Rotary Meeting Notes – September 6, 2017
Welcome, Pledge, Invocation
Guests: Constance Archer, Bob George
Upcoming Meetings:
9-13 Allan Miller, Standards Based learning/coaching, CV School District
9-19 Rotary Board Meeting
9-20 Charlotte Connecting Youth Mentoring and Club Meeting
9-27 Frank Cioffi, President, Greater Burlington Industrial Corp.
10-4 Eric Denu, Rotary District Governor
10-11 Lindsay Longe, Camp Ta Kum Ta
10-18 Mike Lannen, President, Eternity Web
10-25 Shelburne Library Update and Club Committee Meetings
Announcements:
John Hammer, for Charlie Kofman: Light the Night, Leukemia/Lymphoma fundraiser, Friday, 9-22. More information on Rotary Facebook page.
Bill Root, parking at Shelburne Farms Harvest Festival, Saturday 9-16. Passed sheet around to sign up morning and afternoon parkers.
Tod Whitaker, making arrangements for Thanksgiving Turkeys and Christmas Hams.
Barbara Comeau, meet the new Library Director, 9-9. Check Library page on Town website.
Ric Flood, inducting new member Bob Manchester. Bob mentioned he has been a lawyer for about 50 years, before that was a sheepherder as a kid. Has worked in England. As an attorney, forced the recall of the Dalcon Shield. Working now on an oxycontin cost recovery case.
Ric Flood, awarding Phil Denu a Paul Harris +3 pin.
Happy Fines:
Bill Root happy to be back at Rotary and cider donuts.
Alan Hathaway happy Bill Root is back
Bill Deming happy in general
Chris Davis happy to drop son off at school
Terry Kennaugh happy
Tod Whitaker happy to be going to England
Sally Wadhams happy for new member Bob Manchster, maybe our first sheepherding Rotarian, thanks to Linda Gilbert for hosting Hands to Honduras team
Sam Feitelberg happy for Debbie’s successful cancer fundraiser, and a three-hour trip on Healing Winds schooner
Ric Flood happy for Bill Root being back and Bob Manchester as anew member. Also, off to Nashville for short trip then longer trip to The Netherlands
Doris Sage happy to be back
Alan Bates happy for 40th high school reunion
Trafton happy about visit with six grandkids and submarine sighting
Jane McKnight happy for Alan Bates and his recovery
Jon Lowell happy for fitting in 20 people at a small Adirondack log cabin
Phil Denu happy for the Paul Harris award
Kris Engstrom happy to be living in Vermont and not Texas or Florida
Roz Graham happy for taking a cruise in southern Ontario, and notoriety fine for Judith Christensen
John Beal happy for birthdays in the family, and fine for missed meetings
Linda Gilbert happy to host Honduran team, upcoming sister’s visit and cousins from New York
John Hammer happy Bill Root is back
Barbara Comeau happy about a great Labor Day weekend
Keith Walsh happy for the Labor Day weekend
Eric Kolomaznik happy for Bill Root being back, Bob Manchester as new member, son in new school and for others filling in last week when he was out
Susan Grimes happy for new member Bob Manchester
Linda Schiavone happy for new member Bob Manchester
George Schiavone happy to be sitting at same table as Linda
Bob Manchester happy for being admitted to the club
Howard Seaver happy for a family gathering
Erik Kolomaznik had the winning ticket, but picked the 3 of Hearts. $342 is in the pot.
Speaker: Bob George
Raised in Ithaca, New York, been in Vermont since 2004. With Dealer.com since 2005. He is an auto enthusiast and Director of Projects at Dealer.com
Started as a writer for the company. Company’s strong growth began in 2007. In late 2013, Dealer.com bought for $1 billion by DealerTrack. Year later, bought again, by Cox Corporation. About 1200 employees now.
Industry has been recovering since Great Recession, but not the same. Cannot sell cars for much above cost these days, because of Truecar and Edmunds.com. Glut of used cars on the market, many still under warranty because warranties now last longer. Financing loans have grown longer, as long as 96 months in some cases, in part because cars last longer now.
Dealerships are also changing. Use to be you knew the local dealers. Now, being taken over by large dealer groups. Dealers are turning to Dealer.com now to become more efficient at what they do because making less profit on the sale of vehicles.
Small segment of buyers know exactly what they want and don’t need person-to-person experience in car buying anymore. Will just order a car, even used cars, and buy online.
More commonly, people want a relationship with the dealer for future servicing of the vehicle, but don’t want to spend 4 hours in the dealership buying a car. So now, dealers allow people to review everything online, including trade-in value for old care and new car financing, so buyer can then go to dealer and complete the transaction in less than an hour.
Sedans and small car sales are down. Crossovers are up. Crossovers drive like a car but can handle two dogs in the back.
Push for Dealer.com and others is to not only have dealers advertiste online, but to demonstrate that the advertising has a return on investment. This can be difficult unless you track consumers’ every move online, which can introduce a “creep factor,” which is a tension between collecting usable information on buyers, but not asking for too much information, or being seen as collecting too much information. Sellers that are trusted, such as Amazon, don’t suffer from the creep factor, sellers that aren’t trusted do suffer from the creep factor.
Autonomous cars are coming. Technology is largely there, the laws need to catch up. Liability is a big concern. If autonomous car is in an accident, whose fault is it? Because of the future availability of autonomous cars, and car sharing services, families will likely have fewer cars, but many are likely to continue having at least one car. Hybrid electric, rather than all electric, is likely the wave for the next 10-20 years.
Meeting notetaker: Adam Bartsch