Our September mixer packed a lot in: a new member induction, a red-badge check-in, two member spotlights, a food packaging event wrap-up, and a lively project brainstorm led by our new work-project committee. Up next: One Cool Earth’s mulch work day on Sunday, October 25, and a possible volunteer shift at the Harvest Festival beer booth (Sept 25–27).

Satellite Club Meeting Recap

September 17, 2026 · Mixer hosted by Seth & Leila

Quick Recap

Moment of Inspiration

Seth opened with a reflection he wrote himself on connection: in a world where technology leaves people feeling more isolated and less valued, our strength comes from truly connecting with other people — bonding over what we share and finding the differences interesting, so we learn from each other and build community.

Welcoming Guests

A member introduced a neighbor who works as a bovine genetics consultant. Shannon introduced Marissa Ritter of the SLO Happy Home Team at Keller Williams — Marissa submitted her membership application this week and it’s now pending review.

Happy Bucks

$10 to celebrate a new job, and $25 in gratitude to Caitlin, who has stepped in for the past three weeks to help with donor data processing — “without you, I don’t know if I keep going.”

Announcements

Food Packaging Event: We packaged almost 10,000 meals — and actually ran out of ingredients, so a small follow-up packaging session will make up the last few. The event raised roughly $7,500, made the local news, and drew about 50 volunteers, half of them members of the public. Two of those volunteers came to our meeting the following week because they had such a good time.
Chair Elect: Leila has been officially confirmed by the board of directors as Chair Elect for next year, and she has started her training.
Billing: Biannual club billing went out around July 1. If you didn’t receive yours, reach out to Joel or directly to Leanne.

New Member Induction: Andrew

Past club president Harlan Silva (40 years in Rotary, newly retired) did the honors — his first-ever induction. Harlan had already crossed paths with Andrew at a World Cup watch party and at Summer Sizzle, where Andrew worked all day. Andrew lives in Grover Beach, is a Cal Poly math grad who spent 10 years in the private sector before returning to work at Cal Poly in IT, and has been on the Central Coast for over 25 years. He was an exchange student in Brazil in high school and spent a year in Portugal during college working at the World Exposition, where he met his wife; his in-laws still live in Portugal and the family visits every year. He also plays soccer three times a week.

Harlan shared a few words on Rotary’s avenues of service and a story from his own presidency (1999–2000), when the International Convention in Singapore came with a side trip to a district governor’s medical humanitarian project in Thailand — elephant ride included. Andrew received his pin, certificate, Four-Way Test, red badge checklist, and club swag. Speaking briefly, Andrew noted that his parents are Rotarians, that next year’s RI Convention is in Barcelona (his parents attended one there years ago), and offered his big life advice: travel while you’re young and everything still fits in a backpack. Welcome, Andrew!

Red Badge Check-In

Joel walked through the Red Badge checklist — new members complete eight items to graduate from red badge to full badge. Items include attending a luncheon meeting and a social mixer, introducing yourself to every member at a meeting, visiting another Rotary club, participating in a club project, attending an Interact meeting at AG High School, attending a district event (this weekend counts!), leading the flag salute or moment of inspiration, joining a standing committee, having coffee with two board members, completing a Rotary Learning Center class, giving a member spotlight, organizing a venue for a social, introducing a member to a non-member, bringing a guest, and submitting your bio. On the honor system, anyone who’s hit eight can ceremoniously retire their red badge.

Member Spotlights

Mickey admitted he’s not much for public speaking — which is ironic, since he’s president of the SLO Young Professionals networking group. He joined that organization about a year and a half ago as volunteer coordinator, started pushing for more activity, and ended up in the top job, imposter syndrome and all; he works in software and is starting a new job for SLO County Public Works IT, setting up local AI systems.

Kiran is a Northern California native — born in Davis, raised in Chico — who started college there but left after a couple of years when he lost his sense of direction. He spent the next five years at a restaurant, working his way up from dishwasher until he’d done every job in the place, and that experience pushed him back to school to finish an economics degree at Chico State. From there he enrolled in Cal Poly’s 10-month quantitative economics master’s program — his first time living away from home. He met Caitlin midway through the program and decided to stay on the Central Coast, which meant starting over in a tough job market: a teller job at a local credit union, then a move into IT as a business analyst, and about two months ago a promotion to data engineer, building out the credit union’s data program. He and Caitlin joined Rotary through his mother-in-law Michelle, the lunch club’s incoming president.

Work Project Discussion

Kiran and Hans, our work-project committee, met this week and led the discussion. The committee built a Google Form and idea sheet so anyone can submit a project idea at any time, no matter how small — the link will go out by email. Leadership confirmed there’s no heavy approval process: pick a project, find the people, and go, with a simple budget-request step if funds are needed. The intent is low-cost, elbow-grease projects.

Joel reported that the lunch club is already ordering a Peace Pole (“May Peace Prevail on Earth” in eight languages, plus a club QR code, ~$420) for downtown Pismo, with plans to include the Chumash (ytt) language and invite tribal representatives and public officials to the dedication — so that idea is covered for now, though the satellite club could do another later.

Ideas raised:

Community hammocks or sky chairs in a park or plaza, inspired by a Vancouver installation (with locally made, Rotary-themed hammocks)
Replacing or rebuilding the worn-out benches at the softball fields and near Laguna Lake, and cleaning up the picnic area
Pollinator garden — the district is pushing sustainability, and our club won the new sustainability award last year. Leila suggested waiting until December (rain, plant selection, gopher cages) and noted One Cool Earth’s 33 school gardens as possible sites, potentially paired with a Peace Pole
A butterfly/milkweed garden near the Pismo monarch grove — quickly vetoed, since milkweed planted too close to the grove disrupts migration
Harvest Festival (Sept 25–27): the beer booth is short on volunteers, and the club has run it before as a fundraiser — someone will check on details

Leila also announced One Cool Earth’s work day on Sunday, October 25 at their headquarters site (the olive grove at the Jewish Community Center): tools provided, come spread mulch. The committee’s goal is to have something in the works within a week or two and completed within a month. Reminder: club events should be posted to ClubRunner and Facebook — send details to Shannon. Anyone who wants to join the project committee, reach out to Hans or Kiran.

Looking Ahead

Harvest Festival beer booth — Sept 25–27 (volunteer need TBC)
One Cool Earth Work Day — Sun, Oct 25 · Jewish Community Center olive grove
Pollinator garden planting — targeting December

Thank you to our guests, and to Seth and Leila for hosting!