Connecting Every Teacher, Student, and Parent in the World to Improve Education
This Meeting’s HighlightsProgram: Connecting Every Teacher, Student, and Parent in the World to Improve EducationSpeaker: Brett Kopf, Co-Founder of RemindMeeting for the week of September 19, 2016 to September 25, 2016Is 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
Giving.
Greetings and welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley's meeting for the week of September 19, 2016! My name is Mitty Chang, and I am the president of this Rotary Club! Every week we bring to you an online meeting that is curated with content designed to inspire you.This week's program speaker is someone who was featured by Forbes as one of the 30 under 30 entrepreneurs and young leaders. He is the co-founder of a successful startup in the education field, and you will get to hear more about him -- and hear from him -- in this week's program which is at the bottom of this meeting. Special thanks to past president Rushton Hurley for making this week's speaker possible.Members and returning guests, welcome back! New guests -- welcome to one of our meetings! Every week the content for our meeting changes, and so does some of the structure. As one of the leading Rotary eClubs in the world, we are always trying something new and pushing the boundaries of what we can do. Our goal is to make sure you leave feeling a little bit inspired.This week's meeting theme is about giving. At the heart of Rotary is Rotary's spirit of service and of giving. All Rotary members (also called "Rotarians") are busy with their own lives -- between work, family, and friends -- Rotary has a lot of competition when it comes to our time and our money. But Rotarians exist and people continue joining because despite being busy, Rotarians are people who have a giving spirit, and genuinely want to help make our communities better.In this week's meeting, we are featuring two different charities through our member's spotlight segment and our happy dollars segment. There are so many great causes and organizations out there. I want to preface this by saying that everyone understands that everyone has a different circumstance. We can only ask that you consider giving a few dollars if you are comfortable doing it and if it wouldn't be a financial burden on you. We know that every one of our members and our like-minded guests give to other causes their time and their money constantly. For that, I want to thank you all. Thank you for the work that you do in our communities. Thank you for being kind-hearted.I'm thrilled for this week's meeting, but I'm even more thrilled to be with so many caring and giving individuals. Thank you all for all you do. Members and guests, please do share with us in the comments a little bit about what you have been up to!
Yours in service,
Mitty Chang,
President
Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Power of Images: New World Records at the Paralympic Games
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 taken by photographer Tasso Marcelo at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!
About this photo: Tatyana McFadden from the USA sets a record in the category Women's 5000m - T54 at Engenhao Stadium during the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 14, 2016. Photo by Tasso Marcelo / AFP / Getty
Amazing.
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.”
"Hi everyone! Lady of LOLs Yvonne here! Hope you like these pirate themed jokes!"
Monday, September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
What did the pirate say on his 80th birthday?Aye matey!
What is a pirate’s favorite movie?Booty and the Beast. (But it is arr-rated.)
In case his ship is sunk, every pirate carries a bar of soap with him at all times.You know, to wash him ashore.
Weekly Inspiration: "Collecting the World: Inside the Smithsonian"
Every week we bring you videos of innovation, inspiration, and entrepreneurship. This week we are featuring a video from Great Big Story on Youtube about the Smithsonian!
"The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has over 144 million different objects in its collections. A sample of these collections are on display to the public, but 99 percent of the Smithsonian’s treasures remain behind the scenes. Scientists work with these objects to study and decipher the world we live in, each specimen offering its own tiny clue to the natural world." (From Great Big Story)
Member Spotlight: Hardeep Singh
We are back this week with a member spotlight! Member spotlights feature one of our club's members, and it's an opportunity to learn more about what they are passionate about.
Meet member Hardeep.
Hardeep, you are doing amazing things! Thank you for sharing!
Members, guests, and friends -- here's a quick message from Hardeep:
"Please join me in supporting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I'm walking in the Out of the Darkness Orange County CA Walk to fight suicide and support AFSP's bold goal to reduce the suicide rate 20% by 2025.
