Membership Committee
Meeting for the week of August 26- September 01, 2019
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Membership Committee
Speaker: Ferheen Abbasi
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.Special thanks to member Olukunle Abolade for putting together the information for each week's meeting into this program page for all of us to enjoy. Thanks Olu!
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Here’s a message from President Tzviatko:
Greetings Rotarians and Guests,We'll have our first online social of the Rotary year at 7:30pm Pacific on Wednesday! This is a great opportunity to get to know other members of the club and hang out together for a bit, across continents and timezones. Thanks Shags for putting it together!Check out the upcoming events section below for more opportunities to participate in other in-person and online events!This week we'll hear from the amazing Ferheen Abbasi, our new Membership Committee Chair! Despite her incredibly busy schedule, Ferheen has been doing so much for our club in recent months and I look forward to hearing her plans for the Membership Committee.
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!
🎂 🎈 🎉 🎁 🍾
Happy Birthday!!
Alexandra Heller (Aug 28)
Hardeep Singh (Aug 31)
Rory Olsen (Aug 30)
From around the world,Wishing you all the best, on your birthday and always!
🎂 🎈 🎉 🎁 🍾
Members and guests, consider donating in their honor in our Happy Dollars section below.
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!”
August 31 is International Bacon Day!! This Bay Area heat has definitely got me bacon.
What did the bacon say to the tomato?Lettuce get together!
What do you call a bacon-wrapped dinosaur?Jurassic Pork!
What would happen if pigs could fly?The price of bacon would skyrocket!
Weekly Inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
What happens when a horror movie composer and a guitar maker join forces? They create the world’s most disturbing musical instrument. Affectionately known as "The Apprehension Engine," this one-of-a-kind instrument was commissioned by movie composer Mark Korven. Korven wanted to create spooky noises in a more acoustic and original way—but the right instrument didn't exist. So his friend, guitar maker Tony Duggan-Smith, went deep into his workshop and assembled what has to be the spookiest instrument on Earth.
World of
Paying it forward through RotaractLearn more at https://blog.rotary.org/2019/07/22/paying-it-forward-through-rotaract-2/
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.
As a follow-up to last week's images of the solar eclipse in 2017, I am sharing this photo of the eclipse commonly known for obvious reasons as "The Diamond Ring". It is created in the few seconds at the end of the eclipse as the sun starts to emerge from behind the moon. I dedicate it to Mitty and Yvonne.
Learn Something New
This section is curated by members Shags Shagrin and Rushton Hurley 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 Rushton or Shags.
Testaroli are a specialty of the Lunigiana region, a wild, isolated valley that extendsinland along the border between Tuscany and Liguria. They derive their name from thetesto, a flat or slightly domed cast iron or stone griddle that they're cooked on, and are quite ancient: The city of Pontremoli, Lunigiana's capital, levied a tax on testi in 1391 and reaffirmed it in 1564.
Making a batch for 6 people will take about an hour, and, if you want to be traditional, willrequire abundant pesto sauce (at least a cup) as a seasoning. Though good hot they're also very nice served cool. You'll also need:
4 1/5 cups (500 g) whole wheat flour
1 pint water (perhaps more – you want a smooth and not sticky batter)
A pinch of salt
Combine the flour, water and salt to make the batter.Heat a broad iron skillet (commercially prepared testaroli are about 18 inches across)and lightly grease it by dipping a cut potato in olive oil and rubbing it over the surface ofthe skillet. Add enough batter to make a layer slightly less than a quarter-inch thick,tilting the skillet to spread the batter evenly. (I use a large non-stick skillet, as you willsee.)Cover and cook till bubbles rise to the surface (rather like a pancake), then flip thetestarolo and cook the other side for a few minutes more. Alessandro Pradelli's LaCucina Ligure suggests a total time of ten minutes, though this will vary depending uponyour equipment. Unless you have a large burner you may also want to use a smallerskillet that will be heated more uniformly (or two skillets on individual burners). Once thetestaroli are done lay them out, separated by cloths, to cool. You can at this point rollthem up and they will keep for several days.To use them cut them into 1 1/2 inch (4 cm) wide diamonds. Bring a pot of salted waterto a boil, turn off the flame, and immerse the testaroli. Steep them for 2 minutes, drainthem or remove them with a strainer, and season them with pesto sauce (have moreolive oil handy for those who want it), and serve. Some like them hot, others cool, andothers still cold. In preparing the pesto sauce, some cooks add minced parsley ormarjoram to the basil -- feel free to experiment.An alternative serving method is to serve them whole (like pancakes but one at a time),with olive oil and freshly grated cheese, or with sauce on both sides.
