The Impact of Good in Zimbabwe by the Rotary Club of Borrowdale Brooke
This Meeting’s HighlightsProgram: The Impact of Good in Zimbabwe by the Rotary Club of Borrowdale BrookeProgram Description: Join us with our guest speaker, the president of the Rotary Club of Borrowdale Brooke in Zimbabwe, as he shares with us the amazing work that their Rotary club is doing in Zimbabwe!Speaker: Kuda Nyemba, Club President 2016-2017 for the Rotary Club of Borrowdale BrookeMeeting for the week of April 3, 2017 through April 9, 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!
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Message from President Mitty
Sharing Rotary
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!Members and guests, welcome to our club meeting and welcome to April! I hope you all enjoyed your April Fools weekend! If you have any good stories of any pranks, feel free to share that in the comments with us!This past weekend we held our club's first quarterly content jam session. Special thanks to past president Rushton for hosting at his house, and to everyone who attended! These content jam sessions originated as a desire from president-elect Stephen to get more members involved with contributing to parts of the meetings for his upcoming year. That idea sparked a conversation about how instead of assigning weekly assignments to members, what if we made the task more fun by organizing a "content jam session" where once a quarter we would get together for a fun work session where we would find and create some of the content for the next three months worth of club meetings! These content jam sessions would be infused with food and drinks, and would also be a natural opportunity for our club members to catch up with one and another in-person and digitally online. I'm happy to report that our first content jam session was a success, and also an excellent learning opportunity! We have some ideas now about how to make the next one in July much more fun and organized!This week our guest speaker is a fellow Rotary Club President! I'm excited for you to hear his story, and also the projects his Rotary club in Zimbabwe has been working and is working on. It's so easy to get lost in Rotary and to forget that Rotary is a global organization with over 200,000 clubs worldwide, each doing amazing work. You'll learn more about Kuda and the impact his club is making in Zimbabwe during the program, so please be sure to watch it!Lastly, I want to also wish happy belated March birthdays to our members Andrew Knaack and Tzviatko Chiderov! And then happy April birthdays to members Chris Cochrane and Kenneth Oku! Our Birthday Baroness is back this week to give our wonderful March and April birthdays a little bit of love. Cheers!
Yours in service,
Mitty Chang,
President
Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Weekly Inspiration: The Cityscape Savant
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 The Cityscape Savant: Drawing Our World Entirely By Memory!
Stephen Wiltshire is an artist who was diagnosed with autism when he was three years old. Though he had difficulty verbally communicating, he loved to draw—and had a remarkable and powerful memory for what he saw. Stephen has turned this into a career as an architectural artist, with the extraordinary ability to recreate cityscapes in incredible detail entirely from memory. His talents have taken him all over the world, and his beautiful work is as impressive as his talents.
Incredible! How much of a cityscape can you remember and draw after seeing it once?
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: April 3 is National Chocolate Mousse Day! Here are some chocolatey jokes for your consumption.
What do you call a lamb covered in chocolate?A candy baa.
What's a monkey's favorite cookie?Chocolate chimp.
What kind of candy is never on time?ChocoLATE.
Birthdays with the Baroness of Birthdays
We love our members. Without them, this club wouldn’t exist. This section is a segment dedicated to appreciation them and their special days.
“Hello Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley! This is Nicole, your Baroness of Birthdays. I was thrilled when Mitty asked me to be your Baroness of B-days. My two favorite things are balloons and cake!! Every month, we’ll give shoutouts to our fellow Rotarians and I’ll give you all some fun facts that you might or might not have known before."
First off I'd like to apologize for the delay! Alas, life has been quite a whirlwind but I didn't forget about my amazing club. :D Thank you for understanding.
For the month of March, we are celebrating Andrew Knaack and Tzviatko Chiderov!
March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. This is probably because the Roman battle season began in spring.
Alexander Graham Bell made the first ever phone call on 10 March 1876. He called his assistant and said “Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you.”
