Understanding Your Relationship with Money

Good morning San Francisco! by Peter Thoeny from Flickr (CC by-nc-sa 2.0) (1200)

This Meeting's Highlights

Program: Understanding Your Relationship with MoneySpeaker: Shags Shagrin

Meeting for the week of May 9th to May 15th, 2016

Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our meeting!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 45 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 Members & Guests!

Message from our Club President

Members and guests, welcome to this week's meeting of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!As I write this greeting, it's Sunday - Mother's Day - and I've just returned from a walk that included going by a nearby cemetery. There I saw a woman roughly my age and a man that was probably her father, having a picnic by a grave.I hope you were able to celebrate those who have meant much to you last Sunday, and that you're committed to remembering those in need of connection and encouragement every day.#TakeNothingForGrantedWe certainly celebrate having you join us this week, and hope that the thoughts we share and explore will inspire you in all sorts of ways!Rotarian guests, we ask that you consider contributing something - whatever for you is the regular cost of a Rotary meal, perhaps - to the efforts of our club. Please choose one of the options below:

* To pay via Google Wallet, you’ll need to log in to your account to donate.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, there is no need for a donation from you. As we see it, your job is to simply enjoy what you read and watch, though at the end we do ask that you let us know you were here and also leave a comment letting us know what you think. This club is loaded with folks who love sharing ideas, and we look forward to your sharing yours!

Yours in service,

Rushton Hurley,

President

Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley

The Power of Images

They say a picture says a thousand words. Every week we try to bring you a picture that we think will inspire you a thousand times.

Some photographers are able to work with the camera to bring a whole series of thoughts out of a still image. This one is by Peter Thoeny and is called, "Good morning San Francisco!"

Good morning San Francisco! by Peter Thoeny from Flickr (CC by-nc-sa 2.0) (1200)

Good morning San Francisco! by Peter Thoeny from Flickr (CC by-nc-sa 2.0)

His description on the Flickr page linked above is full of interesting detail, including a note about how he likes seeing the lights of Oakland beyond the bridge.

The Power of Ideas

Every week we share a thought that we think will make our members and guests think in new ways.

We share the thoughts of those who take a moment to try and express something powerful about the world, and we hope their words represent something powerful for you.

"Making the decision to have a child — it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body."- Elizabeth Stone

The Power of Connection

Last Sunday was Mother's Day in the United States, and a project by Google and several partner NGOs focused on raising awareness of the challenges for a child of staying connected with a mother who is in prison.

To learn more about the Digital #LoveLetters effort, check out this post on the Official Google Blog.

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!

Recap of Recent Events:

Second Harvest Service Project this past Saturday

Orange you glad we had some of our people helping with food sorting last Saturday in San Jose? Yvonne, Deepali, Mitty, and Rushton were part of a group that sorted 24,000 pounds (12 tons!) of oranges, getting them boxed and ready to deliver to those in need in our area. A good time, it was, and one we'll do again. Next time, we hope you'll be a part of it!

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Upcoming Events:

Did you miss our past events? Come join us for any of our upcoming events! Guests, you are welcome too!All times are in U.S. Pacific Time (San Francisco or Silicon Valley time, that is)!

This Week!

Wednesday, May 11 from 5pm-7pm: Mock Interviews Service Project at Game Theory Academy in Oakland, CA

On Wednesday, May 11, from 5pm to 7pm – Come join us to provide mock job interviews for low-income and at-risk youth in Oakland! Game Theory Academy provides financial literacy and career readiness services for youth between 15 and 22 years old. As a part of their Crash Course in Job Readiness, we’ll be joining GTA to help coach them through the very nerve-wracking process of being in an interview. This event is in the GTA office at 337 17th St, #214, Oakland, CA 94612. If you would like to join, please RSVP with Andrew at service@siliconvalleyrotary.com.

RSVP on Meetup by clicking here.

Looking Ahead

Fellowship with the Rotary Club of Cupertino

One of the most supportive clubs in our district of our efforts as an eclub is the Rotary Club of Cupertino, and there are a pair of upcoming activities to which our members are invited. Anyone interested in connecting with them about either item should send an email to President Rushton (president@siliconvalleyrotary.com) so he can connect you with the proper person in Cupertino.

First, they have a strong book club, and just had a great meeting in April about The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by Mark Twain. The book for the next meeting (May 23rd) is Deak Wake: The Crossing of the Lusitania” by Erik Larson.

Second, on June 25th, they will have a fellowship at the Earthquakes vs LA Galaxy match taking place at Stanford Stadium. Here’s a fan guide to the rivalry!

