"I Did Not Choose My Profession, It Chose Me"
This Meeting’s HighlightsProgram: "I Did Not Choose My Profession, It Chose Me"Speaker: Jeffrey HeilMeeting for the week of February 27, 2017 to March 5, 2017Is 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!
If you are looking for the new meeting for the week of March 6, 2017, that meeting is coming out tomorrow, Tuesday, March 7th! Sorry about the delay!
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Message from President Mitty
Rotary is Global!
New to our meetings? Then I want to welcome you to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley's online meeting! Every week we curate inspiring and educational content in an online format like the one you're seeing here. As you continue reading, watching, and scrolling, our hope is that you'll leave feeling a little bit more inspired. As an online Rotary club, we have these asynchronous meetings online, but we also meet in-person in the Silicon Valley / San Francisco bay area for service projects and for social events. Keep reading on, and feel free to also join us for one of our in-person events if you can make it!One of the biggest reasons I love Rotary so much is because of how global our Rotary family is. Our eClub is one of the best examples of this, with members in Canada to Australia to Japan to South Africa, and here in the California Silicon Valley. I am also reminded when I am traveling. This past week I had the pleasure of flying up to Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada to speak to the Rotary clubs up north on the importance of attracting younger generations into Rotary. Some photos below. (Including me receiving from the immediate past governor, "TimBits" for the first time! They're apparently famous in Canada; little donut holes from Tim Hortons.)I'm constantly amazed by the hospitality of Rotarians around the world when I travel. And that includes Grand Prairie, and the wonderful home hosting that I received.Members and guests, think about when the next time you have travel plans coming up, and think about connecting with a local Rotary club in the city you're traveling to. Ask them if you can stop by their club meeting, or if they have any service projects you can join in on. Or just ask if anyone is available to meet for a cup of coffee. When you're a Rotarian, you're family regardless of where you are traveling from.Members, we also now have club banners that you can exchange with other clubs! Expect them to be mailed out to all members in early April! If you need one sooner, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.comEnjoy the meeting this week! It was really wonderful to have a February where our club was so involved with our young Interact leaders. From the speech contest to sponsoring both Chris and Marilyn to Interact Presidents Winter Retreat (PWR), each member should feel incredibly proud. Our future is looking bright!
Yours in service,
Mitty Chang,
President
Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Weekly Inspiration: Making Instruments from Trash
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 on a man making music from trash.
Ken Butler is a Brooklyn-based artist and musician who has built over 400 musical instruments. But these aren't just any custom-built instruments. Butler builds his pieces from discarded items he finds on the streets of New York City. Hockey sticks, tennis rackets, brooms, golf clubs, pieces of furniture, styrofoam, toothbrushes: all are fair game for his masterpieces. It's musique concrète... jungle.
Super cool! Have you ever made something from trash? Tell us in the comments!
Laughing Out Loud (L.O.L.) with our Lady of LOLs
We believe that laughing a little every day keeps you healthier. Every week we try to share with you something that will make you smile! This section is curated by Rotarian Yvonne Kwan, our club’s “Lady of LOLs.”
From Yvonne: "March 2nd is Dr. Seuss Day! To celebrate one of my favorite childhood authors, I'm sharing one of my favorite quotes of his."
But in case any of you are really missing my jokes, here's one just for you:
What did the tree say to spring? What a re-leaf!
World of Rotary: Thank You from Interactor Marilyn
Rotary is a 1.2 million member organization, with clubs in over 170 different countries. In the Silicon Valley alone, there are over 50 Rotary clubs. Our club is one of many Rotary clubs out there, and this segment is dedicated to sharing stories about what's going on in the world of Rotary.
