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March 7, 2024 |
With the traditional ringing of the bell we bring this meeting to order!
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Welcome to this week’s meeting of the eClub of the State of Jefferson.
I am Bob Gibson, President of the Rotary eClub of State of Jefferson. Welcome to this week’s meeting. I hope this finds you well.
This conversation at this week’s Coffee Chat was, once again, interesting, and wide-ranging. Roger Allen had attended an online meeting regarding the solar light project in which we participate with other Rotary clubs. They are organizing an installation “event” in late May. Jean Hamilton now belongs to the group involved in managing this project. Bruce Garrett has been in touch with our contact in Chinle, Arizona regarding our project of procuring a book “vending machine” for the Navajo Nation. The actual purchase is pending the completion of the building where it will be placed. Patti Eisler and Carol Ruggeri discussed the mechanics of transferring funds and interpreting the District Budget Proposal. We covered many subjects in thirty minutes. As I’ve mentioned, I relate it to the conversations we might have over breakfast or lunch before the start of a traditional Rotary meeting. If you find that you are wishing for the fellowship of a traditional club and have time in your schedule, we would look forward to “seeing” you at 12:00pm PST on Tuesday.
Thank you for your interest in our Club and your commitment to “Service above Self.”
Enjoy the meeting.
If you have any questions or comments, I am available. My e-mail address is: bob@bluewaterphoto.net.
email president@StateOfJeffersonRotary.org
Weekly eClub "Coffee Chat" Zoom meetings
Tuesday mornings at 12:00 PM PDT
I believe these “fellowship” meetings have been valuable. They are informal opportunities to get acquainted with our members. If it fits your schedule, I look forward to “seeing” you at the meetings.
March is Water and Sanitation Month
Clean water is a basic need for human beings. When people, especially children, have access to clean water, they live healthier and more productive lives. However, at least 3,000 children die each day from diseases caused by unsafe water, which is what motivates our members to build wells, install rainwater harvesting systems, and teach community members how to maintain new infrastructure.
While very few people die of thirst, millions die from preventable waterborne diseases, providing the impetus for our members to also improve sanitation facilities in undeveloped countries. Members start by providing toilets and latrines that flush into a sewer or safe enclosure and then add education programs to promote hand-washing and other good hygiene habits.
Join Rotary and help extend the flow of clean water to everyone.
Give now to support a water project.
Read news about Rotary's work with water and sanitation
- Rotary helps Ghana surpass clean water goals
- Jack Sim wants you to talk about toilets
- Water summit urges collaboration to quench world's thirst
- Engineering sustainable water solutions in Latin America
- A global thirst for water
Resources & reference
- WASH in Schools Target Challenge
- Apply for a UNESCO-IHE scholarship (for water and sanitation professionals)
- Learn more about our partners
- Browse Rotary Showcase for member projects providing clean water
- Find a water project to sponsor on Rotary Ideas
- Contact our manager for water and sanitation
Making Rotary Simply Irresistible
By Tom Gump, Aide to the 2024-25 Rotary International President
Since the 2024 Rotary International Assembly in early January, participants at Rotary’s annual learning event for incoming leaders have been talking a lot about making our Rotary clubs “simply irresistible.” This term was used as the title of a 1988 song and a 1999 movie. In terms of Rotary, it was first used by Past District Governor Louisa Horn and recently championed by Stephanie Urchick, 2024-25 Rotary International president.
So what does “simply irresistible” mean in terms of an organization? According to Deloitte’s description of “The Simply Irresistible Organization,”TM an irresistible organization has five elements:
(i) meaningful work,
(ii) supportive management,
(iii) a positive work environment,
(iv) growth opportunities, and
(v) trust in leadership.
I truly believe that together, we can make Rotary an irresistible organization if our clubs provide these elements to our members.
- Meaningful Work – No one joins a club to do nothing. Our members join for various reasons, but they all join to do something meaningful. This is true whether it be a traditional or virtual club and whether it focuses on local and/or international projects. We need to give our members purposeful opportunities, and we should change up these opportunities somewhat regularly so our members don’t get bored doing the same thing. How do you know which opportunities to provide? Give your members what they want by conducting a member satisfaction survey.
- Supportive Management – Rotary International is improving in this area, with the Board of Directors just recently implementing three-year goals for its various paired zones. Goal setting and accountability are also happening at the district and club levels.