For the soccer match, we would like to get a sense of how many might be interested in attending. Please let Rushton know via email at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com.

The World of Rotary

We are part of the Rotary International family, with over 1.2 million members in over 180 countries around the world. Rotary’s reach is global. Here we tell our members and guests about Rotary’s initiatives and events.

Water, Baseball, y MásAlmost exactly a year ago, Jon Kaufman of H2OpenDoors presented to our club about the work he's doing to help communities turn their water needs into sustainable income. It's an impressive story, and one that took another step for peace by through connections made during a trip to Cuba last month. Read more about it in this blog post at Rotary.org.

The Four-Way Test

Have you memorized Rotary's Four-Way Test of all we think, say, and do?

  1. Is it the TRUTH?

  2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?

  3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

  4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Not a bad framework for choosing your paths, we figure!

For Our Members: Service Survey

This section is dedicated for our members to report to us what service projects they have participated in recently. We love giving shoutouts to our members for the good work and the impact they’ve made in their local communities.

You may have found that last week's reporting of the service items our members reported was inspiring, and perhaps you've already put some time into a good cause, whether great or small. If so, please tell us about it using the form linked here:

The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey

Happy Dollars

Happy Dollars is the segment of our meeting where anyone can choose to make a voluntary donation to tell us a short story about something good that has happened to them this past week. Maybe someone paid for your coffee, gave you a ride somewhere, or you got a job promotion.

We regularly share cool moments with our colleagues in the eclub, tossing a few dollars into the Good Karma Jar while we're at it. Won't you add something this week?member Rushton Hurley ($10)I happen to know that last week was Nate and Yuka Gildart's 10th anniversary, and so I toss a ten-dollar donation into the Good Karma Jar to celebrate him and Yuka!member Brian Liddicoat ($15)Just spent three days with my son's 4th grade class at Sierra Outdoor School near Sonora, up in the gold country. Great time had by all.member Yvonne Kwan ($15)Thanks for the Rotarian magazine shoutout! Can I claim celebrity status now?member Linda Tangren ($20)Glad to be on land again and leave that windchill factor in the Northern Pacific Ocean. Brrr

Birthdays

Ben Carlin and Half-Safe (Copenhagen 1951) from Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

For the fourth week in a row, we have a birthday - woohoo!Our man in Tokyo, Nate Gildart, was born on May 13th, and it was on this day in 1958 that Ben Carlin arrived in Montreal. "Who's Ben Carlin?" you ask. Ben Carlin is the only person to circumnavigate the globe in an amphibious vehicle, a modified Ford he named "Half-Safe." According to the Wikipedia entry, the Australian had on this day "travelled 17,780 kilometres (11,050 mi) by sea and 62,744 kilometres (38,987 mi) by land over ten years, passing through 38 countries and over two oceans, with the entire trip costing him around $35,000."

"The Carlins and Half-Safe were greeted by a large crowd upon landing in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1951."

Nate, may your adventures take you far and wide, seeing and learning much of what this amazing world has to offer.

The Tidbit

For each meeting, we create or find a short video that helps you with some slice of technology or anything else as a way to learn something new. We call this our Tidbit.

Keeping Nate in the spotlight (he'll be running for cover the next time we reach out to him!), you may remember that we had a Tidbit about a month ago on creating a contact group in Gmail (you can find it in this meeting).This week, he gives us Part 2 to that tutorial, so those of you looking to up your game with your mail, pay close attention!


A Little Humor

We believe laughter is medicine. In that spirit, we share with you a joke every week.

In honor of our historical moment in the Birthdays section, here's a little boat humor from Boats.com.

A very nervous first time crew member says to the skipper, "Do yachts like this sink very often?"

"Not too often," replied the skipper. "Usually it's only the once."

We hope we didn't just sink your interest in the meeting with that joke. We'll try and bail ourselves out with some great comments from last week. Ha ha ha ha.

Selected Comments from Last Week

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what everyone found interesting and/or meaningful for a meeting you attend? We believe so, and that’s how our meetings work – we ask every member and guest to leave a comment, both to enrich discussion and to allow us to get to know each other all the better.

We ask our members and guests to share their thoughts on each week's meeting and program, and the exploration of Junipero Serra's role in California history yielded some strong responses!From member Manju Ramachandran (California, USA):

"Thank you for sharing. My daughter did her "mission project" a few years ago on Junipero Serra and I was surprised to hear about the controversy back then - its important to note they lived in a different time and beliefs - and the way it was explained - vary greatly from the world we live in today."

