Stories

1. Service Above Self
2. One Profits Most Who Serves Best

1. Promoting peace
2. Fighting disease
3. Providing clean water & hygiene
4. Saving mothers & children
5. Supporting education
6. Growing local economies

Dr. Shawn Carlson is a physicist and an educator who works to make the scientific process less mystifying and more comprehensible to nonscientists. Carlson is the executive director of the Society for Amateur Scientists and an adjunct professor in physics at San Diego State University. He has authored and edited a number of CD-ROMs that explore core concepts in physics and problem-solving techniques.

Shawn Carlson received a B.S. (1981) from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. (1989) from the University of California, Los Angeles.

In 1994, Carlson founded the Society for Amateur Scientists, which identifies opportunities for curious amateurs to investigate important, but as yet unsolved, scientific questions and to provide a forum for the organization of amateur research projects. As author of the “Amateur Scientist” column for the Scientific American, Carlson features innovative and inexpensive designs for equipment and experiments that amateurs can use to explore current research questions. Finally, he moved to San Diego and then in 2016 he started the Lab Rats program (https://sdlabrats.org/) so kids can be part of a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) program.

He says that once kids get to the 8th grade their interest in science plummets. Hence it is crucial to get them excited about STEM and at an early stage. He therefore starts kids at LabRats from 5th grade all the way to 8th grade. He incorporates 3 spheres of engagements - Self, Custodial and Social engagement. Key aspects of the LabRats program are:

• Create groups for girls and boys to engage in projects with their own peers
• He believes in small classrooms with 1-on-1 engagement and not 1 teacher lecturing a class of 30 kids.
• Character development is one of the KEY focus
• The program is taught by science experts that have a Masters and PhD degrees
• Their STEAM center is in Encinitas at the Boys & Girls Club
• They now also have a Mobile STEAM bus so they can go to the schools and create programs on-site for the kids

Dr. Alan M. Blum has been a practicing chiropractor in San Diego for over 40 years and has been studying kinesiological muscle testing techniques for over 30 years. A national speaker, he has invented or innovated several groundbreaking kinesiological muscle testing techniques and has taught many of those techniques at the Total Body Modification Research Seminars.

Dr. Blum’s greatest joy is helping to heal people. Experiencing firsthand severe stress and severe chronic fatigue, he spent years looking for solutions and created some groundbreaking techniques to heal others and teach them how to have more energy, combining chiropractic practices. The chart below shows the various areas of the spine and how it controls various aches in our body.

As San Diego Site Director for Hands of peace (HoP), Sarah Heirendt (pronounced Hi-rent) is responsible for overseeing the annual three-week summer program that brings together 50 Israeli, Palestinian and American youth right here in Carlsbad, and other year-round projects that take place in the San Diego area. This includes community education and outreach, participant and volunteer recruitment, alumni engagement and event planning as well as coordination and execution of the many details that go into the summer program.

Sarah served as the San Diego Assistant Program Director in 2016 as well as one of the leadership training facilitators. She received her BA from Vanguard University in Cultural Anthropology and her MS from George Mason University in Conflict Resolution. She has worked for multiple non-profits specializing in community development.  While studying and traveling abroad, her interest in the Middle East peace process developed firsthand when she volunteered at a refugee camp near Nablus in the West Bank.

She said that the organization was founded in Chicago since the founder lives there. Sarah brought a guest Darling Kittoe, who was visiting from their Chicago office. They have a location in San Diego and one in the middle-east. The students in the program are usually between 15-17 years old and they go through 6 phases of HoP program. They train students on cross-culture, other religions, dialogues, etc. They also have a shorter summer program that is for 3 weeks. The teams come from Israel and Palestine. They currently have about 300 "Host" families that help to provide living space and about 200+ volunteers to manage the operations during those program sessions. They have to be careful about showing the pictures of kids on their website due to security concerns for these kids and their families. Many of their student stories can be seen here.

In the end DMSB Club President Ken Barrett presented the speaker with the Joshua certificate that represents our club DMSB donating school supplies to schools in Malawi in the name of the speaker.

Noushin Dunkelman, founder and president of MaxSynergy Consulting, graduated from UCSD with a degree in bio-mechanical engineering. She has over 30 years of product development, management, team building and coaching experience in small to midsize companies.  After years of working on the technical side, 5 years ago she decided to refocus her career in helping companies with their organizational challenges.

At MaxSynergy Consulting, she works with companies to find out their internal problems and provide custom practical solutions that meet each company’s needs such as improved communications, develop and implement new skills and tools and train them on actionable feedback to create accountability.  She also coaches experienced executives and new managers to further develop their leadership skills.

She talked about the tactical aspects of communication and that the key reasons why people communicate are to problem-solve and exchange ideas.  Relationship provides better communication and how listening is a very key aspect of proper communication. She says that humans have 2 ears and 1 mount and so focus more on "listening" .  One key fact she stressed on was the primary misunderstanding people have about giving feedback. People feel that the person providing the feedback has control over the change they seek in others. That is not true at all. The change can happen only if the person receiving the feedback takes action to make that change. The person giving the feedback must be very clear about the reasons for that feedback and that makes for a far better communication. 