This week we are featuring a video message from one of the two Interactors our club sponsored to attend the district's Interact Presidents Winter Retreat (PWR) event that happened two weeks ago.PWR (pronounced "Power") is a two day, one night leadership camp that brings together 2 prospective or incoming club leaders from every Interact Club in our district for a weekend of team building, soul searching, friendship, and leadership development. PWR is considered by many a mini-RYLA. (RYLA is a longer leadership development camp for high school students Rotary districts, including our own, host.)In the video message below, we have Interactor Marilyn from the club our Rotary Club sponsors, Interact Club of KIPP San Jose Collegiate Prep located in San Jose, California.
Thank you to everyone who made a generous donation to the happy dollars in previous weeks during which we were collecting money to help sponsor and send two Interactors to PWR!While we weren't able to raise enough from happy dollars alone to cover both Interactors, our club's Board of Directors voted to cover the remaining amount from our club treasury. The happy dollars for this week goes back to our club treasury to refill the money we used to send these two Interact leaders to PWR.
For Members: 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.
Club Jam Session on April 2
Members, regardless of where you are, mark 11 AM to 2 PM Pacific Time on Sunday, April 2, 2017. We're having a club jam session to create more content for the club meetings. You can play a part in creating this content, and also in turn taking a bigger role with the club! If you can make it in-person, we'll be in San Jose, CA. If you can't make it in-person but can make it online, we'll be also keeping an online Zoom video call going for folks to join us! It'll be a great opportunity to be productive, do service to the club, and also get to know your fellow members!
Challenge Coins for Donations to The Rotary Foundation
From our Club Foundation Chair Andrew Taw: "To celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Rotary Foundation, District 5170 is currently offering beautiful challenge coins for donations to TRF during the 2016-2017 Rotary Year (which is from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017)! These coins have the 100th anniversary logo on one side and the 4-Way Test on the other."
Members who donate the following amounts will receive the following coins:
$1000 - Gold$500 - Silver$200 - Bronze
Donated enough to The Rotary Foundation since July 1, 2016 to qualify for a challenge coin already? Go ahead and request your Challenge Coin via the online form here then!Haven't donated enough to qualify for a coin yet? Then consider making those donations over the next few weeks!
February's Photo Theme
If you didn't see Kristi's message last week, here is the photo theme for February:
"To honor our current Rotary theme of “Rotary Serving Humanity” our February theme will
be:
HUMANITY.
The goal of this entire photo project is a way for all of us to get to see snapshots (literally!) of our respective corners of the world. A visual glimpse into each other’s lives, if you will. It isn’t a contest and is completely optional. In fact, if you want to submit a photo every week of the month showing us a picture you’ve taken of HUMANITY we’ll take that too! We’re still working out a few details about how we’re going to compile and share them, but will keep everyone updated as we move forward. Additionally, if you still want to take and submit a photo for January (theme: NEW), don’t hesitate to sneak that into this week’s comments too."
Members, didn't see your service report in the blotter? Then fill out the service survey!
Members, want to get your service update into the next service blotter? Please share what you’ve been up to, as it allows us to get to know each other better in the process! Just click on the link below to let us know!
For Members Only: 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)February to April events coming soon! Here are some of the major May and June events to look forward to!
Club Jam Session in San Jose - Sunday, April 2, 2017 from 11 AM to 2 PM
Members! We are putting together a club content jam session in San Jose. Join your fellow members and club leaders as we have a work party creating some of the content for the upcoming club meetings. Snacks, lunch, drinks, and fun times included! Location will be sent to members.
Charity Chili Cook Off for Justin's House - Sunday, April 23, 2017
For the past two years, our club has been volunteering at Justin's House. The mission of Justin’s House is to provide a variety of services that inspire youth to live beyond abuse and addiction. Our club is looking for members and guests who are interested in volunteering this year on Sunday, April 23, 2017 for their annual Chili Cookoff in Santa Clara, California. Interested members or guests, please contact our event chair, Rushton Hurley at rushton@gmail.com - thank you!
