Spontime: The Social Media App that Brings People Together In-Person

Meetings

Jul 18

Written By Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley

This Meeting’s Highlights

Program: Spontime: The Social Media App that Brings People Together In-PersonSpeaker: Karolina Demiańczuk, Founder & President of SpontimeMeeting for the week of July 18 to July 24, 2016

Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our meeting!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 45 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. You start from the top of the meeting here, and then work your way down.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. For visiting Rotarians that want makeup credit, make sure you complete the attendance form!

Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!

Message from President Mitty

Greetings! My name is Mitty, and I am the president of this Rotary Club!I am very excited to announce that we are welcoming two new members into our family: Raquel D. Juncal and Kristi Govertsen! I have had the personal honor of knowing both of these incredible leaders, and know that they will fit very well into our growing family. My ties to Raquel come directly from Rotaract, where she has been an active Rotaractor in Costa Rica. And my ties to Kristi comes from meeting her at various Rotary conferences where she has been the keynote speaker. Kristi also happens to be one of my personal mentors. Welcome to both Raquel and Kristi!Another new initiative we are trying this year is to focus more time on our new member introductions. In this meeting, we are officially announcing Raquel and Kristi's membership into our Rotary eClub. Over the next two meetings, we will hear from them, and we will also do an official induction ceremony at the end of the month. Just like the weekly member spotlights we do, I want our club meetings to help all of us get to know each other better through text, images, and video. Connected through Rotary, we are all a family.I am also excited to announce that Linda Diekman, our member from Illinois, has volunteered to become one of our Club Mentors. As Club Mentor, she will be one of our members who personally reaches out to both prospective members and new members to make sure they are welcomed. Raquel and Kristi -- I'm sure Linda will reach out to you if she has not yet already done so!And to the rest of our members -- I want our club to help make your life easier. The leadership development grants being approved now give you more value out of your membership, and our leadership team is working hard to continue improving this club. Our meetings are evolving, and our content is getting richer. But at the end of the day, what matters to me is that you feel that our club makes your life better. How can we help you? What are you passionate about? And what can you do for our family? Is there something you would like to step up to do for this club? Please reach out to me (president@siliconvalleyrotary.com) and let's have a conversation about this.Guests and visiting Rotarians -- thank you for visiting! I hope you enjoy our meeting!

Yours in service,

Mitty Chang,

President

Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley

president@siliconvalleyrotary.com

Power of Images

We believe in that saying a photo is worth a thousand words. Great images can inspire people and can conjure a wide range of emotions. This week we feature a photo from our own club member, Keith Marsh.

From Keith, "Here is a photo I took last week in Glacier National Park in northern Montana. I had hoped to photograph the Milky Way, but the skies were clouded over the entire time. Instead, I focused on HDR images (5 images at 1 stop apart). This allowed me to capture some interesting colors in the clouds over St Marys Lake. This proves the adage that 'When you get lemons, make lemonade.'"

Thanks Keith for sharing this amazing photo with us!

We also want to give Keith a major shoutout again for his photo on the cover of last month's The Rotarian Magazine! We were just looking at the magazine cover this past weekend and thinking about how lucky we are to have a master photographer like Keith in our club! If you haven't seen it yet, here's a photo of cover of last month's The Rotarian Magazine featuring Keith's photo!

Laughing Out Loud 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, who has stepped into our club position of "Lady of LOLs."

Hey! This is Yvonne, your Lady of LOLs. I'm a former Interactor and Rotaractor as well. Outside of Rotary, I'm an educator teaching writing to 2nd-8th graders and music to 4th-6th graders. These little munchkins are usually the inspiration for 90% of my jokes, which you've been seeing in the meetings. If you get a laugh out of them, let us know, and I'll tell my students that their jokes are internet famous :)

I've got a question for you! What do computers do in Hawaii?

...

They surf the internet!

HA HA HA HA HA! You're welcome!

Weekly Inspiration: Bugs Like You've Never Seen Them Before

Every week we bring you videos of innovation, inspiration, and entrepreneurship. This week we are sharing a piece from National Geographic about microscopic photography on ... bugs!

