Today was a zoom meeting with 19 people on line.
GUEST:
PDG Bob Hobaugh, Kutztown RC; Nick Millward, Peace Scholar from Brisbane, Australia, and his Parents.
CONVERSATION NOTES:
PDG Bob Hobaugh was the first to come on line today. He just likes to visit with us.
Nick Millward called in from Brisbane, Australia where it was about 9:30 P.M. He is now recovering from his second case of covid. Australia is still having problems.
Ron Coleman was wearing a new, colorful shirt today.
Shuree Gootiiz, our speaker, was on from Springfield, MO. today. She has not been back home to Mongolia in 3 years because of the covid pandemic.
OPENING:
President Gail Micca started the meeting at 7:30 A.M.
Marlene Heller gave a very nice invocation, emphasizing “Add one more” to your do-good list.
Pres. Gail asked Ron Coleman to lead us in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the U.S.
Then Nick Millward led us in the recitation of the Four-way Test, and added “Is it Fun?”
CELEBRATIONS:
Pres. Gail displayed the list of August member celebration events. The list is shown below.
Gail noted that today is Ralph Witcher’s birthday. So we sang Happy Birthday -- poorly.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
FRESH FLOWERS FOR SALE:
See separate article.
Come to Gail’s house tomorrow evening around 6:30 to help with flower arrangements.
BURGERS & BASKETS:
Come on Sunday evening at 6:30 to Jennifer Stinson’s house to help make baskets for Casino Night. Kevin will be grilling the food.
MEALS ON WHEELS:
Helen Papathanasiou says the schedule through December is set and looks good.
GREEN THUMB GARDEN:
Our garden is giving us great produce to go to food pantries.
PARKLAND C.A.R.E.S.:
Their food pantry work day has changed from Saturdays to Tuesday evenings.
Karen Rodgers led the effort last week that provided food, including some of our fresh produce, to about 200 families. THEY WERE VERY APPRECIATIVE.
PRODUCE SUPPLIER:
Amir Famili noted that Pine Valley Farms near Kutztown have been very generous. He obtained 250 lbs. of fresh produce for just $80. Amir and his wife do the harvesting.
KINGDOM LIFE FOOD BANK:
Ron Coleman was the only AW Rotarian that helped distribute last Saturday, August 13th.
We need more help, folks! Please sign up for the next event on Sept. 10.
CASINO NIGHT:
WE NEED REGISRATIONS NOW!! By next Monday, August 22, we must commit a headcount to our Caterer. PLEASE REGISTER NOW.
There will be a tour of the America on Wheels Museum available to us on August 18th at 10 or 11 A.M.
Printed ad business cards were handed out by Gail today, along with other materials.
POLIO ERADICATION RUN / WALK:
The Lehigh Valley Passport RC is managing this district event which will be on October 15th.
MULTI-CLUB MEMBERSHIP EVENT:
On October 19th we will hold a cornhole tournament and get-together in Center Valley at the Stone Fam Cellars and Vineyards.
DO NOT USE THE PROMO CARDS UNTIL GAIL SAYS THEY ARE OK, OR MUST BE REPLACED.
AWRC JOB OPPORTUNITIES:
Vice President to be President for the 2024-25 Rotary Year.
Four-wat test Speech Contest Chair to run the one-time competition for out RC.
Foster Parents Breakfast one-time event chair.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Marlene Heller is happy to report that they survived the first official Grandma & Grandpa weekend with their grandchildren.
Ernie Boll just is happy, as usual.
Ralph Witcher is happy to have our speaker here with a great story.
NEXT MORNING MEETING:
Wednesday August 24 IN PERSON at Madeline’s in Fogelsville starting at 7:30 A.M. Come early and talk to each other.
Our program will be STEM-YEA students with stories. Also the Camp Neidig(RYLA) students will be coming and presenting and discussing a yearbook that can be passed around. There will be at least two speakers - one from Parkland and one from Northwestern Lehigh.
And we have a 12 year old Parkland student speaking about her work on the environment.
PROGRAM:
Nick Millward noted that we have two more speakers about things in Mongolia. Then he introduced his friend, Shuree Gootiiz, to talk about their NGO, Tech Education Fund.
Batshur (Shuree) Gootiiz ---
Shuree Gootiiz has about 17 years of professional experience, with the last 4 years in technology field and 13 years in international development and private sector in the U.S. and Mongolia.
She currently works as a Technology Product Manager at PwC’s Product and Technology group in Washington, D.C.. She manages 30+ data and cloud infrastructure engineers focused on delivering big data platform as a service (PaaS) product to PwC consultants and partners.
She helps clients to manage projects that leverage Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing technologies.
Previously (2016-2018), she worked as a senior project manager at the World Bank Group (WBG) in Washington ,D.C. At the WBG, she collaborated with the World Trade Organization and OECD trade researchers and co-created one of the most comprehensive global databases in services trade policy that covered 120 countries and 18 sectors.
Between 2013-2016, she was a Managing Director of Sustainable Development Consulting in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. While in Mongolia, she led several projects that advised the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Mining, Oyu Tolgoi LLC, Deloitte-Onch among others. In 2015, she was the CEO of Bodi Insurance, the second largest insurance company, where she managed about 250 employees and 18 branches around the country.
She is passionate about supporting purpose-led start-ups and education related efforts focused on Mongolian youth. Currently, she serves as the Chairman of the Board of Tech Education Fund, an NGO to support tech educational initiatives in the U.S and Mongolia and SorAzi NGO in Mongolia. She has raised the funding for the first essay competition and spearheaded the efforts to support other initiatives for the NGOs.
The following is her slide presentation with a few of my notes:
Promoting STEM education among Mongolian youth using the Tech Education Fund NGO
Why?
Personal, Professional and Needs of the community
Personal reasons are my background, and my journey from Mongolia to achieving higher education in the U.S.
Shuree was raised in Mongolia in poverty with no running water at home. Her father has a drinking problem as well. Her motivation to start was to step up and have running water.
Women’s representation in technology stats show Today 57% of college degrees are awarded to women. But only 2% are in computer science and tech disciplines. One goa; is Reducing gender-based bias in the technology sector, and Supporting women’s economic empowerment.
There are about 1 million tech jobs unfilled today in the US alone. The high demand is driven by digital transformations and recent events. All companies, regardless of industry, size, and location, are upcoming technology-driven companies/
Mongolian economy ---
Currently, Mongolia’s economy is going through tremendous challenges. Growth has stalled since 2015 and Tugrug (their currency) has depreciated 50% since 2014.
Their economy is suffering due to lack of diversification. 96% of exports is raw coal & copper 95% of exports go to China and China’s demand for coal has been declining. They need to transition from mining economy to knowledge economy.
Our Big GOALs ----
By 2032, we want to raise $1 million dollar fund ….. A perpetual education fund so we can provide scholarship + loans to Mongolian youth .
To make the funding sustainable by having payments that can fund the next set of students. This assumes students can pay back loans given the high demand for tech talent.
This funding goal can support about 50 students per year. The interest income of the fund alone will help about 7-8 students per year.
To test the idea they started Proof of Concept (POC) in 2022. They aim to fundraise about $50,000 and support 2-3 students in the first year.
They will focus on girls and require that students have received partial scholarships (>60%) . They plan to select students, whose parents don’t have savings and cannot afford private loans
Fundraising platform: Giving Circle at Grapevine
Shuree answered some questions. She thanked us for inviting her. And based on hearing our meeting, she plans to look into joining a Rotary Club.
CLOSING:
Pres. Gail led us in reciting our motto “One profits most who serves best,” and then adjourned the meeting..
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