Getting to Next through Training
This Meeting's HighlightsProgram: Getting to Next through TrainingSpeaker: Barney CallaghanMeeting for the week of February 15th to February 21st, 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!
Note for Visiting Rotarians seeking makeup credit: We only provide makeup credit for those attending our current week’s meeting! If you scroll to the very bottom of this page and the attendance survey is already closed, this you will not receive makeup credit for this meeting!
Greetings
Message from the President
Welcome, members and guests!Last Saturday morning, I was between flights at DFW, and got an email about an online presentation to a session for a conference in California that I was scheduled to make later that morning. This alarmed me, as I was getting ready to get on a plane, which, shall we say, is not typically a good place to be when making presentations.Checking the email thread, sure enough, I'd committed sometime last November to making a presentation, but had never put it on my calendar. My bad!Stu, the guy who was to work with me on this, had included his phone number, so I gave him a call and we hatched a plan. I couldn't connect via video conferencing (that's not legal to do from airplanes, I'm told), but we decided I could use inflight wifi to connect with him via Twitter and answer questions. I provided an outline for materials to cover, and boarded my plane.When the time arrived, I got online using the plane's wifi, and was able to answer lots of questions in nice 140-character-or-less chunks. It was what we'll call an unconventional presentation, but ended up being rather fun, and hopefully quite informative (and novel!) to those who came to the session.All of that to say, I feel like I have a new friend in Stu, and am happy that my mistake from November didn't disappoint the attendees too much.Friendship happens all sorts of ways, and we'll make that the theme for this week's meeting. Read, watch, comment, and then tell a friend about what you learned at our site!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:
Send via our secure Happy Dollars form.
Send via Google Wallet to: ecsv.rotary@gmail.com
Send via PayPal to: ecsv.rotary@gmail.com
Send a check via snail mail (see below for instructions)
To pay via Google Wallet or PayPal, you'll need to log into 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, 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,
PresidentRotary 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.
In this case, the action may be spending time with someone you care for. Take time today to share a smile and some light.
friendship by Kapapuka Argazkiak from Flickr (CC by-nc-sa 2.0)
The Power of Ideas
A good idea is one that catches our attention, and then catches our breath. We try to share quotes that live up to that each week in this section.
We work each week to share ideas that can inspire us to act in meaningful, productive, and caring ways. This week, we share several thoughts on friendship.The only way to have a friend is to be one.- Ralph Waldo EmersonFriendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.- Muhammad AliSometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.- Octavia Butler
The Power of Empathy
One of the interesting pieces of being in an eclub is the response we sometimes get from others about the perceived lack of interaction with our colleagues in the club. In fact, a meaningful connection with others is not wildly different between eclubs and "tclubs" (traditional brick and mortar clubs, or "terra" clubs). In both cases, it takes effort for people to reach out to others, and to become involved in service and socials.Similarly, how we communicate, online or in-person, can be cold and impersonal, or it can be warm and full of sharing. In either case, a reminder about how to communicate well is often helpful. In this case, it's a solid message from Dr. Brené Brown, with visuals from the RSA Animate team.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw
Affinity Groups
Hopefully we'll end up with a better name for these! "What are these groups?" you ask. A fine question, that.We are looking to have every member have some avenue for connecting with others, and one way we think that can happen is through groups with a shared affinity. This could be a group interested in cooking, smartphone apps, reading, business possibilities, or anything else. Watch your email this week for a note telling you how to get involved in the first one, which is about taking, sharing, and discussing great photos.
landscape by Jerome Bernard from Flickr (CC by-nc-sa 2.0)
Our Events & Projects
This section of our meeting is where you learn about both recent and upcoming events and projects our club is leading or supporting. We welcome guests to all of our events and service projects listed here.
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 Pacific Time (San Francisco, CA, USA time!)THIS WEEK: Sexy Salad Potluck & Wine in Livermore on Sunday, Feb 21st at 12-noon
Come enjoy the local extension of Napa Valley in Livermore. We will be having a salad potluck at the awarding winning Retzlaff Vineyard Winery in Livermore on Sunday, February 21st, from noon to 2p. There will be live music and wine. This is a sexy salad potluck! Sexy salad is a way for communities to come together and give gratitude for good food and for good company. Members and guests should bring an ingredient to contribute to the salad. For example: you could bring a bowl of cranberries, a bowl of sliced steak, a bowl of cherry tomatoes, etc. We will be providing organic assorted greens, the salad dressing, along with plates and utensils. All members and guests are welcome to attend; this event is also friendly for anyone under 21 as well! (Though those not 21 or older can’t have wine, of course.)
