Men’s Club: June 2017 News

Our Scholarship Committee was pleased to receive applications from 14 very worthy graduating high school seniors. The scholarships were announced on May 18 with winners invited to attend the June 6 Men’s Club meeting.
Congratulations to William Rosenthal and Jazi Jon, both of Dana Hills High School, who will each receive $1,000 toward their college expenses.
At our breakfast meeting on April 18, Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens gave a captivating overview of her 38 years in law enforcement. Since 2008 Sheriff Hutchens has led one of the nation’s most demanding law enforcement organizations, providing protection for unincorporated Orange County plus 13 cities (including Dana Point), the Orange County Transportation Authority, John Wayne Airport, the OC Harbor Patrol, marine firefighting, coastline search and rescue, jails with 6000 inmates, a crime lab, and court services. By the way, she is also the coroner!
Hutchins first assignment as an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department was as a Deputy in the jail system. She says the inmates at that time were 30% felons and 70% misdemeanors; however, today 80% are felons! Crediting technology as an important crime fighting tool, the sheriff praised her DNA investigation team for their work combating the increasing number of property crimes. Her strategy is to “catch one burglar and prevent 100 burglaries.” With cyber-crime representing the “new wave” of crimes, she reminds us that no member of her police force will ever email or call asking for donations, so don’t fall for those easy-to-prevent scams. On battling terrorism, she praised cooperation with the Joint Terrorism Task Force and asked us all to be vigilant and report suspicious things. Drugs brought out the sheriff’s most somber concerns, with heroin representing the next addiction step after prescription drugs, and marijuana impairment being a significant legal problem as well.
Once before, we described Sheriff Hutchens as having the right combination of steel and compassion for the job. Now we add a wealth of experience to those accolades. At our May 2 meeting, we heard from writer and therapist Leonard Szymczak who spoke on constructive ways to deal with negativism and conflict in personal relationships. He advised everyone to listen, be appreciative, focus on the positive, be aware of emotional triggers, avoid blaming, stay calm, provide help or service if needed, offer caring gestures and affection. All these ideas appear with relevant examples in Szymczak’s new book coauthored with attorney Mari Frank, Fighting for Love: Turn Conflict into Intimacy.
To honor Mother’s Day we presented the ladies in our lives with red roses of appreciation at our May 16 breakfast.
Financial Advisor James Fullenkamp presented valuable insights on estate planning and record keeping. He advised us to have all personal and professional information in a retrievable, well understood format in case of emergencies or passing of family members. He suggested organizing the following documents into one folder or notebook: Marriage papers, divorce papers, life insurance policies, individual retirement accounts, 401 accounts, pension documents, personal and family medical history, durable health-care power of attorney, authorization to release healthcare information, living will, donot- resuscitate order, housing, land and cemetery deeds and escrow mortgage accounts. Other helpful documents would be proof of loans made and debts owed, vehicle titles, stock certificates, savings bonds and brokerage accounts, partnership and corporate operating agreements, tax returns, annuity contracts, list of bank accounts, list of all user names and passwords, list of safe-deposit boxes and, finally, a will and trust documents.
—C.W. Gruenig