In the video below, we see the work from Levon Biss. Levon takes sports portraits for a living. He's worked with world-class athletes and published front-page photographs. Wanting a project to work on at home that would combine his passion for photography and nature, he started taking macrophotographs ... of bugs. The result? "Microsculpture—a unique photographic study of insects in mind-blowing magnification." In this short film, Biss explains what is required to portray one insect and delight the audience with an unforgettable viewing experience.

Can't get enough? Check out more Microsculpture from Levon Biss.http://microsculpture.net/

Member Spotlight: Linda Diekman

Every week we share with you a small piece of the life of one of our club members. This week's spotlight segment comes from our member in Illinois, Linda Diekman! Linda has been a member of our club since the beginning of the year, and has stepped up into the role of being one of our Club Mentors!

Linda, thanks for sharing! Love hearing about your passion and congratulations on your local high school board appointment! Thank you for stepping up to become one of our club mentors!

Members watching and reading: President Mitty is always looking for volunteers to do a short video clip about something in their life. It can be a self introduction, what you do for business, what you do for fun, or what brings you happiness. We want to get to know you better! Make a short video (less than 3 minutes), and send it to President Mitty at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com

New Member Announcement!

We are so excited to be welcoming two new members into our family over the next couple of weeks! Members, please give both Raquel D. Juncal and Kristi Govertsen a warm welcome!

Kristi Govertsen was formerly a Rotarian from the Portland area who now is living in Missoula, Montana. Kristi is a professional speaker who works with membership organizations to grow their numbers and engage their members. Kristi also works with local entrepreneurs who want to use public speaking as part of their marketing toolkit to reach a larger audience and position themselves as experts in their field.

Welcome Kristi! We are looking forward to hearing about you and welcoming you!

Raquel D. Juncal is a Rotaractor who lives in Cartago, Costa Rica! Raquel works as a Medical Doctor & Freelance Translator/Editor. Raquel grew up in the Tijuana-San Diego region (District 4100 and 5340, respectively), and has been actively involved with Interact and Rotaract.

Welcome Raquel! We are looking forward to hearing about you and welcoming you!

Kristi and Raquel, welcome! We are so happy to welcome you two! Over the next couple of weeks, both Kristi and Raquel will be giving their own introductions.

We will also be doing an official induction ceremony by video conference with both Kristi and Raquel over the next two weeks.

World of Rotary: The Rotary Foundation

The world of Rotary is vast -- spanning over 180 countries in the world with over 1.2 million members. Our club is only one of thousands of Rotary clubs, each one that meets in a different place and at a different time. This segment of our meeting brings to you a little bit about what is going on in the world of Rotary this week.

In last week's meeting we featured a story about our Rotary International President John Germ. This week we feature a video that some of you will have already seen. It's a video about the origin of The Rotary Foundation, the fund that provides the resources and means for so many of Rotary's amazing humanitarian work around the world, including the End Polio Now campaign.

Rotarians, when you make a donation directly to The Rotary Foundation (a registered 501c3), you are saving someone's life. You can make this donation directly at Rotary.org.

Members -- we will also be having random drawings and giveaways as an incentive and thank you for donating to The Rotary Foundation! More information about this coming in the upcoming weeks!

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!

All events are marked in Pacific Time and are located in the San Francisco bay area / Silicon Valley.

Recap of Past Events:

Demotion/Promotion Club Potluck at Rushton's House in Santa Clara, CA this past Saturday, July 16

Thanks to everyone who joined us at our annual club potluck! We gave Immediate Past President Rushton a warm out-of-office farewell, and welcomed in President Mitty formally! Lots of food and drinks were consumed! Here are a couple of group photos and a photo of just SOME of the food!

Upcoming Events:

Help Homeless Veterans Service – July 29th in Richmond, CA

Join us in Richmond, CA on July 29th in a little painting and hammering for the grand reopening of the center for the Veteran’s Resource Program which provides a clean, safe living environment for veterans who may be homeless, formerly incarcerated, or returning home from the military. They also provide services like employment placement and assistance with higher education. Let’s get together and swing a paintbrush or stroke a hammer (or perhaps the other way around)!

