To answer her burning question “How can genetic genealogy help identify John and Jane Does?” Margaret Press co-founded the DNA Doe Project in 2017 with Forensic Genealogist Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick. After months of work hunting down labs, experts, bones and donations, they tackled their first case in September 2017 and incorporated as a non-profit the following month. The subsequent success stories have provided the answer: persistence, patience, and a team of skilled and spirited volunteers. That’s how it’s done.
Margaret grew up in Los Angeles, California where at age 15 she inherited a passion for genealogy from her grandmother. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Linguistics and subsequently earned her doctorate at UCLA, specializing in Native American languages and child language development. From her extensive field work she published a descriptive grammar of Chemehuevi, a nearly extinct dialect of the Uto-Aztecan family.
While working most of her life in software development, Margaret also fell into mystery writing. Two published novels set in Salem, Massachusetts were followed by essays and short stories, and a true crime based on a 1991 murder in her own neighborhood. The book inspired several documentaries, including an Unsolved Mysteries segment in 1996 and a 1998 episode in the A&E series City Confidential. She has also taught numerous courses in mystery and crime writing.
When DNA testing redefined the genealogy landscape, Margaret joined the impassioned group of citizen scientists who would propel this new field to where it is today. She began with setting up several Y-DNA surname projects. Once autosomal testing reached critical mass and its potential became apparent for helping in unknown parentage searches, she – like many others – became hooked on the unique challenges of building family trees forward in time, rather than backward. The satisfaction that comes from helping an adoptee is profound and addicting. But extending this methodology to her current mission – returning a name to an unidentified victim – brings a whole new level of reward.
Margaret is a proud parent and grandparent, with descendants of her own to carry her mitochondrial haplogroup C1d and passion for genealogy down her family tree.
Bonny Landers' Brave New World of Socially Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing
Our Speaker for our October 22, 2020 meeting was Bonny Landers. Bonny’s topic was “Socially Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing (and other jargon).” Bonnie is a senior finance professional with many years of experience in international banking and in private consulting services. She is currently the Founder and Managing Director of Bay Street Consultants. Since 2008 her focus has been on sustainable, responsible and impact investment. Oh, by the way, she is President Paul’s sister-in-law, whose husband, David, has spoken at our club on several occasions.
Bonny gave us 30-minute summary of SRI (Socially Responsible Investing). Some of the key points include identifying investments that do not cause harm and are ethical, and ensuring that all risks (measurable environmental, social and governance) are taken into account in the process of making decisions on investments. The “impact” part of SRI identifies a strategy of intentionally targeting measurable positive result from your investment. The themes and challenges of sustainable investments include climate change, water and food availability, waste management, and health & wellness. Sustainability also requires stakeholder engagement and shareholder activism. “ESG” (environment, social and governance) factors are also important in determining the sustainability of an investment. Bonny provided an interesting viewpoint from a major accounting/consulting company, Price Waterhouse Cooper: “ESG funds forecast to outnumber conventional funds by 2025.”
Bonnie provided us with valuable insight into a very forward-thinking investment philosophy that may become a dominant factor in the future. It apparently is not all about making the highest return, and many investors are very interested in the SRI concept and strategy.
Well done Bonny: thank you for your presentation and your wonderful slides. We appreciate all your hard work and obvious mastery of the subject of your presentation.
On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, submits pictures of what is going on at the weekly meetings. You can always find the most recent pictures at the websites photo journal called "Meeting Sighting" Please note that all the meeting photos for the entire Rotary year are at this location with the most recent on the last page.
Thanks for all the great pictures Warren!Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!
After two cancelations for in person conferences in Fortuna, District 5130 gathered virtually, Saturday, October to celebrated District Governor Kathy Flamson’s 2019-2020 year with the theme Rotary Connects the World, and Kathy’s accent making the community more "Close Knit".
David Mark Raymond of Sebastopol masterfully emceed the conference.
Despite most of the shelter in place limits imposed, District 5130 reached out to Australia with Fire Relief, to France for Notre Dame, to local senior housing through PEP in Petaluma with support from San Jose Rotary, and continuing relief in the Hurricane battered Bahama’s.
