Educating Educators through WESTOP
This Meeting’s HighlightsProgram: Educating Educators through WESTOP Speaker: Karissa Morehouse, President of the Northern California Chapter of WESTOPMeeting for the week of September 12, 2016 to September 18, 2016
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time.Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you; read it while on public transit, waiting in line for coffee, or even at the park! Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Message from President Mitty
Doing Good Locally.
Greetings and welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley! We are a Rotary club that holds its weekly meetings online, and meets in-person in the San Francisco bay area for service projects and social events. As a Rotary eClub, we are constantly growing and adapting.My name is Mitty Chang, and I am the proud president of this Rotary Club! This week our guest for our program is an educator who volunteers her time with an organization that trains other educators who are exposed to underserved and at-risk students. We'll hear more from our speaker as you continue on with this meeting. Special thanks to Andrew Taw for bringing this week's guest speaker to us.Special welcome to our newest member, Kristofer Telfer! Kristofer, it's great to have you part of our family! Congratulations! Members and guests, you'll learn more about Kristofer in our special induction segment. Welcome to the club, Kristofer!Last week I talked about how traveling with Rotary opens up amazing new doors and experiences that you can't get with any other organization. This week, I want to talk to you all about one of the main reasons why I am a Rotarian -- and that is Rotary's power to do good locally.In our World of Rotary segment for this week's meeting, there's a feature project by our Rotary district that really speaks to one of Rotary's chief benefits: enabling our members to do good locally. It's a literacy project that I think many of you will love. But it's projects like these that are initiated by sometimes just one or two Rotary members, and get shared by many Rotary clubs that end up becoming ripples of change in our local communities. Those ripples eventually grow into waves, as the beneficiaries grow and one day give back to their communities. And from the waves of good, the communities start shifting, just like any environment does when waves start hitting it.Without getting too deep into a metaphor, Rotary is all about enabling individuals to create change. For example, our club has two amazing grants to help enable our own members to be change-makers. The first is a leadership development grant, where our members can request a reimbursement of up to $150 per year to cover registration for leadership development events such as Rotary conferences and Rotary conventions. We see this as an investment right back into our members, who are the lifeblood of our club and our organization. We have already had a handful of members redeem this benefit since we launched it a month ago. Members, continue utilizing this benefit!The second grant is our Min-E Grants, which our club treasurer Allen Thompson did a program on not too long ago. These Min-E Grants are matching grants of up to $250, exclusively for service projects. Each of our members is eligible for one of these, and it enables every one of our members to find or to create a service project in their local communities that they believe in and want to make a difference with. Just like any Rotary club, we want to be the support team behind each of our members when it comes to doing good locally.Members, keep doing amazing things -- and keep reporting to us via the service survey to let us know what you have been up to! We are tracking it, and you can expect it to be mentioned in future meetings! Continue expecting more improvements and benefits roll out, as we're constantly working on making sure you not only have an amazing time in this club, but also we become that force for good to back you up whenever you need it.And to our guests and visiting Rotarians: thanks for being here! We are so happy to have you join one of our online meetings! Our goal for all of our online meetings is to make sure you're getting some inspiration out of this meeting. As you continue scrolling and reading through our meeting, please leave a comment at the bottom of the meeting once you're done. We would love to hear from you! You can tell us things like where you're from and what you thought of the meeting! You can also ask the speaker a question in the comments section.
Yours in service,
Mitty Chang,
President
Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Power of Images: Dancing with Robots in Rio
We believe in that saying a photo is worth a thousand words. Great images can inspire people and can conjure a wide range of emotions.
This week we feature a photo taken by photographer Mauro Pimentel with the Associated Press.
About this photo: Taken in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, amputee Amy Purdy dances with a robot during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Paralympics at the Maracanã Stadium. Photograph by Mauro Pimentel/AP.
Inspiring!
Laughing Out Loud (L.O.L.) with our Lady of LOLs
We believe that laughing a little every day keeps you healthier. Every week we try to share with you something that will make you smile! This section is curated by Rotarian Yvonne Kwan, our club's “Lady of LOLs.”
"Hi everyone! Lady of LOLs Yvonne here. This week's jokes are teacher themed, in honor of this week's presentation and guest speaker!"