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 Shags from Walnut Creek, CA, USA reporting on a chat with Rebecca from Sydney, Australia.I had a delightful chat with Rebecca (Bec) Fry in Sydney, Australia. We talked about many things, starting with food. Don’t recall exactly what dish, but we got onto the topic of vegetarianism/veganism. And then a few jokes came up that are not PC, one involving the words that dominant carnivores use for the organization known as PETA.But most of our time was spent on our mutual interest of RYLA. After being on the initial steering committee for RYLA in Ohio District 6650 and then serving on the District Committee as the photographer/videographer/associate coordinator for 13 years before moving to California in 2005. Once out west, I served as Co-Chair of District 5160 RYLA handling the camper registration and all the related data. In both experiences, I was blessed to attend the 3-day sessions in Ohio and the week-long sessions in California.Bec shared that in Australia, RYLA is more focused on young adults (18-25 or 19-28) rather than in the US, which is primarily 17-18 year olds. We also talked about something that Mitty Chang and I had talked about two years ago – our eClub being the sponsor and developer of a series of recorded online sessions for a RYLA on Demand sort of program. Self-study online leadership growth and development!!
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:
Wednesday, 28 August:Membership Webinar: Advancing Women as Leaders
Join Rotary International on Wednesday, 28 August, for a webinar on the topic We Are Rotary: Advancing Women as Leaders.
The webinar will take place 15:00-16:00 Chicago time (UTC-5) and more information is available here.
Saturday, September 14th:Cupertino Rotary's Annual Crab Feed Fundraiser
Cupertino Rotary's annual Crab Feed Fundraiser is Saturday, September 14th, and tickets are $50 per person.
From their mailing:Crab in September? No, no way - yes, way. We are getting this delicious crab from the northwest. Remember last year's delicious crab? Same crab (well, not really the same crab, that would be disgusting), but from the same place. Tell your friends and neighbors as well.Payment must be received by Monday, Sept. 9th so they can order the correct amount of crab. To learn more and buy your tickets, go to: cupertinorotary.org
More 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.
Rushton Hurley made a $20 donation.Shout-out to Ferheen for taking her medical school exam last Saturday, and lots of good wishes for a great score!
Brian Liddicoat made a $15 donation.Looking forward to a friend's great Bat Mitzvah this weekend.
Nan Herron made a $25 donation.I just got back from visiting Fiji where I had dinner with Fiji Rotarians! Amazing!!
Susan Howell made a $20 donation.Please give to TRF-share
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.
Celine Neal said:
What a unique project Ruth! I enjoyed it very much. I am a member of a cancer society branch and we wanted more help since most of us work and we got some retirees and we are surprise with the help and ideas they bring to the Branch. It reminds me of the grandmother's you guys trained to carry out the work. Keep doing the wonderful work you do and may God bless you all and the grandmothers ❤ Nice video. Who knew you could make vodka from sheep.
Mahmood Khan said:
What a great program Ruth. Making use of simple ideas and local elderly experienced local is so important and makes the difference. The workbench is serving an important need. Thanks for sharing the story and your important work. BTW, in my experience everyone needs someone to talk to from time to time. Otherwise we could go mental!
Keith Marsh said:
The video on vodka was whey cool. Ruth, thanks for the program.
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: Membership Committee
Speaker: Ferheen Abbasi
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.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directlyor submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
How do we create a strong community within our club? How do we engage our members and keep them engaged? How do we utilize the energy of new members? Membership Committee Chair Ferheen will be discussing all of these things during her presentation and she welcomes any suggestions our club members have!
Share your thoughts or ask our speaker a question in the comments at the bottom of this meeting page!
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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Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
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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. If you think you may want to join our eClub at some point in the future, we would strongly recommend you fill out the attendance form as it will improve your chances of success for your membership application.
