Sailing Science Center News

August 2019

Vol. 2, No. 1 2

Welcome to the August issue of the Sailing Science Center News! Our theme this month is abundance, as we express gratitude for the abundance of the bay and ocean around us, the incredible talent and helpfulness of all the people we meet and the abundance of friends, volunteers, supporters and great team members in the SSC organization.

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.

– Winston Churchill

Volunteer Spotlight - Vijay Kesavan

This month’s spotlight is on Vijay Kesavan. Vijay was born and raised on the island city-state of Singapore. In 2005 she came to the U.S. and Tufts University where she earned her bachelor’s degrees in International Relations and English, followed by a master’s in Environmental Science from U-Mass Boston. She is articulate and well-spoken, reflecting her thoroughbred education.

Vijay works as a planner for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in San Francisco with a specialization in climate change and sea level rise, a good fit with some of our interests at the Sailing Science Center, particularly our gallery on meteorology and oceanography.

When asked what she’s passionate about, Vijay said she loves anything outdoors, especially around the water, which is interesting because she says she has a fear of the water she is trying to overcome by sailing, learning to surf and (soon) SCUBA diving. Also surprising is that she spent eight years studying and practicing martial arts, including Kung Fu, and Broadsword! Watch out!

On the SSC project Vijay is helping us to integrate our initiatives with the state-mandated Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Vijay developed a table for mapping NGSS topics to potential SSC exhibits, an approach that was validated when we saw what Mandi Bilinge was doing at Kids for the Bay. Vijay likes the mission of SSC and our objective of creating greater educational access to the Bay for all kids. That’s perfect. Welcome to the SSC Vijay! We’re delighted to have you on the team!

July Volunteer Event - Sign Up and Sail

L to R: Olivia Malterre, Jim Hancock, Vijay Kesavan,

Morgan Davidson, Victoria Marcus

Our July Volunteer Event was a Sign Up and Sail event on Rich Levandov's spectacularly nice Sabre 386, Stella Blue. Five SSC team members came out for a gorgeous day on the Bay with plenty of dolphins and sea lions. Thank you to Rich for the use of your boat!

We hold monthly events to say Thank You to the active volunteers who are helping the Sailing Science Center grow. If you'd like to get in on the action click on our Volunteers page to sign up and get involved.

New Board Members

Ron Young

Kira Hammond

Carolyn Davidson

Our biggest news from July is the addition of three new top-notch members of the SSC board, including our new Chairman of the Board, Ron Young, and Directors Kira Hammond and Carolyn Davidson. We'll have a spotlight on Ron next month to share all the experience and value he brings to the SSC. With our current board it's hard not to feel a sense of abundance!

If it weren't for physics and law enforcement we'd be unstoppable!

– Darynda Jones (paraphrased)

Phancy Physics

Foiling kite boards and a foiling sailboard "fly" through the water in front of Angel Island, bringing modern technology and science together on the water with one of man's oldest forms of transportation. The Sailing Science Center was created to inspire, illuminate and celebrate the magic that is both sailing AND science, including "flying" with hydrofoils.

It's Time to Talk Exhibits!

We've identified the first exhibits for each of our 7 Galleries and have begun discussions with builders to start creating those. We scheduled four of thoe discussions just this week, with the first talk being held with Dave Hood, of Hood Branded Environments (see above). This is where things start to get fun!

Life works with balance. If you give and receive out of giving, you create a balance with life. You serve life, before you expect life to serve you.

― Roshan Sharma

Social Media Corner

Take 2 minutes to help us reach 100 LinkedIn followers!

We're expanding our social media presence and are asking your help to crowdsource our push.

Our LinkedIn page will feature the latest developments in our organization, plus the best links, pictures, and articles related to sailing science from around the web.

If you aren't already doing so, this month we're asking folks to follow our LinkedIn page (San Francisco Sailing Science Center).

Every year local sailing magazine, Latitude 38, holds crew parties in the spring and fall. They're great places to meet fellow sailors, but the party this September 11 will also be a great time to meet folks from SSC, as we will have a booth set up at the event. We invite you to join the party and meet some of our team. Click here for details.

Small Stuff

Information Technology

In the category of small stuff that's actually big, volunteers Mike Beller and Sergey Morozov have been

charging ahead to get us connected with all the latest technology. Sergey is working to build out a new SSC website and Mike has been helping with everything from setting up a new Slack account (with Slack employee Sergey's help) to evaluating CRM (Contact Relationship Management) software. This is incredibly helpful and valuable work.

Thank you to both Sergey and Mike!

Calls to Action

Going from a vision to the manifestation of that vision takes ACTION. Without it the vision remains nothing more than a dream.

There are several actions YOU can take to help make the SSC vision a reality. Won't you help us? Here are some things you can do:

Volunteer
Donate
Click the Like button on your favorite social media platform
Tell your friends and have them sign up for the SSC Newsletter

We are grateful for all support, however large or small.

Leadership Corner - Abundance

Stephan Covey first spoke of the Abundance Mentality (or Mindset) in his 1989 classic, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. At the surface it seems like little more than asking whether the glass is half full or half empty, but it turns out that the mindset you CHOOSE changes EVERYTHING. It's not that one is true and the other is false, but that the mindset you adopt determines your entire approach to life, and that makes a big difference.