A first grade teacher handed out a coloring page to her students - on it was a picture of a frog holding an umbrella.
When the class handed them in, one little boy had colored the frog bright purple. The teacher scolded him, asking, “How often have you seen a purple frog?”
The little boy answered, “The same number of times I've seen a frog holding an umbrella.”
Weekly Inspiration: How Native Americans Are Saving Vegetables from Extinction
Every week we bring you videos of innovation, inspiration, and entrepreneurship. This week we are featuring a video from Great Big Story on Youtube about how one group of Native Americans are saving vegetables from extinction.
"Rare strains of corn, beans, squash and other native crops might have been lost forever if not for the protection efforts of the Potawatomi and Ojibwe tribes and the Jijak Foundation in Hopkins, Michigan. Thanks to the salvation efforts of these tribes and a seed-lending library, native foods are making a comeback and being used in traditional ceremonies." -Great Big Story
Brilliant!
Change and history can be made with just a small group of people dedicating their time to a good cause. Very cool to hear about this effort in Michigan.
New Member Induction: Meet Kristofer
In order to join our family, one must attend at least four of our meetings, and have their application approved by both our board of directors and our membership. This process isn't the olympics, but is still a process because we are looking for like-minded people who care about making an impact in their communities. And of course -- people who are fun and self-driven!
This segment only appears when someone who has fit all of those requirements has joined our club. Please join me in welcoming one of our newest members, Kristofer.
Meet Kristofer Telfer.
Kristofer Telfer found us because of his business partner who happens to be our Rotary District Governor, Jeff Orth. Kristofer is a Junior Producer at Integrated Financial Benefits Network, a wealth management business based out of Gilroy, California. Kristofer lives in San Jose, California, and is a graduate of Carthage College in Chicago. Kristofer has owned two businesses, one of which was a catering company he sold shortly after graduating college, and the other is the wealth management business he currently helps run.In Rotary, Kristofer is looking for an outlet for him to invest his time and money into doing good. He is especially interested in hands-on projects where he can see the change locally. He's also keen on one day finding a service project that would allow him to travel to a Spanish-speaking country.You can connect directly with Kristofer on LinkedIn. Below is his intro video! Take it away, Kristofer!
Kristofer, you are now officially a member of Rotary International and the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley! By joining Rotary, you are now part of a family of like-minded leaders working together to clothe the poor, heal the sick, shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, and many other good deeds. We are proud to have you part of our family, and we know together we will be able to do even more good in our communities.
Members and guests, please join me in welcoming the newest Rotarian, Kristofer Telfer!
Kristofer, welcome to Rotary!
World of Rotary: Read Me A Picture Project
The World of Rotary is vast and exists in over 180 countries with over 1.2 million members. Rotary clubs and Rotarians everywhere are always working on projects and initiatives to make their communities better. This segment of our meeting is dedicated to sharing a little bit more about what's going on in the world of Rotary.
This week we are featuring a video message by our District's First Lady, Barbara Orth, the wife of our Rotary District Governor Jeff. Every year our Rotary District Governor's spouse has a service project for the clubs. This year, Barbara's Governor's Spouse Project fits right in with our club's focus on education, as the project is to buy picture books for young students in Kindergarten and First Grade.Check out Barbara's message to our club below:
All clubs would get to decide where the books they purchase would be donated to and who the actual recipients are. The idea would be to get these books into the hands of young students for them to take home and own.Making sure our next generations is educated and has every opportunity to grow is helping ensure our future is bright and successful. It's great to see that Rotary is always working on projects to help improve the lives of our next generation.Thanks First Lady Barbara for sharing your message!
Member Appreciation from our Baroness of Birthdays
We love our members. Without them, this club wouldn't exist. This section is a segment dedicated to appreciation them and their special days.
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Hello Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley! This is Nicole, your Baroness of Birthdays. I was thrilled when Mitty asked me to be your Baroness of B-days. My two favorite things are balloons and cake!! Every month, we'll give shoutouts to our fellow Rotarians and I'll give you all some fun facts that you might or might not have known before.
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FOR JULY we are celebrating Paul Mosso & Rushton Hurley
On July 5, 1971, Amendment 26 was proclaimed which set the voting age at 18 in the United States.