Our club's event chair: Rushton Hurley
Rotary District 5170 Conference - May 5-7, 2017 in Santa Cruz, California
Join hundreds of Rotarians from throughout our Rotary district for our annual Rotary District Conference! This year's conference will take place in Santa Cruz, California at the Boardwalk! This family-friendly event will be open to all guests and family members to attend. We hope to see more of our eClub members join us this year!
Our club's event chair: Yvonne Kwan
Rotary International Convention - June 10-14, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Join over 35,000 Rotarians from around the world at the annual Rotary convention! This year's convention will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and features the centennial celebration of The Rotary Foundation! The Rotary International Convention is the largest regular gathering of Rotarians, and is also one of the best networking opportunities anyone can ever experience. Our Rotary eClub will have member events and experiences in Atlanta! Come join us in Atlanta!
Our club's event chair: Mitty Chang
Happy Dollars: Support Our Club
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 our club's general fund. Here were the happy dollars donations from last week:
Thank you to member Rory Olsen for his $15 donation, to be donated to The Rotary Foundation's PolioPlus Fund! Rory had this to say:"I am happy to be alive, in good health and a Rotarian. Please apply my gift to Polio Plus."
Thank you to member Brian Liddicoat for his generous $15 donation! Brian had this to say:"Managed to get up to Tahoe last week during the storm: great snow for skiing with my son and no crowds!"
Thank you to member Yvonne Kwan for her $5 donation! Yvonne had this to say:"Cheers to a great first speech contest for our club!"
Thank you to member Heather Shaw for her generous $25 donation! Thanks Heather! Heather had this to say:"Mom's health"
Thank you to member Rushton Hurley for his generous $20 donation! Thank you Rushton! Rushton had this to say:"Work took me to Peru a couple of weeks ago (my first time there), and it was wildly cool to meet so many fascinating and dedicated teachers. I'll add a picture in for Kristi's theme. Raquel, I waved as we flew over Costa Rica. Did you see me? 8^)"
Thank you all for your donations last week!
This week's donations will go towards supporting club operations such as service grants.
Happy dollars is also a great opportunity to share with the group about something good that has happened to you.
So what are you happy about? Share with us below, and help support one of our future leaders!
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 about The Richard D. King Speech Contest at our club level:
Guest Annie Dang (California, USA) had this to say:"Hello Rotary e-Club of Silicon Valley! It was a nerve-racking yet unforgettable experience participating in the speech contest. Thanks so much for all the positive feedback!"
Guest Rachel Chu (California, USA) had this to say:"This was my first exposure to a Rotary eClub meeting, and I am very surprised at how well organized this is! Attending the meeting was a whole different experience than reading this blog-like entry of what actually happens. The website is so well presented and the sheer amount of comments/different member locations is overwhelming. I am definitely a happy camper- and that might have been because I wasn't the one speaking. Congratulations Annie and Kenny!"
Member John Lozano (California, USA) had this to say:"Great work Annie and Kenny! It was fun to judge this event (local members should join us next time). I enjoyed talking with Annie and Kenny after the competition, they are amazing young adults. Thanks to Yvonne for organizing the event. It was great to judge with Kenneth and talk with President Mitty about Rotary."
Member Brian Liddicoat (California, USA) had this to say:"As a trial lawyer, I love me some speech contest! Only way to get any good at public speaking and lose the fear is just to do a lot of it! Yvonne, love your jokes. I'm filing them away and springing them on my kids. I recently learned a good, clean joke I'll share by video..."
Member Rushton Hurley (California, USA) had this to say:"Chris, thanks for the message and the images from PWR - sounds like it was an amazing experience! Loved the turban video. Yvonne, the joke section is much more fun as a video with you and an audience. Well done with both that and all the work you put into the speech contest. Annie and Kenny, it's wonderful to see you both take on the challenge of delivering a speech. I have been in speech contests myself, and it was always a nerve-wracking experience. You both showed your heart in your message and performed under the pressure, and we are impressed! Lozano, good job protecting the camera during the drumroll. Kristi, here's an image from my trip to Peru. For the themes, Lima is a new city to me, and in the child's laugh, the picture shows the humanity we seek to foster everywhere. #forthethemewin!"
