Innovation Through Rotary
Meeting for the week of July 22- July 28, 2019
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Innovation Through Rotary
Speaker: Alex Ritchie
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!
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Here’s a message from President Tzviatko:
Greetings Rotarians and Guests,I recently attended a friend's wedding who comes from the Zulu tradition in South Africa. As part of the events, the groom's family gifted each member of the bride's family a thick blanket. It's intended to show warmth towards each other as both families grow and accept the other into their own.In what ways do you seek to show warmth towards others?This week we will hear from Alex Ritchie about her long history with Rotaract and Rotary, and how that helped her think differently about her career and her eventual path into entrepreneurship.I hope you enjoy this week's program. Please remember to fill out the attendance survey below.Have a great week everyone!
Sincerely,
Tzviatko
President, Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
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!
Weekly Funny with the Lady of Laughter (LOL)
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 Yvonne Kwan, our “Lady of Laughter!”
July 26 is National Bagelfest Day! Get bready for some hole-some jokes!
What kind of bagel can fly?A plain bagel!
Why did the bagel lose the election?He was the victim of a schmear campaign!
Why do seagulls fly over the sea?If they flew over the bay, they would be bagels!
Weekly Inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
If you want to drink a cup of tea at the Huashan Teahouse on Mount Hua, you’re going to have to put in the effort to get there. The journey starts with a 20-minute cable car ride. Next comes a hike up steep, uneven terrain and across narrow paths where a misstep could be fatal. Despite the dangers, nearly a million people a year visit the Buddhist and Daoist temple and Huashan Teahouse that sit atop one of China’s highest peaks. ZhiHeng Yang, a supply porter on Mount Hua, shows us the way.
World of
What brings Rotarians, returned Peace Corps volunteers together?
Learn more at https://blog.rotary.org/2019/07/05/what-brings-rotarians-returned-peace-corps-volunteers-together/
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.
The advanced technology of todays DSLR cameras makes going on a photo safari much easier. The new cameras can expose at very high ISO settings without much luminescence "noise".This allows the photographer to use a very fast shutter speed and a long telephoto lens without the need for a tripod. This photo was taken "hand-held" from the top of a land cruiser at a shutter speed of around 1/2000 sec. The giraffes and zebra were probably 150 yards away.
Coffee With a Rotarian
A natural part of Rotary is the networking and the fellowship you get out of meeting other Rotarians. Coffee With a Rotarian is a monthly program of our club where we match participating club members for one-on-one virtual (or in some cases in person) coffee meetings, so they can learn more about each other. This program is organized by member Tzviatko Chiderov.
This week we have Nan from Penngrove, CA, USA reporting on a chat with Angela from Sydney, Australia.WHAT a pleasure it was to connect with Angela.As soon as she appeared on our Zoom call I remembered all she had said from her presentation to our group earlier in the year, and how lovely it was to hear of her new baking business and adorable marriage to Brett. She told me about her busy life, and how she balances being a community pharmacist, with her baking business, and spending time with Brett and her cats, who are quickly transforming from playful kittens into more mature fuzzy snugglers. (YAY! Another cat person!!)She also told me of her passion for traveling, and how she lived in Edinburgh for 2 years, taking advantage of the reciprocal work-travel visa that Australia has with the UK.And, we spoke candidly about the pros and cons of having children (mine are 23 and 25, and she is contemplating) and how family issues can be challenging, and the issue of accepting how much we can and can't control the ones we love, but that communication and taking personal responsibility are important.We also talked about trying to meet in person on of these days, maybe meeting ""in the middle"" at next year's International Rotary conference in Hawaii!! How fun would that be to get a big contingent from our group out there!?
We encourage all club members to participate in Coffee With a Rotarian. You can sign up here!
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
On the first meeting of every month, we feature service reports from club members for the previous month. Thanks for your service everyone!
Club Announcements
Haven't joined the conversation on Facebook yet? Consider joining the conversation by signing into our club members-only Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/rotarysiliconvalley/
Our Events & Projects
We hold our meetings online, but we do regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of the events and service projects listed here.
Also be sure to join our Meetup Group for automatic calendar updates and to RSVP for our events! These are open to all guests as well!
Upcoming 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
What would you like to do?
Hey Members! Let us know what you want to do by posting in our members-only Facebook Group (if you don’t have access, please request it with Webmaster Mitty). Remember, you’re only taking advantage of the full impact of Rotary when you’re stepping up to get involved.