Rotary also invests in its leaders through various learning opportunities. Our zone coordinators receive these opportunities at the Global Support/Global Philanthropy Seminars. District governors-elect receive them at the International Assembly. Club presidents-elect receive them at Presidents-elect Training Seminars. Members receive them at district seminars and in Rotary’s Learning Center. - Positive Work Environment – Our organization’s Vision Statement starts with the words “Together, we.” Most people want to serve, but they want to serve with like-minded people with the same values. Of course, we have to ensure our members feel that they belong and that their opinions matter to other club members and leadership. Again, surveys would help here. If you implement some of the suggestions your surveys generate, people will feel that they’re being heard.
Rotary International does a good job of recognizing its members and other participants with awards of many types. But recognition also needs to happen at the club level. This recognition should not only be for financial giving, but also for things such as being a new member sponsor. - Growth Opportunities – Our members want to be part of something that allows them to grow. Rotary’s Vision Statement reads: “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.” These last three words are important. People want to be part of something that fosters self-improvement. Working with others to serve makes this happen, and studies show that the act of serving others makes us happy. Why? Because when we focus on others, we aren’t thinking about ourselves. To quote Louisa Horne: “It’s not about me, it’s about M.E. – the Membership Experience.” Read more about Horne’s Rotary Club of Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia
- Trust in Leadership – I’ve spent the last decade getting to know our organization’s leaders from the club level (serving on the Presidents-elect Training Seminar Alliance) up to our International Presidents’ level (through serving as a president’s aide, learning facilitator, and president’s representative). These roles have taught me that our Rotary leaders are purpose-driven and inspiring – not only through their words, but also (and more importantly) through their actions. If we continue to have strong leaders, we will have strong clubs and a strong Rotary.
If we focus on helping our clubs improve these five areas, Rotary will become “simply irresistible!”
President-elect Stephanie A. Urchick talks to Rotary magazine about making Rotary Simply Irresistible.
WHO grants a key approval to the innovative polio vaccine nOPV2
Countries will soon have easier access to the novel oral polio vaccine type 2, also known as nOPV2, a crucial new tool for stopping outbreaks caused by variant poliovirus. The World Health Organization made this possible by issuing a key approval for nOPV2 in December. This is the first approval of its kind for a vaccine being used under the WHO’s Emergency Use Listing. With nearly 1 billion doses administered already, this next-generation vaccine will continue to play an important role in tackling type 2 circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus, also known as type 2 variant poliovirus, and in protecting millions of children against illness and paralysis Learn more (article in English only)
Save the Date: World Immunization Week, 24-30 April
The World Health Organization recognizes 24-30 April each year as World Immunization Week. Rotary and our partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative use the annual event to highlight the critical importance of polio vaccinations in protecting children from the debilitating effects of polio. World Immunization Week is also a key moment in the year to show the success of vaccines in reducing polio cases by more than 99.9% since the GPEI was established in 1988, which provides proof that #VaccinesWork. In March and April, check the End Polio Now Resource Center for new information and materials your club can use to host a polio-related event during World Immunization Week. Visit Resource Center
Actions you can take to support #EndPolio
- Mark 24-30 April on your calendar for World Immunization Week. With your club, start thinking about what you can do that week to increase support for polio vaccination efforts.
- Share the great news that the novel oral polio vaccine type 2, nOPV2, will soon be available in more countries. Sample message:
The novel oral polio vaccine type 2, #nOPV2, has been granted a key approval from @WHO. ✅ Now even more children can be better protected from the devastating consequences of polio. #EndPolio [Link to press release]
Videos
- Watch and share this Voices of Members video to raise awareness about the work Rotary members are doing to help eradicate polio.
- Watch Rotary Tasmania fire up their grills to fundraise for the fight against polio.
- Listen to Jennifer Jones, past Rotary International president, interview Dr. Hamid Jafari, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region’s director of polio eradication.
Chinle Planting Hope Literacy Project
Inchy’s Bookworm Vending Machine™ works by rewarding kids for good behavior, good grades, and good attendance. We believe that the combination of vending books and a personalized reward system could bridge the gap between literacy and engagement.
This program is a great way to prepare children for the future. Let's bring engagement and excitement to reading books again!
