Building Enchanting and Affordable Homes from Recycled Materials
This Meeting’s Highlights
Program: Building Enchanting and Affordable Homes from Recycled MaterialsSpeaker: Dan Phillips, Founder & Builder of Phoenix CommotionMeeting for the week of September 5, 2016 to September 11, 2016
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!
Message from President Mitty
Travel with Rotary.
Hello and welcome! My name is Mitty and I am the president of this Rotary club! Every week we bring to you a program designed to inspire you, to intrigue you, to educate you, and to empower you to do more. We are proud to be one of the premier online Rotary clubs in the world, with weekly online meetings and in-person events in the Silicon Valley.This week's speaker is brought to us by our charter president Rushton Hurley. Without giving away the program too much, it's about amazing homes created using recycled materials! Our speaker, Dan Phillips, spoke at TEDxHouston and the work he does is definitely inspiring. Be sure to keep reading on this meeting to learn more about Dan's work.
My message's theme this week is about traveling with Rotary.
What does traveling with Rotary mean? It's about being able to travel virtually anywhere in the world, and almost always being able to meet up with local Rotarians in the part of the world you are traveling to. This is something that is unique to Rotary, simply because of its global network. My favorite part about traveling and meeting Rotarians is how often I find that people I meet are like-minded and share commonalities with me.I was in Sydney last week and got to meet several hundred Rotarians from all over Australia and New Zealand at their regional Rotary conference. Today, I am writing this message while traveling in Melbourne, Australia, where I have met up with one of our newest members, Brett Sham! Brett and I will be visiting one of the local Rotary clubs in the area this week, the Rotary Club of Melbourne Park. Traveling and visiting cities around the world for work or holiday is exciting in its own right, but being able to share a meal with a like-minded local just elevates the experience.The beauty of the Rotary network is that every Rotarian can easily connect with other Rotarians by just planning ahead and sending out an email. Members, the next time you are going to visit another city, consider searching for a Rotary club in that city. You can do this on Google, Facebook, or by using the Rotary.org Club Finder tool. I always recommend emailing their club leadership (president or secretary) ahead of time if you can to confirm they are still meeting during the time you are visiting. If you can't make one of their club meetings, just ask if they would be willing to meet up for coffee or a meal. For our own club members, consider also using your fellow members as a resource. Members who are traveling, send president@siliconvalleyrotary.com a message with where you are going and your travel dates, and we will see if we can reach out to our network to find you a contact!Rotary is truly global, and our Rotary Club having members in places around the world, including (but not limited to) USA, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Australia, and Costa Rica, just goes to show how global we are.Please, enjoy the meeting this week!And for our Guests: We are so happy to have you join one of our online meetings! Whether you are a visiting Rotarian, prospective member, friend of a friend, or just someone stopping by -- our goal is to make sure you're getting some inspiration out of this meeting. As you continue scrolling and reading through our meeting, please leave a comment at the bottom of the meeting once you're done. We would love to hear from you! You can tell us things like where you're from and what you thought of the meeting! You can also ask the speaker a question in the comments section.
Yours in service,
Mitty Chang,
President
Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Power of Images: Tomatina!
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 Kai Forsterling in Buñol, Spain.
About this photo: Taken in Buñol, Spain, people take part in the annual ‘tomatina’ festival. This year 160 tons of ripe tomatoes were offloaded from trucks into a crowd of 22,000 half-naked revellers who packed the streets of Buñol for an hour-long battle. Photograph taken by Kai Forsterling/EPA. Originally seen in The Guardian.
That's a lot of tomatoes!
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. This week's jokes are autumn themed! Enjoy!
What is a tree's least favorite month?Sep-timber
What is the cutest season?Awwtumn.
What did a tree fighting with autumn day say?That's it, I'm leaving.
Weekly Inspiration: One Year on Mars
Every week we bring you videos of innovation, inspiration, and entrepreneurship. This week we are featuring a video from WIRED on what it's like to live one year on Mars...but in Hawaii.
For an entire year, six scientists lived in isolation inside a dome on Hawaii as a NASA-funded Mars simulation. WIRED's Youtube video has more below
Who had flashbacks of Mark Watney (Matt Damon) in The Martian?
It's interesting to see how far technology has come, and how realistic a journey to Mars is becoming.
Member Spotlight: Mitty Chang
Our club is a family of like-minded individuals who believe in service above self, and love bettering our local and our international communities through humanitarian service. We also just have a really cool bunch of people! This segment spotlights a different member every week so we can find out what is new in their life.