It was on 15 March 44BC that Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Senate chamber in Rome – the assassination was led by Marcus Junius Brutus.
March is Women's History and Fire Prevention Month.
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”-- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
For the month of April, we are celebrating Chris Cochrane and Kenneth Oku!
In the initial Roman calendar, April was the second month of the year until January and February were added in 700 BC. It is thought that the name April comes from the Latin word "to open" and describes the trees opening at springtime. It could also be that the name comes from the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
Small animals that hibernate are usually coming out of their burrows in April. The birds fly back northward or they settle down to have their families. The bees and butterflies begin to gather nectar from the first flowers of the season.
April Fool's Day, or All Fools' Day, is the first day of April. No one knows where the custom began, but some historians believe it started in France. They had a New Year's festival that was celebrated from March 25 to April 1, and they would then exchange gifts. But, later, King James IV changed the holiday to
January 1
for New Years. The people that still celebrated it April 1 were called 'April fish' and sent mock presents.
April is National Poetry and Jazz Appreciation Month!
“Men are April when they woo, December when they wed.”-- Shakespeare, As You Like It
Coffee with a Rotarian
A natural part of Rotary is the networking and the fellowship you get out of meeting other Rotarians. Coffee with a Rotarian is a program of our club where we match our members with other Rotarians that they haven't had a chance to really get to talk to. This program is organized by member Tzviatko Chiderov.
In this week's Coffee with a Rotarian, we are featuring the continuation of the coffee meetup between our two club members Kristi Govertsen from Montana, USA and Rushton Hurley from California, USA!
Here is what Kristi had to say about Rushton!
And here is what Rushton had to say about Kristi!
Super cool! Check in next week for more Coffee with a Rotarian stories!
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.
Do you notice any changes to the homepage hero image?
You'll need to check this out on a desktop or laptop device, but have you seen our homepage's updated hero image? Our resident South African member Richard Knaggs contributed an edited version of the homepage hero with his own photo spliced into it! Excellent Photoshop work, to Richard's team! Members, this sparked a wonderful idea: what if we feature all of our club members in the hero image? If you're able to take a photo of yourself against a green screen (any background that is completely green), President Mitty will splice your image into the hero image! Send your photo to president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with the subject line "Rotary eClub Homepage Hero Project."
Reminder - 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!
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
Community Partner Message
Rotary is about creating partnerships and connections in our communities. This segment is for our local community partners to share a message directly to our club.
We are joined this week with a video message from local Silicon Valley-based charity Justin's House's Board Member Tabitha Hurley (left) and Founder & President Kelly Villarreal (right). Justin's House provides a variety of services that inspire youth to live beyond abuse and addiction. They do this by honoring individuality, promoting healing, nurturing potential, encouraging growth, and by restoring dignity within a safe and honest environment. You can learn more about Justin's House and the work they do in the Silicon Valley by visiting justinshouse.org.
Tabitha and Kelly share with us an upcoming event for Justin's House happening April 23, 2017! Check out their message below!
Interested in supporting Justin's House, while chowing down on some delicious chili?
Then check out their Chili Cook Off tickets below here: justinshouse.org/event/2017-annual-chili-cook-off/If you go, be sure to look for our club's chili booth! We'll be there!
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!
Service: 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
Network: 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
Network: 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! Members, be sure to let President Mitty know the dates you will be there!
Our club's event chair: Mitty Chang
Club Charity Fundraiser - Sunday, August 6, 2017 at Retzlaff Vineyard in Livermore, California
Save the date for Sunday, August 6, 2017 for our club's first annual charity fundraiser! This delicious food and wine lunch event will indulge your taste buds while we enjoy amazing company, live music, silent auctions, auctions, and ticket drawings. More info coming soon.
Our club's event chair: Andrew Taw
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 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:"Life is good. Please apply my gift to Polio Plus."
