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Jan. 06, 2017
We may not be your father's rotary club, but we still adhere to some, although not many, of the organizational institutions of a rotary club. That's just good governance! This Friday is the semiannual Club Assembly! For new members, just think "fun times." As a preliminary matter, we will vote for the president-elect-nominee (i.e., the selfless talent that is at the helm of the club for the 2018-2019 Rotary year). This will be your opportunity to show support for the super talented Uwe Bergmann. The rest of the meeting we cover club business. The main focus of this year's Club Assembly will be to discuss the annual gala and auction format and changes. As most of you know, the annual gala and auction is our only fundraiser of the year and the money we raise will fund the avenues of service during Mike Teutschel's year - and we all want Mike to have a successful year. We will also have a pitch from the Community Service and Youth Service committees. If you're not on a committee yet, we hope to inspire you to join one of these worthy committees. The hallmark of Rotary is the opportunity to provide service to the community (both locally and internationally). Great service opportunities gives you the opportunity to get to know your fellow Rotarians better ... and is good for your health.
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Jan. 07, 2017 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
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Jan. 12, 2017 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
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The Cold War Museum
Jan. 20, 2017
NOTE: We will be at the Westin, next door to our usual meeting spot, for this meeting Join us on Friday for what should be a fascinating talk from Francis Gary Powers Jr. Gary is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of The Cold War Museum, located at Vint Hill, Virginia, 45 minutes west of Washington, D.C. He will highlight the Cold War, his father Gary Powers, and the U-2 Incident. He founded the museum in 1996 to honor Cold War veterans, preserve Cold War history, and educate future generations about this time period. As Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Cold War Theme Study, he works with the National Park Service and leading Cold War experts to identify historic Cold War sites for commemorating, interpreting, and preservation. Because of his efforts to establish The Cold War Museum, the Junior Chamber of Commerce selected him as one of the “Ten Outstanding Young Americans” for 2002. Gary lectures internationally and appears regularly on the History, Discovery, and A&E Channels. Gary was born June 5, 1965, in Burbank, California, the son of Francis Gary and Claudia “Sue” Powers. Gary holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Master Degree in Public Administration/Certification in Non-profit Management from George Mason University (GMU), Fairfax, Virginia. Recently, he consulted for a Steven Spielberg Cold War thriller, Bridge of Spies, about James Donovan who brokered the 1962 spy exchange between Rudolph Abel and U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, Sr. Gary is a member of the James River Rotary Club, is married, and has one son. |
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Jan. 21, 2017 4:15 p.m. - 7:15 p.m.
Join us at the Movies! Popcorn and snacks provided by PAUR. Just show-up and buy your ticket (maybe bring tissues). About LION: Based on the incredible true story of a young Indian boy who gets separated from his mother and ends up adopted and raised by an Australian couple. As an adult, Saroo (played by Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire) goes in search of his mother. |
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Palo Alto University
Jan. 27, 2017
Join us on Friday as we welcome Dr. Maureen O’Connor as our guest speaker. Maureen is the President of our local hidden gem, Palo Alto University. Palo Alto University (PAU) is a private, nonprofit educational institution, founded in 1975 as the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (PGSP). PGSP re-incorporated as Palo Alto University in August 2009. PAU is dedicated to education with an emphasis in the behavioral and social sciences; to promoting future innovators and leaders for the benefit of society; to generating knowledge through research and scholarship of the highest level; and to providing services to the community informed by science and scholarship. PAU also maintains several international collaborations, supporting local, clinical practicum training in China and Latin America for students who participate in PAU's online M.A. in Counseling program. The University is also in collaborative partnerships with many community organizations, including Stanford School of Medicine, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Palo Alto Medical Center, and other mental health care organizations. The Gronowski Center, a University affiliated organization, delivers low-cost mental health services while also providing valuable, supervised training to PAU graduate students. In addition, PAU sponsors several academic centers devoted to child mental health, evidence-based care for LGBTQ clients, excellence in diversity and community care, and internet-based global healthcare. Looking to the future, PAU is developing programs to assist genocide survivors in Rwanda. Prior to becoming President at PAU in August, 2016, Maureen served at the City University of New York in New York City for 18 years. She was the 2014 recipient of the New York State Psychological Association's Margaret Floy Washburn Mentoring award. At her nomination Maureen commented “I am honored and excited to have been selected as the next President of Palo Alto University. Its commitment to diversity and its strategic focus on education anchored in psychology puts it in a unique and excellent position to make a difference in our students’ lives, in Silicon Valley, and beyond.” Maureen completed a dual degree program in Psychology, Law, and Policy at the University of Arizona, earning both her Ph.D. and J.D. She is a member of the bar in Arizona and Washington, D.C., and clerked for the Honorable Patricia Wald, then Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. She has held numerous governance positions in the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, including as President. She served as Chair of the Psychology Department at John Jay College from 2002 – 2008, during which time she hired close to 30 faculty and built a leading program in law and psychology. Since 2008 she has directed the Doctoral Program in Psychology at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. Through intensive strategic planning, she has supported the development of exciting programs in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Critical Psychology, and Health Psychology and Clinical Science, among others, and has overseen the accreditation processes for three clinical training programs. Her research and teaching interests are in the intersection of psychology, gender, and law, and, in the use of scientific information and expert testimony in the legal system, particularly focused on gendered components of that process. |