From member Nate Gildart (Tokyo, Japan):

"Christian, thanks for that! I teach at a Catholic girls' school. (St. Raphaela, a Handmaid of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is our patron saint) I'm also a History teacher, so this program really captured me. We really do have to be careful as people to make our best effort to learn the truth, read between the lines and beyond the surface, and find out what we truly know as opposed to what we've been taught or think we know. It's a challenge for people today to not place our own values on those of people in the past, especially since we can't possibly know what we would have done had we been there ourselves in those same circumstances. That was a fun history lesson. Thank you! Great pics Rushton, and sharing Ralph Weiser's legacy - a true hero! Happy birthday John!"

From member Brian Liddicoat (California, USA):

"Respectfully, I do need to make one small correction to the speaker's presentation. The Spanish use of mass enslavement of locals did not "come from the East, from the Anglo-Saxons" as our speaker claims. It began in the 1490s during the initial colonization of Hispaniola, well over a hundred years before the British had even established a small colony at Jamestown in 1607. Millions of Native Americans had been killed or enslaved by Spanish soldiers, with the enthusiastic aid of Spanish priests, long before the first Englishman used smallpox-infested blankets or brought an enslaved African to work in the Caribbean or Georgia plantations. I'm sure there were many Spanish priests who bravely spoke out against the practices of their compatriots. But we know, as a matter of historical fact, that they were in the distinct minority."

From member Paul Mosso (California, USA):

"Christian, I enjoyed your insight on Father Serra, and the times in which he lived. These are the parts of history that are definitely not spoken about and how history is skewed towards certain demographics and other parts of our country. America is really a place founded by the people that inhabited our country during that period of time. Congrats to Yvonne and Keith for making it into the Rotarian! Also Happy Birthday to John, I hope you enjoy your day!!!"

From member Andrew Taw (California, USA):

"Thank you for that great history, Christian! Also, great video, Lisa! Always good to hear a talk from Alan Watts."

From member Mitty Chang (California, USA):

"Christian, thanks so much for taking the time to speak to our club. History is definitely a passion of mine, and it's always interesting to hear about stories and historic figures I'm not that knowledgeable about. I definitely feel more knowledgeable about Junipero Serra now! And it also makes much more sense to me now why there are so many places in the San Francisco area that are named after him. I'm not sure if I am as passionate about this topic as Brian ("BDL") and you are though! But regardless, I feel like I have walked away with a good amount of knowledge. Thank you. Cheers! Rushton, really cool photos of Sweden! Sounds like you had a blast! Huge congrats to Yvonne and Keith for being featured in The Rotarian magazine! Woooo!!! Great to see more of our club members featured in the magazine. Who's next? ;) Shoutout to Yvonne, Rushton, and Deepali for coming out this Saturday morning for the Second Harvest Food Sorting service project! Loved seeing everyone there! Here are some photos of the service! [see above for these] Hope to see some more members next time! We'll try to get the maximum cap increased. :)"

The Program

This week, after a long string of guests, we hear from one of our own! Steven "Shags" Shagrin is a frequent participant in program recordings, an artist in the kitchen, and the chair of our membership committee. He's also major fun to talk with, particularly if he has his faithful sidekick, Truffle, with him.

TrufFaceTia (cropped)

Shags spends his vocational time as a Money Coach, helping others to improve their money relationships, and as a speaker and educator on topics of personal finance and life planning through his in-person and web-based workshops. His professional credentials include Attorney at Law (Inactive/OH), Certified Financial Planner practitioner, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and Certified Money Coach.Today Shags will be sharing with us some thoughts designed to help us better understand our relationship with money and how it impacts our relationships with others."Money is a core survival tool in our world, yet it comes with no instruction manual regarding how to use it properly from a practical, emotional, behavioral, or life-purpose perspective. This presentation will inform viewers of the origins of their financial personality, their financial habits and attitudes, and their money archetypes." Following the presentation, interested viewers will have an opportunity to participate in two exercises which will give them a "peek under the hood" of their own unique relationship with money.Members and guests, please welcome our own Shags Shagrin!

Links:Shags' business is online here, and his slides with plenty of commentary can be found on this PDF. You can take a look at the Money Type Quiz with its interesting set of characteristics here.

Our Upcoming Programs

Week of May 16th: Ben Schumaker: The Memory Project - Portraits of Kindness

Week of May 23rd: Chase Adam - Watsi.org, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

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.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!

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The Memory Project - Portraits of Kindness

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Saint Junipero Serra: Making Sense of the History and Legacy