Delivering indestructible soccer balls to children in Vietnam
This Meeting’s Highlights
Program: Delivering indestructible soccer balls to children in VietnamSpeaker: Oliver BorgMeeting for the week of July 25 to August 1, 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 to 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
Hello and welcome! My name is Mitty Chang, and I am the president of this Rotary Club!I am so excited that we are hearing from our new members, Kristi and Raquel! Members and returning guests, you will notice that this week a couple of new feature content pieces for our meeting.First, our World of Rotary section now features a video from a Rotary International staff member who is introducing herself and her position. One of my goals this year is to make our meetings more lively! I have been reaching out to Rotary International staff members I know to record short videos about their work at Rotary International. I thought bringing the World of Rotary to life would be a good start. Check out this week's segment with Laura.Second, I am very excited that this week's happy dollars money will go directly to the Joan Rose Foundation, which powers the For Haiti project that our guest speaker from earlier this month, Kitty Hu, spoke about. Normally the funds for our happy dollars goes to our club treasury to power our club events and grants. This week, every dollar that is donated to happy dollars, will be donated to the good people at Joan Rose Foundation. Check out the video and to learn why!Members, I am also excited to say that as our club grows in members, you can also visibly see that our weekly meetings are beginning to change and adapt with new revised segments. It's my belief that being a successful Rotary E-Club requires us to always be working on creating new content, and making improvements to our weekly meetings. You'll see tweaks and additions happening to the meeting, and I hope you'll like the changes you see! I am particularly excited about the support that we have been giving to the Interact Club we sponsor, and the great stories we have been hearing from the young high school leaders. Just take a look at our youth service segment for this week's meeting!And for our Guests: We are really excited that you're visiting our online meeting this week! Please continue scrolling, reading, and watching! And be sure to leave a comment at the bottom of this meeting to let us know where you're from, and what you thought of the meeting.Enjoy and thanks for being here!
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 AFP / Getty, of the Liujiang River in Liuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
About this photo: A general view shows the swollen Liujiang River in Liuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 5, 2016. Flooding in China's Yangtze river basin has left 112 people dead or missing in recent days, with more damage feared from a typhoon expected to land within days. Photo by AFP / Getty
Mother nature can be overwhelming sometimes. That is certainly quite the view though!
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. Here are your funnies for the week:
Why do bananas have to wear sunscreen?
...
Because they peel!! lol!
What do you call two banana peels?
...
A pair of slippers!!! HAHAHA!
Why did the banana go out with the prune?
…
Because he couldn't find a date!
HA HA HA HA HA! You’re welcome!
Weekly Inspiration: How Free Apps Make Money
Every week we bring you videos of innovation, inspiration, and entrepreneurship. This week we are featuring a video from Vox about how free apps, like Pokemon Go, make money.
Welcome to the world of freemium apps!
Member Spotlight: Tzviatko Chiderov
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 member Tzviatko Chiderov!
Tzviatko, thanks for sharing!
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
Meet Our New Members!
Last week, we announced two new members to our Rotary family: Raquel D. Juncal and Kristi Govertsen! This week and next week, we are featuring stories from them to let you get to know them a little more!
We start with a video from Kristi!
From Kristi to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley:
Hello, Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley! My name is Kristi Govertsen, and I am so very excited to be a new member of your club. Per President Mitty’s request, here is a little bit about the who I am, where I am, and why I ended up in this club. :-)
The who: I am a longtime Rotary Membership Nerd, as well as a former math instructor turned professional speaker, marketer, networker, author, speech writer and coach. You’ll occasionally find me running or swimming, you’ll more often than not find me karaoke-ing, and you’ll always find me making new friends in the oddest of places.
The where: I was born in Montana, and split my time between Alaska and Montana from the time I was in grade school through my early twenties. I am an alumnus of Gonzaga University (BA in philosophy, 1996), the University of Montana (BS in Mathematics, 1999), and Portland State University (MST in mathematics, 2005). Thus revealing that I might be a Nerd in areas besides Rotary. Speaking of Rotary, my Rotary journey began in Portland, Oregon as a member of the East Portland Rotary Club; I currently reside in Missoula (Mih-ZOO- la), Montana, located in Western Montana, and have been attending the Missoula Sunrise Rotary Club. Both clubs are wonderful, and if you ever find yourself in Portland or Missoula, be sure to do a makeup meeting if you get the chance.
