Cracking the Code to Loneliness
MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF Oct 7, 2024
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Cracking the Code to Loneliness
Speaker: Adam Greene
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 complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
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Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
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Message from our President
As the 2024-2025 President of our Club, I welcome our members, fellow Rotarians, friends, and guests. Thanks for joining our weekly meeting!
I am traveling this week, so I will be writing my remarks rather than recording them.
As you know, Hurricane Helene caused massive devastation in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, which are in our sister Zones 33 and 34. Many of our fellow Rotarians and their neighbors have been severely impacted by the loss of lives, homes, and businesses.
As Rotarians, it’s in our DNA to reach out in situations like this and offer our help. I have been given this information to pass along to our members and friends who may want to send a donation.
Message from Zones 33 & 34 Director Patrick Eakes:
Friends:
I appreciate your concern and prayers as communities across zones 33 and 34 try to survive the next few days before starting the long recovery following Hurricane Helene.
We have established a fund where those who would like to assist recovery efforts by donating can do so via online payment, mailed check, or wire transfer. Information on how to donate is at https://www.rizones33-34.org/disaster-relief/ . Our zones’ organization is a 501(c)(3), so donations are generally tax-deductible. However, Beth would be distraught if I didn’t add the caveat that donors should check with their tax advisors.
We are collecting these funds at a zones level. I will ask district leaders, in cooperation with club leaders, in the most affected areas to submit requests for funding to a group of seasoned leaders (many with significant disaster relief experience) who I will appoint. This group will make recommendations to me to approve grants that will support the efforts of volunteers by providing equipment, tools, storage, mobile storage, etc. Our hope is that our donations can amplify the efforts of volunteers, which seems like a solid Rotary type of approach. When we can, we will leverage district grants and RI disaster relief grants (if/when they become funded again) to further maximize our impact.
Thank you again for your many texts, phone calls, and caring about the residents affected by Helene.
Patrick
For those of you who may want to donate to the Red Cross, please send to: https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation.html/ - Be sure to state: Designation Hurricane Helene
This week’s program is a science-based presentation by Adam Greene about loneliness and social connection, particularly regarding the experiences of older adults. We’ve heard from other speakers in past meetings about the impact of loneliness, but it’s been hard to quantify how it affects us and society. Adam’s data-driven approach not only promises to enhance the quality of life for individuals but also has the potential to significantly reduce the billions spent on healthcare costs associated with social isolation. By fostering a cycle of measurement, improvement, and innovation, we're not just combating loneliness but paving the way for a more connected, compassionate, and economically sustainable future for our aging population. I know you will learn a lot from this excellent presentation.
And now, it is my pleasure to open this week’s meeting!
WEEKLY FUNNY WITH SHAGS
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 Steven "Shags" Shagrin!
Jimmy the Insomniac
My cousin Jimmy was having a terrible time falling asleep unless he was lying on a pile of old magazines.
It turns out he had back issues.
INSPIRATION
Ever written a novel? If not, perhaps you'll want to try after watching this video on challenging yourself to do something new every day for the next thirty days.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Make Your Life Exciting Again
Dr. Andrew Huberman and Dr. Anna Lembke discuss why life can feel so boring and HOW TO FIX IT.
Club News For Members
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Our Weekly Bulletin, sent every Monday, provides club information. To stay informed, please ensure your email is current on ClubRunner and add mailservice@clubrunner.ca to your address book so it does not go into Spam.
PROGRAM: Cracking the Code to Loneliness
SPEAKER: Adam Greene
We bring you a new program every week on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education and how they contribute to service to others.
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 or 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!
This week's speaker, Adam Greene, is an expert on loneliness and social connection, particularly regarding the experiences of older adults. This work has led him to found Klaatch and develop the Social Quotient, a measure designed to quantify and assess social connection and loneliness, and has been informed by his collaborations with institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, Quinnipiac University, and the University of Nebraska.
From Greene:
"In our hyper-connected digital age, loneliness has emerged as a paradoxical epidemic, particularly affecting older adults. The Social Quotient, developed by Klaatch, represents a revolutionary approach to quantifying and understanding the complex nature of loneliness. This innovative metric goes beyond simply measuring the degree of social isolation; it identifies specific dimensions contributing to an individual's loneliness, whether stemming from the loss of a spouse, retirement-related identity shifts, or physical limitations. By providing this nuanced assessment, the Social Quotient offers a powerful tool to prove the effectiveness of interventions in reducing loneliness and, more importantly, to understand for whom these interventions work best.
"The significance of this measurement tool extends far beyond individual interventions. As our global population ages, with more people over 65 than under 5 for the first time in history, the societal and economic impacts of loneliness are set to escalate dramatically. The Social Quotient empowers intervention creators, healthcare providers, and policymakers with valuable feedback, driving continuous improvement and innovation in addressing loneliness. This data-driven approach not only promises to enhance the quality of life for individuals but also has the potential to significantly reduce the billions spent on healthcare costs associated with social isolation. By fostering a cycle of measurement, improvement, and innovation, we're not just combating loneliness; we're paving the way for a more connected, compassionate, and economically sustainable future for our aging population."
Members and guests, please welcome Adam Greene!
To read from a collection of blogs about our approach and perspective on loneliness among older adults:
https://www.klaatch.com/what-we-think-about
A video on how Klaatch works:
How to use analytics to redesign community space to foster social connection:
https://www.klaatch.com/space-optimization-for-social-connection
Our Three Podcast Series
Our main program speakers are available as podcasts in addition to YouTube videos! Each week, they are available on Spotify and Apple podcasts.
Or you can click below for this week’s speaker:
The Weekly Rotarian
Inspiring Solutions
And our original podcast, featuring some of the best of our previous speakers, is still available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Development Success Stories
Our third podcast features success stories about economic development from around the world. It is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, or you can click below.
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.
THE ATTENDANCE SURVEY
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
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 to pass along to your club’s secretary as proof that you’ve attended our meeting if you need it for makeup.
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.
For all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment in our comments area below. 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!
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