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Rotary Scholars Past and Present
Feb. 03, 2017
This week we will be lucky enough to hear from two Rotary Global Scholars, our current inbound scholar Fabio Campos and an update from Megumi Yoshinaga who we had the pleasure of hearing from as last year’s scholar. Since the funding overhaul at the Rotary Foundation around how they bestow scholarships, what we used to call Ambassadorial Scholars are now funded through Global Grants. Fabio has dedicated more than half of his life to Education. At age 18, Fabio cofounded Curso Invest, a community prep-course for underprivileged students in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For 19 years, Fabio managed and taught Literature as a volunteer at Invest. The initiative won the "Makes a Difference" national award granted by O Globo newspaper in 2012. Following more than a decade in marketing communications departments in major international companies, Fabio took on the challenge of cofounding and directing Ensina!, Brazil’s branch of Teach for All. At Rio’s municipal government, Fabio directed the Schools of Tomorrow, a program for over 100.000 students and 155 schools spread throughout Rio’s most violent favelas. Finally, Fabio was the Education Director at Oi Futuro, Oi Telecom’s social responsibility institute, where he managed public-private educational programs that mixed creativity, arts and technology. Fabio holds an MBA from Coppead, a bachelors degree in Social Communication from Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University (UFRJ), and a GCL specialization from Georgetown University. He is interested in Literature classics, comic books, videogames, open source interactive objects, video making, photography, anthropology and backpacking. Megumi has finished her year as a graduate student in East Asian Studies at Stanford. During her time she was able to translate Chiang Kia-Shek’s 1927 handwritten diary in the Hoover Institution Archives. She was also an academic tutor in philosophy. In the summer she was a business intern at Google and since August has been an associate intern at GGV Capital. She wants to call her return talk “Fake it till I make it”. As we learned last year, she was honored as the University Student of the Year in Japan for producing the first-ever Muslim fashion show to raise awareness and help refugees in Syria. Megumi was also the youngest Youth Leader of Japan in the APEC CEO Summit in 2013 and G20 Summit in 2012. She has a love of language speaking her native Japanese along with varying degrees of French, Arabic, Latin, Chinese, English, and sign language. She likes traveling, playing golf and enjoys a well done Japanese tea ceremony. |
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Feb. 04, 2017 9:00 a.m. - 12:01 p.m.
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Feb. 12, 2017 10:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Requires sign-up in advance. Optional lunch to follow. Private tour of the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the recently transformed and expanded SFMOMA. The Fishers, founders of Gap, Inc., started collecting in the mid-1970’s. What first started out as prints for the office soon grew into a love of art and the desire to share it with others. Over the years, their collection expanded to include paintings, sculpture, and drawings with works by Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly, William Kentridge, Anselm Kiefer, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, and Andy Warhol, among others. This first installation spans more than three floors of the museum and has a strong focus on American abstraction; American Pop, Figurative, and Minimal art after 1960; and German art after 1960. https://www.sfmoma.org/artists-artworks/fisher-collection/ |
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Feb. 16, 2017 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
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President's Day Holiday
Feb. 17, 2017
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Feb. 21, 2017 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
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An Update
Feb. 24, 2017
Last year we had a wonderful presentation from the Stanford gymnastics teams. It was a great deal of information packed into our sometimes limiting 30 minutes. This week our very own Volker Kuebler will again be bringing us some special speakers. We are happy to welcome back members of the Stanford men’s collegiate gymnastics team and their coaches. We should be treated to two coaches and several athletes from the team. Among Volker’s many activities he includes being a volunteer coach to the teams based on his past affiliation as a member of the German National Gymnastics Team. The coaches and athletes will give an update of their programs at Stanford and also speak to their past and latest success stories that go far beyond the PAC-12. At least two Olympians will be attending. It should be a very energetic meeting.
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Feb. 25, 2017 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
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Mar. 04, 2017 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
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Mar. 04, 2017 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
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New Member Talks
Mar. 10, 2017
Join us on Friday for one of our favorite programs, New Member Talks. This time around we will hear from Quynh Tran & Debby Seaman, two amazing new additions. Quynh is a partner at Bay Wealth Legal Group, LLP. She counsels executives, professionals, business owners, families and individuals on all aspects of sophisticated estate and wealth transfer planning. She has a B.A. Human Biology and a M.A. Anthropology from Stanford and a J.D. from University of California, Los Angeles – School of Law. With her leisure time she enjoys photography, traveling, and tide-pooling with her kids.