This week's segment is on our club president, Mitty Chang!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCFq5ldwHn0And because it's hard to see the food in the video...here is a combined photo of the different foods! Descriptions: Galloping Horses (caramelized pork, prawn and peanut on sour pineapple), Crispy Barramundi (tapioca dusted barramundi with a green apple and roast cashew salad and nahm jam dressing), and BBQ Lamb Ribs (mekhong whiskey marinated lamb ribs in special sticky sauce)
Food adventures! Sounds delicious!
You can also follow Mitty's food adventures on Instagram @mittychang.
World of Rotary: Club Visits in Harare, Zimbabwe
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 featuring photos submitted by our club member, Tzviatko Chiderov, who is currently living in the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare!
Rotary Club of Harare CBD (Central Business District)
From Tzviatko:
"Attached please find some photos from my recent visit with the RotaryClub of Harare CBD.
They didn't have a formal speaker the day I visited so they asked meto speak about myself and our eClub! :) it was a very nice gesture. Itwas also the birthday of the sergeant at arms that evening so they hadcake!"
Rotary Club of Harare The Bridge
From Tzviatko:
"A quick note here about a recent visit to the Rotary Club of Harare The Bridge. They are a fun group, and I found out that evening that the Past President is a colleague of mine from Econet! :) Also they had a banner from the Rotary Club of Plovdiv Puldin in Bulgaria. Plovdiv is my home town! So cool!"
Tzviatko, thanks for being a brand ambassador for our Rotary Club, and for sharing your club visit experience with us! It is wonderful being connected to Rotary clubs in Zimbabwe!
Members, you are all encouraged to visit a Rotary club local to you or where you are traveling to. Members, email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com your photos and your story of your experience to be included in a future meeting.
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!
http://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleyrotary/All events are marked in Pacific Time and are located in the San Francisco bay area / Silicon Valley.
Upcoming Events:
Half Moon Bay Habitat Restoration Service Project – Sat. September 10
On Saturday, September 10 from 10 AM – 1 PM – Half Moon Bay It’s been a cool summer around here so what better way to enjoy the weather than to go outdoors and help improve the habitat for local birds and plants? We’ll be fending off invasive species and planting more native plants. We will also likely grab lunch after and maybe even enjoy the beach while we’re there. If you’re interested, please contact Andrew at secretary@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
If you’d like more details, you can find it here: https://www.handsonbayarea.org/HOC__Volunteer_Opportunity_Details_Page?id=a0a3200000DEcGtAAL
REGISTER/RSVP: RSVP on our meetup page by clicking here.
Hiking Social at the Alamere Falls – Sun. September 18 in the Point Reyes National Seashore, California
On Saturday, September 18 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.
REGISTER/RSVP: RSVP on our meetup page by clicking here.
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:
Members Only Facebook Group
Members, we have an exclusive members-only Facebook Group for internal networking. Some examples of great uses for this group:
Request help finding Rotarians in places you want to travel to.
Work referral requests (i.e. you are looking for a recommendation to a good designer or architect)
Plan meet ups & events!
Help with projects
Questions & Answers
Members, if you have not yet joined this group, please request an invitation by going to https://www.facebook.com/groups/rotarysiliconvalley/
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!
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):
"Please apply this to Polio Plus.“
From guest Renee Zimmerman ($10):
"Thank you for making this online meeting accessible. It's been great visiting you guys. Renee, Los Altos Rotary Club"
From guest Penny Noel ($20):
[No message left.]
From member Brian Liddicoat ($15):
"Big welcome to our newest members around the World."
From member Martin Fox ($20):
[No message left.]
From member Linda Tangren ($15):
[No message left.]
This week the happy dollars will go towards funding our club projects and initiatives. So go ahead, tell us about something good that’s happen to you this week! Think of this like a digital karma jar. All happy dollar submissions will be featured in next week’s online meeting — so great for shoutouts and brags!
Visiting Rotarians: If you like what you see, this is a really good chance for you to give a digital shoutout to your club in our next week’s meeting, while helping fund some of our projects. Perhaps consider donating an amount similar to what you might have paid for the cost of the meal if you attended a brick and mortar club meeting — or any amount you are comfortable with!
