Club member Mike, provided a craft talk. He currently teaches economics at the Community College Level. He was born in Iran, near the Caspian Sea area. From 1967-1978 his father traveled in Eastern Europe and behind the Iron Curtain. In1979 the family came to America, and that is where Mike save a Camel for the first time. He served in the US Army from 1991-1995, and upon his return went to college, then worked for a bank as his first job, a week before the SIC closed it. He took the closing as an opportunity to travel to Mexico and backpack. He moved to Japan in 1995 where he taught English in elementary and junior high schools. It's there he learned Kabookie, and became a Buddhist.
He returned to the US in 1998 and went to graduate school. He got a job in China teaching accounting, marketing to MBAs in China. This is where he met his wife. He started teaching in the US in 2004, where his philosophy in Economics is "You Are the one to learn". His non-traditional teaching methods actually provide interest and direction to his students. Mike says he can also do the boring classes, too!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
June 13 Irvine Rotary Club meeting notes - Rotary Paradise Found in Fiji
Congratulations to Dale Ford, he made his Paul Harris. And Doc made Paul Harris plus 5!
Gene Calvert, a rotary club member from Savusavu, Fiji Islands, talked about doing rotary service in Fiji, where he is developing land. Fiji is pretty remote, and is part of Rotary District 9820 which includes Toga, French Polynesia and other remote islands between Hawaii and Australia.The club has 18 members, mostly women!
The club members work with the local people to teach them a trade, it's mostly bush, and mostly very small business. The island has one foot in the old world and barely a foot in the new world.
The club is 15 years old, and has recently completed three potable water projects providing filtration systems. The club also renovated a school. Additional projects there include:
-Educational Projects: Books donated to the island and the club distributes the books, first sorting and cleaning them up.
Community Projects: Donating wheel chairs; installing a Solar water heater for the local hospital, they never had hot water there before this. Decorating the hospital.
The main focus of the club now is installing flooring for schools, the kids use to just sit and learn in the dirt floors. The average family has five kids and makes less than $3,000 annual income, most a subsistence living.
They also built a bus shelter, when it's hot or raining it's well used by the locals waiting for the bus.
Fiji is paradise. If you plan to attend the 2014 Sydney Rotary International Conference, stop over in Fiji on the way! You'll be welcomed by the club, and probably put to work on one of their projects.
Gene Calvert, a rotary club member from Savusavu, Fiji Islands, talked about doing rotary service in Fiji, where he is developing land. Fiji is pretty remote, and is part of Rotary District 9820 which includes Toga, French Polynesia and other remote islands between Hawaii and Australia.The club has 18 members, mostly women!
The club members work with the local people to teach them a trade, it's mostly bush, and mostly very small business. The island has one foot in the old world and barely a foot in the new world.
The club is 15 years old, and has recently completed three potable water projects providing filtration systems. The club also renovated a school. Additional projects there include:
-Educational Projects: Books donated to the island and the club distributes the books, first sorting and cleaning them up.
Community Projects: Donating wheel chairs; installing a Solar water heater for the local hospital, they never had hot water there before this. Decorating the hospital.
The main focus of the club now is installing flooring for schools, the kids use to just sit and learn in the dirt floors. The average family has five kids and makes less than $3,000 annual income, most a subsistence living.
They also built a bus shelter, when it's hot or raining it's well used by the locals waiting for the bus.
Fiji is paradise. If you plan to attend the 2014 Sydney Rotary International Conference, stop over in Fiji on the way! You'll be welcomed by the club, and probably put to work on one of their projects.
June 5, 2012 Irvine Rotary Club meeting notes
Welcome to our newest member and now blue badger, Kathleen Mellon.
Annabell also received all of her rotary accouterments--hat, jacket, etc. She's a red badger now!
Member Eric McGrath Craft Talk
"The journey of 1,000 steps starts with a swift kick", a quote from Eric's dad.
Eric's grandfather was a North Carolina Rotary Club president, that was Eric's introduction to service. Eric grew up in Raleigh, N.C. As a kid, soccer was his passion and played it through high school and college.
