Meeting for the Week of May 11th, 2015
This Meeting's Highlights
Speaker: Ron Starker and Doug Tindall
Program: The Future of Libraries
Meeting for the week of May 11th to 17th, 2015
Greetings
Welcome to this week's meeting of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Happy Mothers Day, 51 weeks early! Members and guests, if you didn't call up your mother last Sunday, sooner is better than later in rectifying this error.I'd guess that all moms want to see their children grow up to make a positive difference in their community, and this week, you'll get some great examples of children making a difference. You'll also learn about some wonderful things happening in the world of libraries, and much more. Fasten your seatbelt, and let's get this going!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. Feel free to use our donation system for Happy Dollars, or you can mail a check made out to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley to our treasurer: ℅ Allen Thompson, 13500 Cascade Ct., Bakersfield CA 93314.
The Power of Images
We love to celebrate the beauty of California, and perhaps you've been looking for a place to take your mom for a picnic sometime soon (particularly if you forgot to do something last Sunday). This shot of Old Saint Hilary's Church in Tiburon comes from Camera Czar Keith, and may give you an idea or two."Here is a photo I am presenting because it illustrates three important elements of landscape or travel photography: foreground, middle ground and background. When traveling, many people take photos that only include a back ground (landmark building, mts, etc). By including all three elements, a photographer can increase the interest of the viewer and put the setting into perspective. Including native people in the foreground is always good idea."
Serious Sharing Time
As you will recall from last week's meeting, we've launched a tech-infused fundraiser via the efforts of PR Chair Chris Cochrane and his team.Below are two very short videos (23 seconds, total) designed to spread the word about our club. With every view for each video, as measured by YouTube's views counter, we earn half a penny, up to $5000 for a million views.That means we want you to share these links via Facebook, Twitter, email, and anything else for which you have an audience. Got students? Have them watch the videos and talk about what it means to be part of a group trying to make the world a better place.SiliconValleyRotary Hangout (https://youtu.be/Ua4po716cjs)
SiliconValleyRotary (https://youtu.be/IAqHQgCByqc)
Happenings
What We Do
Helping Nepal
Rotary International President Gary C.K. Huang sent a note out last week noting that one way Rotarians can support the relief efforts following the terrible disaster in Nepal is to donate to Rotary's partner, ShelterBox, which "provides emergency shelter and vital supplies to support communities around the world overwhelmed by disaster and humanitarian crisis." Find them at this link.
Play ball!
The Rotary Club of Oakland was established in 1909, and is older than all other Rotary clubs except The Rotary Club of Chicago (the first club, 1905) and The Rotary Club of San Francisco (the second, 1908). They're a fun and active crowd, and are gathering a group to go to an A's game the evening of Monday, May 11th. If you read this in time and would like to join in, send a note to Tom Limon (tomlimon@gmail.com) to see if there are still slots left. You can get more info at this page. They will also be doing a Mount Whitney hike in late July, and for that gig, see this page on their site.
Art in the Park
The Los Altos Rotary Club invites all fellow Rotarians and their families and friends to attend our 40th Annual Fine Art in the Park Show on May 16th and 17th at Lincoln Park in Los Altos. The Fine Art in the Park event supports a wide range of local Bay Area community projects and college scholarships for local students and several global charitable projects in places like Nepal, Mexico, Liberia, and Afghanistan. All show proceeds (more than $100,000 annually) are dedicated to these worthy projects. For more info, go to the Fine Art in the Park site.
Top Chef of Dublin
The Rotary Club of Dublin (California, not Ireland), has its annual fundraiser the evening of May 17th. Taste delicious food, sample fine wines, and enjoy craft beers at this gig supporting the club's effort to help Eric's Corner, a resource for education regarding epilepsy. Learn more at the Top Chef of Dublin website.
Gooooooooooooooooooooal!
Stephen Zhou and Mitty Chang put together a great gig last Saturday at Drake's in San Leandro (picture below).
(front row: member Mitty, member John, guest Nathan (Catherine's son), member Shags with Truffle, guest Linda; back row: guest Louis, member Yvonne, member Andrew, member Stephen, guest Hardeep, member Catherine, guest Karen (Shags' wife), member Rushton, and guest Patrick)The next shindig is a gathering for the San Jose Earthquakes soccer match on Sunday the 24th. If that's of interest to you, send an email to Stephen Zhou (szhou@financialguide.com). We hope to have enough of us involved to score some kind of discount. Stay tuned for more details!
Service Time
Last Saturday morning I spent time with a local Kiwanis group preparing and distributing bags of produce to people in our community in need. It is time well spent; getting the chance to greet and talk with the people who come to the effort always helps me get my priorities back in proper alignment.Have you had a moment like that recently? If so, let us know!
