Finding the Fascinating
In briefAI summary — tap to read
Rushton Hurley, the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley's Programs Chair, explains how members can discover and invite fascinating speakers to share their stories with the club. He outlines a simple process—from noticing interesting people and organizations to connecting them with the club, and details the behind-the-scenes coordination needed to record and promote programs that inspire the global membership.
Key takeaways
- Members can participate at multiple levels: simply noticing interesting people, recommending them to the programs committee, actively connecting speakers to the club, or helping coordinate logistics behind the scenes.
- The speaker application process is straightforward and designed to ensure comfort with technology (Zoom), clear expectations, and alignment with the club's 12-15 minute presentation format.
- Recruiting speakers is a service to both club members (who receive inspiration) and to the speakers themselves (who gain PR and a platform to share their mission with a global Rotary audience).
- When reaching out to potential speakers, members represent the Rotary Club of Silicon Valley and should emphasize the club's mission of connecting with fascinating people working to improve their communities.
- The club's eClub format and video archive allow global reach, enabling speakers from any time zone and allowing other Rotary clubs to share the club's programs with their own members.
About Rushton HurleyRushton Hurley is the executive director of nextVista.org, an educational charity, and previously served as the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley's first president (2015–2016) and later as Programs Chair.
AI-generated from the meeting recording — AI can make mistakes, so check the recording for anything important.
Meeting for the week of June 4-10, 2018
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Finding the Fascinating
Speaker: Rushton Hurley
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:
For those of us on the Northern Hemisphere, summer is upon us! The days are longer, the stone fruits sweeter, and the kids itching for a longer vacation. As your brow is getting a bit sweatier, remember to take a bite out of a peach, slow down down, and enjoy a longer day in the company of good friends. Welcome, Rotarians and guests, to another meeting of the Rotary e-Club of Silicon Valley where we share stories of good work and enjoy the blessings of good company every week. Remember to sign in and comment in the Disqus below to tell us what you think!
Sincerely,
Andrew Taw,
President-ElectRotary 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!”
Happy June! Did you know that June is National Camping Month? With warmer weather, it's the perfect time to get outdoors. It can get a bit in-tents though, so be prepared with some jokes.
Why do trees have so many friends?They branch out.
What do you call a bear with no teeth?A gummy bear.
Did you hear about the kidnapping in the woods?It's okay. He woke up.
Weekly inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
How much of a fiery jam session can you have with a ukulele? While many of our inspirational videos center on stories and images, this week we share a musical piece from the HI*Sessions series. The series was designed to showcase Hawaiian talent, and you can get lost watching the playlist! Find out more here: https://www.youtube.com/user/hisessionsshow/about
World of Rotary
Stephanie Sinclair’s photography is just one of the ways she advocates for the rights of girls
Learn more at https://www.rotary.org/en/photographer-advocates-rights-girls.
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 monthly program of our club where we match participating club members for one-on-one virtual (or in some cases in person) coffee meetings, so they can learn more about each other. This program is organized by member Tzviatko Chiderov.
This week we have Ferheen from Santa Clara, CA, USA reporting on her chat with Tzviatko from Harare, Zimbabwe.
Tzviatko is one of my most favorite Rotary members. From his beautiful smile to his wild global adventures, it is always a pleasure to talk with him. For our chat this month, Tzviatko told me that he moved back to Zimbabwe! He was in Chicago for a little bit but then decided to move to South America on a whim, but then realized that he missed Africa so he went back. You all should ask him what exactly he missed about the country ;) ;) Because his work is net-based, it's easy for him to move around the world. Tzviatko is so amazing. I lived in Japan for 3 years but before my arrival, everything was pretty much done for me - from housing to my stipend to paperwork, etc. But Tzviatko does everything by himself!! I find that incredible and I wish I had that ability. He's the coolest :)
We encourage all club members to participate in Coffee With a Rotarian. You can sign up here!
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!
Hurley, RushtonHelped with our effort at the Justin's House Chili Cookoff fundraiser. Good folks, and good times!
Shagrin, ShagsJustin's House Chili CompetitionHabitat for Humanity fundraiser
Shaw, HeatherVolunteered at justina House chili Cookoff Setup work breakdownVolunteered snack shack relay for life and walked as part of volunteer team
leConge Ziesenhenne, MoniqueServed wine at the Soroptimist International of Richmond's Culinary Caper fundraising event
Fry, RebeccaGuest Speaker via webinar for 'Rotary Membership Voice' speaking about 'Engaging Millennials in Rotary' https://www.facebook.com/RotaryMembershipVoice/Facilitated the first RYLA National Forum in Australia, a gathering of RYLA Leaders, Chairs and Directors from right across Australia to discuss the strengths, challenges and diversity of our programs. As a result of the forum, we will be developing resources to assist all RYLA programs and working on extension activities such as Alumni Engagement, RYLA for Rotary, an eClub for RYLA and a RYLA Australia program.