He's a business minded guy, and started a company while in college in the 1980s, a home bottled water treatment program. It was so successful, he built a sales team that went house-to-house testing water. He left college in pursuit of building the best company in his class. He moved to New Jersey, joined the top company, and expanded his role there to training sales staff around the country. While living in Des Moines, Iowas, he married, and together with a newborn, he and his wife moved to Las Vegas for his wife's job.
In LV, he started Spider Advertising, which he eventually moved to Southern California. His passion is his son, now 13, "he's the love of my life." The marriage ended, and he sold his company and went to work for the Rapport Leadership International company, where he met Mary, his bride of two years. Together, they started "Driven for Life", a training and motivation business catering to large companies. They help companies grow their culture, developing team, not just making money.
Annabell also received all of her rotary accouterments--hat, jacket, etc. She's a red badger now!
Member Eric McGrath Craft Talk
"The journey of 1,000 steps starts with a swift kick", a quote from Eric's dad.
Eric's grandfather was a North Carolina Rotary Club president, that was Eric's introduction to service. Eric grew up in Raleigh, N.C. As a kid, soccer was his passion and played it through high school and college.
He's a business minded guy, and started a company while in college in the 1980s, a home bottled water treatment program. It was so successful, he built a sales team that went house-to-house testing water. He left college in pursuit of building the best company in his class. He moved to New Jersey, joined the top company, and expanded his role there to training sales staff around the country. While living in Des Moines, Iowas, he married, and together with a newborn, he and his wife moved to Las Vegas for his wife's job.
In LV, he started Spider Advertising, which he eventually moved to Southern California. His passion is his son, now 13, "he's the love of my life." The marriage ended, and he sold his company and went to work for the Rapport Leadership International company, where he met Mary, his bride of two years. Together, they started "Driven for Life", a training and motivation business catering to large companies. They help companies grow their culture, developing team, not just making money.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
May 29, 2012 Irvine Rotary Club Meeting Notes--Learing More About Social Security
Frank Van Nostrum presented a program on the Five Biggest Myths About Social Security.
Myth #1-SS is only a retirement program---not a pension or savings program. It is an insurance program, insuring American workers against work loss. 70% of the checks go to retirees. 12% goes to widows and orphans. It is the largest source of income for children under age 12.
One of three workers die or are disabled before they become retirement age. Is is equal to $200,000 in insurance policy for most retirees. $300,000 insurance policy for widows and children. Many kids are afforded college thru these monies.
Myth #2--SS won't be there when I need it. One of five Americans get SS checks. Boomers will get it as promised. Too many Americans depend on SS, it will not go away completely. But will change for our kids and grand kids, anyone under age 40.
Changes must be made to SS. Under age 40, they'll need t collect later, pay in longer, take less.
SS has changed drastically over the decades to meet our needs.
Myth #3-SS wouldn't have financial problems if Congress had kept it as a retirement program, the way it was originally intended. SS started in 1935, during the depression, as a way to keep seniors out of poverty. Today less than 10% of seniors are in poverty.
1956 Congress enacted disability insurance under SS.
1965 Congress enacted Medicare.
1973 Congress enacted long term disability under SS.
Each program had taxes enacted to cover it.
SS challenges are demographic. The boomers are the single largest population in the US ever. Currently there is a record increase in disability claims. Record number of retirees, 10,000 boomers are retiring each day. We've flooded the retirement program. We are the Baby Bust generation, with less than two children per family. Thirty years ago, five workers pad for one retiree in SS. By 2035, two workers will be paying in for one retiree. Less people will be paying into SS.
There is an increase in longevity; there's a challenge in how to pay for the boomers on the backs of the younger generation.
Myth #4 -- As a personal investment plan, SS is a raw deal. The truth is most people don't take enough risk. It's not about deals and investments. It's an insurance program, insuring you won't live in poverty. Existing seniors don't live in poverty, they have food on the table and have a place to sleep. The more you pay in, the longer you work, the more you take out. Everyone gets to retire sometime.
Myth#5-- I don't have to plan for my retirement, SS will take care of me.
SS is not enough to live on. It replaces 40% of income for the average worker. It's one leg of a three legged stool--pension, savings and SS comprise Retirement Income. 26% of seniors working cause they didn't save enough to retire.
