A Small Business Supporting a School - Experiences and Thoughts
This Meeting's Highlights
Speaker: Heather ShawProgram: A Small Business Supporting a School - Experiences and Thoughts
Meeting for the week of August 10th to 16th, 2015
Greetings
Welcome from President Rushton Hurley
Bienvenidos to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!I've spent the last week in Texas and Florida, so a little Spanish is in order, I figure. The ready availability of great Mexican and Cuban food has been quite the blessing.In both places, I've worked with school districts having optional technology conferences for their teachers. The teachers are still on vacation, and they aren't paid for attending. However, the interest in finding ways that new technologies can be of value in their classrooms has been strong, and I've spoken to about a thousand teachers and school leaders over the five days.This speaks to the joy of learning that people can experience, and I hope over the course of this meeting, you'll find yourself learning something new about Rotary and service, and enjoying the ideas that spring up as a result.Any day you learn something new is a day of possibility, and we're glad you're spending part of your day with us.Rotarian guests, we ask that you contribute whatever for you is the regular cost of a Rotary meal to the efforts of our club. We provide several options below:
Send via our secure Happy Dollars form.
Send via Google Wallet to: ecsv.rotary@gmail.com
Send via PayPal to: ecsv.rotary@gmail.com
To pay via Google Wallet or PayPal, you'll need to log in to your account with those companies.
Those of you who prefer a more traditional approach can mail a check made out to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley to our treasurer:
℅ Allen Thompson,
13500 Cascade Ct.,
Bakersfield CA 93314.
Non-Rotarian guests, you are certainly welcome to help us out, too!
Showing Up and Being Informed
We've come oh-so-close! to having 100% attendance several times in the last two months, but have yet to hit the mark. Argh! I'm sure, though, that we soon will. You are encouraged to catch the meeting early in the week if possible, and follow any discussions that get going in the Disqus section at the bottom of the page.Members, if you do fail to attend the meeting in a given week, remember that you have eight days after the meeting closes (that's two weeks from the day it was launched) to do a makeup and report it. The info for that is on our makeup page.
Lost Generation
Sometimes the messages we get about the young are terribly depressing, but a clever switch can remind us what's possible.
The Power of Images
Member François Tessier recently spent some time in Europe, and shares the shot below."I'm in Italy and want to share a photo of Rome, taken from the window of the famous Capitoline Museum in the heart of this most inspiring city."May the beauty of the past inspire what you do in the present!
Happenings
What We Do
1) Sharing the Rotary Love
President-elect Mitty challenged every one of us last week to invite someone to take in one of our meetings during the month of August. It's not hard to do, of course. Send a note telling a friend you think might find all this interesting a link with the message that this is how you stay in touch with people around the world giving their time and talent to improving their communities. Anyone not interested in that needs special help, I figure!
2) Connecting in New York
Members Martin Fox (our Service Committee chair) and Chris Cochrane (our PR chair) met up at Cornell in New York recently in order to share ideas and laughs - a great way to spend time!
Upcoming Events
1) Saturday, August 29: Wine & Paella Social in Oakland, CA
Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 29th, for our wine & paella social in Oakland! We are thinking late afternoon or early evening, but more details will hit in the coming days.
2) September Socials
Look forward to more potlucks, beer and wine socials, and much more coming up for our September and October calendar dates! If you have any suggestions for socials in the Silicon Valley / Bay Area, please leave us a comment in the Disqus section at the end of this meeting.
3) Rotary District 5170 Conference & Annual eClub Meetup
Club members, please mark your calendars for the weekend of Friday, April 29th, through Sunday, May 1st. That is the weekend of our Rotary District 5170 Conference happening in San Ramon, California. We'll be talking more about this event as it gets closer to the date.While it's understandably hard for some of our members who live further away to make our regular monthly socials in the Silicon Valley, we do ask that all members strongly make an effort to attend our annual meet-up during the Rotary District Conference. It's a great time to meet and break bread with your fellow club members, while representing our club at our district conference. More information coming soon!
