ROTARY FLASHES

01/12/2012

Greeter: Larry Halm

Presiding: Judy Wolford

Invocation: Offered by Luke Conley

Piano: Don Metzler

Visiting Rotarians: (Read by?) Sunrise – Brad Lutz, Warner Searls

Guests: Norm Wilson introduced Tim Throckmorton again.

Absentees: Ankrom, Dailey, Dan Delong, Droste, Dumm, Dutton, Eitel, Fluhart, Fountain, Charley Gerhardt, Dick Gerhardt, Hedges, Hill, Kraus, Kuehnle, Bob Liggett, Maroscher, May, McMahon, Neff, Pelcic, Pigion, Scherer, Scribner, Spangler, Stickel, Bill Stout, Theller, Vickers, Wilcox, Wolfe, Yaniga, Yingling.

Make-ups: Sunrise – Dwight Radcliff, Jason Eitel; Vero Beach, FL – Roger May; eClub One – Eric Liggett.

January Birthdays: 2^nd – Jeff Spires; 5^th – Bob Tootle; 9^th – John Stout; 13^th – Jim River; 14^th – Sue Pairan; 19^th – Hayes Wilcox; 22^nd – Dave Webb; 23^rd – Clark Cellio, Roger Wolfe; 25^th – Wayne Vickers; 26^th – Mike Dutton.

January Anniversaries: 7^th – Bob Mabe; 20^th – Barry Bennett, John Stevenson.

Membership proposal: Reverend Tim Thockmorton has submitted his paperwork for membership. He is the Pastor of Crossroads Church. If there are any questions &/or comments regarding this proposal, please direct them to Drexel Poling.

Songs: Tim Tener led us in singing “Don’t Fence Me In” and “Smile.” After we were done, it was pointed out to Tim why the signing of the first song was a bit suspect…there were two different songs with the same song number!

Student Guests: Jonathan Davis, Asst. Principal of Circleville High School, introduced two of his students, Merrie McGinnis & Jon Hamman.

Merrie: Co-Capt. of Varsity Basketball, NHS, Student Council, 4-H showing horses;

She will attend either Otterbein or Morehead University to study Equine Science, and then go to OSU to become a veterinarian.

Jon: Co-Capt. of Varsity Basketball & Baseball, NHS, Student Council, Teen Institute, 4-H; He plans to enroll in Morehead University to study Ag Business, and eventually “take over my dad’s farm!”

Announcements:

• Ellery Elick reminded us that our club’s Rural-Urban Day will be on Feb. 23^rd at promptly 11:30AM at Emmett Chapel. The price is $15/Rotarian, which includes the cost of a guest. Ellery exclaimed, “It is a steak dinner with all the trimmings!”

SAA: Tim Tener, self-proclaimed “King of the Rednecks!”

Jay Wippel: Ellery Elick was asked to introduce his “guest” sitting to his right, which happened to be Jay. This was a thinly-veiled, albeit humorous, jab at Jay’s low attendance record.

Tim raised the rest of the funds by conducting a table-by-table trivia quiz on the subject of duct tape.

Lottery: Debbie Hoffman bought the lucky ticket & gained $17, but did not select the golden pebble. The jackpot is $314.

Program: Dave Webb introduced today’s speaker, Robert “Bob” Carey. Bob is a CFA, and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) with First Trust Portfolios LP. He has nearly a quarter century of experience as an Equity and Fixed-Income Analyst and is a receipt of the Chartered Financial analyst (CFA) designation. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a BS in Physics. He is also a member of the CFA Society of Chicago and the CFA Institute.

As CIO, Bob & his staff have the responsibility to supervise over 50 billion in assets in closed-end funds, separate managed accounts, unit investment trusts, variable annuity sub-accounts and exchange-traded funds.

Bob has appeared throughout the US and Canada as a guest on television and radio programs. These programs include: Bloomberg TV, CNBC and Canada’s Business News Network and on Chicago’s WBBM Newsradio 780’s Noon Business Hour. He has been quoted by several publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Reporter, Bloomberg News Service, and Registered Rep.

Bob then stepped to the podium to begin his PowerPoint presentation.

Here are the highlights:

• Bob opened by laughing while he revealed the reason he was chosen, out of the 50+ people in his department, to do the presentations. He explained, “It turns out that I’m the only one with social skills!”

• He referred to a Time magazine article that stated “…this is not the first time we’ve experienced tough economic times.” Then, he disclosed that the article was actually written in 1992!

• EPS advancing faster that equity prices lowering valuations.

• Companies investing again (e.g. M&A, Cap Ex).

• Credit spreads widen, treasury yields plummet. For example, Italy’s debt at 7%, while USA’s at 2%.

• Defensive sectors outperform

• Better Washington polices for companies & individuals.

• International markets remain highly correlated to USA.

• Economic data improves gradually in 3^rd quarter & 4^th quarter.

• Small (individual) investors in financial market: “When prices lower, the individual investors head for the exit. The larger investors don’t.”

• He discussed “bull” and “bear” markets.

• Companies are doing better jobs at making investments.

• Globalization of S&P and correlation, within the last 10 years, has gone from 1/3 global market to ½.

• Where’s the value?: 1) Info Technology & 2) Consumer Discretionary.

At the conclusion, Bob offered to stay after the meeting to field questions.

Speaker’s contact info:

Bob Carey, CFA

Chief Investment Officer

First Trust Portfolios L.P.

1-800-621-9533

www.ftportfolios.com

Pres. Judy regained the podium to thank our speaker and to announce that a donation will be made in his name to the Pickaway County Emergency Clearing House.

Meeting adjourned.

January program schedule:

• 19^th: Bill Tom – Cargill

• 26^th: Dave Hannahs – PICCA

February program schedule:

• 2^nd: TBA

• 9^th: Mike Smith – Sports broadcaster with WKKJ

• 16^th: Nico Straathof – National Pork Board

• 23^rd: Rural-Urban Day at Emmett Chapel. Begins promptly at 11:30AM, so come before then so you and your guest get your seats! Meals will be either baked chicken or steak with all the trimmings.

Until next week…,

Patty Rothe,

Editor

E-mail: pjrothe@rpjohnson.net