Thank you to member Brian Liddicoat for his generous $15 donation! Brian had this to say:"Half-way through my 2-week construction law trial in Napa. Wow: a lot worse places to have to spend two weeks in good weather. Cross-examining witnesses on 40,000 lb bulldozers by day and dining in good restaurants by night."
Thank you all for your donations last week!
This week's donations will go towards supporting club operations!
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 Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY):
Guest Angela Hoang (Australia) had this to say:"Thank you ladies for your amazing presentation, I'm so glad there are people out there like you who are helping disadvantaged youth feel like they're supported and that they can overcome their adversities to achieve their goals. You're both inspirational women and it was a privilege listening to your talk this week, absolutely incredible!"
Member Mark Dohn (Michigan, USA) had this to say:"Susie and Evelyn, thank you so much for this presentation. Having worked with incarcerated and adjudicated youth, I love what you are doing!"
Member John Lozano (California, USA) had this to say:"Susie and Evelyn, thanks for the great presentation. Knowing some people that work in the juvenile justice system, they tell me how great the FLY program is for our communities youth. Thanks for all the great work you do."
Guest Maxi Bustos (California, USA) had this to say:"Susie, thanks so much for your presentation and for your hard work on FLY, I think the impact your organization makes is impressive. Evelyn, thanks for sharing your experience, it is inspiring to hear your story and how you have overcome different life challenges."
Member Shags Shagrin (California, USA) had this to say:"My resolution for 2017 is to have no new resolutions, but to simply carry on and just "be". "Being not" is not an option...yet! Sorry that the past few months of program recordings have taken place during an already committed time-frame -- they are the best! I need to make some yeot -- I once made a Bit-o-Honey confection with my kids which was great, but ripped out fillings from adults and caused cavities in kids -- but soooo yummy! That smile after the taste on Bong-Seok Kang's face says it all... Agree with Yvonne's comment about the Great Big Story video -- I'm thinking a savory cheesecake (umami w/fresh crab lumpmeat vs sweet) with sashimi on top -- for brunch! And to our guest, Maxi Bustos -- If you've had almost a year of inactivity with Rotary, move to our Club and have no excuse for not being a part of a meeting you can attend 24/7/365!! As for the program, Susie -- I greatly honor your achievements and recognition at SJSU! As a fellow JD and coach, though not CPCC (took the Fundamentals Course), your message was engaging and compelling. Service to youth is vital for our future, as we were once youth...until the years took over...and we owe it to ourselves to have the best generations following us that we may support. Any plans to bring the program to Contra Costa County?"
Member Rushton Hurley (California, USA) had this to say:"Great opening, Mitty - that set a wonderful tone for the meeting. Loved learning about yeot, and enjoyed the info from the coffee meetings. Huge kudos to Tzviatko for making those happen! Susie and Evelyn, thanks so much for sharing the story - my wife Tabitha and I are proud supporters of FLY, and will continue to be so for a long time to come. I just got back from a trip to Brazil, and here's a picture I took at the statue of Christ the Redeemer. The clouds were at one level coming between the statue and the hundred or more of us on the platform in front of the statue and overlooking Rio. Cool stuff!"
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: Rotary Club of Borrowdale Brooke, Zimbabwe
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, education, technology, and humanitarian service. This week our guest is Kuda Nyemba, Club President of the Rotary Club of Borrowdale Brooke in Zimbabwe.
Our guest speaker this week is Kuda Nyemba, the 2016-2017 Club President of the Rotary Club of Borrowdale Brooke, Zimbabwe. Kuda will be sharing with us the projects the Borrowdale Brooke Rotary Club in Zimbabwe has been working on.
Members and guests, please join us in welcoming Kuda from Zimbabwe!
Related Links
Ask a question. Leave a comment!
Have a question for Kuda? 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.
Upcoming Recordings:
Wednesday, April 5, 2017 at 12 PM Pacific Time, with speakers Marilyn Fitzgerald and Jim Louttit
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!