In the end DMSB Club President Ken Barrett presented the speaker with the Joshua certificate that represents our club DMSB donating school supplies to schools in Malawi in the name of the speaker.

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Next we had Leonid (Leo) Kandinov from Robbins Arroyo give a talk on "Taking Action Against Investment Losses" that impacts many shareholders and corporations. His colleague Ajit Narasimhan was also in the audience.

Mr. Leonid Kandinov is an attorney at San Diego based Robbins Arroyo LLP. Mr. Kandinov represents individual and institutional investors and consumers in complex litigation, specifically focusing on shareholder rights, securities fraud, and antitrust matters. For his efforts on behalf of his clients, Mr. Kandinov has been recognized as a Super Lawyer Rising Star in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

He indicated how corporate management discusses many things in board meetings that are confidential and they get leaked out leading to major shareholder risk and losses. Tesla was a glaring recent example when its CEO Elon Musk announced taking company private without any written confirmation. That led to major losses for the shareholder, for the company and for him personally.

They represent plaintiffs on a pro-bono basis and only gets paid from the proceeds that comes out of settling the case. It seems that total investor losses have reached almost $334 Billion! The team at Robbins Arroyo works diligently with their clients to ensure that illegal activities by corporations are corrected and secure any compensation for the losses. Recently they did a "Shareholder Derivative Action" against the board and/or executive members of Facebook and they took Mark Zuckerberg into deposition and finally settled the case for some amount.

They monitor "insider trading" issues and other illegal activities that causes a company's stock to fall. Western Union was another example of money laundering that they faced about 5-6 years ago. The company had to pay over $35 million in fines. The sad part is that in some cases, when the company pays the fine it is eventually coming out of the shareholder's pot but in many cases the insurance companies cover that cost. Eventually, as more regulations are put in place the stock recovers. UPS was another interesting case where they were caught shipping illegal cigarette cartons (683,000 cartons) and these were ending up in the hands of under-age kids. They proved that this was happening with full knowledge of the UPS executives and the judgement was a fine of $247 M to New York state and city.

Overall, this was a very educational talk and members really enjoyed it since there were several good questions. He encouraged people to sign-up for StockWatch as it is a FREE service to all clients. There is no cost to the client since the payment comes out in the end from legal settlement costs.

1. Politics has become very contentious and some civility needs to happen.
2. He believes that climate change is a key factor in the issue of sea-level rise that Del Mar is facing.
3. On the technology side there are advancements and research in making crippled people walk.
4. On the Biology side, nano technology is allowing miniature pills containing cameras to go through the body and take pictures.
5. As far as state of CA he feels that democrats may lose but there are more NPP (No Party Preference) voters rising.
6. As far Del Mar specific highlights, he had the following points --
   1. The city has a population of 4200 with 2 million annual travelers and about 3 million visitors to the annual fair.
   2. Biggest issue is the cost of land and lack of affordable housing. He wishes that teachers and firemen and other service professionals could afford a place there.
   3. San Diego county overall has a shortage of housing units by 171,000.
   4. Short-term rentals is another major issue and they are working on some reasonable solution.
   5. Residents are also concerned of the rising sea-level threat. They expect about 3-5 feet rise by 2070. The city is planning a "managed retreat" and some cities, such as, Cardiff is testing the use sand dunes to hold back the ocean water.
   6. Water restriction is another big challenge here. There is a $13 Billion proposal to add 2 tunnels from north CA to south CA.
   7. Side walk re-vitalization project has been approved and we should soon see an enhanced look for down-town.
   8. The Del Mar Plaza is now under new management since last year and these new owners are local Del Mar residents and so there are big plans to renovate the Del mar Plaza soon.
   9. He said that the City Council project is complete now and it was one of the projects that was on time and under budget! It has 140 parking places and the vendors will pay some fee but it will be free for customers.

• More than $25 million economic impact for the City of San Diego including more than $6 million in local hotel revenue
• Excess of $3 million in funding and in-kind value delivered to charitable partners annually
• Unmatched exposure for San Diego with 18.5 hours of live TV coverage to 117countries on CBS and Golf Channel.
• Plays host to over 126K guests from all 50 states and 20 countries.
• PGA TOUR has recognized the Farmers Insurance Open the last two years as a finalist for Best On-Site Staging amongst a 47-event schedule and WON THE HONOR IN 2017.
• PGA TOUR recognized tournament charity, The Monarch School as PGA TOUR Charity of the Year in 2015. 

• 1979 – Orthotic shoe inserts primarily for athletes and runners with back or foot issues. Lou worked with a Podiatrist who fulfilled the final product to the end user, however the Podiatrist eventually backed out with pressure from others.
• 1991 – Lou purchased a franchised Mexican fast food restaurant with a client for his two sons to operate. Both sons stayed for 6 months and were not impressed. So Lou sold the business to his partner who eventually sold out to a very large California fast food chain.
• 2008 – Invented golf clubs (wedges and a putter) with shafts which would separate into two equal sections, by a connector, which Lou patented. The assembled clubs were used for practice only, indoors or outdoors, with special plastic golf balls which wouldn't harm cars, walls or windows. The package included a putting cup, hitting mat and a case to hold all the pieces. Lou abandoned the project when he became a caregiver for his loving partner, Gloria.