This is the meeting for the week of November 6, 2017 through November 12, 2017

This Meeting at a Glance:Program: Muzinda Hub: Digital Skills Training in ZimbabweProgram Description: Established in 2014, Muzinda Hub's aim is to provide Zimbabweans with access to globally competitive digital skills training, to further cultivate employment opportunities and effect positive transformation through the use and application of technology. This presentation will profile the in-roads made in providing access to this training, as well as plans for 2018/2019.Speaker: Vimbai Gwata, Operations Manager of Muzinda Hub in Zimbabwe

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; 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!

Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!

Here's a message from President-elect Andrew:

Welcome, members and guests!

Last Sunday was Daylight Savings for those of us in countries who turn back the clocks an hour. For many of us, it's a time to sleep in without guilt or to naturally wake up earlier and have a longer morning to take our time with our coffee or loved ones. If we had just a little extra time every day, what might we do with it?

For our program this week, we have Vimbai Gwata, Operations Manager of Muzinda Hub in Zimbabwe. Vimbai will be sharing Muzinda Hub's mission of digital skills training. Look forward to a wonderful program from her!

Lastly, I'd like to acknowledge the veterans in our club and among our guests as we move into Veterans Day

on Friday

.

Sincerely,

Andrew Taw,

President-elect

Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley

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!"

From our club's Lady of Laughter, Yvonne Kwan:

"Hope y'all are bready for some doughy jokes!"

What does bread do after it's done baking?

Loaf around.

What did the butter say to the bread?

I'm on a roll!

What did the bread say to the crouton?

LET'S GET BREADDDYYYYY TO CRUMMMBBBLLLEEEEEEE

Weekly Inspiration: This Poker-Playing AI Could Change the World

Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change. This week we are featuring a video from Great Big Story about artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year, Libratus, an artificial intelligence, made headlines by besting poker champions from around the world in Texas Hold ‘Em. Astrophysicist and professional poker player Liv Boeree looks beyond the game to imagine how a supercomputer-driven AI can solve some of humanity’s biggest problems. Invented by Carnegie Mellon professor Dr. Tuomas Sandholm and powered by HPE technology, Libratus is capable of much more than mastering a mathematically-complex card game. It has the potential to answer some of our most enduring and complex questions about the nature of the universe.

When we think about how far even smartphone technology has come in the past 10 years, and we apply that to where we will be in 10 years with AI technology, the possibilities are truly endless!

Coffee with a Rotarian

Every month our club members are paired with fellow members and special guests for an exclusive one-on-one coffee session called Coffee with a Rotarian. The idea is simple: spend 1 hour of your time during the month to get to better know a fellow Rotarian! Some of the greatest friendships were spawned that way. Members report on their coffee sessions here.

This week we feature a coffee session between two of our members: Chris Cochrane from Canada and Brett Sham from Australia.

Here is what Chris had to say about Brett:

"Had an excellent, online, e-coffee with Brett Sham, one of our members in Sydney, Australia.Cool guy. He works in finance for PWC in an office overlooking Sydney harbour that’s more like a playground than the traditional cubicles/offices. A room with Leggo, another with video games, open space, no traditional offices are among the features. As a film producer I can relate to open work spaces. Maybe getting a video game setup on set should become the norm in my business! Would you believe he’s an introvert? Apparently so. But he loves to jive 💃🏻 dance, what we Canadians call Rockabilly. One needs to be less introverted to dance jive so it means he has many sides."

Thank you, Chris, for sharing! Next week we'll feature Brett's side of the story.

A big shout out to Tzviatko Chiderov for continuing to chair and organize these Coffee with a Rotarian sessions! If you are not yet signed up for a Coffee Session, please email Tzviatko at tchiderov@gmail.com to sign up!

World of Rotary

The over 1.2 million members of Rotary Clubs around the world form the largest humanitarian service organization, Rotary International. We're part of this global family. This segment is a tribute to stories and to good deeds Rotary clubs around the world are conducting.

