Microfinance, Imperialism, and Burundi
This Meeting's Highlights
Program: Microfinance, Imperialism, and BurundiSpeaker: Trevor Muir and students of Kent Innovation High SchoolMeeting for the week of October 5th to October 11th, 2015
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our meeting!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 45 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; read it while on public transit, waiting in line for coffee, or even at the park! Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
Greetings
Message from the President
Welcome, everyone!You've joined the members and guests of the Rotary eClub of the Silicon Valley for its weekly meeting, and we are delighted to have you with us!I greet you from Dubai, where I'm taking a little time to explore on my way to Cape Town. There I'll get to see member Richard Knaags and one of the recent presenters to our club!As this week begins on the 5th, we'll note that the day is celebrated in Chile and Singapore as Children's Day, and as Labour Day in many parts of Australia. Additionally, October 5th is World Architecture Day (according to the International Union of Architects) and World Habitat Day (as designated by the U.N.).Given how much of Rotarians' energy is spent on making children's lives better, working hard to improve our communities in all sorts of ways, building that which gives hope to others, and finding ways to improve the planet generally, it seems a perfect day to launch a Rotary week.Rotarian guests, we ask that you consider contributing something – perhaps what is for you is the regular cost of a Rotary meal, or just any other amount you might be willing to donate. Donations will go directly to power the efforts of our Rotary club. Here are some of the many options you have to complete a donation:
Send via our secure Happy Dollars form.
Send via Google Wallet to: ecsv.rotary@gmail.com
Send via PayPal to: ecsv.rotary@gmail.com
Send a check via snail mail (see below for instructions)
To pay via Google Wallet or PayPal, you'll need to log in to your account with those companies.Those of you who prefer a more traditional approach can mail a check made out to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley to our treasurer: ℅ Allen Thompson, 13500 Cascade Ct., Bakersfield CA 93314.Non-Rotarian guests, you are certainly welcome to help us out too if you would like! Even a small amount can help us make something good happen for someone in need.
Yours in service,
Rushton Hurley,
President
Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
The Power of Images
We believe that there is power in imagery, and that great photos can inspire in its own unique way. Every week we feature a powerful photo to inspire you.
A week or two ago, Earth's northern hemisphere was treated to a rather stunning lunar eclipse, along with what is sometimes called a "Supermoon" or a "blood moon." Keith Marsh, the eclub's Camera Czar, was on it! (On photographing the activity, not on the moon.)From Keith Marsh:This image took about two hours to capture. I took a total of about 60 images, but selected these as the best five from full eclipse to full moon. In Photoshop, I arranged them in one frame. By capturing the original images in RAW, I was able to refine the highlights and shadows on the high contrast images (2,3,4).
The Power of Ideas
Sometimes one good idea is all the power you need to get the engine of creativity moving. We would like to share with you one good idea to help you power your week.
Seeing the supermoon-lunar eclipse may be a rare event, but some things we can explore with far greater frequency than we typically imagine:You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.- Maya AngelouMay this be a week of creative abundance for you and yours!
The Power of Heart
Every week we share an inspiring video because we believe everyone needs a juice box full of inspiration at least once a week. This week is about the power of heart.
Last week we had Corinne Takara talk to us about possibilities with 3D printing, and in an effort to continue the sense of possibilities that her ideas sparked, I share this story from the amazing Mick Ebeling.
Events & Projects
This section of our meeting is where you learn about both recent and upcoming events and projects our club has going on. We welcome guests to all of our events and service projects listed here.
What We Do: Upcoming Events
Rocktoberfest Service on October 17
While this isn't a club-wide thing, we think it's an important one for you to know about and join in if time allows!
Support the Children's Health Council via their Saturday, October 17th, program called Rocktoberfest. You and your close buddies can go to Woodside for the annual shindig, which includes, as they put it, "great beer, wine, food and dancing to the amazing sounds of PopRocks."