Time to Judge
Members, as you'll have read in a recent email from me, and guests, you're welcome to join in - our club is picking the winners of a contest for kids. What contest, you ask? This contest asked young people to get to know a charity in their community and tell its story in a short video.What you'll see is the result of the students researching a nonprofit, visiting the site, interviewing volunteers, and carefully crafting a message to help the nonprofit by attracting attention to and support for its efforts. Each finalist has already earned for the highlighted charity a donation of US $200, and the winning group or groups, as chosen by our members and guests, will get gift cards and special certificates.To help judge the contest, set aside about a half hour. Following the link below, you'll get a list of the finalist videos and a link to where they are posted, as well as instructions on how to choose from among them. Enjoy watching what young people can do!
2015 Service via Video Contest
We'll announce the winners for this year in an upcoming meeting.
The World of Rotary
We have had a number of discussions through programs and video in recent weeks about our ability to create new paths for those with special challenges. Rotary is not new to this, and this video about a music school speaks to our and their potential poignantly.https://vimeo.com/69648911
Sharings
Birthdays
Two members had birthdays in recent weeks, and humble bowing for not getting word of them in the weeks when they happened! Belated happy birthdays to Gene Tognetti (April 26th) and John Lozano (May 6th). Hope those days were excellent ones for you both!
The Tidbit
This week's tidbit is from one of our members, Mitty. In this week's tech tidbit, we take a look at LastPass.com. Last Pass offers a password management system that manages all of your passwords across multiple devices. It even generates secure passwords for you. It's super easy to use, and plugs in automatically to all of your browsers. You now only need One Password to Rule Them All!
A Little Humor
from Treasurer Allen Thompson:
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine, they laid down for the night, and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."Watson replied, "I see millions and millions of stars.""What does that tell you?"Watson pondered for a minute. "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies, and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?"Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke. "It tells me that someone has stolen our tent."
Happy Dollars
Each week several members (and even some guests) check in with messages about good things happening in their lives. Why don't you toss something in, too?
from member Kevin Brookhouser ($20):For all the awesomeness going on here.
from member Linda Tangren ($15):For all the wonderful programs that the e club presents. Also, Kudos to the Camera Czar Keith for the wonderful pictures.
from member Rushton Hurley ($5):A shout-out to Stephen and Mitty for the great gig at Drake's last Saturday!
Fill out my online form.
Selected Comments from Last Week
After each meeting, we ask all who attend to share their thoughts in the Disqus section at the bottom of this page. It’s our chance to share impressions and even engage in discussion. Please join in after the program!
member Mark Dohn (Michigan, USA):
What an incredible meeting! I think this really show the power of eclubs and how we can fuse service and modern technology.
guest Cindy Miller (California, USA):
Loved this as an option [to make up a Rotary meeting]! Thank you!
member John Lozano (California, USA):
Another great meeting this week. I enjoy spending my time seeing all the great things happening each week with this Rotary Club. Peggy and Godfrey, thank you for the great presentation. I admire your work and commitment to help others. I have been involved with Sister Cities (San Jose) in the past, so it is great to see the collaborative efforts of several organizations.
Chris, thanks for the videos and I’ll be sure to share them soon. Keith, your pictures always inspire and allow me to reflect on the beautiful places in this world.
Rushton, what can I say? The support Tabitha and you have demonstrated with your Relay for Life efforts over the years should be celebrated! Great work!
member Kevin Brookhouser (California, USA):
Totally inspired by Godfrey and Peggy. From Monterey, it’s so great to see my neighbors up in Santa Cruz do so much to create just a large impact with the help of Godfrey’s work in Africa. Great, great work.
member Gene Tognetti (California, USA):
What an excellent program this week! Too many things to list them all. Keith’s images reminded me why I can’t get to Yosemite enough (was there about 3 months ago and now want to go again!). Certainly a highlight was Godfrey and Peggy’s discussion of the fabulous work being done to help so many people (I believe Godfrey said 65000 and growing rapidly!) who need others’ kindness and support to be able to live a life many in the US take for granted. I also enjoyed reading about the microfinancing efforts underway in Detroit – that was awesome. Would love to see us do something similar somehow…. and speaking of money, I tweeted out the PR team’s videos – cool idea for an easy fundraiser! Calendared it to continue tweeting, too. Finally, I am most appreciative of Rushton and Tabitha’s involvement in the Relay for Life. Thanks to all for the contributions to a great program!
guest François Tessier (Quebec, Canada):
What an inspiring program. Congratulations to Peggy and Godfrey. I would love to visit the Center on my next trip to Africa.
member Martin Fox (Utah, USA):
Love the affirmation video. Positive psychology and belief systems are a powerful thing. Keith, your images take my breath away – as always. Thanks to Peggy and Godfrey for the amazing work you do. I look forward to future conversations to see if our club can help you in your amazing work.