The World of Rotary
Some Rotary clubs think really big, and in this case, a club in India decided to launch an essay contest. Who's eligible? Their answer, "all the citizens of the world." Cool!
Dear Rotarian,
I am President of Rotary Club of Pune Katraj, RI District 3131, India. I am proud to be a Rotarian and pleased to have had the opportunity to lead my club. I welcome you all to the new Rotary Year and wish you all the very best for the coming year. As Rotarians, together we will make this world a better place to live.
I am writing to you all to appraise you on a unique event that we are organizing again this year. After the huge success that we had in the year 2013-14, we are again back with ROGEC-2015, a global essay competition with a view to crusaders of Peace in a constructive dialogue and allow them a platform to express themselves on global issues concerning Peace.
This competition is open to all the citizens of the world. The winners will be invited to India for 5 days and will get involved in various informative and cultural activities.
The essays can be submitted online at http://www.rogec.org/registration.html. The last date for essay submission is 10-Nov-2015.
Detailed information is available on www.rogec.org and please Like our Facebook page on www.facebook.com/Rotary.Rogec.
I request you to circulate this mail among your members, friends and acquaintances, share this information through your Club bulletins and encourage participation in this event.
Looking forward to a great year ahead.
Regards,Rtn. Suvarna KutwalPresident, Rotary Club of Pune Katraj RID 3131, INDIA
Service Time
Our members have been making things happen near and far over the last month. Here is a sampling of what came in from our members via the Service Survey:
* Manju Ramachandran volunteered helping students getting ready to start the school year at Mountain View High School.
* John Lozano spent a month in Italy working with an international group of 11-year-olds on promoting peace.
* Martin Fox spent many hours doing pro-bono consulting for young entrepreneurs.
* Rushton Hurley and his far better half prepared and served food to families at the JW House, where families with loved ones in the hospital can stay.
* Francois Tessier was also in Italy, and helped a street organization and a rehab center for drug and alcohol addicts.
* Yvonne Kwan helped out with the Rotary Club of Fremont Warm Springs Sunrise by serving up some cold drinks at the Fremont Festival of the Arts.
* Richard Knaggs helped with a program that helps kids explore programming.
* Chris Cochrane helped the Rotary district governor in his area learn about Google Hangouts so he could more effectively help people across the very large district.What have you been up to? Anything to help someone else out? Give a little assist to a worthy cause? If so, please tell us via the Service Survey!
Happy Dollars
As we do every week, we invite members and guests to tell us what little bits or large chunks of good have happened in their lives recently. Did you see a friend you haven't seen in a while? Did you accomplish something you've been meaning to do for awhile? Did you win the lottery? Share the love by tossing in a dollar or two or more into the club's Happy Dollars Pot via the survey below!
from member Linda Tangren ($15)Congrats, Mitty! Get well, Chris!
from member Rushton Hurley ($15)Great job by Mitty presiding over last week's meeting!
from guest Michele Herblin-Mauger ($15)Very impressive! I like your innovation in e-Rotary meetings.
Sharings
The Tidbitfrom President Rushton Hurley
This week, you learn how to learn anything. For free. Whenever you want. Intrigued? If so, click below!
A Little Humor
from Treasurer Allen Thompson
A six-year-old went to the hospital with her mother to visit her Grandpa. When they got to the hospital, she ran ahead of her mother and burst into her Grandpa's room. "Grandpa, Grandpa," she said excitedly, "as soon as my mother comes into the room, make a noise like a frog!""What?" asked her Grandpa."Make a noise like a frog because my mom said that as soon as you croak, we're all going to Disneyland!"