Debby is a Rotary transplant having spent 20 years in the Emerald City Rotary of Seattle where she was very involved (Past President, Membership Chair, Vocational Service Chair, Auction co-Chair for 5 years, and Chair of the Board for Rotary First Harvest, voted one of Rotary International’s 100 best projects in 100 years. She has a Master of Public Health Degree, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Cal, as well as Community College and K-8 Teaching Credentials. Debby has over 20 years of experience in organization and management development, specializing in organizational change, Total Quality Management, and strategic planning within higher education and health care settings. She also relaxes by walking, playing piano, and reading, spending time with family and friends.
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International Update (PAUR in El Salvador)
Mar. 17, 2017
This week we will be honoring the Emerald Isle’s Saint Patrick by hearing from our own red headed leprechaun, International Service Chair Patrick O’Regan. Patrick will be providing an update on the International Committee’s trip to El Salvador. In January, William Grindley, Cecily O’Regan, (only related by marriage), and Patrick travelled to the Rotary Uniendo America Project Fair in El Salvador. In addition to having a booth at the project fair, they made a trip to our projects in Caluco. They were there for the dedication of the just opened maternal health clinic, Las Trincheras; they visited with the students; and they met with the water committee on the well project. The following day they went to La Mora for a PAUR sponsored health clinic. Patrick will elaborate on these and our plans for the future. PAUR has a community based International program. Unlike other Rotary clubs, PAUR's program focuses on improving a single community at a time by getting to know the people in the community, developing a working relationship with the elected officials, and funding stakeholder driven projects related to healthcare, education and economic development. The community PAUR serves has had measurable results in the improvement of the in-country poverty level. Patrick has been a Rotarian for over 25 years. He is a past club president (Falmouth (MA) Rotary) and has held leadership positions within Rotary at the Club and District level. Patrick practiced law on Cape Cod for many years but became a recovering lawyer after telling his then new bride, a native Californian, that Cape Cod was "below the snow line" - only to have 100 inches of snow fall on the cape the next winter. [Four way test fail?] Patrick now teaches a slate of classes on entrepreneurship at the undergraduate and graduate school level: entrepreneurial management, entrepreneurial finance, and entrepreneurial leadership. He also coaches business plan competitions participants and the venture capital investment competition for USF. Patrick also has a start-up in the clean tech space which is focused on water re-use.
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Mar. 19, 2017 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
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Farming Hope
Mar. 24, 2017
This week we will hear from Jamie Stark, co-founder and garden lead of Farming Hope. His enterprise is the soup kitchen turned on its head – they hire the people who usually stand in line, to produce food and feed others. They create jobs for homeless people in gardening and use that food in cooking workshops and meals. Growing and serving food lets their folks feel valued and empowered to share their gifts. They currently partner with churches and homeless service providers in Palo Alto, San Jose and Saratoga as they grow to plant more gardens, meals and opportunity around the San Francisco Bay Area. Their work is inspired by Farming Hope programs in El Salvador, Wisconsin, Chicago and now the sunny Bay Area. Farming Hope believes in empowering individuals out of homelessness, creating dignified work & safe spaces, growing and sharing food, and serving one another. The Problem: Unhoused and marginally housed individuals lack sustainable self-development opportunities in the Bay Area. Immediate resources are available, but a sense of community and opportunities for long-term growth are lacking. The Current Situation: Cafeterias and shelters only provide tangible, short-term resources (food, clothing, temporary housing). Available resources provide limited benefits. For example, soup kitchen food is often processed or unhealthy due to low cost. Homeless folks are often segregated for services, and not empowered with a sense of contributing to community. Farming Hope Fills the Gap: They foster community, service, and opportunity for everyone through urban farming and cooking. They hire homeless and low-income individuals and recruit non-homeless volunteers. They partner with other businesses and organizations to plant urban gardens, educate our community about how to use that produce, and host community meals to gather neighborhoods and fund Farming Hope. Jamie earned his B.A. in journalism and political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has lived and freelanced for the past two years in El Salvador, where he helped co-found the sustainable agriculture project that became Farming Hope. Jamie has reported across Latin America to cover stories like child migration in Guatemala, news-gathering drones in El Salvador and Internet access in Cuba. He is pursuing a career covering social enterprise and international development, with an interest in highlighting solutions to societal problems. Jamie earned his M.A. in Data & Entrepreneurial Journalism, Social Enterprise from Stanford last year. |
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Mar. 29, 2017 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
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Mar. 30, 2017 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