You have to plan for retirement. You can retire online at www.socialsecurity.gov. Visit it's the #1 rated government website.
Myth #1-SS is only a retirement program---not a pension or savings program. It is an insurance program, insuring American workers against work loss. 70% of the checks go to retirees. 12% goes to widows and orphans. It is the largest source of income for children under age 12.
One of three workers die or are disabled before they become retirement age. Is is equal to $200,000 in insurance policy for most retirees. $300,000 insurance policy for widows and children. Many kids are afforded college thru these monies.
Myth #2--SS won't be there when I need it. One of five Americans get SS checks. Boomers will get it as promised. Too many Americans depend on SS, it will not go away completely. But will change for our kids and grand kids, anyone under age 40.
Changes must be made to SS. Under age 40, they'll need t collect later, pay in longer, take less.
SS has changed drastically over the decades to meet our needs.
Myth #3-SS wouldn't have financial problems if Congress had kept it as a retirement program, the way it was originally intended. SS started in 1935, during the depression, as a way to keep seniors out of poverty. Today less than 10% of seniors are in poverty.
1956 Congress enacted disability insurance under SS.
1965 Congress enacted Medicare.
1973 Congress enacted long term disability under SS.
Each program had taxes enacted to cover it.
SS challenges are demographic. The boomers are the single largest population in the US ever. Currently there is a record increase in disability claims. Record number of retirees, 10,000 boomers are retiring each day. We've flooded the retirement program. We are the Baby Bust generation, with less than two children per family. Thirty years ago, five workers pad for one retiree in SS. By 2035, two workers will be paying in for one retiree. Less people will be paying into SS.
There is an increase in longevity; there's a challenge in how to pay for the boomers on the backs of the younger generation.
Myth #4 -- As a personal investment plan, SS is a raw deal. The truth is most people don't take enough risk. It's not about deals and investments. It's an insurance program, insuring you won't live in poverty. Existing seniors don't live in poverty, they have food on the table and have a place to sleep. The more you pay in, the longer you work, the more you take out. Everyone gets to retire sometime.
Myth#5-- I don't have to plan for my retirement, SS will take care of me.
SS is not enough to live on. It replaces 40% of income for the average worker. It's one leg of a three legged stool--pension, savings and SS comprise Retirement Income. 26% of seniors working cause they didn't save enough to retire.
You have to plan for retirement. You can retire online at www.socialsecurity.gov. Visit it's the #1 rated government website.
May 23, 2012 Program Notes -Irvine Rotary Club welcomes new member Beth
Beth, owner of Paradise Perks coffeehouse, is the newest member of IRC. Lucy introduced her to the club. She;s an OC local and graduated from UCLA in Political Science, and has an MBA from Claremont Graduate School. In 1984, she worked for the LA Olympics and from there became the special events coordinator for the City of Long Beach.
Beth parlayed this experience into a job at the Cityof Monterey Park as the assistant manager. After 4 1/2 years she ran for public office in 1992 and won. She administered the Cable Communications as public affairs maanger for Jones Intercable in Alexandria, VA. Her next stint was at Legg Mason and worked in the investment arena. While in VA she started fthe first Drumming Circle.
As the eldes daughter, she chose to move back to OC a few years ago to care for her mom. Needing more to do in her life, she began Paradise Perks, where "all my nerdiness comes out", says Beth. She's inflected some cool things into the coffeehouse including board game nights, networking and bringing people together, holding special events, participating in community events, and hosting a Comedy Night.
Please welcome Beth to our club!
Beth parlayed this experience into a job at the Cityof Monterey Park as the assistant manager. After 4 1/2 years she ran for public office in 1992 and won. She administered the Cable Communications as public affairs maanger for Jones Intercable in Alexandria, VA. Her next stint was at Legg Mason and worked in the investment arena. While in VA she started fthe first Drumming Circle.
As the eldes daughter, she chose to move back to OC a few years ago to care for her mom. Needing more to do in her life, she began Paradise Perks, where "all my nerdiness comes out", says Beth. She's inflected some cool things into the coffeehouse including board game nights, networking and bringing people together, holding special events, participating in community events, and hosting a Comedy Night.
Please welcome Beth to our club!
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