The why: Why this club? At the end of 2014 I returned Missoula, MT due to a health crisis with a member in my family. This was a massive derailment, and we suddenly found ourselves hanging out at the hospital. A lot. As we began approaching the last week of the 2015 Rotary year, I realized that my ten years of perfect Rotary attendance was in jeopardy. Even though my East Portland Rotary Club had graciously allowed me to stockpile makeups by being flexible on two-week- from-the- meeting requirement, I did the math and realized I was still 22 meetings short of maintaining perfect attendance. Yikes! How was I going to do 22 makeups in ONE WEEK? The answer hit me—eClubs! So while doing long stints at the hospital, I proceeded to attend all 22 makeup meetings on my laptop.
Because I was friends with Mitty Chang, the eClub of Silicon Valley was one of the first clubs I visited. I was VERY impressed with the structure and quality of the meetings. Later that summer, Mitty invited me to speak at one of the weekly meetings and I had a glimpse of what it looked like to participate in this club. A seed was planted, and it grew into a Rotary (flower? fern? tomato plant? something that’s turning out to be the worst metaphor ever?), and I decided to take the leap, and join. Thanks for welcoming me with open arms and I look forward to continuing to learn and grow in the newest phases of my Rotary adventure!
-Kristi
Kristi, we are glad to have you part of our family! Welcome!
Raquel, we look forward to hearing about you at next week's meeting!
Youth Service: Interact & RYLA
Our club sponsors the Interact Club of KIPP San Jose Collegiate! Interact is a community service club for ages 12 through 18, and is one of Rotary's official youth programs. Periodically we will have stories from the Interact leaders we sponsor.
This week's story comes from our two co-presidents of the KIPP San Jose Interact Club, talking about their experience at the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards camp our club recently sponsored them to attend.
"Our RYLA Experience", written by Interact Club of KIPP San Jose Collegiate's Co-Presidents Scott Nguyen & Steven Luu to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley:
Nothing could have prepared us for the week long journey we would have experienced at RYLA. Turning into the school parking lot full of excited students, anticipation and questions began to flood our minds; “Who am I bunking with? Who’s in my team? Is the food good?”. Then, the minute we stepped out of our car, we heard the roar from campers participating in ice breakers. Campers were already inviting us to participate in the ice breakers before we even got checked in. It was then, where we knew how great this week would be.
Arriving at camp, the staff divided us into our cabins and team. We began introducing ourselves to each other with awkward handshakes and hugs.Yet in a matter of minutes, it felt as if we all already knew each other. We then came up with a team chant that would get us into the dining hall for dinner. Arriving outside the dining hall, you could already feel the anticipation from all the teams to show off their new chants. One team began to scream out their chant, creating a battlefield of chants roaring everywhere. Suddenly, we heard someone in the back screaming the RYLA chant. Everyone transitioned from the battlezone to a huge family yelling “R-Y-L-A PUMP IT UP, PUMP IT UP, ON FIRE. YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW AHHHOOOOO!!”. In the moment, you could just feel all the positive energy and excitement coming from every camper. Following dinner there were even more bonding activities, but it wasn’t needed because everyone already felt so close. That night, I thought about it felt as if I knew everyone, even though I met nearly all of them in one day.
The following days was just spectacular. We learned different types of leadership traits, what type of leader we were and how to be the best leader you possibly could be. Although RYLA’s name states it is a leadership camp, leadership wasn’t the only aspect being taught. Throughout the week, I truly learned what great teamwork was, how to have compassion into what you do and how to see greatness in everything. RYLA is much more than a camp for leadership, it is a camp that pulls out the best in you. It showed me why I am in Interact, why I want to strive to be great, not just good. It helped me see that the world we live in is malleable, not solid. It’s so easy to think that world we live in today is at a neverending downfall: pollution, the refugee crisis, hunger, and so much more. Being in a camp full of compassionate, driven individuals taught me that you can change that, you CAN change the world into a better place. I want to thank you so much for making this experience possible for Steven and I. You created an everlasting, positive impact in both of our lives and we are truly grateful.