We'll get together to put the book plates into the 230 books PAUR purchased for at need students in East Palo Alto as part of the District Governor's READ ME A PICTURE project. The delivery of books will be scheduled separately. Since this service event is for the benefit of the District Governor's project and will be performed with another Rotary Club (EPA Bayshore) , it qualifies as a district event. |
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Making Cents of Healthcare II
Mar. 31, 2017
This week we will hear from our very own healthcare expert, Ken Graham, on a topic as charged as his talk’s title “Making Cents of Healthcare II”. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) was enacted to provide health insurance coverage to effectively and affordably reduce the number of uninsured in America. Five years ago we asked Ken to discuss the ACA on the very eve of this law being ruled constitutional by the US Supreme Court. Yet, even with 5 years of development, the ACA remains hotly contested, and fiercely politicized. Last Friday we all experienced the utter collapse of the Republican legislative effort to repeal and replace the ACA. This Friday we again have asked Ken to review some facts about surrounding healthcare costs and explore some of the impact of the ACA. Join us as we discuss "Making Cents of Healthcare II"
Ken Graham is a Charter member of the PAUR. He has served a 46 year career in Hospital Administration. He holds Professional certifications in Hospital Administration and Medical Records. He joined his first Rotary Club 43 years ago, and has served in five different clubs on the West Coast. Ken is a volunteer board member for RotaCare Free Clinics (26 years) - a not for profit organization operated in association with Rotary club members. RotaCare now operates 18 free clinics in 4 states. From 2006 to 2011 Ken served as CEO of El Camino Hospital and most recently served as Health System Integration Advisor to The Queen's Health Systems, the largest healthcare provider in Hawaii. Ken earned a BS, and Masters in Public Health, from UCLA.
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Healthcare in El Salvador
Apr. 07, 2017
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Apr. 08, 2017 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Due to the amazing wild flowers we will hike on Saturday, April 8 along the coast on the Cowell-Purisima trail.
We will meet at 8:15 am at the Sharon Height Safeway parking lot for carpooling. Those who want to come directly please join the following directions:
From the intersection of Highway 1 and Route 92 in Half Moon Bay, go south on Highway 1 for a little bit more than 3 miles and there is a parking lot at the south end of the trail right next to Highway 1.
(Note that there is also the Cowell Ranch Beach parking lot at the north end of the trail, but this is NOT where we will meet.) If you are not sure whether you are at the right one, please call Uwe at 650 387 4135.
We plan to start the hike at 9 am.
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Apr. 09, 2017 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
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Apr. 13, 2017 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
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Apr. 15, 2017 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Join us at the Palo Alto Children's Theatre for a SPECIAL call for volunteers! Get a sneak-peak behind the scenes and learn more about their programs - which provide access to theatre to both Palo Alto and East Palo Alto children. The experience with theatre will have a tremendous impact on these children for years to come. Volunteers will assembly the CANDY props (no calories involved) which will be used for the upcoming production of WILLY WONKA! [Spoiler alert ... one of Jake's daughters has been cast in the show!] You can RSVP directly at info@fopact.org or sign-up via this email. The information will also be on the CLUB calendar on the paloaltouniversityrotary.org website. What a FUN way to provide Service Above Self and end tax season! |
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Energy Efficiency
Apr. 21, 2017
This week we will hear from Jennifer Tsau. Jennifer is co-founder and CEO of Keewi, a company that reduces building energy consumption by monitoring and controlling wall outlet devices. Keewi is an energy management system targeted towards energy users seeking control over their electricity bills. It will reduce overall electricity consumption by eliminating wasteful standby power. Keewi will also be integral in adapting consumer behavior to a cleaner energy grid and improving the efficiency of the grid overall. In 2017 Keewi began a partnership with Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. Keewi's software will help the stadium's management team more closely monitor the plug-load data of hundreds of devices in use at the facility, thus helping maintain their status as a net-zero sports arena. Jennifer began her career at Northrop Grumman, where she worked as a subcontract manager on multimillion dollar spacecraft programs. She had a life pivot when she returned to school to pursue her 2nd B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. This led her to discover her life's calling to help bring back "blue skies and starry nights" to polluted air through enabling technology to achieve large scale sustainable impact in the world. She's a recent transplant to the bay area from southern CA, and was drawn to Stanford University's leadership in energy research and entrepreneurship and holds an M.S. in Civil/Environmental Engineering. She is originally from a tiny town of 10,000 people in New Mexico, has an adorable border collie terrier dog named Whiskey, and enjoys training and trying new sport events every year (2 mile ocean swims, triathlons, Spartan races, etc.). |
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Apr. 22, 2017 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
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Apr. 26, 2017 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