Member Nathan Gildart (Tokyo, Japan) had this to say:"Thanks for meeting. I'm always impressed with young people tackling tough topics such as these. I participated in public speaking in MS-HS as well and admire the courage of these two high schoolers to present! On the topic of public speaking, I spent the week in Kobe, Japan with Model United Nations students. It was inspiring to see youth address some of the world's most pressing issues, but from the perspective of a country they may have never been to or knew little about prior to the conference. We took an extra day to sight see around Kobe, Japan. On the topic of humanity I took a photo of "ema", wooden message boards see at Japanese shrines that describe the wishes or prayers of the individuals leaving them. (絵馬 - picture and horse, with the intended meaning "the vehicles of the gods") Horses were donated to shrines in the Nara period, but those who couldn't afford to donate a horse apparently left a wooden plaque with the image of a horse on it, hence the name. I think all over the world people have hopes, dreams and prayers, which is a demonstration of our "humanity". The work Rotary does helps people realize their dreams of puts a little hope into their hearts and when at the shrine I thought "This is it! This is "Humanity". Check out Kitano Tenmangu. https://goo.gl/cFfYOe (not to be confused with the one of the same name in Kobe)"
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!Tip: If you participate in the monthly photo contest via the comments, you're much more likely to be featured in the next week's meeting! Guests can participate too! Read our Members segment of our meeting to learn more about the theme for this month.
Program: "I Did Not Choose My Profession, It Chose Me"
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, education, technology, and humanitarian service. This week our guest is Jeffrey Heil, an educator and conference speaker.
About Jeff Heil:
Jeff is a digital learning innovator for the San Diego County Office of Education, an adjunct professor of educational technology at California State University San Marcos, a Google Certified Innovator and Education Trainer, as well as a Summit Lead for EdTechTeam. His mission in life is to spread the love of technology as a tool to transform student learning across the globe and to disrupt the predictability of skin color as the biggest predictor of who succeeds and fails in our public schools.As a frequent conference presenter (CUE & ISTE) and featured speaker (EdTechTeam featured speaker and CUE Rockstar Faculty), he is perpetually striving to transform education in everything that he does. This work was recognized in his selection as the Classroom of the Future Foundation’s Innovative Educator Award for 2015. He spent eight years teaching high school in a residential facility for students impacted by homelessness where he developed his passion for technology integration and educational equity. In 2005, he was selected as a Distinguished Teacher in Residence at California State University, San Marcos where he still works as an adjunct professor of educational technology in the School of Education. Most recently, he has helped facilitate the integration of GAFE, 1:1 Chromebooks, and blended learning in the SDCOE Juvenile Court and Community Schools.
"I Did Not Choose My Profession, It Chose Me."
From Jeff: "I became an educator at the age of 30. The ten plus years between high school and becoming a teacher were filled with many lessons, none of which were academic. It took a series of serendipitous events to get me to see what had always been there in front of me: I was born to be a teacher. A chance encounter at a homeless shelter decided my future. A future that has been dedicated to empowering students and teachers to have the courage and the capacity to disrupt the institutional obstacles that have prevented all students from truly achieving all of their educational and life's dreams."
Members and guests, please join us in welcoming Jeff Heil for our program hosted by past president Rushton Hurley!
Special thanks to member Rushton Hurley for introducing us to Jeff!
Related Links
Ask a question. Leave a comment!
Have a question for Jeff? Leave a comment or a question in the comments below! Or just tell us how your week has been!
Upcoming Program Schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 to 45 minutes long and are subject to change without notice. (Sometimes speakers cancel on us!)
Upcoming Recordings:
Want to be one of our upcoming program speakers? Email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with information about what you would like to speak about!
If you would like to join us for any of the live recordings, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with your request. Requests will be checked up until 5 minutes prior to the recording time. Please note the timezone is all California, USA 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!
