In briefAI summary — tap to read
District Governor Tim Lundell shared his personal Rotary journey and district theme of "Learning, Leadership, and Inspiration," emphasizing how education and leadership development are critical to sustaining and growing Rotary's impact. He discussed the challenges facing Rotary clubs—including aging membership and lack of diversity—and highlighted innovative programs like the Leadership Academy as pathways to attract new, younger members with fresh perspectives on service.
Key takeaways
- Tim's personal Rotary motto is 'I joined for business and fellowship, but stayed to change the world,' reflecting how members evolve from transactional motivations to mission-driven service.
- District Governor theme of Learning, Leadership, and Inspiration forms a strategic path forward: learning builds confidence in leadership skills, and leadership inspires others to engage in service and join the organization.
- The Leadership Academy program, a six-month online curriculum covering Rotary fundamentals, received overwhelming response with 37 participants—many newer Rotarians—indicating strong hunger for deeper organizational knowledge.
- Rotary must evolve to reflect its communities' demographics across ethnicity, gender, age, and background; new club models and family memberships are innovations helping widen the tent beyond traditional 'old white men at lunch' perception.
- District 5170 spans 54 clubs across five California counties; the District Governor personally visits every club during their term to understand local needs and foster connections.
About Tim LundellTim Lundell is a Portland, Oregon native who moved to California in 1972 to attend law school at Santa Clara University. He joined Los Gatos Morning Rotary in 2004, served as club president in 2007-2008, and has held multiple district leadership roles including District Trainer; he is the current District Governor for District 5170.
AI-generated from the meeting recording — AI can make mistakes, so check the recording for anything important.
Meeting for the week of September 3-9, 2018
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: My Rotary Story
Speaker: Tim Lundell
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 Andrew:
Greetings Rotarians and Guests,This week we have a special guest at our meeting: District Governor of 5170 Tim Lundell. For those of you unfamiliar with our e-Club’s home district, District 5170 extends from the East Bay area of California in Oakland and Alameda to the south around Santa Cruz. DG Tim shared his story of how he started in Rotary, the kind of work he has done as a member, and the nature of his work as our district governor. Members and Guests, please feel free to share some stories of your own about how Rotary has affected you and what adventures in service and fellowship on which it has taken you.
Sincerely,
Andrew Taw,
PresidentRotary 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 September! Did you know that September is Classical Music Month? (What doesn't have its own designated month/day nowadays?!) Here are some jokes to get you humming through the week!
What do fish and music have in common?They both have scales!
How do you fix a broken brass instrument?With a tuba glue!
What do you call a cow that plays the piano?A moo-sician!
Weekly inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
In Taiwan, massage therapy gets an edge. Dao Liao, or “blade therapy,” has been around for over 2,500 years, first originating in ancient China as an alternative to traditional medicine. Practitioners use specially blunted knives instead of hands to refresh and renew their clientele. The technique is believed to relieve headaches, sores, back pains and migraines and continues to be very popular in Taiwanese culture.
World of
Drop anchor in Germany’s gateway to the world, where it’s easy to feel like a local
Learn more at https://www.rotary.org/en/feel-local-hamburg.
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 Rushton from San Jose, CA, USA reporting on his chat with Tanya from Atlanta, GA, USA.Tanya (born in Cleveland, lives in Atlanta) is one of our newest members, and found us through an unusual path. She was watching a show called American Greed (!), and in it, someone mentioned Rotary clubs. She was intrigued and did some research, and ended up finding us. She is used to doing things online, because over the past few years she battled some health issues and needed to create professional opportunities for herself that she could do while at home. I'm happy to report that a surgery this spring has moved her past the health challenges - yay! Talking to her was a joy - she's fun, interesting, and has a heart for service, which is what I hope for everyone who comes into this club.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, Rushton:Helped with the meal for the JW House, which is a place for families with someone hospitalized for cancer treatment.
For members only
Past Announcements
-
Member name badges will be shipped out soon.
-
Claim your @siliconvalleyrotary.com email address! Email Webmaster Mitty at mittyc@siliconvalleyrotary.com to get set-up with your own @siliconvalleyrotary.com email address.
-
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!
Past events
Here is a screenshot from our last online member social!
Upcoming events
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
Our friends at PROJECT HIRED have an event coming up that they've invited our members in the Bay area to attend:
Ability @ WorkSeptember 20, 2018 @ 8:30AM — 10:00AMCelebrating 40-years of assisting job seekers with disabilities to gain and to sustain employment!
More info and tickets at https://projecthired.networkforgood.com/events/7120-ability-work/
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!This section is usually updated on the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Member Roger Plested made a $50 donation. Here is what he had to say:I am happy that our International Service Committee is starting to function. The money is to be applied to the first International project that our club 's service committee recommends for the club.
Member Rory Olsen made a $20 donation. Here is what he had to say:The week is starting off well.My gift should go to Polio Plus.
Member Monique Ziesenhenne made a $25 donation. Here is what she had to say:Hi - please contribute to TRF - Annual Fund.
An anonymous donor made a $10 donation. Here is what they had to say:If I can assist others even if it's in the smallest way I will always do so. I love to see a smile on someone's face. Why can't we all be happy? Share happiness, donate to happy dollars!
Share your happy dollars thoughts with us and 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.
Charlie Tuttle said:I'm excited to be a member of the club!That water purification system is impressive (and huge). It's great the see their hard work pay off.
Eva said:Congrats to Charlie! Keith, I am amazed by the sized of that water purification system. How many people are in the village to make use of 5000 gal tank of water per day? As for the astro-shots of the sky. I am impressed. 15 seconds may be fast but when you're waiting out there with the animals, it can be quite a long time.
Keith Marsh said:Thanks for all the kind words on my Rotary water project and African photos. I highly recommend each Rotarian consider an International Service project like H2Open Doors or Polio. You will enjoy service to others, good fellowship and great travel venues. Don’t forget to take a camera.
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: My Rotary Story
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
District Governor Tim Lundell of this e-Club's home Rotary District 5170 talks about his Rotary Story, what membership in Rotary means, and the work that we do as Rotarians.
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 listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).If you can't join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
