No meeting - Special Event: Chili Cookoff on Sat, 11/3
November 7
Pledge-Invocation-Scribe
Lanza, Joseph
Speaker Procurement
Engstrom, John
November 14
Pledge-Invocation-Scribe
Micheel, Bruce
Speaker Procurement
Engstrom, John
November 21
No Meeting - in observance of Thanksgiving
November 28
Pledge-Invocation-Scribe
Oplinger, Ken
Speaker Procurement
Bigelow, Timothy
November 30
No Meeting - Evening Social at University Club 4:30-6:30p
December 5
Pledge-Invocation-Scribe
Porter, Jordan
Speaker Procurement
George, Donald
December 12
Special Event - Holiday Party
December 19
Pledge-Invocation-Scribe
Young, Steven
Speaker Procurement
George, Donald
October 3, 2018 Meeting
Pledge/Invocation/Scribe: Tim Hardy
Song Leader: Blas Garza Song: “Oh, My Darlin’ Clementine”
Visiting Rotarians: None
Rotary Guests: Carol Moore (guest of Jacqueline Duran) guest – possible member
Announcements: Marti – reminder of the upcoming Chili Cookoff event on October 27th at the Women’s Club. Please sign up (see flyer in this bulletin for details).
Mega Bucks: Tom Jacobs (1 MB) – His son is moving to Santa Barbara to join a local engineering firm
50/50 Drawing: Don George drew a silver marble, and Bruce Micheel won the gift basket!
Henry Dubroff
Founder and Editor, Pacific Coast Business Times
Mark Gallo introduced our speaker, Henry Dubroff, who is the founder and editor of the Pacific Coast Business Times. He spoke to the group about the local and regional trends in banking, retail, and housing.
Banking
Banking in our area was predominantly a local phenomenon until 2008. Local banks started to fail at this time and the larger banks to acquire them. The local banking decision and control were in the hands of overseas entities. Rabobank’s headquarters are in the Netherlands and Union Bank is headquartered in Japan.
In the past few years community base banking has come back. The regional four: Pacific Western, Pacific Premier, Bank of Sierra, and Citizen Business bank have brought bank marketing decision back to the area. Each has a presence in at least two of the Tri Counties.
Retail Business and Housing
Retail disruption has really affected our area. The continued increases in minimum wage and landlords who haven’t been paying attention are the leading cause of the many empty storefronts in our downtown.
The good news is that our area is predicted to be the next Silicon Valley in terms of high tech growth in the next ten years. The corridor from SLO to Thousand Oaks is expected to attract companies like Amazon, Imogen, Bio Pharmacies and Sonos, which will bring thousands of jobs to the area. The problem is housing.
The communities in this corridor are going to have to address the lack of housing in our areas if they want to fully participate and benefit from the wave of the new work force that is coming our way.
