Our January 2016 Speaker's Meeting was most informative since our members and guests received first hand information about Naples residential real estate. Cindy Carroll, an expert real estate appraiser , has been in the appraisal business for many years and has seen boom and bust real estate values.
Cindy spoke about the most recent, 2005- 2015 real estate market and how values peaked in 2005-2006 followed by a rapid decent in values. Many speculators found themselves holding property only to be forced into "short sale" and also many properties landed in foreclosure.
The builders returned in 2012 and by 2013, they were building in errnest. By 2014-2105 the inventory of homes still fell short of demand but the inventory has begun to satisfy demand and the market is now considered to be healthy.
Naples encompases a large area and market conditions vary by location. Near the water locations are still the top value and inner locations in the northeast portion are not increasing much in value at this time. Ms Carroll stated many facts that affects property values and categories of golf community homes as well as newer residential communities which have not stressed on being a golfing community. She stressed that golf courses are expensive to build and maintain and many have opted to skip the golfing aspect.
Questions about Vanderbilt Country Club values were asked and from the little MLS listings, Cindy said it is times difficult to have a fair appraisal. She stated that condo values have increased handsomely and that the fact our community has upgraded our fitness center, clubhouse and golf course our values will only increase.
The meeting ended with a token of appreciation for the time Cindy had taken from her busy schedule to inform our members.
Friday, January 15, 2016
Monday, November 23, 2015
THE
RIGHT ANGLE MEN’S CLUB NOVEMBER MEETING AT VANDERBILT COUNTRY CLUB
On a beautiful South Florida day, The
Right Angle Men's Club of Vanderbilt Country Club had the pleasure of comradery,
a buffet lunch and a terrific guest speaker from the Naples Daily News. Mr. Manny
Garcia, the Executive Editor of the paper, provided interesting insights into
how the paper is run, the local and national environment as well as his own
background.
This first meeting of the 2015/2016
season was held on November 19th with over 80 attendees in
Vanderbilt Country Club’s lovely and recently renovated main dining room. While
enjoying a wonderful lunch, the members could take in the view from the main
dining room windows which look out over the just completed golf course
renovation project. The VCC Right Angle Club strives to provide “The Right
Angle” on issues of interest and importance to its members and guests.
The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance,
a 50/50 raffle and the introduction of our guest speaker by Mr. Bill Cooper. Mr.
Garcia spoke about his Cuban heritage and his growth and development in this
country, the operation of the paper and also dealt with many issues and
questions that are relevant to the Right Angle membership. Some of the areas he
covered were:
1)
Operation of the Naples Daily News:
a.
The Naples Daily News was recently
purchased by Gannett.
b.
The Gannett management team is looking
to leverage some of the best practices implemented at the Naples Daily News at
other papers that they own.
c.
The Naples Daily News is housed in an
amazing building with state of the art facilities.
d.
The printing of the paper is done on a
high speed, state-of-the art printing press.
e.
There are roughly 45K subscribers off
season and 100K subscribers in season.
f.
In addition to the local markets, key
markets for the paper include Cuba and Venezuela.
g.
Mr. Garcia discussed the electronic
distribution of content and the way the Naples Daily News is adopting to that
environment by making changes to their existing mobile device delivery
mechanism.
h.
Mr. Garcia ended this part of his
discussion by offering a facility tour to any interested members of the VCC
Right Angle Club.
2)
Questions and topical discussion areas
of interest to the membership included:
a.
The Naples area being a dynamic place
for growth and great for journalism.
b.
Cuba has become a much more open
environment with blogs out to the world now on mobile devices.
c.
The top stories going forward
potentially include a state wide analysis of the beach restoration and a state
wide look at how funding is used in the criminal justice system.
d.
The permitting process in Naples.
Mr. Garcia concluded with a discussion
of the “Investigator’s Verse” from Luke 12:2-3.
2 There
is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be
made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will
be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner
rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
He was one of our most interesting and
entertaining speaker to-date and provided a great way to kick off the first
meeting of the Right Angle Club for the new season.
The meeting was adjourned at
approximately 1:30 with Paul L’Esperance presenting a modest token of the
club’s appreciation to Mr. Garcia.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Christopher Vernon, ESQ
THE RIGHT ANGLE MEN’S CLUB APRIL
MEETING
The Right Angle Men's Club met on April
9, 2015 to enjoy comradery, a buffet lunch and to listen to the Mr. Christopher
Vernon esq. discuss “Investor Protection 2015”.
The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance,
a 50/50 raffle and the introduction of our guest speaker by Roccy DeFrancesco. Mr.
Vernon spoke about how to choose the right financial advisor, how to avoid
financial scams and the issues with fake and high risk investment products.
Some of the areas he covered were:
1)
How to choose an investment advisor
a.
