Photo by Martha Blanchfield / Renegade Sailing
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Sailing Science Center News
July 2020
Vol. 3, No. 11
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Welcome to the July issue of the Sailing Science Center News! Our theme this month is
Empathy
. Recent protests over the killing of George Floyd have attracted the attention of the world. The lessons from these outbreaks are meaningful at all levels of leadership, which is why we have chosen
Empathy
as our theme. We encourage you to read this month's
Leadership Corner
and invite you to share your thoughts with us on what has been happening.
Keep reading for other updates from the SSC!
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I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.
― Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President
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Employee Spotlight - Mina Matsumoto
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July’s spotlight is on Mina Matsumoto. Mina is the SSC’s first employee, interning with us before her third year of a four-year JD/MBA program at UC Berkeley. Born in Ann Arbor, by the time she was eight Mina had lived in Michigan, Australia, Japan, Mississippi, and California. Her family settled in LA, where her father teaches mathematics at a local community college. Her mother paints and teaches art, and her older brother teaches computer science.
Mina loves learning and being a student. After high school she earned her BA in International Business at Pepperdine University. Her next stop was a job in New York, as an Assistant Buyer and Planner for Bloomingdale’s. While in New York Mina discovered Hudson River Community Sailing, where she learned to sail on a J/24. A year later she had her Skipper rating. On her second outing with friends, the boat’s rudder broke, becoming unusable. Mina says she learned a lot about leadership and preparation that day, as they returned to the dock using the boat’s outboard. Mina says sailing has taught her more about people and leadership than any classroom experience.
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As crew you are just being told what to do. As skipper I was in charge; in some ways it is less fun because you are responsible for the boat and the crew, but the personal growth is more rewarding. It’s like the difference between being a parent and being the fun uncle.
― Mina Matsumoto
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From Bloomingdale’s, Mina returned to school to join Berkeley’s MBA program. During the fall of her first year she found herself at the Cal Sailing Club, looking for someone to check her out on the boats. Paul Kamen—one of our most active volunteers—filled the role. Paul suggested she volunteer with the SSC, which she did. At the end of that year Mina approached us to probe the possibility of a summer internship. Without our 501(c)(3), or any fundraising, the board decided against it. But a year later Mina reached out again, and this time we were ready. It has been a stroke of good fortune.
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Six weeks in, Mina has excelled, consistently exceeding expectations, taking initiative, and producing top results. Her biggest tasks have been migrating our contact data into Salesforce, and working with SSC volunteer Emma Sarkisyan and staff at Wilson Sonsini to draft a variety of legal documents. From day one, Mina approached her role with a founder’s mindset and a
do what’s needed
attitude.
Most days with Mina start and end on Zoom—a sign of our COVID-19 times. In fact, we have only met twice in-person, but Mina is an independent worker, with productivity that is off the charts. When she is not working, Mina likes sailing, reading, playing piano and ukulele, biking, painting, and watching classic films. We are really going to miss her when the internship is over. It’s great to have you aboard, Mina!
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Pictured L to R: Pip Ziman, Victoria Marcus, Ros de Vries, Jim Hancock, Nathan de Vries
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Summer Sailstice - Sign Up and Sail!
On June 20 the SSC ventured cautiously back to its first in-person volunteer event since March, spending four hours on the Bay aboard Pip Ziman's Jeanneau 42 sloop, Touché. We kept the head count down and masks were mandatory, but with the breezy conditions there was always plenty of fresh air. Everyone had a great time and we even got to fly Pip's big red spinnaker (see below).
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Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
―
Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
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New Diversity & Inclusion Team
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In June, the SSC formed a new Diversity and Inclusion team. The team is seeking to identify specific actions the SSC can take to increase the diversity among its board and volunteers, while encouraging diversity and inclusion in the areas of sailing and science more broadly.
Within the SSC we want to achieve diversity in age, gender, ethnicity, race, religion, national origin, and educational background. We believe that having a diverse team positions us to better understand and serve the populations in our community.
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We are very excited to announce that the SSC is now registered with
AmazonSmile
!
AmazonSmile
is a shopping platform that gives you the same wide selection of products, low prices and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com. The difference is that when you shop at
AmazonSmile
(
smile.amazon.com
), the
AmazonSmile
Foundation donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to the charitable organizations you select. This is done at no extra cost to you!