Selected Comments from Last Week
Last week's program, Sharing Your Rotary Passion by Kristi Govertsen, generated plenty of kudos, many of which were also well-deserved praise directed to President-Elect Mitty for presiding over a meeting for the first time. Here's a sampling:
guest Nathan Gildart (Tokyo)This is very timely for me, Kristi. Back in December a group of "Google-minded" Tokyo-based educators and I initiated Japan's first Google Educator Group (GEG West Tokyo). Our mandate is localized, quarterly, free professional development. Your comment about 'attraction' rings clearly. Although we have a healthy number of members and better than the prescribed 'target attendance', the moderators and I feel that membership could grow much more. Attraction is going to the be the solution. A 'bring a friend' campaign is a good idea, and a variety of topics, and perhaps even online guest speakers for our events. (we do a great deal of online sharing and learning) We've contacted school heads in the international school community, and we also include Japanese schools, universities, etc. In our case, a challenge is other professional development organizations who feel any other group is 'competition', whereas we want to 'piggyback' on what's already established and mutually support each other. Oh, the challenges! We're not afraid of the pie charts of mass destruction! ;0 This is a great topic, and as a guest of Rotary this really resonates.Mitty, congratulations and nicely done!
member Yvonne Kwan (California, USA)Awesome first meeting, Mitty! Kristi, I love the fact that you're a membership nerd -- we need more of those in Rotary! The idea you pose is so simple yet so powerful; if every Rotarian in the world invited just one person into Rotary, it would make such a huge difference for membership. Great presentation!
member Mahmood Khan (California, USA)Way to go, Mitty. Thank you Kristi for being a "membership nerd". It is challenging and does so much for moving the concept of relationships to a different level. Yet it is simple to do. Just invite a guest. We all should practice your suggested simple tool and be in the 100% invitees and care metrics vs 100% caring and 15% invitees. Thank you for the insightful talk.
member Martin Fox (Utah, USA)Great first meeting, Mitty, and loved the YouTube tech tip. Kristi - I loved your challenge about taking action. Talking about taking action is very different that actually acting. :-)member Manju Ramachandran (California, USA)Good Meeting Mitty, As a major gifts person I have to say unless I donate and pledge my gift, I can't get anyone to pledge after me. :)
member Andrew Taw (California, USA)Congratulations Mitty on a great first meeting! And great talk Kristi! Love the "pie charts are not a weapon."
member François Tessier (Quebec, Canada)Well Mitty...you are a great host! You almost surpass President Rushton! Thanks to Kristi for the presentation. As a new member, I would like to know more about the Rotary Rewards program, but I don't know how to learn more about my Rotary Account: can someone guide me about this?
member Keith Marsh (California, USA)Kristi really nailed it as far as why Rotary Clubs have a problem with membership. If leadership won't take action, how can they expect the membership to get on board? Loved the YouTube tidbit by Yvonne. I've learned a lot by watching YouTube tutorials on Photoshop and the "J" key will come in handy when the video gets technical.
member Rushton Hurley (California, USA)Kristi, your presentation was wonderful. I particularly liked the quote, "Pie charts are not a weapon." Great stuff! Keith, that may be my favorite picture of yours yet. Yvonne, that's a really useful tidbit, and I'll be using those shortcuts liberally. Finally, Mitty, my compliments on putting together a superb meeting. There is so much talent in this club, and we're really starting to tap into it more extensively - I'm proud of you and our group!
This Week's Program
It is always interesting to hear from one of our own, and this week, you will meet Heather Shaw, a chiropractor in Santa Clara.
Heather grew up in New Jersey with six siblings. "We definitely had to struggle financially but always felt safe and loved. The kindness of strangers has helped my family through some tough times. Now, I feel very blessed with a career I love and am surrounded by family and friends. I have not forgotten the tough times and I have dedicated myself to giving back to our community. Our clinic holds a minimum of two events a year. The Rotary club resonates with my desire to give back, and I appreciate the opportunity to be involved."Following a fire at a local middle school in Santa Clara, Heather's clinic started a yearly school supply drive to help meet the needs of the teachers and students. They are now in their 11th year, and involve local businesses in donating services in exchange for school supplies.This meeting is a little different, in that Heather's team is looking for ideas to help the event have a broader and greater impact on the community. After watching the program, please leave thoughts and suggestions they can consider for this year's drive!
Don't forget to add your suggestions!