Perform due diligence on a financial
advisor by using the FINRA.ORG web site
b.
Make sure they have errors and omissions
insurance
c.
Ask about standards of care and investigate
suitability of potential investment products
d.
Make sure that the investment advisor
is either a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) or a Certified Financial Planner
(CFP) as the other titles are much easier to obtain
2)
Make sure the actual investments of a
fund mirrors what the fund is designed to provide, for example:
a.
The Charles Schwab Yield Plus Fund was
actually invested in risky California Mortgaged Backed Securities (MBS)
b.
The UBS 100% Principle Protected Note
was actually an unprotected note from Lehman Brothers which went bankrupt
3)
Investment risk, including:
a.
Liquidity risk
b.
Transparency
c.
Margin buying
Mr. Vernon handled questions from Right
Angle Members and provided advice and guidance in areas of selecting
investments and choosing a financial advisor.
The meeting was adjourned at
approximately 1:30 with Paul L’Esperance wrapping up a very successful VCC
Right Angle Men’s Club in the 2014/2015 season.
Monday, March 23, 2015
DR. ALLEN WEISS, PRESIDENT & CEO OF NCH
THE RIGHT ANGLE MEN’S CLUB MARCH
MEETING
The Right Angle Men's Club met on March
19, 2015 to enjoy comradery, a plated lunch and to listen to the CEO of NCH
Healthcare, Dr. Allen Weiss. The theme of Dr. Weiss’ talk was “The Future of
Healthcare Is Now”.
The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance,
a 50/50 raffle and the introduction of our guest speaker by Bill Cooper. Dr. Weiss spoke about the technological
evolution in delivering healthcare services and some of the new capabilities
being piloted today at NCH and Sloane Kettering which included:
1)
IBM’s Watson computer providing better
patient diagnosis than humans at Sloane Kettering
2)
“Doctors on Demand” using Skype and
FaceTime for diagnosis over the web
3)
“Smart Pills” that can signal when
medicine has entered the stomach to help insure elderly patients are taking
their medicine
4)
“Smart Rooms” at NCH that use Radio
Frequency for patient vital signs and medical records
5)
Advances in Telemedicine
6)
The use of robots in Collier County to
deliver clot busting medicine to stroke patients which can significantly reduce
delivery time in a very time sensitive process
7)
The use of “Regenerative Medicine” at
the Mayo clinic for issues like cancer of the larynx
NCH is very focused on quality of
patient care and improving the outcomes for the patients that they serve. Dr.
Weiss discussed a program at NCH to monitor patient mortality for Sepsis (blood
infection) in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) that was instituted using
Statistical Quality Control Methods and 6 Sigma. That program has reduced the
mortality rate from 34% to 8% for ICU sepsis. This has significantly improved both
patient outcomes by preventing many mortalities as well as lowering the cost to
deliver the service.
Florida, as a state, is in the 2nd
quintile for quality of healthcare in the United States. An individual’s zip code is the best predictor
for life expectancy. The use of sewers and “potable water” has been the most
significant factor in improving life expectancy worldwide. In the future, you
can expect to see further exploitation of technology to improve patient
outcomes as well as reduce the cost of medical care in both the United States
broadly as well as in Collier County.
Dr. Weiss answered several questions and
concerns from our members including a description of the new NCH facility being
built at Collier and Immokalee which will have an emergency room and 20K square
feet of full service hospital facilities and offices for family physicians.
The meeting was adjourned at
approximately 1:30 with Paul L’Esperance announcing the next meeting date and
speaker.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
RIGHT ANGLE MEN'S CLUB FEBRUARY MEETING
The Right Angle Men's Club met on February
12, 2015 to enjoy camaraderie, a plated lunch and to listen to Stephen Myers from
Angel Eyes UAV. Mr. Myers is the president of the company that focuses on
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or DRONES.
The meeting kicked off with the Pledge
of Allegiance, a 50/50 raffle and the introduction of our guest speaker by Bill
Cooper. After opening remarks, Mr. Myers
discussion of UAVs covered the following major topics:
1 1)
UAV definitions and classification
2 2)
Legal aspects and implication of UAVs
3 3)
Application and use of drone (UAV)
technology
Some of the key points from his
discussion were:
Unmanned Ariel Systems have been in use
since WWII when balloons were used to drop bombs. UAVs are ideal for use with
tasks that humans should not be involved with because they are one of the
“4Ds”- Dull, Dirty, Dangerous or Difficult.
There is much grey area today with
regulation of UAVs. The confusion is due to both the lack of regulation and
many commercial and non-commercial uses of UAVs. While the US lags other
countries, Florida is very friendly to the aviation industry. There are many
issues with UAVs including detection and avoidance, spectrum, secure GPS and
certification.