Santa Rosa East was recognized for its’ 50th year, Napa for 100, getting charter support from as far away as San Jose.
PDG Kathy announced a new affiliation between Rotary and Toastmasters. Both organizations recognize a mutually beneficial opportunity. Toastmaster, Elliott DeVille from Eureka presented An engaging, informative outline of great story telling strategy and directed us to explore the new Toastmaster Rotary link on each International group’s website. Hint - remember the “P Rule,” pause, participation and physicality).
Rotary International VP Jorita Solari (below right), introduced by 5130 PDG Kevin Eisenberg (below left), brought greetings and kudos from RI. She reminded us to continually ask ourselves what is our “WHY” in Rotary.
Kathy closed the District Conference session with her announcement of the District Rotarian of the Year: Duane Barnes of the Rotary Club of Middletown. Dwayne worked tirelessly in organizing fire an disaster recovery and relief in Lake County and recently following the Kinkaid Fires. One of the original developers of LARCA (Lake Area Rotary Club Association) Duane stepped up at Kathy’s request and took charge amidst his own local town’s overwhelming needs.
Rotary’s Positive Peace Academy teaches sustainable peacebuilding
One of the first graduates of this program, Rotarian Patricia Shafer, explains how service projects can put the concept of Positive Peace to work.
by Diana Schoberg Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
Peacemaking is stopping bullets; peacekeeping is negotiating. Peacebuilding, meanwhile, is creating an environment of security and conditions of well-being through access to things like health care, education, and water. That’s what Patricia Shafer, a Rotary Peace Fellow and member of the Rotary Club of Charlotte, North Carolina, teaches to high school and university students as executive director of NewGen Peacebuilders. She is also senior fellow for peace education at the Alliance for Peacebuilding.
Recently, Shafer built on her peace fellowship by becoming one of the first Rotary Positive Peace activators, a role that will connect her with Rotarians who want to build peace through their projects and help their communities do the same. By 2022, 150 Rotary Positive Peace activators will be trained in six regions of the globe through the strategic partnership between Rotary and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
Dr. Johan Galtung [a Norwegian sociologist who is considered the “father of peace studies”], in his original premise of Positive Peace, promoted the idea that we’re trained to think of peace as reducing or minimizing violence — as taking away the bad. But if you want sustainable peace, you have to work on promoting the good: creating the conditions of well-being for all. The IEP’s Pillars of Positive Peace is a framework of eight factors that research shows work together to make for more peaceful societies. All eight pillars matter — it’s a systemic view — but the IEP advises focusing on which one or two may be the weakest. A focus there can be a basis for the design of a peace project.
What is a Positive Peace activator?
There are 26 Positive Peace activators in North America, and a group of 30 will be trained in Latin America. Many are Rotary Peace Fellows. Some are Rotarians. Some are IEP ambassadors. I’m all three. Positive Peace activators are charged with equipping people with an understanding of Positive Peace and of the IEP’s eight pillars, and with teaching them to put those concepts to work. We do this through presentations at Rotary clubs and conferences, incorporating the Positive Peace framework into other peacebuilding work, and, in my case, co-designing a series of training summits that Rotarians can offer to their local communities in 2021.
Why did you become a Positive Peace activator?
Rotary has a peacebuilding history that goes back to 1914 and has established a very clear footprint in peace education with the Rotary Peace Fellows program, which has more than 1,300 members in its alumni network. Another big opportunity is for Rotarians to connect with local communities about peacebuilding and to employ a common framework and a common language and way of thinking about peace.
How can Rotarians get involved?
One thing that’s easy to do is to learn about the IEP’s Positive Peace framework through the free Rotary Positive Peace Academy. Training workshops, whether virtual or in person, can teach you how to apply the eight Pillars of Positive Peace to projects you are already working on. If you’re working on education and literacy or water and sanitation, how do you look at those through the eight pillars? It’s transformative to look at projects that way. It’s how you go from doing good service projects to being activators for Positive Peace.
Over the past few months, every community on this planet has been touched by the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s put tremendous stress on every community. Now, in the United States, we’re also seeing the impact of discord over issues of racial equity. One premise of the eight Pillars of Positive Peace is that they create a stronger, more resilient community that can face crises when they occur.
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