Book Vending Machine Success Story - Literacy Programs - Global Vending Group from Global Vending Group on Vimeo
Inchy the Bookworm - Inchys Impact through Book Vending Machines by Global Vending Group from Global Vending Group on Vimeo.
The Harrowing Rescue Missions to Save the Donner Party Survivors
On October 20, 1846, an exceptionally early and heavy snowstorm dumped foot after foot of cement-like snow on the Sierra Nevada mountains, trapping 81 members of the ill-fated Donner Party, more than half of them children. Their five-month ordeal is one of the most infamous in American history, haunted by the fact that roughly half of the 45 survivors resorted to cannibalism when all other food sources—including boiled bark and leather—were depleted.
But less well-known is the story of how rescuers marched bravely into the “camps of death” multiple times to lead (and in some cases, carry) the starving Donner Party survivors to safety. Among those rescuers was James Reed, who had been expelled from the Donner Party for killing a man earlier on the trek, but without whom they may have all perished on the frozen mountain. 
Journey of the ‘Forlorn Hope’
The snow kept falling for weeks, burying the makeshift cabins of the Donner Party. The frigid weather was unrelenting and the emigrants had exhausted nearly everything edible—oxen and their hides, pet dogs, field mice, even leather shoelaces. By mid-December, when it became clear that the weather wasn’t going to break, 15 of the strongest and healthiest men and women strapped on rudimentary snowshoes and set out to cross the summit and find help.
The escape party became known as the “Forlorn Hope.”
“They soon found out that it was going to be an incredibly difficult task,” says Michael Wallis, author of The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny. “It was horrible climbing that great divide with frostbitten hands and feet, weakened by hunger, panting for air. The sun reflected off the snow and ice and burned the corneas of their eyes. The pain became unbearable.”
One by one, members of the Forlorn Hope died from exposure, and their starving comrades became the first of the Donner Party to break the taboo of eating the dead. The life-sustaining flesh gave them the strength to push on, but that act also inspired a far worse crime. A man named William Foster shot and killed two Miwok tribesmen who were accompanying the Forlorn Hope as guides, and the survivors ate the men as if they were any other “animal.”
Ironically, it was Miwok villagers who made first contact with the seven surviving members of the Forlorn Hope and fed and clothed them when the half-dead escape party stumbled into the valley below. The harrowing journey from Donner Lake had taken 33 days. (Photo: By Unknown author - Digital form: John Baptiste Trudeau of the Donner Party: Rascal or Hero, Joseph A. King and Jack Steed in California History, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 162-173. Drawing first appeared in History of Nevada County, California (1880) by Thompson and West, Public Domain, )
The First Rescue Missions, Including Exiled James Reed
Word spread quickly of the starving families trapped at Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake) in the Sierra. The first rescue party, known as the First Relief, departed from Sutter’s Fort near modern-day Sacramento. Sutter’s Fort was a mini-empire run by Swiss immigrant John Sutter, who enslaved local Miwok and Nisesan peoples to work his land.
There were only seven men with the first relief rescue party, and the going was slow and dangerous.
“In some places, the snow around them was 30 feet deep,” says Wallis, “and they had to ditch supplies along the way because their packs were too heavy. They needed relief as much as the people they were rescuing.”
When the First Relief finally arrived at the Donner Party camps, they had little food left to distribute to the desperate families, but they offered to lead the strongest back down the mountain to safety. Sadly, many of those individuals didn’t survive the journey.
Meanwhile, James Reed was frantically trying to raise money for a second expedition to save his wife and children. Reed, a lawyer from Illinois, was one of the organizers of the Donner Party expedition. In a heated exchange with a teamster (someone who drives oxen) named John Snyder, Reed stabbed Snyder in the chest and killed him along the trail. While some wanted to hang Reed on the spot, the pioneers chose to banish him from the party.
Traveling alone, Reed crossed the Sierra before the snows fell and was in California when he received the terrible news of his family’s fate. Reed was temporarily sidetracked from the rescue effort by the outbreak of armed clashes with Mexico, which still governed Alta California. In January of 1847, Reed fought in the Battle of Santa Clara, and was able to recruit some fellow soldiers and gather supplies for the second relief mission to the mountains.
By this point, cannibalism was widespread at the Donner Party camps as no other sustenance was available. Reed’s rescue party was able to evacuate 17 people, including Reed’s own family and most of the Donner family.
