HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK Marion Alexander AUG 8 Kevin Lutz AUG 8

HAPPY ANNIVERSARIES Watson Fisher 29 years Miles Gibbons 23 years Karen Paris 19 years Chip Milspaw 17 years Caryn Carr 14 years Sally Klein 11 years David Morrison 11 years Bob Saline 10 years Norma Swain 10 years Jerry Kohn 9 years Nathan Bitner 6 years Barry Dively 5 years Benedick Dubbs 5 years Janet Kelley 5 years Craig Wisman 5 years Mitch Tillett 3 years Kent Frese 2 years John Dormuth 2 years Sam Levine 1 year Bonnie McCarthy 1 year Bridget Quigley 1 year

PROGRAM:

Rich Lewis was elected to the Court of Common Pleas of dauphin County in November 1993. He assumed his duties in January of 1994. His judicial assignments have included civil and criminal matters as well as family court and juvenile court cases. He is currently serving a five-year term as President Judge.

Prior to his election to the Court of Common Please, Rich Lewis served as District Attorney of Dauphin County from 1980-1994. During his tenure as District Attorney, he was elected President of the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association and served on the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing for seven years.

He also serves as an Adjunct professor at Dickinson School of Law, Widener university School of Law (Harrisburg Campus) and Pennsylvania State Police Academy, Harrisburg Area Community College Police Cadet School and the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Institute. He presented programs on Criminal Procedure to the New Judges’ Conference in 1988, 1990 and 1992. He also served as a member of the Education Committee of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges.

Judge Lewis recently concluded a term as Chair of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Rules of Evidence Committee. He received his law degree from Dickinson School of Law in 1972 and a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University in 1969. He graduated from Bishop McDevitt High School. He is a native of Steelton.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS / MEETING LOCATIONS:

• August 6 Judge Rich Lewis
  Hilton "As I see it from where I sit”
• Aug 13 Mel Schiavelli, President and CEO, Harrisburg University
  Hilton “An Owner’s Manual for a New University”
• Aug 20 Amy Kaunas, Esq., Executive Dir. Humane Society
  Hilton “A Community without Shelter”
  

For complete programming go to our website: hbgrotary.org and click on calendar.
August is Membership Month

NEWS AND NOTES:

• 2007-08 Rosters will be distributed. Extra rosters are available for $3.

• Happy Hour at Al Baker’s: AUGUST 23rd 5:30-7:30 PM
  Minimum contribution $10 to HRF Call or e-mail Linda to RSVP.
  
  
• Social Security Question Clarification...
  
  At the meeting on 7/30, the speaker listed the inability of Congress to solve the Social Security funding problem as a potential crisis. Peggy Grove quoted CNN as saying it could be solved by taxing all wages, not just the wage base, currently $97,500. CNN was wrong in saying this would work ( not Peggy ). To prevent Social Security from being considered solely as a welfare program, benefits traditionally have been tied to wages. The original wage base was $3000. Average taxable wages, adjusted by a national wage index, are used to calculate monthly benefits. As the wage base is increased each year, the new base is taken into account in calculating benefits for future retirees.
  
  Each year the Social Security actuaries calculate the “shortage” - the additional tax rate that would close the gap between the fund plus future taxes and the benefits to be paid, over a rolling 75 year period. This deficit is about 2% of covered payroll.
  
  Currently employers and employees each contribute 6.2% of pay up to the wage base as FICA taxes. Medicare taxes are 1.45% each on total wages, without limit. In the aggregate covered wages are 85% of total wages.
  
  CNN’s simple calculation is take the 12.4% FICA tax, apply it to total pay, thus increasing the yield to 14.6% of FICA pay. The additional 2.2% covers the 2% deficit. Sounds neat! Let the rich cover the deficit.
  
  One consequence is that by freezing the base for benefits at $97,500, in a few years we have the same problem as AMT. The Alternative Minimum Tax was intended to cover a couple of hundred taxpayers paying no tax and it was not adjusted for inflation. Now millions of middle income families fall into AMT and each year Congress struggles to find short term adjustments.
  
