From Silicon Valley to Soda, Ethiopia - a Global Grant to improve education and the economy of a small community.
Meeting for the week of November 16 - November 22, 2020
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: From Silicon Valley to Soda, Ethiopia - a Global Grant to improve education and the economy of a small community.
Speaker: Cecelia Babkirk
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 Tzviatko Chiderov - Immediate Past President:
Tzviatko Chiderov
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 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 !
A Groaner!
For a period, Houdini used a trap door in every single show he did…I guess you could say it was a stage he was going through.
Weekly Inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
One of the things we do on the programs committee when we encounter something interesting is to reach out and connect with the people we'd like to see present to the club. At the moment, I'm communicating with people from an organization called Skateistan, which seems very interesting, and asked them for a short video I could use to introduce them to all of you now. This animated piece tells the story of the work they are doing in Afghanistan, South Africa, and Cambodia, to give kids new avenues to build confidence and reconnect to their educational opportunities. Enjoy!
Coffee With a Rotarian
Every 4 weeks, each member of our club is matched with another member for one-on-one conversations!
Here are the current matches!
Manuj Mittal and Angelica Marotta
Sarah Tuberty and Rushton Hurley
Maxi Bustos and Suzanne Van Stralen
Tzviatko Chiderov and Hardeep Kaur Singh
Nathan Gildart and Tanya Martin
Brett Sham and Catherine
Carlos Gabuardi and Gabi Lopez
Alexandra Heller and Imad Ghoummid
Keith Marsh and Nan Herron, MD
Ferheen Abbasi and Mark Dohn
Roger Plested and Kelly Ku
Rory R. Olsen and Cecelia Babkirk
Tatiana LaGarde and Olu
Nick LaGarde and Richard Knaggs
Mark Busani and Cal Mann
Caleb LaPlante and May Yam
Sandy Stabile and Felix Pretscheck
Steven -Shags- Shagrin and Susan Howell
Mahmood Khan and Emily Paver
Weren’t matched? 😔
Join the #coffee-with-a-rotarian channel in our club’s Slack workspace to participate in the next round!
World of Rotary
Every week we will focus on a particular story that tells of our organization and the work of Rotarians in the world.
Rotarians pledge to restore the monarch butterfly’s disappearing habitat.
https://www.rotary.org/en/rotarians-pledge-restore-monarch-butterflys-disappearing-habitat
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.
November is The Rotary Foundation month. I was asked to provide a photo of one of my International Service projects funded with a matching grant from TRF. In 1997, our club in San Rafael, CA refurbished a fire engine that we donated to the Mexican city of Colima (near Project Amigo). Two of our members drive it to the Mexican border where it was received by firemen from Colima. This was my first photo to be published in The Rotarian Magazine. My wife and I have been contributing to TRF for over 30 years and have funded 6 Paul Harris Recognition Awards.
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.
Hot Air Fryer Jingles!
Thanks to Club member Ferheen for finding this video on unique things to do using a Hot Air Fryer. There are more in the series, so you'll probably be seeing them here soon!
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!
Week of Nov 15th - Make or buy Thanksgiving Cards for Seniors at your local Senior Home or the following home:
Fremont Hills: 35490 Mission Blvd, Fremont, CA 94536
Attention: Jessica
How many cards you should make: 3-5
Ideas: https://www.housebeautiful.com/entertaining/holidays-celebrations/g22715524/happy-thanksgiving-cards/
https://www.pinterest.com/cmisfavs/cards-thanksgiving/
Please postmark by November 20th so it gets to the Senior Home (earlier if you are outside the Bay Area)
Don’t forget to take a selfie or a screenshot and post it to the #52-ways-to-be-a-more-engaged-rotarian channel!
https://app.slack.com/client/TNH7VRC0M/C01CQ53AE95
Thank you to the following Rotarians for posting about last week's challenge:
-Ferheen Abbasi
-Rushton Hurley
-Sandy Stabile
-Suzanne Van Stralen
Here is what Rushton wrote:
"On my way to the grocery store today, I saw this [wrapper], and confiscated it for trash can deposit. Why? Because I was prompted by #52-ways-to-be-a-more-engaged-rotarian"
Here is a picture of the trash Sandy found:
Here is a picture of Ferheen with her collected trash:
Here is a picture of the trash Suzanne found:
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/
Service Project Information
Club members, if you are participating or have previously participated in a service project as part of our club, could you please complete the following form:
https://forms.gle/jxfpHHiKBv7P5YXy5
New Members Introduction
Armand Kambou
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.
Weather is nice. My three cats, my wife and I are enjoying the cooler weather.
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.
TLaGarde said:
Thanks so much Orrin and all the club members participating for this great presentation! It was full of wonderful information about how the Rotary Foundation makes such a difference. I'm excited by hearing about the many fantastic projects that our district has worked on in the past two years. It's inspiring to see. I'm excited too about our first global grant and thank Cecelia for spearheading this important project -- thanks Cecelia!
Rushton Hurley said:
Hearing about the different projects was very cool - thanks again, Orrin! I'm excited about what Cecelia is spearheading for our first global grant, too. The LSN video didn't play for me, but the one frame that appeared seemed to suggest it was over an hour long. That doesn't sound right... I'm proud to be an annual donor to TRF, as well. Made my contribution in October!
Suzanne Van Stralen said:
Thanks to Orrin for the informative presentation on the Rotary Foundation. It is good to realize how active our District is worldwide. Rotary makes an important difference around the world.
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: From Silicon Valley to Soda, Ethiopia - a Global Grant to improve education and the economy of a small community.
Speaker: Cecelia Babkirk
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those 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 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!
Cecelia Babkirk has been a Rotarian since 1994. She has been club President twice and held numerous District 5170 leadership positions, including as Chair of on the District 5170 Rotary Foundation Committee. She is the recipient of the Citation for Meritorious Service and the Distinguished Service awards for her service to the district and The Rotary Foundation. She became a member of the Rotary e-Club of Silicon Valley in 2017 and in 2019, she retired from the mortgage business and entered the Peace Corps, where she served in a rural town in southern Ethiopia, until being evacuated in March 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This presentation is about the backstory of a project that our club will be supporting - a Global Grant in Soda, Ethiopia.
Learn more at:
https://www.rotary.org/en/about-rotary/rotary-foundation
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.
You’re Almost Done! Please complete 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 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.
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!
Important: Once you submit the Attendance Survey below, please make sure you see the confirmation message. If you get an error message instead, please try the 'submit' button again, and if that doesn't work, please refresh the page and fill out the form again. Thanks!
