Gaming in Foreign Policy - A 'Playful' Tool to Communicate Complex Ideas
Meeting for the week of January 03, 2022 - January 09, 2022
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Gaming in Foreign Policy - A 'Playful' Tool to Communicate Complex Ideas
Speaker: Kaspar Meyer
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. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
To properly attend this meeting, please:
Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
Complete the attendance survey.
Everyone is also encouraged to leave a comment in the Disqus section at the bottom of the page.
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Here’s a message from our Club President.
Hi Members and Guests,
Happy New Year and welcome to this week’s meeting of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
January is Vocational Service Month on the Rotary calendar. Rotary was initially founded as a business networking organization by Paul Harris in Chicago in 1905, and it continues to emphasize the importance of bringing together business and professional leaders for the purposes of exchanging ideas, developing relationships, and improving communities.
Rotary recognizes the importance of all skills and occupations and a vibrant Rotary club reflects the businesses, organizations, and professions in its community, embracing diversity in experiences and perspectives. In this club, we strive to do so with members from a diverse range of professions and backgrounds and also geographies, and by inviting weekly guest speakers from a wide range of organizations to discuss a variety of topics.
The concept of Vocation Service is rooted in the second (of four) object of Rotary:
“High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society;”
Ways that Rotarians put these ideals into action include talking about their profession and taking time to learn about other occupations; using their professional skills and expertise to serve a community, such as on service projects; practicing their profession with integrity and inspiring others to behave ethically; helping young people achieve their career goals through mentoring; and guiding and encouraging others through their professional development. I encourage all our members and guests to consider the ways that you can take actions aligned to these ideals to Serve to Change Lives.
Brett Sham
President, Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Guests, we are happy to have you join us this week!
As we see it, our flexibility as an online, asynchronous club allows a special type of service to Rotarians around the world: we make it easier for anyone to strive for and maintain 100% attendance. That keeps you engaged with Rotary's events and ideas, and provides a moment of inspiration for devoting your creativity, talents, and resources to good causes.
You are certainly not required to pay anything in order to attend our meetings. However, if you would like to make a small contribution to our service efforts, you are welcome to do so in our secure Happy Dollars section down the page. This could be what you normally pay at your own club's meetings for lunch, for example. Any amount is welcome, but first and foremost, we're happy you've joined us, and hope you will share with others who we are and what we do to help inspire Service Above Self.
And don't forget to fill out our attendance form so you get an email you can pass on to your club's secretary!
The Four Way Test
The Four-Way Test is a nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships.
Of the things we think, say or do
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Weekly Funny with Shags.
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin !
Do You Know His Sister?
Everyone has heard of the historical figure, Karl Marx...
But no one remembers his sister, Onya, who invented the starting pistol.
Weekly Inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
The Unexpected Beauty of Traveling Solo is a somewhat different inspirational video for our club. It's a collection of clips with an intriguing audio track that opens the story to a number of interpretations. May it strike in you a sense of the wonder of the story and the power of travel.
World of Rotary
Every week we will focus on a particular story that tells of our organization and the work of Rotarians in the world.
Every year our club works to get everyone involved in the fight against cancer. We raise funds for research and programs to help patients and caregivers. We share messages of those we honor in their fight, and those we remember who have lost the battle. We are part of a worldwide effort to end the scourge of cancer, and this video is one that lets you know what has happened in the last twelve months. Watch for our next round as a club when Relay for Life starts again in the spring!
Through a Rotarian's Lens
Sometimes a photo can capture an amazing moment. In this section Member Keith Marsh shares his incredible photography!
If you'd like to submit a photo for this section please contact Keith.
One of National Geographic's Best Photos of the Year 2021 was by Mel Cole at the January 6th Insurrection at the US Capitol building. The mass of angry people in this black and white image with the US and Trump flags makes a powerful statement that adds to the drama of the event. Photojournalism at its best.
Learn Something New
This section is curated by members Shags Shagrin and aims to teach our members and guests something new, fun, and useful! If you have any ideas on a fun trick or skill you'd like to share please contact Shags.
Now That You've Heard of Tapping to Reduce Stress, Here's How to Do It!
Last week we heard from Dr. Horst Rekert, who mentioned "tapping" as a way to calm stress. Also known as Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, Tapping can be an effective self-care technique to help reduce stress. I recommend (and use) several of the guided tapping videos produced by Jessica Ortner. Here's a short informational video to try it for yourself.
Service Report
Tell us about service you’ve done recently in your community.
Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
Our Events & Projects
We hold our meetings online, but we do regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley! The section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of the events and service projects listed here.
Upcoming Events:
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
District 5170 Events
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
More events coming soon! All events are open to guests, unless otherwise mentioned. Feel free to join us! If you ever have questions, please email inquiries@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Happy Dollars: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)
Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!
This section is usually updated in the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Program: Gaming in Foreign Policy - A 'Playful' Tool to Communicate Complex Ideas
Speaker: Kaspar Meyer
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub nor Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
Global affairs can seem abstract and complex, at times frustrating, to some even intimidating. As a consequence, more and more voices in liberal democracies advocate retreating into one’s national shell. Meanwhile, global issues such as climate change, migration or pandemics cut across borders more than ever and call for global collective action. Many of these issues will become more and more pressing challenges for future generations.
This is where gaming comes in. In 2020, about 2.7 billion people played video games, creating a market worth around $160 billion. For many, their gaming PCs and consoles are windows to the world – and untapped potential for communication, right in our living rooms. In this talk, Kaspar Meyer will suggest how games and gaming – and even more important, the cultural and social techniques that drive the gaming community – can help to bridge communicative gaps and to renew the democratic interest in actively shaping the world around us.
Kaspar Meyer works as a strategic communication policy officer at the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. In his work, he connects games and gaming culture with foreign policy to communicate with a young audience and to foster a deeper understanding of international politics.
He has an academic background in sociology and international relations, having spent student exchanges in Russia, Turkey and China.
Members and guests, please welcome Kaspar Meyer!
To learn more about Meyer's work, go to:
https://www.adc.de/pathways/en/
Upcoming Program Recording Schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
You’re Almost Done! Please complete The Attendance Survey…
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
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. 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.
For all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment 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!
Important: Once you submit the Attendance Survey below, please make sure you see the confirmation message. If you get an error message instead, please try the 'submit' button again, and if that doesn't work, please refresh the page and fill out the form again. Thanks!
