (November 17th)

Please welcome today our newest member, William E. Heine! We will induct William into our club today and he will be helping Steve with the duties of Greeter. At our Board meeting last week we discussed membership and it was decided to have a brochure made that we can give each of our guests, so they can see what we do for our community as a Service Club. Also our membership chair will send a thank you letter to each guest, and each member should stay in contact with their guest to answer any questions they may have and invite them to join.

We Serve ……… Mark Miller

TODAY’S MEETING (November 17th)

Troy Dannon, UNI Athletic Director, will speak to the club about highlights of UNI Athletics.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

November 24th … Dan Hanft, Cedar Bend Humane Society, will speak to the club about plans for a new facility.

December 1st … Scott Soppe, District Governor, will be visiting the club.

December 8th … Jane Wissler, Past District Governor, will speak to the Club about Iowa KidSight.

December 15th … Christmas Luncheon.

December 22nd … Vern Fish, Director, Black Hawk County Conservation, will speak to the club about the effects of the flood on the Cedar Valley Trail system and Hartman Reserve.

December 29th … Christmas, No Meeting.

BIRTHDAYS ANNIVERSARIES

None None

ANNOUNCEMENTS

None

LAST MEETING (November 10th)

Dave Deaver, First National Bank (602 Main Street, 266-2000, www.fnbcedarfalls.com), spoke to the club about the Local Impact of the National Financial Crisis. Dave started his presentation by talking a little bit about the complexity and broadness of the crisis. Due to time constraints related to the discussion, Dave specifically targeted the housing sector issues by providing two different scenarios to the club related to the definition of a sub-prime loan. Additional examples of sub-prime loans were presented as well. First National Bank offered and continues to offer sub-prime loans, but has not experienced the problems with foreclosures that other parts of the country are seeing. New federal regulations have been developed that will require higher credit scores by applicants in order to protect indirect loans. While Dave understood the intent of the new regulations, he reiterated that he would prefer to be able to loan money to an individual who has a job with a lower credit score than an individual who has a higher credit score and no job. Dave indicted that as long as the local housing prices remain stable, and that local employers such as John Deere, Target and other major employers remain strong, Cedar Falls should not see local impacts of the financial crisis. As far as laying blame for the National Financial Crisis, everybody in the country has taken a role including the President and Congress, Economists, Democrats, Corporate Execs, you and I, etc. While everyone has seen the stock markets fall in recent months, Dave indicated that commodity markets have actually been more volatile and unpredictable.