Helping with Bird Habitat on Saturday, Feb 27th, 9a-noon
Golden Gate Park in San Francisco is home to hundreds of different varieties of local and migrating birds. Golden Gate Audubon, a local wildlife conservation nonprofit, is looking for volunteers to help preserve and restore the habitat of these many birds! So come join us on Feb 27th from 9a-noon for a little weeding and planting in the North Lake of Golden Gate Park and check out some beautiful wildlife while we dust our knees a little. Afterwards, we can take our dusty bird-defending selves to a number of nearby eateries for lunch! Below are the details. If you want to RSVP or if you have any questions, please contact Andrew Taw (service@siliconvalleyrotary.com) or leave a comment in the Disqus section below!
Oakland Ed Fund's Run for Schools 5K on Sunday, Mar 20th, 6:30a
Join us in raising money for Oakland public schools by running or walking a brisk 5K with the Oakland Public Education Fund team at the Oakland Running Festival. The Ed Fund team tent will have tea for early morning runners, sunglasses, T-shirts, a photobooth, and other giveaways throughout the day. There will also be lots of great booths to explore, showcasing food vendors and other local businesses. We’ll be meeting at 6:30am at Snow Park on Harrison and 19th Street on March 20th. The race will then start at 7:30am. The Ed Fund would like folks to sign up by the end of February by clicking here. If you have any questions or you’re interested in going, please let Andrew know at service@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
Nightlife Exploration at the California Science Academy in San Francisco on Thursday, Mar 24th, 7p
Come with our club to explore the amazing exhibits and experiences at the planetarium during the evening for California Science Academy’s Nightlife program! We will be meeting at the California Science Academy in San Francisco on Thursday, March 24th, at 7p for an exciting night of science adventures! Open to all members and guests. Tickets will be available for purchase. More details coming in early March.
More Socials!
You can sure expect more socials to be coming up! Members, if you are interested in helping plan socials, please reach out to President-Elect Mitty or leave a comment on this meeting. We would love to get you more involved with the social planning!
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.
One effort of the Rotary Foundation is the Youth Exchange program, which each year enables more than eight thousand young people to share their cultures with others in the world while learning from those they visit. This opportunity for many people in two places to become closer through the travel of one young person is something that is better seen than described, which you can do via this video from Sami, an American Youth Exchange participant in Indonesia.
For Members: Service Survey
We at the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley work hard to make the world a better place. This happens via big projects and little acts of kindness, and we tell each other about it. Why? To brag? Certainly not! Instead, we believe that sharing cool stories of helping others can inspire us to find new ways to do good in our communities.
Have you spread a little goodwill recently? If so, how about telling about it so we can inspire each other to come up with more creative ways to help those around us? Let us know via this link to our Service Survey:
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. This is your chance to brag about it or give a shout-out to someone deserving, while giving some of that karma back to our community.
Sharing good news is a great way to get to know your club colleagues better, and, with a happy dollar or two, to support our efforts to make great things happen in communities near and far! Please share your good news this week.Here are happy dollars from last week:
From member Brian Liddicoat ($15):"We are all so very concerned with the future because THAT is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives! - Ed Wood"
From member Linda Tangren ($20):"Dedicated to all those who spend so much time putting this website together. It's awesome!"
From member Rushton Hurley ($10):"Here's a happy dollar donation in honor of Shags, who with family celebrated the marriage of their daughter last Saturday. Congratulations to the new couple!"
Member Birthdays
No birthdays this week, though we have Tzviatko Chiderov and Andrew Knaack in our sights for early March!
The Tidbit
Every week, we feature a new tech tidbit or life hack to make something easier, more convenient, or more fun!
Many folks who use Google Drive don't know that there are templates available to the user. In this Tidbit, learn how to find these goodies!
A Little Humor
We think a chuckle and a smile is a good way to spend a moment. Well, friends, here are our attempts to bring on both!
A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.- Bernard Meltzer
Money can't buy friends, but you can get a better class of enemy.- Spike Milligan
Friends are God's ways of apologizing for our families.- anonymous
Selected Comments from Last Week
It's one thing to enjoy a cool message from a speaker. It's all the better when we enjoy cool thoughts from our club friends about the cool message a speaker shares with us. Each week we ask our members to share an impression of what comes up in our programs and in the rest of our meetings, and we hope you will do so today!