“I can’t overemphasize the importance of James Reed,” says Wallis. “If it wasn’t for Reed, the rest of the Donner Party would have died.”
A Heroic Rescue and Villainous Accusations
The ordeal wasn’t over, though. Over the course of more than two months, a total of four missions sent rescuers trekking into the Sierra to evacuate everyone they could, including the sickly and the young.
John Stark was part of the Third Relief and was dubbed a hero for his actions in March 1847, when he and two other rescuers saved 11 people, including nine children, who had been left behind. Stark, a hardy settler, carried the children two at a time down the mountain. It was painfully slow and difficult, but all nine of the kids survived. One of them later credited the miraculous rescue to “nobody but God and Stark and the Virgin Mary.”
During the fourth and final relief mission in mid-April of 1847, the rescuers only found one survivor among the gruesome remains of half-consumed corpses and severed limbs. The last man alive was Lewis Keseberg, an irascible German immigrant who was found in possession of Donner family gold and heirlooms. Keseberg was put on trial for killing and eating six fellow survivors, including Tamsen Donner, wife of George Donner, one of the organizers of the doomed expedition. Keseberg was ultimately acquitted, but was forever cast as a blood-thirsty cannibal.
Only 45 of the original 81 members of the Donner Party survived, 32 of them children. Most were physically scarred from frostbite and malnutrition, and psychologically disturbed by the horrors of what they experienced in the camps, and what they had to do to survive. The Reed family, however, went on to prosper as one of the original settlers of San Jose, California.
weekly@StateOfJeffersonRotary.org
Too Many Autocorrect Fails? Tweak These Keyboard Settings on Your iPhone and iPad
Aggravated by autocorrect? Struggling with Slide to Text? Here’s how to control spelling corrections when composing a text or email on your iPhone or iPad.
Have you ever been typing a text message on your iPhone only for the built-in auto-correction feature to change a word and screw up the meaning of the entire sentence? And before you catch the error, the text is sent. Thankfully, you can undo those typos, but you can also prevent them in the first place by tweaking your keyboard settings.
You’re able to turn off the auto-correction feature completely as well as control auto capitalization, predictive text, and other options. You can even create text shortcuts to convert an entire word or a series of letters into something else, such as your name or address. If you have iOS 17 or iPadOS 17, autocorrect promises to be more accurate based on the context of your words. Plus, you can take advantage of inline predictive text to finish a sentence. Here’s how this all works.
Turn Off Autocorrect
To disable autocorrect completely, go to Settings > General > Keyboard on your iPhone or iPad and disable the switch next to Auto-Correction. The next time you open a text message and start typing, you will notice that your device will no longer change words that aren’t in the keyboard’s dictionary, such as proper names.
Instead of trying to automatically "correct” these words, your device will simply flag them as possible misspellings. Tap the underlined word and you may see some alternative words. If you don’t want to see the red lines indicating a possible misspelled word, return to the Keyboard settings screen and turn off Check Spelling.
Use Predictive Text
Predictive text offers suggestions for your current word and the next word, but it doesn’t force its suggestions on you. The predictions appear just above the keyboard. It also displays the exact letters you have typed in quotes, so you can easily choose that if it's correct. To add any predictive word to your sentence, just tap it.
With iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 or higher and an iPhone 12 or later, you may also see predictive text within the sentence itself. To add the predicted characters or words to your sentence, just tap the Spacebar.
If you don’t want your phone predicting what you might be about to type, go to the Keyboard settings screen and turn off the switches next to Predictive Text and Show Predictions Inline. However, you may want to keep this feature on, especially if you disable Auto-Correction and Check Spelling.
Edit Autocorrections
If you kept the auto-correction feature enabled, you can more easily cancel any autocorrects you don’t want to keep. For this to work, you’ll need to be running iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 or higher. The next time you type a word that results in an autocorrect, you should see that the new word is briefly underlined. Tap the word and you should see your original word along with other suggestions. Choose your original word to revert back to it.
Use Curse Words
In the past, the autocorrect feature would automatically correct profane words to something more benign. But dammit, sometimes you just feel like cursing. Now, you can type the F word, for example, and it won’t be changed to duck.