July’s birthstone is the ruby, which is said to symbolize contentment.
July is National Ice Cream Month.
"My life, I realize suddenly is July. Childhood is June, and old age is August, but here it is, July, and my life, this year is July inside of July"- Rick Bass.
FOR AUGUST we are celebrating Yvonne Kwan, Rory Olsen, Hardeep Singh, & Andrew Taw
The month of August was named after Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. In Latin, augustus meant auspicious or venerable.
In the USA, August is National Hair Loss Awareness Month.
Although civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., is honored in January, when he was born, he is best known for his famed "I have a dream" speech, which was given on Aug. 28, 1963.
"Remember to be gentle with yourself and others. We are all children of chance and none can say why some fields will blossom while others lay brown beneath the August sun"- Kent Nerburn.
FOR SEPTEMBER we celebrate Linda Diekman, Martin Fox, & Nicole Pham!
September is the ninth month and the only month with the same number of letters in its name in English as the number of the month.
September is often associated with fire because it was the month of the Roman god Vulcan. Vulcan was the Roman god of fire and the forge.
September is National Potato Month.
"By all these lovely tokens September days are here, with summer's best of weather and autumn's best of cheer"- Helen Hunt Jackson.
Happy Birthday to all the July, August, and September babies out there!
Our Events & Projects
We hold our meetings online, but we hold regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley every month! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of our events and service projects listed here.
Also be sure to join our Meetup Group for automatic calendar updates and to RSVP for our events! These are open to all guests as well!
http://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleyrotary/All events are marked in Pacific Time and are located in the San Francisco bay area / Silicon Valley.
Recent Event Recap:
We went. We cleaned. We conquered. We ate.
This past Saturday (September 10th), a group of us made it out to Half Moon Bay's Francis State Beach area to work with the local park staff and other volunteers to clear out invasive plants in order to save the native plants.
Thanks to Andrew Taw, Ken Oku, Heather Shaw, Yvonne Kwan, and Mitty Chang for coming out for service! Special thanks to Andrew for organizing and chairing the event, and for Heather for bringing a +1 (her friend Amy)!
After about two and a half hours of successfully conquering one of the many battlefields, a number of us went out afterwards to have ramen in nearby San Mateo as a post-service social. Thanks again everyone for coming out! Here are some photos from our service event.
Upcoming Events:
Hiking Social at the Alamere Falls – Sun. September 18 in the Point Reyes National Seashore, California
On Saturday, September 18 our club will be making a hiking trip to the Alamere Falls inside the Point Reyes National Seashore! Members and guests are welcome! We will be beginning our hike at 9:30 AM and will be getting lunch together afterwards. Please plan on arriving to the parking lot by 9:15 AM. Driving instructions will be provided a week before this event.
REGISTER/RSVP: RSVP on our meetup page by clicking here.
Ed Fund Gala Service Project – Sat. October 1 at Oakland Scottish Rite Center, Oakland, California
Ed Fund Gala Oct 1, 2016 4:30pm – 10:00pm Oakland Help us volunteer as event staff for a fundraiser for the A-Z Fund, a program that provides resources to schools in Oakland that don’t have strong PTAs to fund programs like music or sports. Duties may include help with registration and auction spotting. If you’re interested, please email Andrew at secretary@siliconvalleyrotary.com please check out the link: http://www.oaklandedfund.org/gala/
REGISTER/RSVP: RSVP on our meetup page by clicking here.
For Our Members: Reminders & Benefits
This section is dedicated for reminders to our members and for our members to report to us what service projects they have participated in recently. Members, please note this section will CHANGE every week!
New Announcements:
Introducing the Official Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Youtube Channel!
Ever thought it would be amazing to be able to just scroll through past video programs we have done? Or maybe you wanted to go through our member spotlight videos? Well you can do all of the above now at our official Youtube Channel!
Support our Interactors by Purchasing an Interact Area T-Shirt!
Interact is a community service club for young leaders from ages 12 to 18. It's an official global youth program of Rotary International. We sponsor the Interact Club of KIPP Collegiate Prep San Jose, and they are part of Interact Area 6. The Interact Area Director, Annie Dang, reached out to us and let us know that the Interactors are raising funds by selling area t-shirts.