Here are some of the thoughts from those who attended last week who caught the inspiring message from Dian Alyan about building orphanages:
Guest Kim Covill (Rotary eClub of the Southwest USA) (New Mexico, USA)This was a phenomenal presentation. I applaud your work and hope it grows ever bigger and that these children grow with you. Thank you!
Member Manju Ramachandran (California, USA)Thanks for sharing! The dedication and time you're putting in is admirable...especially for the kids. I visited right after the Tsunami and it was heartbreaking to see the devastation. I'll be sharing your program with a few Indonesians at my community center in hopes that they can get involved in supporting your efforts.
Member Mark Dohn (Michigan, USA)Dian, I cannot even begin to express my gratitude for this opportunity to meet you and learn what you do for children around the world. I will be sharing with some friends in education and technology as well as sharing the program within a couple of schools I work with.member Nate Gildart (California, USA)Dian, you are truly an inspiration. I was living in Japan in 2004, and the impact the disaster had even here was powerful. I'm curious about your work in Nepal and have sent a private message via Facebook (and clicked "Like" and shared on my wall, of course). How you're caring for children is wonderful. Best of luck!
Member Rushton Hurley (California, USA)Dian, the hope you and the rest of the GiveLight team have brought to so many children is inspiring! May your successes continue for many years to come. It's great to read about the efforts of the Interactors, as well. If what we do helps teens see their possibilities for making a difference in the world, we're spending our time well!
Guest Linda Diekman (Illinois, USA)Dian Alyan is amazing! What an inspiration and a testimony to the power of fortitude, imagination, and compassion. Thank you for sharing your story. Also loved the stairs video! Have a good day, everyone!
Member Richard Knaggs (Cape Town, South Africa)What wonderful comments from the guests. Well done to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley. Hi Dian, I spent at least an hour watching Tsunami footage just before I watched your program to understand your loss. How horrifying it was. My sincere condolences to you for your losses but also my absolute respect and light to you for what you are doing for children as a result. I am interested in getting your children to talk to the children at my school about their cultures or collaborating on something they have in common.
Member Chris Cochrane (Ontario, Canada)Love the VW video and changing habits by modifying a staircase. François, your video shows well your dedication and great work. Dian, continued success. The Rotary in GB and Ireland video is one which I had the pleasure of co-producing with people in GB. Keith your Super Bowl picture captures in a single image the essence of the event. GREAT meeting!
The Program
Each week we share the stories of people working to make the world a better place, no matter where they are in order to inspire those everywhere else.
Introduced by President Rushton: "This week our speaker is a friend of mine, Barney Callaghan. Barney is one of Rotary's International Training Leaders, and he will speak to us this week about the recent international assembly and its themes for Rotarians, both new and veteran.I met Barney several years ago when I was working on the effort to have Limerick, Ireland (where Barney lives) connect with Santa Clara, California (where I live) as sister cities. That effort was successful, but it is the friendship I developed with Barney, Ursula (his wife), Kieran (their friend who was city manager at the time, and my contact in the effort), Anna (Kieran's wife), and their families that have proven most important to me personally.Having grown up in Galway, Ireland, in a family in which ethics, learning, and service were emphasized, Barney participated in a variety of youth volunteer services in his teens. After university he began a long and impressive career in the Irish Defense Forces, including four tours of duty in Lebanon. For seven years, Barney served as the CEO of Gaisce, which focuses on supporting the personal development of young people through learning to set goals, developing their leadership, and working in the service of others. He now is the founder and lead officer of Callaghan Associates, specializing in personal, business, and executive coaching, training and development.Barney joined Rotary in 1996, served as president of the Limerick Thomond Rotary Club in 2003-2004, and then as an assistant governor before becoming District Governor of Rotary Ireland in 2011-2012. Elected to the Executive of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland four years ago, he now serves as International Assistant Coordinator with responsibility for Rotary in Ireland and Scotland. He also is chairman of the board of Salesian Secondary School, Limerick and a member of the interim board of the newly emerging Thomond Community College in Limerick.Members and guests, we are honored to welcome Barney Callaghan as our presenter this week. Enjoy the program!"
To learn more about Barney's current work, go to the Callaghan Associates website.
Upcoming Programs
Now that you have completed watching this week’s program and meeting, here are some programs that you can expect in the coming weeks.
Week of Feb 22nd: Giving Away A Million Morsels
Week of Feb 29th: Choosing a Different Life: Slowing Down off the Grid
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!
