President O’Neil rang the bell starting the meeting at 12:00 p.m. and welcomed everyone to the “Best damn Rotary Club in Arden Arcade… that is the Arden Arcade Rotary Club of Sacramento.”    

 

The Prez asked Linda Biggler to lead the pledge and she did.  The Prez said the invocation making it short and sweet... “Thank God for rain and Rotary. Amen”  The prayer received raucous approval.

 

Jed Van Wagner introduced his brother, Scott, AKA Chuck. 

 

Bell Ringers - No ringers today

 

Christine Jensen donated $10 because she had a birthday on Sunday.  She celebrated by going to Huntington Beach and Catalina Island. The wheel awarded her with 5 tickets… Happy Birthday to you.

 

It was at this time12:02, that Bill Hambrick joined the meeting.  The Prez welcomed him by asking for a dictionary update. Bill replied that he ordered 450 dictionaries last week.  They should arrive in January.  A sticker party complete with wine will be scheduled.  The Prez chastised Bill for being late at being late.  Next time you are going to be late be a little earlier so you are in time for the invocation.

 

Richard Goore was $10 happy to be back from his trip to Breckenridge Colorado, Hawaii and Santa Barbara.  The Prez invited him to spin the wheel and said he hoped the wheel would not give another 5 tickets.  The wheel, fearing retribution from the Prez dutifully stopped on 0, saving its life and making the Prez very happy. 

 

Bill Hambrick was $20 happy after returning from Cabo San Lucas.  His resort was not shot up by drug dealers.  His blood alcohol level has finally returned to normal.  The wheel awarded him with 3 tickets.

 

 

Les Gudger passed around an attendance and volunteer list for the December 10^th Christmas Party at 6:00 PM in the Nepenthe Room in Campus Commons.  There will be a White Elephant Gift Exchange.  The prohibition against wrapping up a spouse as your gift for the exchange has been rescinded as there was at least one Rotarian that felt he/she should be able to regift the spouse he/she got at the last gift exchange.  There will be live music performed by a father/daughter band.  There will be alcohol and some food.  Help with the decorations is needed. 

 

The club will be dark on November 23^rd, December 7^th and December 28^th. We will be meeting on December 21^st because there is a glut of eggnog in the market and we as Rotarians must do our part to reduce the overstock. The secret word is “eggnog.”

 

Prez O’Neil announced the Rotarian of the Month for October… The Prez called Jed Van Wagner to the front of the room to receive his pin.

 

Prez O asked, “By a show of hands, who knows the secret word?”  Jed Van Wagner was the first to raise his hand and utter the word “Mexicanish.”  For this he was awarded the opportunity to take a guaranteed 1 ticket or spin the wheel. He spun and won 2 tickets.

 

Tim Cahill asked when the next board meeting was.  The Prez informed him that it was tomorrow at Jenny’s house.  Sgt. At Arms Cady, asked if Jenny knew about the meeting.    The Prez said she does now.

 

 

 

President O’Neil introduced our guest speaker, Julie Anderson, the Brain Lady.

Julie started off the meeting with the question “Who in this room would like a little more brain power?  Almost everyone raised their hands except for a couple of Rotarians that thought it was a trick question. She then tossed little green brains to the members that were quickest in their response.  Those that caught the brains can now honestly say they have more brains than anyone else in the room. 

 

We are here to talk about the neuroscience of how to deal with difficult people.  She asked if anyone in the room had a difficult person in their life?  For some reason everyone turned and looked at Les Gudger… most likely to see if he had problem people in his life.  Difficult people are not “bad” people.  It is just that their personalities are completely different from their own.  The differences make it difficult to communicate effectively.  We don’t understand they way they think or make choices in their lives.  Her company takes the information available about the mind and help people understand more about themselves and about other people and how to achieve more success in their lives, business and career and relationships.

 

Today she is talking about a little piece of the brain/personality connection.  Understanding how the brain works allows us to understand ourselves and other people.  Most brains have innate energy signatures in one of the four quadrants of the brain.  These four divisions will be the subject of today’s talk.  This portion of the brain is the most efficient as it uses less energy, oxygen, glucose and micronutrition to process information.  

Julie asked us to fold our hands and look at which thumb was on top.  Then she asked us to fold our hands and place the other thumb on top.  It took more brain power and felt odd to do this.  She then did the same with folding our arms and pointing out which arm was on top and asked us to reverse it with the same results, uncomfortable feelings and the need to think about doing it that way.  There is no right or wrong it is just the way your body is wired.