From,Steven Luu & Scott Nguyen
World of Rotary: Alumni Relations at Rotary HQ
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.
This week we are beginning our own series of spotlight videos, featuring Rotary International staff members!
Meet Laura Higgs, Alumni Relations Communications Specialist at Rotary International headquarters in Chicago, Illinois!
Laura Higgs is the Alumni Relations Communications Specialist at Rotary International in Chicago. She has a M.S. of Global Education and speaks Spanish fluently. She has been working at Rotary for the past two years and was a Rotary Youth Exchange student in 2004. To find out more about Rotary Alumni, go here. Contact her at laura.higgs@rotary.org to share any cool alumni stories or learn how to do more with Alumni in Rotary.
Laura, thanks for sharing with us!
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.
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)!
REGISTER: If you’re interested, let us know on this Meetup page, where there’s more info.
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!
REGISTER: Members interested can RSVP with Andrew Taw (service@siliconvalleyrotary.com) or on Meetup.
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!
New Announcements:
New Members and Becoming a Sponsor!
Members, have you been checking your email? We have been having a string of new member applications, and we have been forwarding those applications to you to see if there are any objections. Look out for more applications to be forwarded this week! We are also looking for members who want to sponsor new members. Becoming a sponsor means that you will reach out to a new member regularly, and keep them up to date on what's going on. Unlike our Club Mentor position which connects with all new members, becoming a sponsor ties you directly to a specific person. If you're interested in being a sponsor for new members, please reach out to President Mitty at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com! A quick and sure way to become someone's sponsor is to also be the person who invites them into our club!
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$150 of the registration fee. Please note this only covers registration fees and cannot be used for food (that is not pre-included in registration), housing, travel, or other incidentals. For non-Rotary events, please email President Mitty at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com at least 10 days in advance for approval. The leadership team has allocated enough money for 15 members to take part in this grant. After which our club’s Board of Directors will have to vote on whether or not to increase the allocation or not. Our goal is ultimately to see more members engaged! Please take us up on this amazing benefit! (That’s half your dues back! Wow!)
NEW! Rotating Happy Dollars Beneficiaries: Our happy dollars will now have rotating beneficiaries! That means on certain weeks the money collected from our happy dollars will be donated directly to the charity of the week.
Service Survey
Member! Please share what you’ve been up to, as it allows us to get to know each other better in the process!The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
Happy Dollars
Each week we ask our members to share news with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal for this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each other, while giving back to a good cause.
Here are some happy dollar messages from last week:
From member Linda Tangren ($):
"Welcome to our new members, Kristi and Raquel."
From member Kristi Govertsen ($5):
"I am SO happy to be a member of this club!"
From member Allen Thompson ($10):
"In honor of our Past President Rushton Hurley together with his wife and mother who made the long journey in search of the perfect cup of coffee, Joe Momma's Coffee! (http://www.avilabeachpier.com/businesses/joe-mommas-coffee-beachstay.html)"
Thanks to everyone who made a contribution last week! Now to talk about this week...
Happy Dollars - Benefiting For Haiti
This week, all donations for happy dollars will be directly donated to the Joan Rose Foundation, featuring the For Haiti Project by our guest speaker earlier this month, Kitty Hu. Kitty has helped edit the video below that features the work the Joan Rose Foundation does.
Thank you for your presentation, Kitty! Members and guests, we encourage you to share with us something good that has happened to you this past week, and to consider contributing a small donation to this amazing humanitarian effort in Haiti!
Again, the money collected for this week's happy dollars will be donated directly to the Joan Rose Foundation!
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:
From guest Brett Sham (Australia):
"Such an interesting personal story and concept for an app. Just downloaded it and can't wait to give it a go!"
From member Rushton Hurley (USA):
"Keith, great photo, as always. The Levon Biss video about bugs was another level of amazing - I wonder if we can get him to talk to the club? (Good idea, that, no?) Linda, it was wonderful to see you and hear about your work with the mentoring program. Kristi and Raquel, the club is better for having you two join. Karolina, the future is bright for you and Spontime, and it's cool to know that Rotary's student exchange program helped you along your path. The story of how you got the idea is very cool! I'm jazzed to see that there's an upcoming gig for all of us in Point Reyes, too."
