Meeting for the Week of Mar. 2nd, 2015
Welcome
Greetings from President Rushton Hurley
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, and the first meeting for the month of March!While this is only our sixth meeting as a club, we'll still be experiencing some serious Rotary history this week. Membership Committee Chair Shags Shagrin will present the program, covering over five decades' worth of his experience with the fine organization that is Rotary International.To all our new members, we hope you are enjoying your launch into the celebration of Rotary service. Take a moment in the comments at the end and let us know how you're feeling about what you've learned so far. Perhaps your thoughts will be part of a presentation years from now about -your- decades of Rotary experiences!Guests, we welcome your comments, as well, and ask that you consider contributing the cost of a meal to the service projects our club is putting in motion. While we do not yet have our online payment system in place (we got closer over the last week!), you are welcome to mail a check made out to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley to our treasurer: ℅ Allen Thompson, 13500 Cascade Ct., Bakersfield CA 93314.
Pursue Your Passion
What do Google, Lego, Virgin Galactic, National Geographic and Scientific American have in common? They are the sponsors of the annual Google Science Fair, an online science and innovation competition open to the students of our planet. You can learn more about this effort to inspire young people at the competition site, but today, you'll be inspired by one of the young winners from 2013. Watch close, and you'll see the connections among science, passion, and service!
Club Stuff
Kudos
A big round of kudos goes to Member and PR Chair Chris Cochrane. A sequence he did as an opening for the first episode of Crime Story, an ABC TV drama in the mid-1980s, was recognized by The Association of Screen Cinematographers (ASC) in Los Angeles as one of the five best TV series opening sequences of the 20th century. As such, the episode will be placed in the Library of Congress Film Archive to be preserved for future generations. How ridiculously cool is that? You can see the opening sequence in this clip on YouTube. The first 45 seconds is the iconic clip being celebrated. Way to go, Chris!
Helping Kids in Danger of Alcohol Addiction
If not busy the evening of Wednesday, March 25th, join President Rushton at a dinner and auction supporting Justin's House, a program for kids who have become or are in danger of becoming abusers of alcohol. The goal is to catch these young people before they cross over to addiction and head down the sad and unhealthy path a lifelong struggle with this powerful substance can create. This is a new charity having its first fundraiser in Santa Clara, and Rushton hopes a group of us will join together for some social time and a good cause! Tickets are $35; contact Rushton (rushton@gmail.com) to join in.
Charter and Kayaks
On Sunday, March 29th, our club will gather to celebrate its official beginning, with District Governor Ed Jellen presenting our charter to us. The event will be at the Alviso Yacht Club, where Secretary Dean McCully and his wife, Lisa Bickford (our liaison to the Rotary Club of Sunnyvale), have a large collection of kayaks. Come in the afternoon for some kayak time, and stay for dinner to celebrate our club's launch! More details to follow, but you can send early questions to Secretary Dean McCully (dean@dmccully.com).
Service Survey
Each week, we hope you have something to report in terms of the service you do in your community. Did you volunteer for a nonprofit? Spend some time tutoring at a school? Work on plans for a program you'll present in our club? Take part in a club committee meeting? If so, please let us know about it via this survey.
Money Matters
Greetings fellow eClub of Silicon Valley Rotarians! Here is your regular weekly treasurer’s report.As I write this, I am preparing to go to the Big Sky Country for a well-earned break. It’s going to be ten glorious days of rest and relaxation. I hope. For those of you unfamiliar with the "Big Sky" term, that’s Montana, where it’s currently 16ºF (-8ºC) and headed for a low tonight of 11ºF (-12ºC). But don’t worry about me. By the time I arrive there tomorrow, it will have warmed up to 23ºF (-5ºC). I used to live there, but this may be a little rough on this California boy!!No new news from the Treasurer except that since our Rotary charter was granted and our tax-exempt 501(c)4 status has been confirmed, our club’s bank account is in the process of being opened and soon after that’s done, we will have an online payment system set up. Keeping our fingers crossed…Best wishes, and yours in Service to RotaryFrom your treasurer,Allen Thompson
The World of Rotary
District Conference
Keep April 17th-19th free if you can! That's the weekend of our district conference, and there will be many an option for connecting with other Rotarians, learning about cool service efforts, enjoying great food, hearing famous speakers, and enjoying entertainment from a wonderful choir and a circus group! The registration form is here, and we welcome your taking part in whatever your schedule and distance allow. Note that there are plenty of pieces of the weekend that don't cost anything.
Finding Local Clubs
Member Tracy Poelzer asked a great question during the recording of this week's program, and its answer is something that all our new members should know. The question was how a new Rotarian in our eclub can get to know Rotarians in her or his community and help with their service efforts.The answer is to go to the page on Rotary.org which helps one find Rotary clubs, along with their weekly meeting places and times. If you haven't done so before, give that page a look now, and look up what's happening in your community. Don't forget to come back to the meeting, though!What do you do when you find out where and when the meeting is? One answer is, "Just show up!" You'll pay for your meal, and they'll record you as a visiting Rotarian. You'll likely get some questions about what being in an online club is like, so feel free to pop out your smartphone with our meeting showing. Let them know we always welcome visitors working to keep their perfect attendance. Make sure to add that we're not looking for them to transfer, though - we certainly aren't poaching members!