member Mitty Chang (California, USA):
Great work on the videos, Chris! Thank you Peggy and Godfrey for sharing with us such an amazing collaborative project! It’s amazing to see the global collaboration Rotary can bring. 🙂
guest Charlie Wasser (California, USA):
Great talk. Always good to see a holistic look at an entity whatever it is. In this case, Peggy and Godfrey look at the “ecosystem” that is created by the intertwining lives. Teaching the residents how to look at sustainability is marvelous. As you define problems and such that need to be corrected or things that need to be improved upon, the door to writing Rotary global grants springs open. The grants can be along the line of most of life’s necessities. I have a literacy project underway in Burkina Faso as an example….
member Manju Ramachandran (California, USA):
Awesome work and amazing impact! Thanks for sharing.
member Yvonne Kwan (California, USA):
Peggy and Godfrey, that was a wonderful presentation! Thank you for sharing the amazing work that the both of you are doing. Sustainability is such a key part in service projects. Hopefully we can spearhead our own sister city or twin club project some time in the future.
Chris, those are some super cool videos! I can’t wait to share them on my social media outlets.
And oh my gosh, Jessica’s affirmation video. I have no words for how adorably awesome that is. If we all started our days like that, I think the world would be an even better place 🙂
This Week’s Program
In an ever-changing digital age, how do libraries adapt to be part of what inspires each of us to learn and see new possibilities for ourselves and our communities?
Our speakers today are both on staff at the Singapore American School, one of the most innovative schools on Earth. You’ll enjoy their thoughts on and pictures of the library at this amazing school as they speak to The Future of Libraries.
Ron Starker wields a school psychologist certificate and is the Middle School Librarian at SAS. He has worked in schools in Oregon, Belgium, and Austria before moving to Singapore.
Doug Tindall was general manager of a Home Depot before serving as part of the US Army in Afghanistan as a technology specialist. He has also worked as a professional photographer, and is now part of the tech team at SAS.
Get ready for some amazing ideas and images that will challenge your thinking about what learning can be!
If you have a Google account, you can review the slides with their notes at this link, and if you don’t have a Google account, you can see the slides at this one. There are also plenty of links to other resources (database of general information and research) available here.
At the end of the program, Ron and Doug recommended some reads for the summer. Feel free to follow up at Amazon with Ron’s pick, Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine, and with Doug’s pick, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
I Attended!
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Ron and Doug, this was a great presentation – thank you! There are some high expectations that go along with the title, “The Future of…,” but you guys met them. I figure if we do our work as a club right, we’re creating the future of online Rotary now.
Allen Thompson
The Singapore American School library looks like a librarian’s dream come true! What a marvelous facility! My brother Bob and his (then) wife Suzy were administrator and teacher at an American school in Singapore during the 80’s (possibly this one).
Keith, as ever, thanks for the beautiful photo.
Sorry to have missed the shindig at Drake’s. Looks like a fun time was had.
And my grandson Kelly is still cuter than yours!!That’s a whole lotta cute!
ShagsCA
Awesome meeting, all the way around!
Gene Tognetti
Ron and Doug’s preso was VERY thought provoking -I’m going to show this to my school’s librarian tomorrow! Lots of stuff to chew on and super informative- thanks! Maybe I missed it, but if there is an actual ‘starter kit’ to reimagine a library, I’d love to see it, as well.
Doug Tindall
Thank you Gene! We are currently working out iteration 3 of our program. Nothing’s perfect the first go around or the next 50, but I think we are going to start building a “Starter kit” in the fall.
Gene Tognetti
Great – thanks Doug. Please keep me on your list when you want someone to give it a look see. I know our librarian is interested in ‘modernizing’ so we would be very interested in it!
Andrew Taw
I love all these elements of the library of the future! I’m really interested in what the starter kit entails.
Keith Marsh
Mitty, I love the Tidbits. Keep them coming.
Charlie Wasser
Great presentation and overview of what libraries have become. One issue……the idea of reading while exercising has a certain appeal. Might as well spend the time you are working out reading to save time, right? I do workout a lot and I am concerned that if one reads while on a machine, one is not paying attention to the pacing required by tghe equipment for proper benefit or one might be “falling off” the machine. If one concentrates on the machine movements and personal movements, one is not concentrating on the reading…..
Doug Tindall
Excellent thoughts! Our kinesthetic area is less about working out and more about getting students in motion. I’m not the expert in this area, but I’ll talk to Ron this next week and get more info to share, but for now here is a link for more info: http://www.brainrules.net/exercise/?scene=11
What an amazing end fun Library concept. I wish I could become a kid again to have the chance to attend such a library in my school. Congratulation for this great concept. I will introduce it to my friends that live in Singapore!