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 on the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Monique Ziesenhenne made a $20 donation.TRF-Annual Fund! Happy to donate to make sure that we participate!
Rory R. Olsen made a $20 donation.Our new cat has settled in nicely. All is well.
Brian Liddicoat made a $15 donation.Back from a wonderful week in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: mountains, lakes, bikes, railroads, rope courses and theme parks. Must be what heaven looks like.
T LaGarde made a $20 donation.Feeling excited for this upcoming Rotary year, getting to know club members, and working to support new club projects. :-)
Tzviatko Chiderov made a $10 donation.For TRF
Share your happy dollars thoughts with us and help with doing good around the world.
Selected Comments
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select a few comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are the comments selected from last week’s meeting.
Alberto Mattioli said:
Hi everyone, I'm Alberto Mattioli, president of the Rotary Club Mantova Castelli, a nice club of 40 members in the 2050 district in Italy.
Congratulations Brenda for this wonderful presentation, it was very informative for me. I regularly and constantly attend district appointments on the rotary foundation, but I have never had the opportunity to hear anyone from the RF trustees speak. All your passion and emotion shines through, the same passion that will allow us one day to eradicate polio. The same goes for the passion that shows for me the centers of peace for me one of the most beautiful programs and at the same time of which we speak less in my opinion. Thank you for this speak which will certainly be useful and a greeting to the President and all the members of the Club
Sandy Stabile said:
Wonderful presentation Brenda. Makes me so proud to be a Rotarian. I went to Rotary Day at the United Nations a few years ago when it was in New York City. It was amazing to sit in the chambers where great work is discussed and planned.Loved this week's picture by Keith.
Rushton Hurley said:
Loved this week’s jokes (great choices, Yvonne), the heavy metal fellowship article, Rory’s report on Alexandra (thanks again for last week’s program, Alex) (Rory, I hope Jazzmine is okay), and Brenda’s report on TRF. Very cool to have someone of her stature in Rotary (a member of Rotary’s Board of Directors!) present to us.
The Peace Fellows program is a vibrant and tangible piece of our organization’s efforts in the world, and I hope all our members take pride in its work. As Brenda put it, “We create conditions that make peace possible.” Thanks to Nate and Roger both for the great questions.
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!
Program: Innovation Through Rotary
Speaker: Alex Ritchie
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others. Special thanks to member Roger Plested for leading our club's Programs Committee in finding us amazing speakers each week.
Alex graduated in May 2018 from Virginia Commonwealth University with her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering with minors in math and chemistry. She began her master’s degree this fall. She plans to attend medical school upon completion of her master’s degree. Alex chartered a new Rotaract club at her community college and revitalized the club at VCU as president. She is also a dual member and holds active membership in the Rotary Club of James River where she was recognized with a Paul Harris Fellow and is now a Paul Harris Society member. Alex is currently the Immediate Past President of the VCU Rotaract Club as well as District 7600 Rotaract Chair. She has presented at the Zone 33/34 Institute twice and is a member of the Young Professionals Advisement Team. Her role within the team is to advise clubs and districts throughout Zones 33 and 34 on Rotaract/Interact, and engaging younger professionals within Rotary. She was also appointed to serve on the Rotary International Rotaract/Interact Committee. This past July 2018, she began her term as co-chair of the committee.Alex attended and presented at the Pre-Rotaract Convention in Seoul, Atlanta, and Toronto, as well as the Young Rotary Professionals Summit in Atlanta representing District 7600. This coming June, she will serve as one of the masters of ceremonies for the Rotaract Preconvention in Hamburg. She recently served as the chair of the first-ever Rotaract program at the Zone 33/34 Summit and she was the MC for the Multi-District Rotaract Summit in district 7570 as well as the Rotary Peace Summit in Toronto. Alex is a research assistant in the Pulmonary Mechanobiology lab at the VCU. She has received top honors for her work with nanoparticles from the VCU College of Engineering and the Virginia Academy of Science. She is also the CEO & Founder of DuraSafe, a medical device startup in Richmond.Alex will discuss the role that Rotary has played in her ability to found the start-up medical device company, DuraSafe. She will share her Rotary journey while focusing on the ways in which her path allowed her to experience true innovation through collaboration and creativity within the medical field.
Share your thoughts or ask our speaker a question in the comments at the bottom of this meeting page!
Additional Resourcewww.onesafedura.com
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 https://zoom.us/j/5104080000. 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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