Gildart, NateCoordinated another Band Night for TELL, a multi-band music series that raises funds and awareness for an English-language mental health care and suicide prevention hotline in Japan.
A., CatherineFood Donations to Wests Valley Community Services, through St. Joseph's of Cupertino; Clothes donations to Cancer Charities
D'Garay-Juncal, RaquelArt and music classes to Central American migrants who were seeking asylum on the Tijuana side of the U.S. border.Pro-bono mentoring to high school studentsPro-bono basketball coaching to elementary school teams
For members only
Past Announcements
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Member name badges will be shipped out soon.
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Claim your @siliconvalleyrotary.com email address! Email Webmaster Mitty at mittyc@siliconvalleyrotary.com to get set-up with your own @siliconvalleyrotary.com email address.
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Join our members-only Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/rotarysiliconvalley/
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.
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!
Upcoming 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
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!) Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!
Member Catherine A made a $25 donation. Here is what she had to say:Celebrating my one-year anniversary as a Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley member. I really enjoy the inspiring video shorts from Great Big Story, plus our international club membership and varied program topics. Much gratitude to the founders of this club for the great idea of creating a virtual Rotary club for the SF Bay Area! Please use my donation for the club's general fund.
Member Rory Olsen made a $20 donation. Here is what he had to say:I am almost over my pneumonia. Please apply my gift to Polio Plus.
Member Brian Liddicoat made a $15 donation. Here is what he had to say:The Ramayana approaches..... my kids' school does this every June...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSIvrFW6xd4
Member Tzviatko Chiderov made a $20 donation. Here is what he had to say:After working on building a portfolio for the past several months, I have just officially launched my digital agency for social impact - https://www.impaque.com/. My objective is to help organizations with a social mission improve their online presence through beautiful websites and enhanced social media channels.
Our happy dollars for this week will go to supporting 2 young leaders to attend this year's Camp RYLA 5170At the end of this month, Camp RYLA 5170 will be taking place. The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is a youth program of Rotary that gathers together young leaders to build their personal and professional skills. In our district, nearly 200 high schoolers attend a week-long camp where they gain leadership skills and build lifelong friendships. Listen to what a few of them have to say about the value of RYLA:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMaDtHLU-0kThis year, our club has the privilege of sponsoring 2 campers to attend this amazing camp. Previously, we had only been able to sponsor 1, so this is a wonderful opportunity that we've given to an additional camper. As a result, this week and next week's happy dollar donations will be going towards our RYLA fund so that we may continue to help sponsor students to attend Camp RYLA 5170.Thank you, Rotarians, for your continued support!So what are you happy about? Share with us below to help with doing good around the world.
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.
Chris Cochrane said:Love the London underground info.Thanks for the possibilities for non- profits.
BDL said:Thank you for this presentation, Benay! (I love your name!) At the end of the day, marketing in the non-profit space is what we're all about!The Ted-Ed video on the London Underground was brilliant: just forced both of my kids to watch it...Why did the potatoes get a divorce? Because they couldn't see eye-to-eye....
Andrew Taw said:Benay, this was fantastic! Having worked in the non-profit sector for several years, I constantly come across non-profits that are really bogged down by the shortage of resources (both monetary and volunteer power). For tiny non-profits who don't have development or communications departments, what's a good approach to escape the catch-22 of not having enough capacity to recruit volunteers without volunteers?
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: Finding the Fascinating
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, education, technology, and humanitarian service.
Programs are the anchors of Rotary meetings. The ideas shared and actions inspired make us who we are as members of a service club. So how can our members take advantage of the opportunities a club like ours offers? We'll look at the how and why of one of the best pieces of the eclub puzzle.Rushton Hurley is an educator and social benefit entrepreneur who has been a Rotarian since joining the San Antonio (Texas) Downtown Club in April of 2004. Beginning in January of 2015, Rushton served as the charter president of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley. As he puts it, the club is an effort to explore how technology can serve the business of service.After moving from Texas to California in 2005, Rushton joined the Rotary Club of Santa Clara, and when his work schedule changed, he transferred to the Rotary eClub of the Southwest USA, serving as its president in 2013-2014 before leading the team that began the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley. Rushton has fourteen years of perfect Rotary attendance, and loves the chance to be inspired every week.
Our archive of meetings: https://www.siliconvalleyrotary.com/meetings/
Share your thoughts or ask our speaker a question in the comments at the bottom of this meeting page!
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 https://zoom.us/j/5104080000. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone for all recordings are listed for San Francisco, California, USA time (Pacific Time).
