Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The program for the Monticello-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Tuesday, June 6, included a brief spotlight on Second Harvest of the Big Bend, guest speaker Don May of Capital City Bank, a thank you from Rose Naff of Blue Sky Farm and the presentation of a donation to Big Bend Hospice.
Jasmine Vickers started the program by giving a brief overview of Second Harvest and explaining why they have recently joined the chamber.
“Second Harvest of the Big Bend is a local food bank in Tallahassee that serves this community as well as 15 others like it,” said Jasmine Vickers, who has been with Second Harvest for seven years. “We have been in business for 40 years.”
Vickers explained that most of the time her organization is serving the working poor who need just a little more food to make ends meet. She said that a goal for this year is to not just send food to communities but to spend time meeting the people they are serving.
“We're also meeting the people, like you guys – the business owners, our partners, our friends – the people who have been connected with us as partners for years,” Vickers continued. “Now we want to show that same amount of support. We want to be a part of the chamber because we are a part of your community.”
One aspect of this is having a presence at events in the community and looking for ways to partner with organizations in Jefferson County as a kind of reciprocation for all the donations and support that many in the community have shown to Second Harvest for the last 40 years.
To learn more about Second Harvest of the Big Bend, all are invited to a Lunch and Learn on Tuesday, July 18, at the chamber office on West Washington Street.
Next, Chamber President Roger Champion introduced the June guest speaker, Don May. May worked for Farmers & Merchants Bank for 25 years and also is a second generation employee with Capital City Bank. Earlier this year he became president of Capital City Bank in Leon and Gadsden counties.
May began by expressing how good it was to see many familiar faces in the audience from his banking days in Jefferson County. Then he joked that nobody really found banking a very interesting topic until a few months ago, when three bank failures made big news.
“Can anybody take a guess what the average number of bank failures over the last nine or ten years on an annual basis was?” asked May. “Is was three and a half a year. There were eight in 2015, and 2017 also had eight bank failures. Four in 2019 and 2020. 2021 and 2022 didn't have any. What makes what we're seeing right now very unique, and what caused it is completely different really from any other time we've seen in banking 'crisis.' I'm doing air quotes because we don't really have a banking crisis. We have three banks that failed. It just so happens that two of those three were the largest in U.S. banking history. The biggest ever bank failure was back in 2008 – Washington Mutual during the Great Recession.”
Then May talked a bit about interest rates, which have had had a historic rise, and he explained how interest rates work from a bank's investment perspective, relating that with the three recent bank failures.
“Just like any other business,” said May, “if you don't manage it well, it's not going to work out. Banking is no different.”
On the topic of inflation, May said, “Inflation peaked I think in April of [2022] at 9.1. The most recent reading in April [2023] was 4.9, so it's down. Their target is two percent.”
He also discussed the effect of interest rates on the real estate market, and commented that current mortgage rates around seven percent are actually “normal” now, after being artificially low for many years.
In May's view, the economy is still really strong, with unemployment ridiculously low, mortgage rates reasonable and inflation coming down.
One area of serious concern, he said, is fraud.
“Fraud is unbelievable right now. In 2021 there was an average of 257,000 cases of check fraud a month. In 2022 that went to 450,000, and it is alive and well in our area... Do not ever ever ever mail a bill in your personal mailbox with the flag up. Don't ever do that. There are people that drive around looking for that flag up. They'll take [your bill], make a copy of it with their phone, seal it back up and mail your check. You'll never know. The check got where it was supposed to. But then they'll take that, they've got your account number, your routing number, the sequence number... and they see how you sign your name. In twenty minutes they can create twenty checks and go hit several banks.”
Another form of fraud that's growing is diversion of wire transfers. May cautioned against using wiring instructions that come by email, which can be intercepted and changed by a fraudster to go to their account instead of the one you intended it for. To protect yourself from theft in this way, May advised clients to confirm any wiring instructions by phone before proceeding.
“It's important to know your banker and for your banker to know who you are. It's important to have a relationship,” he concluded.
To round out the program, Rose Naff of Blue Sky Farm shared about the many ways that connections she has made through the chamber have benefited her u-pick blueberry and cut flower agri-business over the past two years.
Katrina Richardson, executive director of the chamber, concluded the lunch hour by inviting Kelly Williams of Big Bend Hospice to come forward to receive a $250 donation that was collected at this year's Watermelon Social at the Avera-Clarke House.
The Monticello-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce will not meet in July, since the first Tuesday falls on the Fourth of July. Its next regular luncheon will be Tuesday, August 1, at noon.