Images and Insights
The Power of Image
sMember John Lozano recently traveled to Guatemala, and here are a couple of the pictures he took while there. The group he connected with is called Mayan Families, and John shared a certain video you've seen with a friend who ended up going to work for the organization. You'll hear more about John's work with international youth leadership programs in his program sometime in the near future.The lake above, Lake Atitlan, is near where Living on One was filmed. Does that title ring a bell? If not, catch the first video from our meeting of the week of February 16th - it's the video John shared with his friend, with me, and therefore with you, and it's quite a discussion-starter!
Selected Comments from Last WeekJoin In!
One hope we have for our guests is that they will leave a comment at the end of the meeting, sharing what they found interesting in our meeting, and engaging in the discussion that can happen each week. If you would prefer not to join the Disqus system we use, though, you are also welcome to email your comments to President Rushton (rushton@gmail.com).Last week, we had visitors from two new areas for our club: Kenya and Jamaica!
from Everton Davis, Rotary Club of Kingston (Jamaica):I was fascinated by Lisa’s presentation on project based learning. I am not a teacher but found the technique to be just 'cool'. Your club is the second eclub that I have visited where you have live interactive video presentations and I think it makes the experience of visiting an eClub so much more rewarding.[Everton is a past Assistant Governor for District 7020 and has attended eight international conventions. Great having you join us!]
from Denis Munene, Rotaract Club of Nairobi Central (Kenya):Thank you for the warm welcome. Over the years six or more years I've been part of Rotary I have really explored my passion to travel and meet new people. I have met Rotarians in Thailand, London, and around East Africa. But what fascinated me most about your club is that it's an eclub and based in Silicon Valley, a place I dream to visit some day (top on my bucket list). All the more so for the fact that its an eclub. I am a technology and innovation enthusiast, and I came across your club through Twitter. Congratulations for the good work.You're welcome to Kenya and to contribute to our clubs project to the community. Read about it here http://rotaractnairobicentral.org/sanitary-towels-project/
from member Andrew Taw (California):This is very inspiring work! I love that your very young students are inspired to take ownership and empowered to take action. These are ripples (pun intended) that will change the world throughout their lives. It's a great example of the power of education in the hands of a great educator.
from member Keith Marsh (California):Another good program on the power of technology as a learning tool.
from member Rushton Hurley (California):Happy birthday, Rotary! Let's find ways to make the next 110 years even better. Lisa, great work - we have so much to celebrate with the talent and wonderful experiences of the members of this club, and kudos to you for jumping in early to share.
from member Chris Cochrane (Ontario):Lisa, kudos to you. It's amazing to find such a great project and a person that blends right into the Rotary goals and ideals. Clean water is a human right. It's our responsibility to leave this planet in better shape than we found it, and access to free clean water for all is something we can achieve.Keith, your photographic eye is so well developed. Would to love to marry your work with suitable video to create yet another product to create awareness and raise funds.
from member Allen Thompson (California):Water. Most of us take it so much for granted. Thirsty? We have several faucets in our houses to quench that thirst - right now! Personal hygiene is easy with a daily bath, shower, or just simple hand washing. Dirty laundry or dirty dishes? Just put them in the washer! Doesn't everyone have one? Well, actually, no. Most of the people on Earth have little or no access to the continuous supply of potable water that we take so much for granted. Most of the people of the world spend much of their lives trying to survive, including finding water for their families. And they suffer their children dying because the only water they can find is diseased. I can do little about that by myself but as a part of Rotary, I can do a lot. Support The Rotary Foundation. When everyone puts in a little, Rotary can do a lot.
Your Program
Members, many of you have written President Rushton to give him a target for when you will do your presentation to the club. There are still over a dozen who have yet to do so, however. Take a moment and send him an email with the general time you will do your presentation (early April, mid-May, etc.).
This Week's Program
This week, we have a true Rotary story for you! Member Shags Shagrin presents his story of over fifty years of Rotary-ness.Shags has degrees in accounting and law and is a Certified Money Coach in Walnut Creek. He spent a couple of decades with Wall Street brokerage firms and as an independent financial planner before finding his true calling in helping people identify and shift their unconscious and subconscious beliefs and resulting patterns of behavior around money. He sees his work as fitting the role of a teacher alongside his work as a financial advisor. You can visit his websites at: www.PlanningForLife.info and www.MoneyCoachingInsitute.com
Shags is passionate about service and Rotary, and as many of you will discover when we have a gathering in his part of the bay area, he makes a fantastic paella!
I Attended!
To register your attendance, members, do both the survey below and leave a comment with thoughts on the meeting and/or word of what's happening in your life.Guests, please leave a comment below. If you are a Rotarian from another club wanting verification of your attendance, feel free to fill out the survey. If you type your email properly, you should receive a nice message you can pass along to your club's secretary.See you next week!
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