 

Your brain is wired with a certain personality.  That personality is a combination of 5 certain facets, Introversion/Extroversion, Brain Gender, Sensory Preference, Brain Quadrant Dominance and Nurture. When you work with your natural brain code you use less than .001 of the energy that if you have to use other portions of the brain.

Brain Quadrant Dominance will be the focus of the talk today.  Your brain has a right and a left side.  Each side is divided front to back, giving you four distinct areas, quadrants, of the brain.

 

Quadrant #1 Front Left Brain, The Boss Brain Quadrant Dominance, identified by Julie as a Red Triangle.  This is where all of the inductive/deductive, fact-based reasoning takes place.  Facts in, facts out.  Fact based problem solving. These people are naturally gifted at telling people what to do.  This portion of the brain is used in highly competitive areas of life.  These individuals are naturally highly competitive.  There are other factors that come into play that will modify how quadrants express themselves such as being introverted or extroverted. The symbol, Red Triangle stands for a very strong personality and possibly a bit pointed.

 

Quadrant #2 Back, Left Brain, The Master Coordinator Brain Quadrant Dominance, identified by Julie as a Blue Square.  This is the organizing portion of the brain.  This portion tracks time and money.  It enjoys repetitive tasks.  Spelling is housed here as a sequence of organized letters.  Gifted at anything organizing, sequential and detailed.   The Blue Square blue is a calming dependable color and the square because everything is departmentalized and organized.

 

Right Brain vs Left Brain - Neither are superior, they are just different. The right brain has many more neural connections to the limbic system which are tied to emotions.   Right brained people are literally wired to feel and express more emotions than left-brainers.   

 

Quadrant #3 Front, Right Brain, The Innovator Brain Quadrant Dominance, identified by Julie as a Purple imagination bubble.  This is the visionary.  Abstract thinking is predominant.  What is the next big thing, thinking happens here.  Abstract artist, like Picasso, use this portion of the brain.  Entrepreneurialism is housed here. They have the purple imagination bubble because they are always imagining. 

 

Quadrant #4 Back, Right Brain, The Nurturer Brain Quadrant Dominance, identified by Julie as a Green Circle.  These people are the most connected to emotion in society.    This is where all the peace keeping and harmony takes place.    This is also the home of music.    These people want everything to be harmonious in their lives.  They are very sentimental about people and things.  They tend to hold on to things connected to people.  These people do not like making decisions.  This position will have problems with the boss and the boss will have problems with the Nurturer as they do not communicate well.  The symbol is a green circle as green represents nature and the circle is connected.

 

It is important to know that neural connections flow left to right and front to back.  Difficulty comes when the connections are forced to go diagonally, front right to back left, Front left to back right, back left to front right, back right to front left.  People will have the most labor-intensive difficulties relating to the personalities that are diagonal to them. This is where personality clashes come in. 

 

Julie handed out a sheet that listed several traits under each of the four quadrants.  We were asked to place checkmarks in each of the traits and then count the number of traits for each quadrant.  The dominant quadrant is the one in which you have the most checkmarks. (Editor’s Note:  For those of you that were not at the meeting and would like to take this quick and easy test, please email MikeGrace1952@gmail.com and ask for the test.  As he is a Nurturer and feels your desire to know what makes you tick, he will send you the test.)

 

After everyone had completed their assessment, Julie divided the room into the corresponding quadrants and asked the members to go stand in their respective quadrant.  As expected, there were an over abundance of Bosses and Master Coordinators in the club.  There was only one Innovator, Les Gudger.  There were only two Nurturers, Jed Van Wagner and Mike Grace.  How these three individuals made it into Rotary is a mystery.  There are mitigating circumstances that could account for these aberrations such as birth order and divine intervention.  

 

Julie noted that it is best if you are working in a field where you are using your natural tendencies at least 50% of the time, allowing you the energy to work outside your natural fields. Once you know your type, it helps to know the types of the people you work with and understand where they may be challenges to communications.  The most challenging will be between Boss and Nurturer and between Master Coordinator and Innovator. Always keep in mind the receiver of communication not the sender if you want to get your message across.

 

Prez O’Neil thanked Julie for a very informative presentation.

 

President Patrick O’Neil pulled Mike Grace’s ticket, and he drew the Jack of spades. Mike selected envelope #3 which did contain the Piatti’s gift card.

 

President Patrick O’Neil rang the bell at 1:03 P.M. closing the meeting.

 

Respectfully (more or less) submitted by,

 

Mike Grace