The uses for UAVs include:
1 1)
Detecting hot spots on houses or
commercial buildings.
2 2) Multi-spectral detection for crop
growth and vegetation, including golf courses.
3 3)
Volumetric studies.
4 4)
Corona discharge for electric wires.
In the future, you can expect more
safety features for UAVs including parachutes, personal airspace protection,
deterrents for flight interruption and capability to block jamming of UAV
control transmission.
Mr.
Myers answered several questions and concerns from our members including the FAA's proposed laws.
The following link contains a summary of the FAA’s suggestions
for proposed laws:
The meeting was adjourned at
approximately 1:30 with Paul L’Esperance announcing the next meeting date and
speaker.
Monday, January 19, 2015
Right Angle Men's Club January Speaker's Meeting
The Right Angle Men's Club met on
January 15, 2015 to enjoy comradery, a terrific buffet lunch and to listen to
Charlotte Miller from Florida Power and Light. Ms. Miller is FPL’s Manager of
External Affairs for Southwest Florida. Ninety one (91) members including
several guests attended the meeting in Vanderbilt Country Club’s wonderful, new
Vista Room.
The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance,
a 50/50 raffle and opening remarks by Paul L’Esperance. Bill Cooper introduced Ms Miller, our guest
speaker who provided an overview of FPL and FPL’s parent company Next Era
Energy. She discussed:
1)
The regulated and un-regulated parts of
the business
2)
FPL’s power generation facilities
3)
Smart grid initiatives from a consumer
perspective
Some of the key points from her
discussion were:
The regulated side of FPL’s business
provides electricity to approximately half of the state of Florida serving 4.7M
customers in 35 counties. FPL is the lowest cost electricity provider in the
state of Florida of all of the 55 utilities covering the state. Most of the
electricity is generated from gas and nuclear energy. FPL has two nuclear power
plants in Florida at Turkey Point and Stewart Island.
Using Smart grid initiatives and FPL’s
Next Generation Energy Centers, FPL has significantly cut the cost to generate
electricity for the customers FPL serves. Solar energy is beginning to grow
with pilot projects underway. The challenges continue to be the amount of space
needed for solar and battery backup. FPL is driving additional use of solar
with a facility in DeSoto County.
Approximately 46M homes in the United
States have smart meters which is about 40% coverage. Using automated, two way
wireless encrypted transmission, FPL can provide additional capabilities to
consumers as compared to the older, electro-mechanical meters. These
capabilities include outage assistance and restoration, monitoring and metering
usage real time and an energy dashboard where customers can watch usage by
hour.
Ms. Miller answered many questions and addressed
concerns from our members.
The meeting was adjourned at
approximately 1:30 with Paul L’Esperance announcing the next meeting date and
speaker.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
RIGHT ANGLE MEN'S CLUB NOVEMBER MEETING
The meeting kicked off with Lyle Carter
presenting a check to VCC General Manager John Laliberte for the new clubhouse
podium. After the pledge of allegiance and member welcoming, our guest speaker,
Collier County Commissioner Mr. Tim Nance discussed:
1)
Economic development (roads and
building) in Collier County
2)
Steps being taken to make Collier
County run more efficiently
3)
Encouraging business development in
Collier County
Some of the key points from his
discussion were:
Collier County contains roughly 1.3M
acres of which approximately 80% or 1M are already in “preservation”
status. Nearly 15% of the county is
already built and only 5% of the 1.3M acres is in discussion for future
development. Much of the building will
occur near VCC with planned communities similar to Vanderbilt Country Club. The
surrounding roadways, including CR 951, are being expanded to accommodate the
anticipated additional traffic.
In addition to the roadway and building
discussion, Mr. Nance also talked about
the ways that he is making Collier County Government more efficient. He has
established a 1st Hearing Examiner position to approve
non-controversial items as well as eliminating several “Executive Director”
positions in order to flatten his organization structure. He also discussed 55 action items that are
being assessed to either simplify the operation of Collier County or to help
reduce regulation. He recognizes the need to streamline Collier County
government and is taking steps toward that goal.
Taxes in Collier County, and all other
counties in the United States, are used predominantly for providing residential
services. Business taxes provide a way to help offset the disproportionate cost
of providing these services. Mr. Nance also discussed what is being done to
encourage business development in Collier County. The Partnership for Collier’s
Future Economy was established to identify opportunities for “courting”
business. “Opportunity Naples” is a 3 year strategy that was put together to
help addresses the issues of business growth and business development in
Collier County.
Commissioner Nance answered many
questions and concerns from our members.
The meeting was adjourned at
approximately 1:30 with the group looking forward to a continuation of a strong
lineup of speakers for the 2014-2015 season, now that our fabulous club
house has reopened.
Lyle Carter presented the check to John Laliberte for the new podium.
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