Second Harvest Food Bank Service – August 20th in San Jose, CA

On Saturday, August 20, from 9 AM to 12 PM – Come join us for a morning of sorting food at Second Harvest Food Bank! We will be at the Cypress Center in San Jose. This event will be capped at 5 people. Members who went in May said this was an event we absolutely had to do again, so here we are!

Rotary Membership Seminar - August 27 in Milpitas, CA

On Saturday, August 27 from 9 AM to 12:30 PM - Members and prospective members, if growing Rotary sounds interesting to you, come join Rotary club presidents, Rotary membership chairs, and Rotarians from throughout the district for this free seminar on how to grow Rotary membership. Light breakfast is included. This event is free to attend.

REGISTER: Please register if you are planning on attending! You can register by clicking here on our Rotary District webpage.

Hiking Social at the Alamere Falls - September 10 in the Point Reyes National Seashore, California

On Saturday, September 10 our club will be making a hiking trip to the Alamere Falls inside the Point Reyes National Seashore! Members and guests are welcome! We will be beginning our hike at 9:30 AM and will be getting lunch together afterwards. Please plan on arriving to the parking lot by 9:15 AM. Driving instructions will be provided a week before this event.

For Our Members: Reminders & Benefits

This section is dedicated for reminders to our members and for our members to report to us what service projects they have participated in recently. Members, please note this section will CHANGE every week! Please check regularly. Past announcements are summarized as well.

Service Survey

Member! What have you been up to? Volunteering? Service projects? We are looking to feature what you have been doing! Please share what you’ve been up to, as it allows us to get to know each other better in the process! We will be featuring the results and your stories in next week's meeting!

The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey

New Announcements:

Happy Dollars to Receive Rotating Beneficiaries

Members, in our July Board of Directors meeting, the Board approved that Happy Dollars will have rotating beneficiaries! This means that starting next week, we will have the funds for happy dollars donated to specific charities, causes, or funds that will alternate on a week to week basis. Some weeks it will still go back to our general club fund to help power our club's Min-E Service Grants and other projects, and other weeks it will go to worthy charitable causes. Members, if you have a charity that you are working with that you would like to be a beneficiary during one of our upcoming meetings, please reach out to President Mitty at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com

Summary of Past Announcements

Dues Past Due! If you have not paid your dues yet, please note they were due June 30th. Please kindly fix this on your own. Questions? Contact our treasurer, Allen Thompson at treasurer@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Min-E Grants of up to USD$250 per project available for members only. Contact Andrew Taw at service@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Rotary Rewards: Members, be sure to check out the discounts Rotarians get to Disneyland, hotels, airfare, and so many other businesses. Go check offers, please go to Rotary.org, login, then go to "Rotary Rewards" page
Club Leadership Opportunities: We still have many committees and committee chair positions that are available for members who want to get more involved with the club leadership. Please contact President Mitty at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
NEW! Option to Pay Dues Monthly: All members now have the option of choosing to pay their dues in monthly installments of USD$28 per month instead of every six months. This monthly payment option requires a credit or debit card be used for automatic debits. Please note that the monthly installment option is a little bit more expensive than if you prepay the full six months at a time. Members, if you want to start using the monthly payment option, please complete the Pay Dues page and select monthly option and complete that form. If you have any trouble with the form, please contact President Mitty at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com -- All other dues related questions should be addressed to Club Treasurer Allen at treasurer@siliconvalleyrotary.com
NEW! Leadership Development Grants: Our club has a new member benefit we are testing out. We will reimburse up to USD$150 per year per member for the registration fee of a Rotary leadership events or other pre-approved leadership development events. For example, you could use this grant to attend a Rotary District Conference or the Rotary International Convention, and we will cover up to USD$150 of the registration fee. Please note this only covers registration fees and cannot be used for food (that is not pre-included in registration), housing, travel, or other incidentals. For non-Rotary events, please email President Mitty at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com at least 10 days in advance for approval. The leadership team has allocated enough money for 15 members to take part in this grant. After which our club's Board of Directors will have to vote on whether or not to increase the allocation or not. Our goal is ultimately to see more members engaged! Please take us up on this amazing benefit! (That's half your dues back! Wow!)

Happy Dollars

Each week we ask our members to share news with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal for this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each other, while giving back to a good cause.

