Transforming Uncertainty into Opportunity: The Science of Serendipity as a Tool for Innovation and Impact in a Fast-Changing World
Meeting for the week of July 27 - August 02, 2020
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Transforming Uncertainty into Opportunity: The Science of Serendipity as a Tool for Innovation and Impact in a Fast-Changing World
Speaker: Dr Christian Busch
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!
To properly attend this meeting, please:
Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
Complete the attendance survey.
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 Foundation Chair Maxi:
Foundation Chair Maxi
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 Inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
The Dinghy Derby is one of the world’s craziest boat races. Held in Riverland, Australia, racers zip through narrow creeks full of obstacles like overhanging trees and submerged logs. You likely don’t picture a dinghy when you think of a race boat. But these little aluminum boats have been transformed into speed machines with 90 horsepower motors. Dinghy racer Amanda Williamson tells us about the humble origins of the extreme sport and takes us on a wild ride.
World of Rotary
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.
Chefchaouen, Morocco is known as the Blue City. Almost all of the buildings are painted a beautiful shade of blue. One theory is that when there was in influx of Jews who fled the Spanish Inquistion in the 1400s, they want a color to remind them of the sky and heavens. This is a typical street scene, but most locals do not like their photos taken making it a challenge for photographers.
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.
Summertime Vegetables Rock!!
I've made Ratatouille several different ways, and the one that I really love to take to a party is one that's a tian-style. "A tian itself is a no-frills round earthenware dish that goes from the oven to the table. It’s usually filled with layered, overlapping vegetables and sometimes a sauce, baked in the oven (sometimes with breadcrumbs and cheese) and served as a main or side dish. (https://www.foodrepublic.com/2017/01/24/french-fare-tian), and it makes a beautiful presentation at the table. This video has a sofrito prepared for the base, and the recipe in this link does not, and it excludes the potatoes. http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/265767/summer-vegetable-tian/. Whichever you decide to tackle, if either, ENJOY!!
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 Sandy from Fremont, CA, USA reporting on a chat with Tanya from Atlanta, GA, USA
This month my Coffee with a Rotarian was with Tanya. Tanya lives in Atlanta but is looking to relocating to Washington D.C. We had a lovely chat.
She has been a member of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley for 2 years. Tanya has a great story on how she became a Rotarian.
She enjoys true crime shows and books. She was watching a show, and the murderer said, ""I can't be the murderer because I am Rotarian. We all know that Rotarians are good people"".
So she looked up Rotary and found the eClub and applied to be a member. She has also written a couple of mystery novels.
Another wonderful CWR.
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.
Past Events:
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 on the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Rory Olsen made a $20 donation.
It has been raining lightly for most of the past week. Jazzmine has spent a lot of quality time with me. Please apply my gift to Polio Plus.
Anonymous? made a Other Amount donation.
Rotary programs online give me hope during COVID-19, demonstrating how our fellowship works to make all lives better, on a global scale, no matter what obstacles we face. Please make my donation to RESV Club operations.
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.
Roger Plested said:
Thank you Craig for your presentation. I was a member of Toastmasters for several years in the 70 s. I would recommend the club to any one. There was both men and women in the club. In a friendly environment, you will develop the self confidence to speak to any group in a reasoned way. You will also be introduced to Rhetoric and become a life long learner to become proficient in the art and science of speaking and presenting to different groups in different mediums
Rory Olsen said:
The speaker on Toastmasters brought back a lot of memories of when I was in a local Toastmasters chapter in the early 1980s. Great program as always.
On the medical care question, under federal law in the United States, hospitals cannot refuse to treat emergency cases. Everyone gets treated, whether the hospital has gone over budget or not.
Kelly said:
I enjoyed this week's Great Big Story. What a great program!
Craig, I was engaged throughout your entire presentation. Well done! I particularly enjoyed you showing a glimpse of what meetings are like by encouraging audience participation. I have a few friends in Toastmasters and they highly recommend it. I look forward to seeing how this partnership between Toastmasters and Rotary evolves.
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: Transforming Uncertainty into Opportunity: The Science of Serendipity as a Tool for Innovation and Impact in a Fast-Changing World
Speaker: Dr Christian Busch
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.
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!
Modern life is full of chance encounters, changing plans, delayed journeys, human errors and other mishaps. So, what if we use such unpredictability to our advantage? Dr. Christian Busch, Director of New York University's (NYU) CGA Global Economy Program and Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE), and previously co-directed the LSE's Innovation and Co-Creation Lab and served as a course leader. He has spent a decade exploring how, if acted upon, unexpected moments can enhance our worldview, expand our social circles and create new opportunities and innovation. In this talk, Christian shares how we can use uncertainty as a pathway to more joyful, purposeful and successful lives, for companies and individuals alike.
Dr. Busch is a co-founder of Sandbox Network, a community of young innovators active in over twenty countries, as well as Leaders on Purpose, an organization convening high-impact leaders. He is a member of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Expert Forum and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Members and guests, please welcome Dr. Christian Busch!
Additional Resources
How to cultivate serendipity for innovation and impact? www.serendipitymindset.com
Twitter: @ChrisSerendip
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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Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
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