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 the "SOLD" human trafficking film with Director Jeffrey Brown:
From member Tzviatko Chiderov (Zimbabwe):
“Jeffrey, thanks so much for raising awareness of this important issue. It's good to hear you're partnering with so many organizations for distribution, marketing and other support. I hope Rotary can be a bigger part of these efforts.“
From member Ferheen Abbasi (Osaka, Japan):
“Welcome to the group, Brett! It's a pleasure to have you!! Jeff, wow. Thank you for your presentation. My family comes from India and I have heard awful stories of child trafficking from them. It's heartbreaking and shocking and terrifying. I wish there was more I could do to help protect young women from that life. I definitely plan on watching and sharing your movie. I too hope that Rotary does more to support these efforts. Thank you for all that you have done so far.“
From member Hardeep Singh (California, USA):
“I loved reading the book Sold. I read it in one sitting- couldn't put it down! I also definitely teared up many times throughout that book. I've heard so many heartbreaking stories from India about trafficking, and it always hurts to hear how bad it is (over there, and all over the world). Jeff, thank you so much for bringing more awareness to the issue. As hard as it is to hear this harsh truth, the world needs to know how much of a problem this really is. I'm so glad there is a film made for the book, and hope that it will target multiple audiences. I'm definitely going to spread the word about the film to others!“
From member Brett Sham (Sydney, Australia):
“Hi everyone, thanks for your warm welcome! In Australia I often read in the newspaper about human trafficking and servitude and exploitation. Quite often as sex workers, but also domestic servants and even also in range of other service industries, mostly coming from Asia. It's horrific to think that even as such an isolated nation that this problem exists here.“
From guest Carey Lai (California, USA):
“Greetings, My name is Carey. I am from Sunnyvale Rotary Club. It is my first time visit. I love it! Jeffery, thank you for your presentation. After watching the trailer and reading related information, I would like to share the info with my club members. Thank you very much, Carey“
From member Richard Knaggs:
“Ahh I loved swimming in Lake Zurich when I was there. Great Picture! Such a touching video on deaf - Feel the beat. Welcome Brett! Jeffrey this is a beautiful story and very clever initiative. I will share with my educational community and hopefully affect faster change. Mitty, you read my mind! :)“
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's name is Dan Phillips and he is Founder of Phoenix Commotion, a home construction business that builds affordable homes out of recycled materials.
The Phoenix Commotion is a Huntsville, Texas based building initiative created to prove that constructing homes with recycled and salvaged materials has a viable place in the building industry. This process uses only apprentice labor and teaches marketable skills to anyone with a work ethic who is willing to swing a hammer. By keeping labor costs low and using donated or found materials, the homes created are truly affordable. No two are alike due to the myriad of materials used, so there is an artistic element that makes Phoenix Commotion homes unique. We target single parents, artists, and families with low incomes. We require the homeowner to be involved with the planning and construction of his or her own home. The result is a person who is empowered, not only by the useful knowledge of building skills, but by the opportunity to become part of a community as a vested participant.
Dan Phillips builds homes out of recycled and reclaimed materials in Huntsville, Texas.
From Dan's TED Speaker bio:"Dan Phillips is a designer and builder in Huntsville, Texas. In 1998, he and his wife, Marsha, started The Phoenix Commotion, a construction company that builds affordable houses from reclaimed and recycled materials. Their mission is to divert landfill waste while creating sustainable housing for single mothers, artists, and families with low incomes. The Phoenix Commotion keeps labor costs low while reclaiming human potential. They use an apprentice program to teach sustainable building skills to individuals that volunteer or intern on the Phoenix Commotion Crew.The houses are energy-efficient, cheap and satisfying to build -- and wildly, effervescently creative. To the Phillipses, any material used in enough multiples creates a beautiful pattern -- so Phoenix Commotion homes are covered and decorated with salvaged materials of many stripes. Homes are built in concert with their eventual owner, who contributes sweat equity and their own artistic flair."Dan has spoken to many groups on his work, and was a speaker at the October 2010 TEDxHouston conference.“Mr. Phillips said his biggest reward was giving less-fortunate people the opportunity to own a home and watching them develop a sense of satisfaction and self-determination in the course of building it.” — New York Times
Members and guests, please join me in welcoming Dan Phillips!
https://youtu.be/Pa-33Icw9Sw
Related Attachments & Links:
Reach out to Dan
If you have any questions for Dan, please feel free to leave a comment or question at the bottom of this meeting page.
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 September 12 - WESTOP education group with Chapter President Karissa Morehouse
Week of September 19 - Remind app with Founder Brett Kopf
Upcoming Recordings:
THIS WEEK: Also this week on Tuesday, September 6, 2016 we have a second recording in the evening at 7:30 PM Pacific Time with Karissa Morehouse, Chapter President of WESTOP Northern California. (Info about WESTOP) The connection address for this recording will be: https://zoom.us/j/7489282423
The recording for Brett Kopf of Remind App has been rescheduled for next week. Exact time/date will be announced 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![wufoo username="mightymitty" formhash="m9qaj790552ebh" autoresize="true" height="924" header="show" ssl="true"]