Mitty…you saved created so much space in my head. I had 500 passwords to remember. Now just one!!! I love Last Pass! It’s heaven sent. THANK YOU!
oh you are right, Chris… Thank you, Mitty! Can you believe that the 2 most common passwords found on the Internet are: a) 123456 and b) password… Unbelievable but true!!!
Paul Mosso
Thank you Ron & Doug for sharing your experience at the Singapore American School. I enjoyed the idea of presenting books to students and having the books “pay for themselves”. While I spent my time in the educational system at the beginning of the tech explosion. I found books were not checked out of the library for years and even decades prior to me reaching for the book on the shelf. Which I now realize is even sadder since libraries are more than just a place of accessing information but also creating information. Great job on engaging students to access information and creating information in many different ways. I would’ve really enjoyed attending a school like yours.
President Rushton great meeting like always!
Martin Fox
Ron and Doug – your session just blew my mind. So many game changing ideas. Can’t wait to share this with others.
Yvonne Kwan
This is amazing information! Too often I hear that libraries are outdated and have no function in the digital age; Ron and Doug, you’ve just proved all of those nay-sayers wrong. I loved seeing your concept for libraries and how everything is laid out at the Singapore American School. It’s an awesome mix of preserving the values of the classic library while stepping forward with technological changes. Truly inspiring and totally cool!
And as luck would have it, I actually have a copy of Ready Player One sitting on my desk already! 8D
Doug Tindall
Hope you love the book as much as I do and we’re on to new and exciting things in the library. Our school is looking into using Google hour as a way to give our students some time to explore their passions and we feel that the library will be a fundamental part of this process. Once we get done with putting our plans together; we will share out what we’ve been cooking up. It really is an exciting time for libraries and technology!
Linda Tangren
This was such a great program! This is great information for all librarians who want to meet the challenges presented by the digital age. I wish we had more time to learn from Doug and Ron. Thanks to you both for sharing your knowledge.
Doug Tindall
Thank you Linda! Ron and I really appreciate you taking the time to watch.
Ron and Doug — Thanks so much for sharing some incredible information on libraries and workspaces. There’s so much insight into the inner workings of libraries in this presentation — love it!
Lisa Highfill
I like the idea of having the library be a place to try out new technologies, and as a place to develop multiple intelligences. The idea of “maker spaces” being connected with a library is such a brilliant way to allow kids to explore and wonder at school. It opens up choice and gets away from being “assigned” work encouraging learning through curiosity. I look forward to sharing your ideas and work in my school district. The SAS continues to amaze me! Im feeling like I need to find a cave to read my new book, Boys In The Boat, on this foggy Sunday! Thank you for a great program!
Richard Knaggs
What an amazing space to create innovators and inventors. This is just the kind of thing I need to see. I am sending this to our librarians immediately.
I cannot even begin to express how cool what Ron and Doug have created is!!! The best quote (I’m going to be watching this at least one more time) is that the library, “provides things you can’t get outside the library.” I love with the eClub that I can participate in the meeting even though I am in the Orlando Airport after a 4-day conference.
Meg Taylor
Awesome! I love how much fun learning is becoming through all of these cool tools that are now available (and yet to come). And as for the amazing work done by the club in Poland for kids with disabilities, I shed a couple tears. Opening a person’s path for creative expression is so important — for all ability levels, ages, and backgrounds. Bravo!
Lisa Bickford
I enjoyed hearing about what the Singapore American School is doing to evolve their library. I believe that libraries must evolve in order to stay relevant in today’s society.
john lozano
Ron and Doug, I really enjoyed your presentation. I appreciate the “thinking outside the box (or should l say library walls)” when organizing the physical space. Also, the thoughts of accessing information and gather knowledge is a powerful direction for schools these days. Great to see your school. Next year, my school is adding a new building and I will get a brand new classroom so I will have to connect with the both of you as I hope to design a better classroom and learning center. I hope to visit Singapore so I will definitely have to connect with you both and see your amazing place.
Great presentation. I’m really excited to see how these insights could be used to help us rethink the library at our school. Thanks for sharing.
wow the library was always this dreary place I had to go to when doing a report/project. This is definitely a better way to draw people in by touching on all interest areas. It’s pimp my library for sure
Andrew Knaack
Evolving libraries into learning centers as opposed to book depositories is a major challenge for the digital age. Thank you for your steps in that direction!
Thanks to Mitty and Stephen for organizing the event. It was great to see many of you.
About us
Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley is a non-profit 501(c)4 organization dedicated towards bettering humanity through service and fellowship.
Delivering innovation, entrepreneurship, and education since January 2015.
Recent Meetings
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