Kathy Gailey, the “African Queen,” tooted us to order. The Greeter, Ana Dominguez, made us stand at attention, listen to her brief Thought for the Day about the Gates Foundation and Rotary’s Polio Plus effort and salute the flag. (Bill Gates will be a featured speaker at the Rotary Convention in Atlanta.) The Patriotic Song was led by Mike Prilutsky, who was not that flat. Ana shared with us that her dad had been featured in November’s Rotarian Magazine as the original Rotary Ambassador scholar. He will also be going to Atlanta. (We need more volunteers to attend to keep an eye on Lucky!)
Announcements
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The Young Professionals Conference for the East Bay is being sponsored by, among other groups, the six area clubs. It will be held on April 1 at the Roundhouse Conference Center in San Ramon. The cost is $25 and the program is packed full of informative speakers from the world of business and tech. It is designed for people under 40.
Next week’s program will be Colette Lay and the Shadow Day event with Cal High kids.
President Gailey held a surprise celebration for Pat Paterson’s 30 years of perfect attendance and Jay Tonz’s remarkable 40 years of perfection. We had cake, compliments of Mo.
Rotary Moment:
Uncle Ray Giles explained how the Rotary Foundation learned through hard experience how to run a successful operation. Its projects needed to be sustainable. It wasn’t enough to dig the well; you had to provide for its upkeep over the years. The foundation also learned to focus its efforts in one of six areas of service:
- Peace and Conflict Prevention/Resolution.
- Disease Prevention and Treatment.
- Water and Sanitation.
- Maternal and Child Health.
- Basic Education and Literacy.
- Economic and Community Development.
Program:
Mike Prilutsky, substitute-extraordinaire, introduced our speaker, Dr. Velencia Ray, whose talk was titled “The Art and Science of Neuro-Reinvention.” Surviving modern life requires us to be change-agile, and the key to that adaptability is emotional self-awareness. As a former eye-surgeon, Dr. Ray is familiar with the process of neuro-pathways which make our growth possible in an environment which is volatile, uncertain, challenging and ambiguous. We must keep growing and changing, regardless of our age.
It is not enough to conceptualize change; we must own it psychologically and emotionally. We literally develop new neuro-connections to accommodate change. Dr. Ray offered three central questions about how we respond to change:
- How and where do we focus? We can perceive our environment through either fear or love. Our choice literally affects how our brain’s physiology reacts.
- Thoughts are things. Our emotions are largely the result of our perceptions. So our vision shapes our brains.
- Practice mindfulness. “It’s not the load that breaks you down. It’s how you carry it.” The perception of stress causes our immune systems to weaken. We need to use meditation, including breath-control and guided focus to achieve that mindful self-awareness.
The future is not something that happens to us. It is something we ourselves create. It is not enough to
think that future; we need emotions to empower that thought. Dr. Ray left us with a final thought: “Make friends with your emotions. See change as opportunity, not terror.” You can get more information at
velencia@velencia.com.
Raffle:
The Greeter’s Gift was won by Ana Dominguez, despite Oscar-inspired irregularities. The chance at the progressive raffle was won by this correspondent who, to the cheers of his peers, drew blue.