Click this
AmazonSmile
link to start shopping and giving to the SSC today!
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The SSC got lucky last month when we regained access to nine of our earliest newsletters that we had thought were lost for good. Unbeknownst to us, the newsletters had been formatted on the Campaign Monitor platform by a volunteer who was helping us at the time. When he left we thought we would never see those issues of the newsletter again. But in early June, volunteer Ros de Vries, who works for
Campaign Monitor
, discovered the missing issues were still there.
You can see the old newsletters in our archives, which are linked
here
. It's fun to see how far we've come.
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Empathy is not truth or reality, it is the other person's point of view.
―
Chris Voss, Former FBI Hostage Negotiator
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This Month's Newsletter Banner
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Empathy means understanding the other person's perspective. The crewman on the trapeze in this photo just got doused from a passing wave (note the spray falling from him). The helmsman may or may not feel sorry for him, but having been there himself, he understands his fellow sailor's perspective.
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Photo courtesy of Martha Blanchfield Renegade Sailing
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Wanted for the SSC
Photos
Do you have photos you want to share? The SSC is looking for great shots to use on our newsletter banner and elsewhere. Photographer attribution will be given.
Apps Script Developers
The SSC is looking for a Google Apps Script developer interested in writing automation macros for our internal systems. If you have experience in C++, Java or Java Script you're most of the way there.
Salesforce Developers
The SSC is setting up on Salesforce as its new Contact Relationship Management (CRM) tool. As with any business, we are customizing it to meet our unique needs. Give us a shout if you are proficient in Salesforce and want to get involved in the SSC.
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This month is all about conversation. What is it that you love about sailing, science and the sea? Follow us on
Facebook
,
Instagram
,
LinkedIn
and
Twitter
as we share our favorite stories and responses from you.
Join us for Virtual Regatta, every Friday @ 5:45pm PT - from July 10!
All welcome, it's a lot of fun, and yes, it's free to play!
See details on Facebook.
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Got something bigger to share with our community?
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SSC continues to be COVID-conscious and cautious. We have scheduled another virtual volunteer event for July, and are working behind the scenes on longer-term initiatives for teaching science and for raising SSC to the next level in every area. We are also looking to hold smaller outdoor events in both July and August.
Stay tuned!
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These are things
YOU
can do to move the SSC vision forward:
Make a difference. Move the needle!
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We want to give a big shout out to
Sandira Calviac
, who raised her hand in June to say she could help. We are super-excited about the range skills and interests that
Sandira
brings to the SSC. Expect to hear more about Sandira in upcoming issues! Welcome, Sandira!
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Leadership Corner - Empathy
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In leadership, there may be no ability more valuable than empathy. Removing ourselves from our own point of view and seeing things from another’s perspective is a key attribute of effective leaders.
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That's all for this month.
Cheers!
Jim Hancock
President and Founder
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The San Francisco Sailing Science Center is a Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation recognized under IRS Section 501(c)(3), Tax ID 82-3631165. Your donation to the Sailing Science Center is tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
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TO INSPIRE A PASSION FOR SAILING AND SCIENCE BY DELIGHTING PEOPLE THROUGH DISCOVERY AND PLAY
AN INTERACTIVE HANDS-ON LEARNING CENTER:
DELIGHTING “KIDS” FROM 5 TO 95
PROVIDING STEAM* LEARNING EXPERIENCES
FOCUSING ON THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATH
AND KEEPING IT FUN!!!
*STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math
Ron Young * James Hancock
* Meagan Strout
* Mike Beller
Travis Lund *
Jeff Owens * Carolyn Davidson * Olivier Lauzeral
VOLUNTEER EVENT COORDINATOR
Morgan Davidson
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The Sailing Science Center News is published on the first business day of each month. It is sent to team members, partners, volunteers, sponsors and supporters of the San Francisco Sailing Science Center. You are receiving this because you are considered to be in one of these groups. If you wish to be removed from the mailing list, please click the Unsubscribe link below. We do not sell, share or otherwise give out our mailing list beyond our organization.
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San Francisco Sailing Science Center
One Avenue of the Palms, Suite 16A
San Francisco, CA 94130
510.390.5727
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