Their theme for Area 6 this year is "Valiant Vaquitas," and so they have lavender t-shirts for sale for $12 each. They have listed on the back of the shirt the different Interact Clubs of Area 6, as well as their sponsoring Rotary clubs -- including our Rotary eClub! Below is the front design for the shirt on the left, and the back design for the shirt on the right.
If you are interested in supporting our Interactors by purchasing a t-shirt, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with your t-shirt size(s) and how many you want. We can handle the payment digitally, and President Mitty will be picking up all of the t-shirts from the Interactors. For our international members, President Mitty is also willing to ship overseas. Members, please note you will be responsible for shipping costs.
Summary of Recent Announcements
Option to Pay Dues Monthly: Members, if you want to start using the monthly payment option, please complete the Pay Dues page and select monthly option and complete that form. Dues related questions should be addressed to Club Treasurer Allen at treasurer@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Leadership Development Grants: New!Our club will reimburse up to USD$150 per year per member for the registration fee of a Rotary leadership events or other pre-approved leadership development events. For example, you could use this grant to attend a Rotary District Conference or the Rotary International Convention, and we will cover up to USD$150 of the registration fee. Please note this only covers registration fees and cannot be used for food (that is not pre-included in registration), housing, travel, or other incidentals. For non-Rotary events, please email President Mitty at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com at least 10 days in advance for approval. The leadership team has allocated enough money for 15 members to take part in this grant. After which our club’s Board of Directors will have to vote on whether or not to increase the allocation or not. Our goal is ultimately to see more members engaged! Please take us up on this amazing benefit! (That’s half your dues back! Wow!)
Request for more Member Spotlight Videos: Members, we are looking for more spotlight videos. These are short 2 to 3 minute introductions, sharing with the club something you are passionate about! Let our members get to know you better! Please email your video to president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Business Information: Members, if you’re interested in having your business or company featured on our website, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with your information and logo. We’ll have a public members page for this.
Members Only Dashboard Up: If you missed this announcement, we now have a members only dashboard available on this website! You must be logged in to your member account in order to view it. If you have not yet received your password information for your member account, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com to request it. The members only section includes the contact information for all club members.
Members Education Videos Coming: Rotary Knowledge videos will be up in a few weeks that will help teach you anything and everything you want to know about how Rotary works!
Members-Only Facebook Group: Members, if you have not yet joined this group, you can request an invitation by going to https://www.facebook.com/groups/rotarysiliconvalley/
Tracking Service Hours
Hello awesome member! Have you been up to service lately? Please share what you’ve been up to, as it allows us to get to know each other better in the process!The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
Happy Dollars
Each week we ask our members to share news with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal for this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each other, while giving back to a good cause.
Last week the happy dollars contributions went towards powering our club projects. Here are our contributors from last week and their comments:
From member Rory Olsen ($15):
"Please apply this to the Polio Plus Fund.“
From member Brian Liddicoat ($15):
"My kids going back to school; summer's over. Hooray! ;)"
From guest Monique Ziesenhenne ($10):
[No message left.]
From member Ken Oku ($15):
"Great Service this weekend and social. It was great to meet Heather, Amy, and Andrew. To many more projects!"
This week the happy dollars will go towards funding our club projects and initiatives. So go ahead, tell us about something good that’s happen to you this week! Think of this like a digital karma jar. All happy dollar submissions will be featured in next week’s online meeting — so great for shoutouts and brags!
Visiting Rotarians: If you like what you see, this is a really good chance for you to give a digital shoutout to your club in our next week’s meeting, while helping fund some of our projects. Perhaps consider donating an amount similar to what you might have paid for the cost of the meal if you attended a brick and mortar club meeting — or any amount you are comfortable with!
Selected Six
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select six comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are six comments selected from last week’s meeting about homes made out of recycled materials with guest speaker Dan Phillips!