They’ll need a number of volunteers, so if you want to help make it happen, here are the needs:
EVENT SET-UP: Saturday, October 17th from 10:00am-2:00pm
Set-up volunteers will assist with preparing for the event, including: decorating, hanging signage, setting up party rentals, marking parking areas and doing whatever it takes to get the arena ready for the evening.
EVENT: Saturday, October 17th from 5:00-10:30pm
General volunteers will be assigned to any of the following areas: registration/check-in, food or beverage service, VIP lounge area, raffle ticket sales, silent auction, fund-a-need or wherever there is need.
EVENT CLEAN-UP: Sunday, October 18th from 9:00-11:00am
Clean-up volunteers will assist with cleaning up the outdoor covered arena after the event, including: taking down decorations/signage, breaking down party rentals, trash disposal/recycling, and doing whatever it takes to get the area cleaned up.
Things to know about volunteering:
* Must be 21 years or older* Need to be able to stay for the entire duration of shift* Volunteers assignments may require standing or walking/moving around* Venue is outdoors at an equine facilitated therapy center* Breakfast, lunch or dinner (depending on shift) will be served to volunteers prior to shift
For all questions, more information or to sign up to volunteer contact Sydnee Brooks at sbrooks@chconline.org or 650.617.3818.
Find out more at the Children’s Health Council and this cool gig at their website.
Thanks to member Art Taylor for this service suggestion!
San Mateo Rotary’s Annual 5K Fun Run on October 25
The Rotary Club of San Mateo is hosting its annual 5K/10k Fun Run on Sunday, October 25, 2015 at Seal Point Park (1901 J Hart Clinton Dr, San Mateo, CA 94401). A few of our club members are planning on participating. Anyone else interested in participating, please comment in the Disqus section, and we can plan on meeting up at the Fun Run, and afterwards for lunch. All proceeds benefit a local scholarship for at-risk kids. Registration includes a T-shirt.
You can register for the 5k/10k Fun Run via their Active.com page here.
More Socials Soon!
Look forward to more socials coming up for October and November dates! If you have any suggestions for socials in the Silicon Valley / Bay Area, please leave us a comment in the Disqus section at the end of this meeting.
The World of Rotary
We are part of the Rotary International family with over 1.2 million members in over 180 countries in the world. Rotary’s reach is global. Here are some Rotary initiatives and events we think we should know about.
Rotary clubs find all sorts of ways to make a difference in their communities. Here's an example of how some Rotarians in Detroit decided to spend some time.
Service Survey
One piece of being a Rotarian is finding ways - both big and small - to help others. Our members report the good deeds they do and the good efforts in which they participate, not in order to brag, but to remind us of the many possibilities there are for using what we have for those in need.
At the beginning of each month, we share what folks have been up to, and invite you to get ideas from what our people have been doing!As you've seen in recent meetings, we had four members (Art Taylor, Mahmood Khan, Rushton Hurley, and Allen Thompson) take part in Coastal Cleanup Day. Allen also helped with the Kern County Firefighters' effort to raise money for burn victims by standing with very sweet boxer Molly for four hours in the heat taking donations. Mitty Chang helped with the Interact District Council, as well as helping out the Rotary Club of Fremont Warm Springs Sunrise as they did their fundraiser of selling slurpies to those attending the local Art & Wine Festival. François Tessier helped a homeless woman in his community register at a woman's shelter so she can have a place to sleep at night; François additionally spent time volunteering at a health center while traveling in Colombia; not one to slow down, he also spent plenty of time promoting the crowdfunding effort for the health clinic in Sri Lanka he is championing (learn more here). Martin Fox used video conferencing technologies to mentor young entrepreneurs around the world. Richard Knaags, while traveling in Europe, saw many beggars, and gave to those who didn't seem to be caught in a chemical haze; once home, he helped with food deliveries to homeless shelters. Manju Ramachandran, who was already crazy busy with the visit by Indian Prime Minister Modi (she volunteered thirty hours as part of that effort), also found time to participate in the phonathon that raised $200,000 for Mountain View and Los Altos High Schools. And Heather Shaw and her team put in oodles of time preparing for the school supply drive we have been supporting.If all of that doesn't inspire you to find a way to donate a little time in your community, I don't know what will!For club members: Whatever service you have done, let us know – we use this information to inspire each other!