  Another consequence - the tax rate on total pay will be so high that the accountants and lawyers will be working overtime to change pay into dividends or capital gains or whatever.
  
  If you are interested in other methods of solving the social security funding problem, get on line at www.actuary.org and click on the Social Security Game link.
  Connie Siegel
  
  
• SAVE THE DATE: 11th Annual Apple Harvest Pancake Breakfast
  When: October 27th
  Where: John Harris High School
  TIME: 8 Am- Noon
  Please sign up to volunteer, bring an auction item, take a placemat ad and/or sell tickets.
  SEE YOU THERE!
  Karen Paris and Jacqueline Bedard, Co-Chairs

• YOUTH EXCHANGE INFO
  The Rotary Club of Harrisburg will sponsor Ange Sauvage from Lyon , France. Ange will be attending Susquehanna Township High School. The Youth Exchange Committee will be interviewing host families (they do not need to be Rotarians) in Susquehanna Township. Ange will stay with 3 host families during the school year. He will stay with each family about 3 months. Host families are to treat him as you would your own child. Ange will receive an allowance from the Club. If you are interested in hosting Ange or you know of someone else in Susquehanna Township who would want to host him, please contact Linda Freedenberg or Ron Guss ASAP.

• Danish International Student Group Study Exchange Host Opportunity:

HACC will once again be hosting students and faculty from Minerva Business College (formerly Randers Business College), in Randers, Denmark, this September. Students will be accompanied by their faculty and will spend just over 2.5 weeks on campus studying, touring area businesses, and meeting with business, industry and government officials. Part of their course of study will include work with HACC faculty Marty Wise and his International Business students. Please consider this request and contact Linda Lefevre, Associate Dean of the BHET Division, with any questions you may have. She can be reached at 717-780-2366 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For meeting cancellations due to inclement weather.... Tune to ABC27-TV
or check your e-mail or call the Rotary office at 234-1208.

ATTENDANCE:

LAST ROTARY MEETING: 7/30/07 62%
Rotarians 72 Active Specials 9 Guests 7 Visiting Rotarians 3 = 91

Minutes by Peter Henninger:
President Carrie called the meeting to order at 12:10 p.m. Howard Ammons led the club in the singing of God Bless America. The invocation, presented by Neil Hendershot included the following quotes: 1) Barbara Bush - “Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others,” 2) Charles Dickens - “Charity begins at home and justice begins next door,” 3) Elbert Hubbard - “The love we give away is the only love we keep,” and 4) Peyton Conway March - “There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life - happiness, freedom, and peace of mind - are always attained by giving them to someone else.” After lunch John Judson spoke about the Rotary Foundation being the glue that holds all of Rotary together. Steve Krempasky introduced our guests and visiting Rotarians from Missouri (who exchanged banners with President Carrie) and New Oxford.

Bob Hostetter introduced our speaker, Dan Schuckers, Esquire, Prothonotary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1987 who announced during his program that he is retiring at the end of the year. Mr. Schuckers’ spoke about the political and economic glue that holds our great country together. He began his presentation by opining that various dictators over the years were in fact the glue that held, and in the case of Cuba, still holds oppressive societies together. He then asked: What is the glue that holds our society together? Ethnicity? No. Language? Somewhat but No. Race? Hardly. Religion? Certainly a component due to freedom of religion but noted we have in excess of 200 recognized organized religions in the USA. Common Culture? No. Sports? No. But the argument could be made that the likes of Tiger Woods can certainly be looked at by some that way. Actually it is economic opportunity, common external threats, and politics that have been the glue. He noted however that we have no easily identifiable external threat at this time, that the political process is stressed and that economic opportunity, though not equal to all, does exist for all. He then answered many excellent questions and the meeting adjourned at 1:15 p.m.

Please support our Officers and Board by serving our club and our community as we begin our new Rotary year!