From member Richard Knaggs (South Africa):
"I loved the Microsculpture video and I have shared it with all of my Science teachers. Thank you for that. The Rotary video was a great summary of its history. Really useful for us newbies. Karolina, you have presented so well in your second language! Beautifully done. It is such an innovative idea and app to solve the problem of lack of human contact due to the influence of digital. I love it and have downloaded it. A catch phrase just rushed into my head ... Use Spontime to get in "touch"! :) At our school we are involved in Technovate which is a worldwide program for girls to develop apps to solve problems in communities. Would you be interested in connecting with the the project lead at our school to just chat about your success?"
From guest Monica Tam (California):
"Another great meeting, what an interesting and new way to socialize with everyone!"
From guest Kenneth Oku (California):
"So much to comment on this week's meeting. I'm excited to meet in person with those going to the homeless veterans volunteer event on Friday. Great job putting together the meeting this week Mitty, it has hard work written all over it. It was especially nice to hear from Linda, great job speaking about yourself and your passion at the intersection of eduction and innovation. Congratulations to the new members (Kristi and Raquel) inducted into the Silicon Valley Rotary club. Karoline was a really inspirational and down to earth speaker. She did a great job presenting her app and the process she is going through, big applause Karoline! I totally understand about your need to trust the developers and the trouble with the backend. These are part of the business of apps, also with Amazon server and Facebook updating. Hopefully being in the bay and connecting with these businesses from across the bay rather than the world will allow you to integrate with the changes smoother? I downloaded the app ! Will keep an eye on it. Yvonne thanks for sharing, kids are the funniest. Looking forward to next week's lol. Keith, your pictures as everyone has said already, are amazing. That cover photo is incredible. The potluck looked yummy. Hope to be at the next one!"
From member Allen Thompson (California):
"Karolina Demiańczuk, jesteś wspaniałą osobą! I kocham Google Translate! What a wonderful journey you are on. I hope that your dreams and effort are successful. Linda, other than enjoying your message, I am glad to know that the correct pronunciation is: Dike-Man. My 9th grade science teacher was Mr. Diekman (Dick-Man) and, no, he wasn't... It's been 100º+ days in Bakersfield so you will be glad to know that I have been spending as many days as possible on the 70º California coast. A couple of those of those days were with Tabitha and Rushton Hurley and Rushton's mother, Linda, who all came for a visit to our "beach house" at Pismo Beach. Having never been there, he knew when he had arrived when he saw his favorite flag flying."
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 we are featuring Oliver Borg, a young humanitarian with the Interact Vietnam Soccer Ball Project.
Oliver Borg grew up in Santa Cruz where he attended Santa Cruz high and was actively involved in Interact District 5170. He served as Area Director in 2013, and in 2014 presided as the Lieutenant Governor. Oliver currently attends University of Nevada, Las Vegas as a Hotel Management major where he continues his service with Rotary. His latest focus of service has been international projects, specifically in Asia and Latin America. The most recent service venture took Oliver to Vietnam where he contributed to the Vietnam Soccer Ball Project an initiative that he helped to culminate as Lieutenant Governor two years ago. Oliver loves to travel, make new friends and expand Rotary's reach of service across all borders.This is his story:
Related Links:
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 August 1 – Rotaract Australia MDIO with Past Rotaract Australia Chair Jake Weragoda
Week of August 8 – The Olympics with 1988 Olympian Paul Kingsman
Week of August 15 - Vietnam Medical Mission with Nicole Pham
Upcoming Recordings:
On Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 7 PM Pacific we will be recording Jake Weragoda talking about Rotaract Australia MDIO. The connection address for this recording is: https://zoom.us/j/7489282423
The recording for 1988 Olympian Paul Kingsman will be Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 10 AM Pacific Time. The connection address for this recording will be: https://zoom.us/j/7489282423
On Tuesday August 9, 2016 at 8 PM Pacific we will be recording Nicole Pham who will be speaking to us about the Vietnam Medical Mission. The connection address for this recording will be: https://zoom.us/j/7489282423
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!