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Apr. 27, 2017 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
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Center for the Advancement of Women's Leadership
Apr. 28, 2017
This week it will be very fortunate to hear from Mari Baker, the co-founder of the Center for the Advancement of Women's Leadership, which is part of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford. Combining academic insight with real-world strategies, the Center researches how organizations can create a more level playing field, where diverse talent can innovate and excel. They explore and promote this by having a have a blueprint for change that consists of four areas of focus: 1. Conduct research to diagnose the ways gender bias is embedded in the culture of companies, including their people processes and everyday interactions. 2. Design and evaluate the effectiveness of solutions to block the effects of bias on the outcomes of women and men in organizations. 3. Pilot interventions in partnership with committed companies to test new ideas for producing cultural change. 4. Develop tools to drive broad, sustainable social change. Combining this cutting-edge academic research and everyday practice, the Center creates innovative programming and research-based strategies to increase the number of women leaders in education, industry and government. Mari grew up in Oregon, and attended Stanford receiving a double major in Economics and Sociology. Before she came to Stanford she had never touched a computer. When she did, her life changed. She brings a deep background in consumer technology, small and large company management, and executive leadership roles. She is currently Director at John Wiley and Sons, a $1.7 billion global publisher of education and professional development content, and was recently COO and Director at Velti, Inc., a global provider of mobile marketing solutions. She has also been CEO of venture-backed start-ups PlayFirst, Inc., a leading games publisher, and Navigenics, Inc., a pioneering personalized healthcare company, and led the growth of BabyCenter, Inc. from 1999 to 2006, including the sale to Johnson and Johnson where she served as a company president. Mari was also a key player in the growth of Intuit, Inc. from under $10 million in sales in 1989 to over $800 million in 1999, and held a number of executive positions including general manager and senior vice president. She is an officer in the Golden Gate Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization, served on the Board of Trustees of Stanford from 1996-2003, and has been on the Advisory Council of the Clayman Institute since 2011. |
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Apr. 29, 2017 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
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Apr. 29, 2017 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
It's a BAY row down. Cal vs. Stanford. The BIG row in Redwood Shores. Parking lots are located on Twin Dolphin Drive (marked). We will have an area with a canopy. Snacks and non-alcoholic beverages provided. Patrick O'Regan will be on hand to explain the subtleties of the sport of rowing. Schedule (All times PST) |
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Silicon Valley: Traffic & Housing
May 05, 2017
This week we welcome Steven Levy as our speaker. Steve is Director and Senior Economist of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy (CCSCE) in Palo Alto. Steve will try to shed some light on the two areas of mass discussion in the Silicon Valley: traffic and housing. CCSCE is a private research organization founded in 1969 to provide an independent assessment of economic and demographic trends in California. They work with public institutions and private companies that require an explanation and analysis of California growth trends including detailed projections. Steve is the principal author of CCSCE’s annual report series on the California economy. CCSCE’s annual reports have acquired a national reputation for credible and independent analyses. Steve’s interests also include the conditions for economic competitiveness in California and the impact of immigration on the state economy. He is often asked to speak before public and private groups and has a reputation for being frank, provocative, as well as serious and non-partisan. He has worked all his life as an economist focusing on the California economy. His work centers around two main activities. The first is helping regional planning agencies such as ABAG understand their long-term growth outlook. He does this for several regional planning agencies in northern, southern and central coast California. His other main activity is studying workforce trends and policy implications both as a professional and as a volunteer member of the NOVA (Silicon Valley) and state workforce boards. NOVA is a nonprofit, federally funded employment and training agency that provides customer-focused workforce development services. They work closely with local businesses, educators, and job seekers to ensure that our programs provide opportunities that build the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to address the workforce needs of Silicon Valley. Steve has degrees in economics from MIT and Stanford. He grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when he started graduate school at Stanford. He married his wife Nancy in 1977 and they lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Their children went to Paly. They then moved downtown in 2006 and enjoy being able to walk to activities. He writes a local blog for Palo Alto Online entitle Invest and Innovate and that, he believes, is the imperative for our local area, region, state and nation. That includes investing in people, in infrastructure and in making our communities great places to live and work. He served on the recent Palo Alto Infrastructure Commission. Steve also believes that our local and state economy benefits from being a welcoming community, which mostly we are a leader in, for people of all religions, sexual preferences and places of birth. Steve wants you to bring plenty of questions about the region and all of its intricacies. |