All donations are 100% tax deductible and benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), funding research, education, advocacy, and support for those affected by suicide."
Thank you for your support!"
Support Hardeep, who is walking in the Out of Darkness Walk benefiting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
If you are able to, please consider supporting Hardeep by making a donation to a great charity. Hardeep's donation page is here:http://afsp.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=1091104
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/
All events are marked in Pacific Time and are located in the San Francisco bay area / Silicon Valley.
Upcoming Events:
Ed Fund Gala Service Project – Sat. October 1 at Oakland Scottish Rite Center, Oakland, California
Ed Fund Gala Oct 1, 2016 4:30pm – 10:00pm Oakland Help us volunteer as event staff for a fundraiser for the A-Z Fund, a program that provides resources to schools in Oakland that don’t have strong PTAs to fund programs like music or sports. Duties may include help with registration and auction spotting. If you’re interested, please email Andrew at secretary@siliconvalleyrotary.com please check out the link: http://www.oaklandedfund.org/gala/
REGISTER/RSVP: RSVP on our meetup page by clicking here.
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:
Support our Interactors by Purchasing an Interact Area T-Shirt!
Last mention of this! Interact is a community service club for young leaders from ages 12 to 18. It’s an official global youth program of Rotary International. We sponsor the Interact Club of KIPP Collegiate Prep San Jose, and they are part of Interact Area 6. The Interact Area Director, Annie Dang, reached out to us and let us know that the Interactors are raising funds by selling area t-shirts.Their theme for Area 6 this year is “Valiant Vaquitas,” and so they have lavender t-shirts for sale for $12 each. They have listed on the back of the shirt the different Interact Clubs of Area 6, as well as their sponsoring Rotary clubs — including our Rotary eClub! Below is the front design for the shirt on the left, and the back design for the shirt on the right.If you are interested in supporting our Interactors by purchasing a t-shirt, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with your t-shirt size(s) and how many you want. We can handle the payment digitally, and President Mitty will be picking up all of the t-shirts from the Interactors. For our international members, President Mitty is also willing to ship overseas. Members, please note you will be responsible for shipping costs.
Summary of Recent Announcements
Option to Pay Dues Monthly: 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. Dues related questions should be addressed to Club Treasurer Allen at treasurer@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Leadership Development Grants: New!Our club 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!)
Request for more Member Spotlight Videos: Members, we are looking for more spotlight videos. These are short 2 to 3 minute introductions, sharing with the club something you are passionate about! Let our members get to know you better! Please email your video to president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Business Information: Members, if you’re interested in having your business or company featured on our website, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with your information and logo. We’ll have a public members page for this.
Members Only Dashboard Up: If you missed this announcement, we now have a members only dashboard available on this website! You must be logged in to your member account in order to view it. If you have not yet received your password information for your member account, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com to request it. The members only section includes the contact information for all club members.
Members Education Videos Coming: Rotary Knowledge videos will be up in a few weeks that will help teach you anything and everything you want to know about how Rotary works!
Members-Only Facebook Group: Members, if you have not yet joined this group, you can request an invitation by going to https://www.facebook.com/groups/rotarysiliconvalley/
Youtube Channel: Yes, we have a Youtube Channel! Check out our official Youtube Channel here!
Tracking Service Hours
Hello awesome member! Have you been up to service lately? 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.
Last week the happy dollars contributions went towards powering our club projects. Here are our contributors from last week and their comments:
From member Rory Olsen ($15):
“If you would be so kind, please apply this to Polio Plus.“
From member Brian Liddicoat ($15):
“My kids finally entered the world of pet owners with new pet fish. Hope we can keep 'em alive!”
This week is a special week as all money raised from Happy Dollars this week will go directly to a 501(c)3 non-profit charity organization called Camp Okizu. Camp Okizu provides a safe haven for children who have or are going through cancer.
