Breaking Ground: The Role of Technology in Global Food Security
Meeting for the week of January 24, 2022 - January 30, 2022
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Breaking Ground: The Role of Technology in Global Food Security
Speaker: Jehiel Oliver
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!
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Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
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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 !
Guess What?
A young and foolish pilot wanted to sound cool on the aviation frequencies. This was his first time approaching a field during the nighttime.
Instead of making any official requests to the tower, he said, "Guess who?"
The controller switched the field lights off and replied, "Guess where?"
Weekly Inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
In this week's program, you'll meet Jehiel Oliver and learn about the very interesting work he is doing in developing countries with his company Hello Tractor. In this video, you get a preview of how the system works, and a little innovative inspiration, as well!
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.
I had a good laugh when I saw this photo by Eric Smith as one of the best photos of 2022 (Thanks, Shags). It is funny but teaches a very good lesson in photography. Whenever I am with a group of photographers and I see them all pointing their cameras in the same direction, I turn around and look the other way or wander off where no one else is looking. It is amazing how many good photographs I have taken using this technique.
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.
How Do They Make Airline Meals?
Shags here, sharing that I'd rather bring on board my own stuff brought from home. But fellow passengers don't like sardines, tuna, Limberger cheese, stinky tofu, durian, or kiviak (Limberger's actually pretty good -- stinky cheese has the most amazing flavors that defy the smell!), Don't look up what kiviak is if you don't already know!
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: Breaking Ground: The Role of Technology in Global Food Security
Speaker: Jehiel Oliver
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!
Our speaker this week is Jehiel Oliver, the founder, and CEO of Hello Tractor, an agricultural technology company that connects tractor owners with smallholder farmers in need of tractor services.
Jehiel has been honored with numerous awards for his work in social entrepreneurship including being recognized by Foreign Policy Magazine as a Top 100 Global Thinker and a World Economic Forum Circulars inaugural cohort member. He was appointed under the Obama Administration to serve two years as a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa, where he most recently chaired the technology subcommittee. Prior to Hello Tractor, Jehiel worked in consulting and investment banking. He lives with his wife, mom, and two daughters in Nairobi, Kenya.
This presentation will cover the journey of Hello Tractor in the application of technology to solve one of the world's most pressing problems: climate change and global income and food insecurity.
Members and guests, please welcome Jehiel Oliver!
To learn more about Hello Tractor, go to: https://www.hellotractor.com
To learn more about Jehiel, go to: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jehiel/
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.
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