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Fabio Redux
May 12, 2017
In March we first heard from Rotary Scholar Fabio Campos. During his limited time there seemed so much more to his story and educational research that would be fascinating to hear. He never got to explain his last slide entitled “Why Stanford?” Now we get the rest of the story. Georgie Gleim’s write-up of his portion that session follows this blurb. Fabio has dedicated more than half of his life to Education. At age 18, he cofounded Curso Invest, a community prep-course for underprivileged students in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For 19 years, Fabio managed and taught Literature as a volunteer at Invest. The initiative won the "Makes a Difference" national award granted by O Globo newspaper in 2012. Following more than a decade in marketing communications departments in major international companies, Fabio took on the challenge of cofounding and directing Ensina!, Brazil’s branch of Teach for All. At Rio’s municipal government, Fabio directed the Schools of Tomorrow, a program for over 100.000 students and 155 schools spread throughout Rio’s most violent favelas. Finally, Fabio was the Education Director at Oi Futuro, Oi Telecom’s social responsibility institute, where he managed public-private educational programs that mixed creativity, arts and technology. Fabio holds an MBA from Coppead, a bachelor’s degree in Social Communication from Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University (UFRJ), and a GCL specialization from Georgetown University. He is interested in literature classics, comic books, videogames, open source interactive objects, video making, photography, anthropology and backpacking. “Fabio has been involved in education for a long time. He touched on trends in education that Stanford is working on, after thanking KATHLEEN WEISENBERG, ELIOT TERBORGH, and STEVE ROSS, all of whom have provided wonderful support for him while here. Fabio’s scholarship was sponsored by a coalition of three clubs from Rio. A very busy man, he has also been a brand manager for a telecom company, as well as a college lecturer for 6 years. (He may well have learned to create 36 hours every day, judging by his accomplishments and the list of interests in Don’s introduction.) One day, sitting around a table with some friends, after (he says) only one beer, Fabio decided to found a school in Rio. This wasn’t going to be just any school, but would focus on students from the favelas, the slums throughout Rio. This group of six friends not only founded and continued their school, but have had students accepted to university. The current leader of this school is one of Fabio’s former students, now finishing his PhD, still living in the favela. Although the concept of a community school is now common, it was revolutionary 13 years ago when this school was founded. Another gathering at a pub, another beer, and Fabio and his friends decided to bring the idea of Teach for America to Rio. This initiative was not such a success. In hindsight, they should have done more preparation and gained more community buy-in; they encountered resistance from the teachers’ unions, as well as having to overcome the idea of bringing an “imperialist American” idea to Brazil. Fabio continued to visit schools worldwide, then attended Georgetown University for a leadership program. He then headed up Rio’s Teach for Tomorrow program, managing 155 schools with over 100,000 students, in some of the most violent areas of the city. Education was under siege in these areas; we saw pictures of bullet holes in walls, which would make it difficult to concentrate on your math equation. Fabio was pleased to improve the dropout rate, but faced a severe teacher shortage. Fabio is clearly an outstanding example of a Global Scholar.” |
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New Member Talks
May 19, 2017
Join us on Friday for one of our favorite programs: New Member Talks. This time around we will hear from two wonderful additions, Lisa Liu & Nanci Kauffman. Lisa is Senior Partner at the Mittzel group, a company that advises and counsels businesses on their employment law needs in a myriad of areas. Lisa is an attorney who specializes in business law and immigration law. She works with her clients to build and protect their businesses as she guides her clients through their distinct legal issues. It is Lisa’s uniquely intersecting background of business and law, as well as her own experience with immigration, which allows her to approach her clients with such understanding and creative options to help them achieve their business goals. Lisa gained extensive first-hand experience in navigating the immigration process while living and working in several countries across the globe, such as Taiwan, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Lisa earned her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Prior to becoming an attorney, Lisa studied at Tufts University where she double-majored in Japanese and International Relations with a concentration in International Finance. Lisa also holds a Master of Science in European Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. With her down time she enjoys cooking, movies, hiking, and tennis. Nanci Kauffman is Castilleja's sixth Head of School. Prior to becoming Head on July 1, 2010, she was Associate Head of School and Dean of Faculty. A veteran teacher and administrator, she has worked almost exclusively at all-girls schools. At Castilleja Nanci taught in the History department for seven years, and served as the interim Middle School Head for one semester. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Wagner College in New York City and the Hamlin School for Girls in San Francisco. She graduated from high school at age 16 before graduating from Vassar College and Teachers College at Columbia University. Originally from New York, Nanci and her husband Scott relocated to Palo Alto with their son and daughter in 1997. Together they enjoy traveling, concerts, theatre, and sports. As a native New Yorker, Nanci loves pizza -- especially New York pizza! She remembers walking into the "pizza place" and asking for "a slice" and no one asked "what kind?" She paid 25 cents for a "regular" slice and 30 cents for "Sicilian." (Back then, no one asked for "cheese" pizza because all pizza had cheese!) |