Our member Nicole Pham has more for us about Camp Okizu:
Thanks for sharing, Nicole!
You can lear more about Camp Okizu via their official website.
Members and friends: Happy Dollars is a chance to give thanks or brag about something good that has happened to you this past week, while giving towards a great cause. This week's cause gives children happiness through Camp Okizu. Your message, shoutout, or brag will be posted in next week's meeting.
Remember, every dollar that you donate this week is matched 3 to 1 by Camp Okizu's sponsors!
If you are able to make a happy dollars donation, please complete the form below. Please note that after you complete the form, you will be directed to Camp Okizu's donation page. You will need to complete your donation on that page! For U.S. residents, your donation IS tax deductible since Okizu is a 501(c)3.
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 WESTOP by President Karissa Morehouse!
From member Rushton Hurley (California, USA):“Welcome, Kristopher! We need to introduce you (and all our members) to Project Amigo (Colima, Mexico) - amazing effort. August was National Hair Loss Awareness Month? I'd say I'm aware of that every month. Karissa, it's cool to get a sense of the work your organization does, so thank you for sharing the story this week!“
From member Richard Knaggs (South Africa):“Welcome Kristofer, so young and so successful. Thank you for joining our club. I am in awe. Karissa, your services are invaluable. Good question Mitty. I was going to ask the same thing about presence in South Africa, although most of our Tertiary institutions offer similar services and our school in particular has a programme run by our school counsellor to assist with those looking to enter Tertiary.“
From member Heather Shaw(California, USA):“Thank you Karissa for all the work you do. It's great to know about resources for disadvantaged youth to give them hope for the future. Looking forward to having them join the eclub! Welcome Kristofer to our eclub family. Great seeing everyone at Half Moon Bay“
From member Kristofer Telfer (California, USA):“Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome! Great job to Barbara Orth and Karissa Morehouse for today's meeting. Providing a means of education for the youth population is one of the greatest investments of our time and effort. Barbara is doing a great job of providing books in bulk to the clubs. Karissa I love that you're engaging the students in aspects of professional life. "Luncheon manners" are essential in today's workplace !:)“
From guest Karissa Morehouse (California, USA):“Thank you everyone for taking the time to hear about our Nor Cal WESTOP organization and the work we do to impact students! And, Mitty, I am not sure how you dug up that old picture of me from a newspaper article seven years ago. That is hilarious! Seriously though, I appreciate all of your kind words and encouragement. If I can answer any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!“
From member Ferheen Abbasi (Osaka, Japan):“Karissa, thank you for your phenomenal presentation! We need more people like you in the world. It is so important to support underserved community members, ESPECIALLY children who have done nothing to deserve the situations that they are in. Education lifts people out of poverty and we must support organizations like yours! Welcome to the group, Kristofer! Your accomplishments are extraordinary, and you're only 22!“
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, entrepreneurship, and humanitarian service. This week our featured guest is brought to us by past president Rushton Hurley. Our guest this week is Brett Kopf, Co-Founder of Remind, a secure message platform for teachers to communicate with students and parents and vice versa.
Brett Kopf is the co-founder of Remind, a secure messaging app that connects teachers, students and parents. Brett grew up in Skokie, IL, and was diagnosed with ADD and dyslexia in 5th grade. He graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Economics in 2010.When school was challenging for him growing up, support from his high school teacher, Mrs. Whitefield, along with his parents helped him graduate. Brett realized that if he could empower the “Mrs. Whitefields” of the world to connect with students and parents, education would improve. Brett and his brother were named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2012.Remind's vision is to connect every teacher, student, and parent in the world to improve education.
Let's take a look at how Remind works.
We're thrilled to have Brett join us for this week's program!
Members and guests, please join me in welcoming the co-founder of Remind, Brett Kopf!
Related Attachments & Links:
Reach out to Brett
If you have any questions for Brett, please feel free to leave a comment or question at the bottom of this meeting page.
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!