Here are some happy dollar messages from last week's meeting!

From member Renee Zimmerman ($10):

"Thank you for inviting me to your club. Was fun to make up online!"

From member Matthew Seales ($15):

"Because I love this club."

From member Kristi Govertsen ($5):

Kristi left no comment, but Kristi you're amazing! Welcome to the club!

Thanks to everyone who made a contribution and said their peace last week! We encourage you to submit a couple of bucks, and tell us something you're happy about this week!

Share with us something below!

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 Pixeom by CEO & Founder Sam Nagar:

From member Keith Marsh (California):

"Very interesting program. Gotta get a Raspberry Pi and let my grand daughter teach me how to use it. Ferheen, it was great to hear about your work in Japan. Love your "chubby" kids. Mitty, you are off to a great start. Keep it going!!"

From member Paul Mosso (California):

"Sam thank you for sharing your story about starting Pixeom. Truly inspiring on how you took a simple product and launched your business. My condolences to the Heagerty family, Mr. Heagerty was a great man and Rotarian. He was truly inspiring, it was great to see him so involved in the 5170 District Meetings where he actively participated and engaged our District."

From guest Kristofer Telfer (California):

"Another great meeting! Great job facilitating discussion President Mitty! So amazed by all of the members who tune in from around the world. Sam, you accomplished what many young talents hope to achieve in this valley one day, thank you for the inspiration! As always, the auxiliary videos are a great touch to each program."

From guest Nicole Pham (California):

"Thank you Ferheen for sharing a snippet of your experience in Japan! I graduated from Davis with a degree in Genetics and Genomics so I LOVEEEE hearing about your work in Japan. It sounds so meaningful and super interesting. Enjoyed the part about pokemon go mitty (': Let's battle some more!!!!"

From member Richard Knaags (South Africa):

"Loved the work of Salavat Fidai. Pixeom sounds like a great product Sam, and it is wonderful that it is a family business. From my experience those combinations are really powerful. It was very courageous of you to go up against such big corporations. When are you planning to release your products in South Africa? P.S. +Mitty - Missed the Tidbit but I guess Pixeom doubles up as one ;-p"

From guest Monica Tam (California):

"Very cool talk! Nice job Mitty and I would love to get in contact with Sam :) Looking forward to the next meeting."

Thank you everyone for attending last week's meeting!

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!

The Program

Every week we bring to you a program on innovation, education, and entrepreneurship. This week our feature speaker is Karolina Demiańczuk, Co-Founder and CEO of Spontime,a Social Networking platform for spontaneous meetings!

Spontime has received significant attention from major international media, including Forbes and the Huffington Post. Karolina Demiańczuk founded Spontime to utilize technology for enhancing people’s everyday lives through friendship, communication, and in-person gatherings.Karolina is currently a Master’s student of Business Management at Warsaw School of Economics. During her college years, she has spent a semester on a scholarship at National University of Singapore Business School, where she discovered her passion for innovations and high technologies. Now she is preparing for an exchange program at Pepperdine University Graziado Business School where she plans to work on her startup Spontime. She is a passionate traveller – she has visited more than thirty countries around the world and lived in three - Poland, the US, and Singapore.

Please give a warm welcome to our speaker, Karolina!

Upcoming Recordings & Meetings

Ever wondered how you can join one of our live recordings to ask our speakers questions live? Well, now our recordings are available to guests as well!

Upcoming Meetings:

Week of July 25 - Vietnam Soccer Ball Project with Oliver Borg
Week of August 1 - Rotaract Australia MDIO with Past Rotaract Australia Chair Jake Weragoda
Week of August 8 - The Olympics by 1988 Olympian Paul Kingsman

Upcoming Recordings:

Tuesday, July 19, 2016 at 8 PM Pacific we will be recording Oliver Borg talking about the Vietnam Soccer Ball Project. (This recorded has already been completed.)
On Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 7 PM Pacific we will be recording Jake Weragoda talking about Rotaract Australia MDIO. The connection information will be posted for the next meeting.
The recording for 1988 Olympian Paul Kingsman has yet to be scheduled. More information soon!

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 though. 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!

Karolina Demiańczukspontime