Jeff Whitbey introduced the following guests today:

 

 

Past President Ron DiLiddo opened the club membership meeting and made the following motions on behalf of the Nominations Committee.  He announced that Cyndee Andrews and Kyle Johnson were being nominated as new Club Board of Directors.  He made a motion to close nominations.  It was seconded.  Motion approved.

Ron made a motion to elect the following persons as the 2019/2020 Rochester Rotary Club Board of Directors: Immediate Past President Rodney Hulbert, President Wayne Hodges, President-elect Ron Lichtle,  Presidential Nominee David Eardley, Secretary Jeff Whitbey, Assistant Secretary Tim Duncan, Treasurer Vince Mattina, Assistant Treasurer Steve Oehler, Director Robert Cruciger, Director Janet McPeek, Director Cyndee Andrews, Director Kyle Johnson.  It was seconded.  Motion approved.  Ron then made a motion to adjourn the Rotary Club membership meeting.  It was seconded.  Motion approved.  

 

Ron then opened the Rochester Rotary Charities Board Membership meeting and made the following motions on behalf of the Nominations Committee.  He announced that Christine Hage was being nominated as the new Charities Board Director-At-Large.  He made a motion to close nominations.  It was seconded.  Motion approved.  

Ron made a motion to elect the following persons as the 2019/2020 Charities:  Immediate Past President Alan McClellan, President Tom Neveau, President Elect Ron DiLiddo, Assistant Secretary Tim Duncan, Assistant Treasurer Steve Oehler, Director Jerry Gross, Director Al Jones, Director Eric Whipple, Director Christine Hage.  It was seconded.  Motion approved.  Ron then made a motion to adjourn the Charities Board Membership meeting.  It was seconded.  Motion approved.  

 

Ron Lichtle introduced today's speaker, Barbara Oakley, New York Times Bestseller and professor at Oakland University.  She teaches one the most popular AMOC (a massive online course), which has had 2.5 million students, making one of the largest online courses being offered.  She grew up the child of Air Force parents and enlisted in the Army to gain training in speaking a foreign language (Russian).  After her stint in the Army, she realized that her foreign language training was not creating many job offers, so she returned to school and got her electrical engineering degree.  In order to do so, she had to retrain her brain to like some courses that were great struggles earlier in her life, such as mathematics.  The question that students often asked her was "How did you retrain her brain?"  She spoke about writing her first book where she sought the advice of a number of professors in different disciplines, who were slightly hesitant to share their secret of success, which revolved around metaphor and analogy.  What she discovered was the neural links for one learned topic help in learning another.  The pattern could be repeated.  She used the analogy of the brain as a pinball machine to discuss the brain focused mode and the brain diffused mode.  The key takeaway is that learning needs both modes to be at work.  The key to learning is the creation of a set of neural links within our brains.  Another key takeaway is that 10 days of one hour of learning is better than 10 hours of learning in one day.  Rest plays a key role is helping our brains create the neural links necessary to learn and retain what we have learned.  She spoke of the working memory, which is what your brain holds temporarily and the long-term memory which are memories our brains constantly maintain.  Using her younger daughter's video about learning how to drive in reverse, she discussed the differences between heavy cognitive load (what occurs with a learning is new) and a light cognitive load (what happens when a learning becomes normative).  She concluded her program by speaking about Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who is often called the father of neuroscience. He won the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 1906 for his theory that became known as the neuron doctrine.  His research changed the way that we look at the brain the process of learning.  She closed by sharing her appreciation for Rotary and the international experience that her daughter Christine had in Chile through Rotary, which also led her to meet her future husband.  Thank you, Barbara, for a fascinating program!