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May 22, 2017 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Jim Plunkett former professional quarterback and two time Super Bowl winner will be the keynote speaker at the May 22, 2017 Rotary Club of Menlo Park’s annual Scholastic Awards Ceremony. Approximately 120 high school students from four high schools (Menlo Atherton, Eastside College Prep, Sacred Heart and Menlo) will be acknowledged for excellence in a diversity of activities that include; math, music, art, science, athletics to name a few. Additionally the Rotary Club of Menlo Park will be awarding college scholarships to deserving high school seniors from the same four high schools. |
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May 24, 2017 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
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Memorial Day Holiday
May 26, 2017
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Club Off-Site
Jun. 02, 2017
On Friday, June 2, we will have the pleasure of having our meeting at Stevenson House (SH) in Palo Alto. The meeting will include a tour of the facility and one of the newly renovated housing units. SH’s mission is to provide affordable housing where independent, low-income seniors enjoy a safe and caring community. Construction of SH began in 1966 - well before current earthquake building standards were in effect. Since 1968, Stevenson House has offered a solution to the continuing housing crisis low-income seniors face. They believe that every human being, regardless of income, deserves to lead his/her life with dignity, fulfillment and companionship. These are the values that are ingrained in the SH culture. There is a richness at SH of experience, knowledge and wisdom, of culture and race and nationality. The site has 3 buildings and 120 units. Over the past several years PAUR members have served as board members on their active working board. SH has benefited from the strength and diversity of the intellectual capital that PAUR members have brought to their organization as SH navigated qualifying for tax credits in order to secure a much needed $30M HUD financing to renovate the entire facility for current seismic standards and to update the individual units. As an active working board, PAUR members attended to innumerable details for SH from navigating the HUD tax credit process to working with the architects to ensure that the units were optimally designed to meet the needs of the senior residents. PAUR member involvement includes: Sally Mahoney (current president), Patrick O'Regan (past president and current board member), Toni DeWaal (current board member), Florence Buatois (past board member), Ted Marston (past board member), Don MacKenzie (past board member), Paul Osesso (past board member, former PAUR member). It should also be noted that Helen MacKenzie (board member, honorary PAUR member and wife of Dave MacKenzie) is also involved. Join us as we learn about SH and learn about design considerations that go into designing safe affordable housing for our local elderly. You will be proud of the intellectual capital our members bring to this worthy organization. Hopefully everyone attending this special meeting has indicated that they are coming so we make sure there is enough breakfast for all. You may park at the Universal Unitarian Church (505 East Charleston Road) adjacent SH and walk across the adjoining bridge. |
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Jun. 02, 2017 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
On Friday, June 2, we will have our meeting at Stevenson House (SH) in Palo Alto. The meeting will include a tour of the facility and one of the newly renovated housing units.
SH provides local, affordable housing for seniors. Construction of SH began in 1966 - well before current earthquake building standards were in effect. The site has 3 buildings and 120 units.
Over the past several years PAUR members have served as board members on their active working board. SH has benefited from the strength and diversity of the intellectual capital that PAUR members have brought to their organization as SH navigated qualifying for tax credits in order to secure a much needed $30M HUD financing to renovate the entire facility for current seismic standards and to update the individual units. As an active working board, PAUR members attended to innumerable details for SH from navigating the HUD tax credit process to working with the architects to ensure that the units were optimally designed to meet the needs of the senior residents.
PAUR member involvement includes: Sally Mahoney (current president), Patrick O'Regan (past president and current board member), Toni DeWaal (current board member), Ted Marston (past board member), Don MacKenzie (past board member), Paul Osesso (past board member, former PAUR member). It should also be noted that Helen MacKenzie (board member, honorary PAUR member and wife of Dave MacKenzie) is also involved.
Join us as we learn about SH and learn about design considerations that go into designing safe affordable housing for our local elderly. You will be proud of the intellectual capital our members bring to this worthy organization.
Please indicate if you will be attending so we can order the right amount of food. For those of you who prefer the stone tablet and chisel technique, sign-up sheets will be available at the Friday meeting.