Our club focuses on innovation, education, entrepreneurship, and humanitarian service. That's why we love it when projects blend our different focuses together. In this week's World of Rotary segment, we are featuring a new innovation with the fight against polio.Health workers fighting polio in Pakistan and Nigeria are replacing paper-based health reporting with mobile phones and text messaging to provide more accurate data.https://youtu.be/tTH6gxXgo2I

Read the full story at https://www.rotary.org/cellphones-help-disease-eradication

For Members Only: Updates

This segment of the meeting is dedicated to our club members. This section includes announcements and new initiatives. Guests, you are welcome to read this section or just skip it.

Message from the Club's Programs Committee:https://youtu.be/JlTCwlIYb-AReady to introduce someone to the club's programs committee? Email Committee Chair Rushton at programs@siliconvalleyrotary.comMembers: NAMEBADGES ARE COMING! Update your info please!

The Membership Committee is working on ordering new magnetic name badges for each member! We are missing the info for many members!!!

These name badges will have your name on it and your profession. Perfect for wearing when you attend any Rotary events or meetings. In order to do this, we need your most updated information. Members,

please click here to submit your info.

Past Member Announcements:

Active members now have yourname@siliconvalleyrotary.com email forwarders! Your forwarder should be your full first name plus the first initial of your last name. Emails going to your @siliconvalleyrotary.com email will be forwarded automatically to the email you have on file with our club. If you want your email forwarder changed to a different variation of your name, please email Webmaster Mitty at mittyc@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
Service Blotter Submissions: Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey

Our Events & Projects

We hold our meetings online, but we hold regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley every month! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of our 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!

https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleyrotary/

Upcoming Events:

All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)

Sunday, November 19, 2017 - Coming soon!

We are gearing up for a club social on November 19th! Mark your calendar!

Other Upcoming Club Events:

Friday, December 8, 2017 - Save the date for a club dinner (Details TBD)
Saturday, January 13, 2018 - Save the date for a club outdoor expedition (Details TBD)
Saturday, February 28, 2018 - Save the date for a club skydiving event (Details TBD)

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! What would you like to do? We're working on putting together some exciting socials and impactful service projects for our upcoming quarter's event calendar. 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!)

Last week's happy dollars went towards helping rebuild communities in Chiapas, Mexico that were affected by the recent earthquakes as part of our two week happy dollars dedication. Here are some of the happy dollar messages from last week:

Thank you to member Monique Ziesenhenne for her generous $25 donation towards helping rebuilding communities in Mexico. Monique had this to say:"It's very nearly my favorite day of the year, daylight savings...1 extra hour of sleep! Thanks. $25 to Chiapas."

Thank you to member Rory Olsen for his generous $15 donation to PolioPlus. Rory had this to say:"Please apply my gift to Polio Plus. Finished up the paperwork yesterday for my FEMA loan to reconstruct the house from the flooding at the end of August!"

Thank you to member Brian Liddicoat for his generous $15 donation towards helping rebuilding communities in Mexico. Brian had this to say:"The Dodgers lost the World Series! So happy!"

Thank you to member Andrew Taw for his generous $25 donation towards helping rebuilding communities in Mexico. Andrew had this to say:"For the special relief fund in Chiapas, Mexico in celebration of me winning a recently grant from Clorox!"

Thank you to member Rushton Hurley for his generous $25 donation towards helping rebuilding communities in Mexico. Rushton had this to say:"Glad to be able to help the people in Mexico!"

Thank you to member Mitty Chang for his generous $10 donation towards helping rebuilding communities in Mexico. Mitty had this to say:"Really appreciative to be so lucky to have the opportunity to travel to Illinois twice over the past two weeks for Rotary conferences. I love meeting fellow Rotarians from across the world! I'm also grateful for everything I have in life. Please add this humble amount to the relief effort in Mexico."

Thank you all for your donations last week! Thanks to everyone's generous contributions over the past two weeks, we have raised $500 towards the relief efforts in Chiapas, Mexico!

Happy dollars is also a great opportunity to share with the group about something good that has happened to you, while giving back to a great cause. Next week's happy dollars will go back to powering our club's projects locally and globally.

So what are you happy about? Share with us below to help with doing good around the world.

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Selected Six

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 six comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.