From member Mahmood Khan (California, USA):
“Dan, Thanks for sharing the sustainable custom homes. I wonder if these homes can be built for homeless needs? I would be very interested in building one or two homes? Can we talk about this? Can we Rotarian have a discussion? thanks for sharing Dan.“
From member Brett Sham (Sydney, Australia):
“Mitty, it was so great to spend time with you last week and be part of your epic food adventures (although my waistline is now regretting it)! Thanks again for coming with me to visit the Rotary Club of Melbourne Park - I know their members enjoyed having you at their meeting and hearing from you and hopefully we might have a few of their members attend one of our meetings sometime. I think they were really fascinated by the concept of our club and how we operate - I know they have been looking into ways to better leverage technology for their meeting and enable people to attend remotely. Dan, such a great talk and those houses look amazing! To think they were made from recycled materials is awesome and how you refashion items in alternative ways of use is ingenious and gives the places so much character.“
From member Kenneth Oku (California, USA):
“Great presentation Dan! I really enjoyed you sharing your thoughts on building and not going with the flow of things, to be more thoughtful and aware. Mitty it was nice of you to share your food adventures; I enjoy going on these with you and hope for more adventures. The ramen and boba was great after the service today. I found the mars mission in Hawaii a great piece of information and the tomatoes made for a great picture. Thanks for the laughs Yvonne :)“
From member Kristofer Telfer (California, USA):
“Another great meeting, great curation by President Mitty. Dan- would you ever come out to Silicon Valley to build one of your stunning homes? Also, is the client required to have an empty lot before you start construction? Your words have inspired me to apply "up the stream" thinking for my financial business. Thank you to all who work to put together these enlightening meetings on a weekly basis.“
From member Shags Shagrin (California, USA):
“Ok, Mitty -- now we need to add another component to the weekly meeting: Foodie Corner! Happy to coordinate it -- recipe & short video or photos. And what about a monthly or bi-monthly local member social around a different cuisine? Great work, Dan. Your creativity is very inspiring!“
From member Raquel D. Juncal (Costa Rica):
“Sustainable architecture reflects on the environmental impact of all the processes involved in a home and is an excellent way to generate a great influence at the macroeconomic level. Dan, thank you for your presentation! The Tomatina is such a cool festival! I went in 2007 and have a blast! :P“
Thank you everyone for attending last week’s meeting!
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!
The Program
Every week we bring to you a program on innovation, education, entrepreneurship, and humanitarian service. This week our featured guest is brought to us by club secretary Andrew Taw. Our guest's name is Karissa Morehouse of WESTOP.
Karissa Morehouse is the president of the Northern California chapter of WESTOP. WESTOP stands for the Western Association of Educational Opportunity Personnel. Its mission is to create and develop educational professionals who are able to advocate and provide educational opportunities for those who are underserved. WESTOP does this by providing training and professional resources to the teachers who teach underserved students.When Karissa is not teaching teachers through WESTOP, Karissa works for the Tehama County Department of Education. She has a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Psychology from Cal Poly SLO, and a Masters of Arts in Student Services from Chico State University. She has worked as an admissions counselor at Chico State, and most recently at the University of California, Davis. She loves attending concerts, remodeling her home, backpacking in remote wilderness, traveling around the world, and spending time tickling her kids.
Members and guests, please join me in welcoming Karissa!
Related Attachments & Links:
Reach out to Karissa
If you have any questions for Karissa, please feel free to leave a comment or question at the bottom of this meeting page.
Upcoming Recordings & Meetings
Ever wondered how you can join one of our live recordings to ask our speakers questions live? Well, now our recordings are available to guests as well!
Upcoming Meetings:
Week of September 19 - Remind app with Founder Brett Kopf
Upcoming Recordings:
THIS WEEK: Also this week on Wednesday, September 14, 2016 we have a recording at 2 PM Pacific Time with Brett Kopf of Remind App! The connection address for this recording will be: https://zoom.us/j/7489282423
You’re Almost Done! One last thing: The Attendance Survey..
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done. First, we have a very short attendance survey below for you to fill out to record your attendance.
Visiting Rotarians, this is how you can get an email receipt to pass along to your club’s secretary as proof that you’ve attended our meeting if you need it for makeups.Non-Rotarian Guests, we would love to see who is dropping by our meetings! This part is optional for you though. If you think you may want to join our eClub at some point in the future, we would strongly recommend you fill out the attendance form as it will improve your chances of success for your membership application.More importantly, for all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment below in our comments area below. Tell us how you enjoyed the program. Ask this week’s speaker any questions you might have. Or just stop by and say hello and tell us where you’re from!