Happy Dollars
Every week we offer the opportunity for guests and members to express their gratitude for something good that has happened to them this past week. Think of this like a digital karma jar.
Many of our members kicked in as part of the fall project to help with the Buchser Middle School school supplies drive. Almost every member participated via a donation, a visit to Nova Chiropractic the day of the event, or by getting the word out to encourage others to drop off needed supplies.
Here are the messages from the Happy Dollars contributors from last week:
member François Tessier ($25)My donation is for the school supply drive.
member Mahmood Khan ($20)For the school.
member Stephen Zhou ($20)For Heather's school supply drive.
member Lisa Highfill ($30)For Heather Shaw and the school supplies drive - what a wonderful thing you are doing for students.
member Manju Ramachandran ($20)For the School Supplies Fundraiser!
member Chris Cochrane ($20)For Heather's school supplies drive.
member Shags Shagrin ($15)I sent $15 to cover what would have been spent on gas back and forth had I bought something and delivered it. Maybe next time we can do a crowd-funding thing?
almost-a-member Nate Gildart ($20)I would like to donate to Heather's school supplies drive.
member John Lozano ($15)For the school supply drive!
Here's the haul for the items brought in!Had anything cool happen recently? Perhaps you learned something new, or made a new friend, or visited some cool place. Let us know, and leave a happy dollar or two to celebrate it!
Birthdays
We have a string of member birthdays this week, so let's get to celebrating!
On the 8th, it is Deepali Mehrotra's birthday, and on that day in 1966, NBC premiered the first Star Trek series. There are many who honor your day with great reverence! May you live long and prosper.On the 9th, it is Catherine Liu's birthday, and on that day in 1850, California became the 31st state of the United States. From now forward in this club, as long as you're a member, the 9th shall be California-Catherine Day.On the 10th, it is Secretary Stephen Zhou's birthday, and on that day in 1960, Ethiopian Abebe Bikila became the first sub-Saharan African to win an Olympic gold medal. Best thing about it? He accomplished this with bare feet. Those are some serious (non-)shoes to fill, Stephen.On the 11th, it is President-elect Mitty Chang's birthday, and on that day in 1972, BART (the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system) began passenger service. Mitty, I'd love to tell you that progress to the point of having a bullet train here in California would happen before you take the helm of this club next July, but that unfortunately won't be the case. Japan started its bullet train system in 1964, after all. We'll get there, someday!
The Tidbit
Every week, we feature a new tech tid bit or life hack to make your life more convenient.
From Rushton HurleySometimes you have a block of text that is SCREAMING AT YOU. That is, it's all in UPPER CASE, and you want to make it something normal, because you have to add it to some other document, or something like that. Here's a nice tool to handle that quickly.
That site again: http://convertcase.net
A Little Humor
We feature a little bit of humor every week because we believe laughter is sometimes the best medicine, and we just want to brighten your day!
Here's one way of looking at love:If you love something, set it free.If it comes back, it was and always will be yours.If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with.If it just sits in your living room, messes up your stuff, eats your food, uses your phone, takes your money, and never behaves as if you actually set it free in the first place, you either married it or gave birth to it.May your week be more romantic than the picture painted in that last line.
Selected Comments from Last Week
Part of what it means to be in a club is to learn each other's thoughts regarding what we experience together. That's easy enough when a group of us attends a social or works together on a service project. More generally, though, each week we can add our thoughts to the Disqus section at the bottom of the meeting, read and even reply to what other members have posted, and enjoy learning more about how this amazing group of people sees the world.