Here are six comments selected from last week's meeting featuring the program on Education Without Backpacks:

Member Brian Liddicoat (California, USA) had this to say:"Khan Academy is terrific. We use it in my kids' school and there's so much good stuff on it, I've started watching it myself. You can even learn electrical engineering on Khan Academy: it's way beyond geometry lessons now."

Member Leanza Tupfer (California, USA) had this to say:"With the recent press coverage and depressing % of women in STEM, I am inspired by Dr. Kate Biberdorf's dedication to chemistry education and "blowing up" stereotypes of what roles/fields women should be in. Thank you for breaking the glass ceiling and inspiring students with your theatrical chemistry demonstrations, Dr. Biberdorf!"

Guest Dr. Carlos Gabuardi had this to say:"As an educator my self, this session was quite exciting for me, since it is an actual invitation to reflect not only about education, but also about the future and the impact of innovation and new technologies on the world. I agree with the implied message of Dr. Biberdorf, education has to be fun. I admire and respect all the good work she is doing. New technologies have already been changing the educational process (she is a good example of it) and the role of educators and students is being modified. Institutional or formal education will have to adapt to all these changes, but it will also be in competition with "self-taught" education, bringing new challenges on how these self-educated people will be acknowledged in comparison with formally educated students, among many other implications. It seems like the Shock of the Futures is already here, but there is much more to come.

Member Tzviatko Chiderov had this to say:"Daniel, thanks again for speaking to our club. The traditional education system is due for disruption and I hope tools like Khan Academy become truly mainstream as more educators are made aware of their ability to bring more efficiency and a more targeted approach to teaching and learning."

Member Monique le Conge Ziesenhenne (California, USA) had this to say:"Fascinating and diverse meeting today! Love John Cena's video and his help for Rotary - just great to have such a visible and recognizable supporter. I hope this is the last year we have to do this, because polio will be completely eradicated. Khan Academy is such a useful tool. Daniel, thank you for sharing your work; your thinking about the future of education is great food for thought and the ideas around automating the corrections needed would be amazing (at least to my teacher friends who spend whole days marking papers!). And the big idea was awesome - almost makes me want to learn chemistry. Boom!"

Member Mark Dohn had this to say:"Awesome videos! From Women in Chemistry challenging stereotype to how smart John Cena is! He really show how smart he is by asking an expert about something doesn't know. ;-) Daniel, thank you so much for sharing your story of bringing Khan Academy to Bulgaria. The strength of your vision is apparent in the depth of your questioning - that you look beyond pushing out a valuable tool to education (the old model) and take the time to share and get input from educators will ultimately prove to be much more successful."

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: Digital Skills Training in Zimbabwe

Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, education, technology, and humanitarian service. This week our guest speaker is Vimbai Gwata, the Operations Manager of Muzinda Hub.

Vimbai Gwata is the Operations Manager for the Harare-based technology hub, Muzinda Hub. With a background in professional services, IT consulting and youth development, she has committed herself to developing world-class IT professionals to contribute to the growth and success of the African digital economy Vimbai holds a BCom Honours in Information Systems from The University of Cape Town and advocates for innovative digital solutions to social, economic and environmental challenges.

Members and guests, please join me in welcoming Vimbai!

What did you think? Let's hear from you!

Share with us your thoughts in the comments at the bottom of this meeting page! If you have questions for Vimbai, feel free to ask her in the comments too!

Upcoming Program 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.

Upcoming Weekly Programs:

Week of

Host

Guest Speaker

Topic

Week of 11/13/2017

Andrew Taw

Heather Shaw, Tzviatko Chiderov

Min-e grantee Panel

Week of 11/20/2017

Heather Shaw

Joe Choi

TheraBaby for Seniors with Dementia

Week of 11/27/2017

Ferheen Abbasi

Zahra Billoo

TBC: Council on American-Islamic Relations

Upcoming Recordings:

If you would like to join us for any of the live recordings, you are welcome to join us. Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always https://zoom.us/j/5104080000. Please note the timezone for all recordings are listed for San Francisco, California, USA time (Pacific Time).

You’re Almost Done! One last thing: The Attendance Survey...

Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done. 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 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.More importantly, for all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment below 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!

Muzinda Hub: Digital Skills Training in Zimbabwe