You may park at the Universal Unitarian Church adjacent SH (505 East Charleston Road)
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Jun. 07, 2017 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
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New Voices for Youth
Jun. 09, 2017
Our speaker on Friday will be Jose ‘Lalo’ Saavedra Lara, the Project Director and instructor for the New Voices for Youth program at the Boys and Girls Club in East Palo Alto and the Siena Youth Center in Redwood City. He will describe various aspects of the program whose mission is to provide students with media production training in order to create their own original documentaries on issues of importance to them. The underlying belief is that when youth experience the power of making a difference through media arts, they are more likely to get politically involved. If this sounds familiar to some, it should. We have heard from New Voices before. They have been so compelling that our PAUR Community Service committee funded NV4Y with a well-deserved $1000 DDF grant. It will be gratifying for NV4Y to showcase the funded program. New Voices for Youth is a course for Middle School students designed to encourage civic engagement through the media arts. With the assistance of the League of Women Voters and community mentors, students learn how to write, direct, edit and screen digital movies about an issue in their community. Students work in teams and mentors help them learn how to identify an issue, research its roots, identify reliable sources for facts and figures, create a digital film to tell a story, and exhibit a film online and promote it utilizing social media. Through their participation in the New Voices For Youth Program, students develop many lifelong skills, such as, public speaking, interviewing, grassroots activism, team building, research, non-linear editing and writing, movie development and production. Jose Saavedra Lara (“Lalo”) is a recent graduate from Cogswell College, with a BA in Digital Media Management, who spent his youth at the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula and later as their music program director. Growing up in a low-income home, his number one goal was to break the ongoing poverty cycle in his predominantly Latino community. At a very young age, Lalo's experiences ignited his passion for music. As the years passed, his endeavors led him to use music as a means of spreading community awareness about local and global issues. Lalo also developed skills in film production within Adobe's non-profit media program, Adobe Youth Voices. Through his involvement with the organization, he learned the importance of guiding youth, teaching them to voice themselves as individuals, and as a community through media. At 23, Lalo plans to produce high-quality media for the best in the entertainment industry. He will continue to support his community, especially youth development through media and mentorship. "My ultimate goal is to properly equip the youth in local communities with enhanced skills so they hold a competitive advantage within their desired career field; thus, showing them how to break the 'glass ceiling' that constrains young, talented media makers." |
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Understanding A.I. and Machine Learning
Jun. 16, 2017
Our speaker on Friday will be our very own Okke Schrijvers. In recent years, the field of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) has been experiencing a revolution thanks to breakthroughs in Machine Learning. These technologies have made their way into popular culture in recent movies and TV shows, and you’ve probably read articles about it in the media. But what are A.I. and machine learning, and why is this suddenly such a popular topic? In this talk, Okke will shed light on what people mean when they’re talking about A.I. and he will address two of the most often heard questions: “will A.I. take my (child’s) job?” and “will A.I. turn evil?” The presentation will be kept to about 20 minutes to leave plenty of time for questions. There are many ways in which A.I. could impact society in the near and distant future, and Rotarians are driven to improve their community. So Okke wants to address questions or concerns that you may have, so that we can all improve our understanding of the technology, and the implications it may have for us in the years to come. Okke Schrijvers will receive his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University on June 18, for his thesis “Learning and Incentives in Computer Science.” At Stanford he has served as a student member on the Ph.D. admissions committee for two years, has received the departmental “extraordinary service” award three times, and he has served as president, vice president and board member of the Dutch at Stanford student association. After graduating, he will join Facebook as a Core Data Scientist on July 10. Since January 2016 he is serving as the co-editor in chief of XRDS (pronounced: crossroads), the student magazine of the world’s premier academic computer science association ACM. He is a John Ernest fellow, and a Rotarian since 2014. Okke is originally from the Netherlands, currently lives in San Francisco and enjoys cooking, hiking and traveling with his girlfriend Brooke.
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Children Now
Jun. 23, 2017
Our speaker on Friday should be familiar to many of us. Ted Lempert was the California State Assembly member representing San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties from 1988 to 1992 and 1996 to 2000. He will be speaking to us in his capacity as the President of Children Now, a national research and advocacy organization based in Oakland. Children Now is a nonpartisan umbrella research, policy development and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting children's health, education, and well-being in California. Children Now also leads The Children’s Movement of California, a grassroots network of more than 1,850 business, education, parent, civil rights, faith, and community-based organizations, as well as thousands of individuals, working together to make children a top priority in public policy. Their mission is to give kids power by serving as the hub for all of the key children’s issues, supporting and connecting thousands of groups in California to create an unprecedented power base for kids. To accomplish this, Children Now employs the top three strategies that all of the country’s strongest interest groups have in common: Umbrella Coverage, Children Now covers the full range of key children’s issues, representing the support for all of its concerns as “Pro-Kid”. No one wants to be “Anti-Kid”; Deep Inside Expertise, utilizing groups that employ the top experts in their fields to work the inside halls of power. Outside Pressure, together, with the more than 1,650 organizations that have already joined their network, the sheer number and diversity of these voices creates the most powerful interest group. As well as being the President of Children Now, Ted is also a Lecturer in the Political Science Department at UC Berkeley. Previously, Ted was the founding CEO and co-founder of EdVoice, a California education reform organization. During his turns as Assemblymember, Ted served as chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee and the Select Committees on Education Technology and Coastal Protection, and co-chair of the Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education. He had more than 75 bills signed by Governors Deukmejian, Wilson and Davis, including major laws in the areas of education, health care, children and families, tax policy and the environment. Ted also served on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, where he was President of the Board in 1995. He was the founder of the County’s Youth Commission and chaired the Task Force on Violence Against Women. Prior to holding public office, Ted was special counsel and an associate for the law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton in San Francisco. Ted is a lifelong resident of the Peninsula, attending local public schools. He graduated from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and earned his law degree from Stanford University. He, his wife Nicole, and their three daughters live in San Carlos. |