Update Your Keyboard's Dictionary
If you decide not to disable Auto-Correction and Check Spelling, you can add words and phrases to your keyboard’s dictionary so they won’t be flagged. Go to the Keyboard settings screen, tap Text Replacement, and select the + icon. Now, type the word or phrase you want to add into the Phrase box and it will no longer be flagged as incorrect.
With the Shortcut box, you can avoid having to type a certain word or phrase every time. For example, you could add "good morning" to the Phrase box and "GM" to the Shortcut box. Then every time you write "GM" in a sentence, your phone will turn it into "Good Morning" as you type. To delete a text replacement or shortcut from the list, swipe it to the left and tap Delete.
Any text replacements or shortcuts you set up are added across all your Apple devices as long as iCloud syncing is enabled. To clean out any custom words you no longer want, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset and choose Reset Keyboard Dictionary.
Dictate Your Words
If you don't trust your thumbs to hit the right buttons, you can avoid typing altogether with voice dictation. In the Keyboard settings, make sure Enable Dictation is turned on. When you next want to compose a text message or email, tap the microphone icon and start speaking. Remember to include punctuation marks as you speak. Tap the microphone icon again to stop dictating.
Apple also uses its voice recognition technology to help people navigate their phone with their voice, so it should be able to capture most of your text correctly.
More Keyboard Settings to Change
You can further customize your keyboard from the settings screen. While many of the options here are useful, you can disable any of them by turning off their switches.
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Auto-Capitalization will capitalize the first letter of a word after you type a period. It also allows you to double-tap the spacebar to enter a period.
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Enable Caps Lock keeps the uppercase keyboard active if you double-tap the Shift key.
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Smart Punctuation automatically converts certain punctuation marks to make them look better, such as turning straight quotation marks into curly ones or a double dash into an em dash.
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Character Preview displays a larger preview of each character you tap on the keyboard as a way to confirm that you pressed the right key. For some people, this option may be annoying or distracting. For others, it’s a helpful way to more clearly tell if you’re tapping the correct key.
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Enable Key Flicks (iPad only) is a quick way to type an alternate character. Flick down on a specific key, and the character that appears at the top of the key is entered. For example, flicking down on the A key enters a @, flicking down on the D key enters a $, and flicking down on the X key enters a -. You probably want to keep this enabled, unless you keep accidentally flicking instead of tapping.
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“.” Shortcut automatically inserts a period if you double-tap the spacebar, an effective way to end one sentence and start a new one.
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Slide to Type (iPhone) or Slide on Floating Keyboard to Type (iPad) lets you slide your finger along different keys to form a word. Often a quicker way to create a word, this option should not interfere with your regular typing whether you use it or not. So you can typically leave it enabled.
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Delete Slide-to-Type by Word deletes the entire previous word that you entered by sliding if you press the Backspace key immediately after entering it. If you find that the sliding feature sometimes results in incorrect words that you need to modify instead of deleting them completely, you may want to turn off this option.
weekly@StateOfJeffersonRotary.org
NASA is looking for volunteers to live in its Mars simulation for a year
If you have a background in STEM and live for the extreme, this is the job for you.
If extreme challenges are your cup of tea, NASA has the perfect opportunity for you. The space agency put out a call on Friday for volunteers to participate in its second yearlong simulated Mars mission, the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA 2). For the duration of the mission, which will start in spring 2025, the four selected crew members will be housed in a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat in Houston. NASA is accepting applications on the CHAPEA website from now through April 2. It’s a paid gig, but NASA hasn’t publicly said how much participants will be compensated.
The Mars Dune Alpha habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center is designed to simulate what life might be like for future explorers on the red planet, where the environment is harsh and resources will be limited. There’s a crew currently living and working there as part of the first CHAPEA mission, which is now more than halfway through its 378-day assignment. During their stay, volunteers will perform habitat maintenance and grow crops, among other tasks. The habitat also has a 1,200-square-foot sandbox attached to it for simulated spacewalks.
To be considered, applicants must be a US citizen aged 30-55, speak English proficiently and have a master’s degree in a STEM field, plus at least two years of professional experience, a minimum of one thousand hours piloting an aircraft or two years of work toward a STEM doctoral program. Certain types of professional experience may allow applicants without a master’s to qualify too. CHAPEA 2 is the second of three mission NASA has planned for the program, the first of which began on June 25, 2023.
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