Here are a number of comments from last week's meeting. We hope you'll enjoy them, and that we'll all have the chance to read what you add to this week's meeting!
Here are 5 selected comments from last week:
"Great videos. Thank you. Virtual Reality is truly amazing. Hi Corinne. I share your passion. We teach our learners AUTOCAD and make a 3D Printer available in order to inspire them to become inventors and to solve design issues though Rapid Prototyping. We want them to solve problems and work out how to make even the most basic of objects because these are fundamental lessons. We are also looking to purchase a new 3D Printer. Can you recommend one? We are struggling with Makerbot demos." -Richard Knaggs (South Africa)
"The fact that a young student has the ability to design something that will actually be used on the International Space Station is so amazing and powerful. Thank you for a wonderful presentation, Corinne! I love how these design challenges are pulling in youth to answer some of life's toughest questions in innovative ways, and I especially love the responses that the students produce -- totally inspiring! The parallel between the inspirational video and the program gives me all kinds of warm tingly feelings. Knowing that 3D animation and 3D printing are both bringing thoughts and ideas into something that can be tangibly explored and used shows the power of technology in creativity. (The Disney fangirl inside of me also very much enjoyed watching Glen Keane animate in real time :) )" -Yvonne Kwan, member (California, USA)
"Thanks for your presentation Corinne. I especially liked the space challenge and the interesting, creative solutions that students have come up with. Children have such amazing imagination, and 3D printing is a great way to exercise that creativity and turn their ideas into tangible things - awesome! It's great to hear that libraries are starting to offer 3D printing, bringing an expensive tool within reach of anyone in our communities." -Tzviatko Chiderov, guest (California, USA)
"Great meeting. I love the fact that the negative of no funding for the space project has turned into such a wonderful opportunity for the youth, as well as, providing inspiration for real solutions. Thank you again for all your support for the school supply drive. It was a great event thanks to all your suggestions. Pictures to follow" -Heather Shaw, member (California, USA)
"Very cool projects for kids. Corinne pointed out the magic when a kid gets to see the end result of their effort in their hand! Very cool stuff! Pointing out that learning can be a community activity was great. I think we don't access those resources enough, and community libraries aren't the same as they were 30 years ago, but are now dynamic places to learn. Wonderful presentation. I'm champing at the bit to get a 3D printer at my school!" -Nathan Gildart, guest (Japan)
Don't forget to add your comment at the end of the meeting. Even if it doesn't make the selected comments section next week, we all want to read what you add over the course of this week. It might even generate a discussion!
The Program
This week, we are pleased to have educator Trevor Muir and his students Jose, Ravel, Janessa, and Erin. Their program is called "Microfinance, Imperialism, and Burundi."
These students will tell about a project in their World History class in which they created businesses to raise funds to loan money to villagers in Burundi to start their own small business. This project looks at and studies imperialism and the effects of it on developing countries, all while students learn about making money and helping others.Kent Innovation High is in many ways very different from traditional high schools. With a focus on project-based learning and collaboration with both students and teachers, Kent Innovation High demonstrates some of the best thinking in the country about teaching and learning. Success for all students is a driving goal of this "lab" school, which serves as a learning laboratory for teachers and administrators who want to innovate back in their own schools.
To learn more about Kent Innovation High School, Kiva, and Trevor Muir, follow the links below.http://www.kentinnovationhigh.orghttp://www.kiva.org/http://www.trevormuir.com/
You’re Almost Done! The Attendance Survey..
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting! You just have two last things to do before you’re done with this meeting. First, we have a very short attendance survey below for you to fill out to record your attendance.
Visiting Rotarians, this is how you can get an email receipt 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 though.
More importantly, for all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment below in our DISQUS comments area. Tell us how you enjoyed the program. Ask this week’s speaker any questions you might have. Or just stop by and say hello and tell us where you’re from!
