ROTARY CLUB OF SANTA BARBARA

Serving Santa Barbara And The World Since 1918.

CLUB MEETINGS

Rotary Club of Santa Barbara Meeting

First and third Friday of each month.


Brass Bear Uptown
3302 McCaw Ave, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
View our Calendar to see upcoming meeting dates.
Time: 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

ABOUT THE ROTARY CLUB OF SANTA BARBARA

The Rotary Club of Santa Barbara was chartered by Rotary International on January 1, 1918 and has been serving those in need in Santa Barbara, our region, and the world since.

Our Club Members are dedicated to community service projects, both at home and abroad, including supporting foster youth in Santa Barbara County, working with Mayan families in Guatemala, and more.

Rotary Club of Santa Barbara members are a diverse group of local leaders in business, non-profits, education, government, and more.

Are you interested in making Santa Barbara, and the world a better place. Join our next meeting and talk with members about how to get involved!
UPCOMING SPEAKERS
Gustavo Prado, SB County Foster Children Prgm
Jun 16, 2023 12:00 PM
Children Services in Santa Barbara County
No meeting
Jun 30, 2023
No Meeting -- Step Down Social Event to be scheduled
No Rotary Meeting Due to Fiesta
Aug 04, 2023
Fiesta -- Social Event to be scheduled in lieu of regular meeting.
Wade Nomura, Former District Governor
Aug 18, 2023 12:00 PM
Bringing Fresh Water to Haiti
No Meeting Due to Labor Day Holiday
Sep 01, 2023
No Meeting Due to Labor Day
View entire list...
UPCOMING EVENTS
RECENT ROTARY NEWS
President's Letter - May 30, 2023
Well we are down to my last meeting that I will be running in-person this coming Friday.  I will be at a college graduation on the 16th of June so I will not be able to run that meeting.  Look for a President from the Past to run that meeting.  Stay tuned.   To say this year has been rewarding for me would be an incredible understatement.  When I went to (President Elect Training Seminar P.E.T.S) early last year I had but one goal for our club.  I wanted to get our members back attending our club in-person.  I will admit we started very small with but 14 attending a meeting.  We now consistently have high 20’s at each meeting.  Nice side note is we also grew our overall membership by 7.  Now I know many of you that have been in this club for a long, long time see these numbers and think, “what happened to our club?”  “We had over a 100 members back in my day.”  This is true but overall Rotary membership numbers have been going down even before COVID reared its ugly head in 2020.    Our Club is not immune to that issue.  Thanks to the leadership of Steve Baker we have done a very good job of capturing folks that are showing an interest in our clubs and getting them to join. 

As my year winds down I want to thank all of you for your patience and support during these past nearly 12 months.  This club has a long history of great leaders and I can honestly say I am humbled to have tried to follow in their footsteps. 
 
Yours in Rotary,
Michael Baker
Club President
2022-2023
Group 8 Social & Chili Cook-Off
Rotary Group 8 is hosting a Chili Cook-Off at the South Coast Railroad Museum in Goleta. Join the annual Rotary social. Bring you family, friends, and prospective Rotarians for a fun day of fellowship, enjoying quality time with friends and building new connections.
 
Date: June 10th.
Time: 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Chili serving will start at 12:00 PM
 
See you there!
 
President's Letter - May 11, 2023
Posted by Michael Baker
Well we are down to 3 meetings of having me as Club President.  (I hear you saying Thank God). Our next meeting we will have our District Governor, Scott Phillips as our program.  Our Board will meet with him prior to the regularly scheduled meeting.
 
During my year I set one goal and one goal only.  I wanted to get our membership back coming to meetings again in-person.  Through all our efforts we have seen our club attendance steadily grow each week.  Nice side note is our overall membership has grown again too.  We are leaving Garrett with a solid financial footing to take over as President.  I hope to see as many of you at the Stepdown dinner event planned for June 30th.  Even though that is the 5th Friday of the month we will not have a club meeting that day, just the stepdown event.  I honestly can’t believe it has been almost a year since I started as President.  Taking over for Matt was very easy as he did such a great job at setting the table for me. I am looking forward to attending meetings in the future and actually being able to eat a meal (lol).  I still can’t believe I did not get impeached.  On a serious note, it has been an honor to lead this club.  I love the fellowship we have had and the many projects Jennifer Lemert helped organize for us this year.  Good times with good people.  That is always a winning recipe in my cookbook.  Remember after all, I am a Baker! 
 
All my best,
 
Michael Baker
Rotary President
2022-2023
Update from Guatemala
Hello Rotarians,
 
Here are some photos of Rotarians at work at the pre-school in the small village of Tierra Linda. The project is to extend the existing roof overhang out to the wall at the edge of the existing patio area. The pre-school was built as a Rotary project. Extending the overhang will allow the patio area to be used during inclement weather or during the heat of the sun; it’s already quite hot here at mid-day at about 7,000 feet of elevation.
 
 
So far we have been cutting into the existing stone wall to make room for the columns that will support the new roof. In the photos you can see people cutting into the wall of very hard volcanic stone, and building the steel structures to be used to reinforce the columns. It is difficult to convey how difficult it has been to cut into the wall. Today we stopped at a hardware store and picked up new tools (at our expense) to make the work go faster.
 
 
Tuesday we were unable to get to the work site due to roads being blockaded during political protest. At the beginning of the week we had an opportunity to learn more about Mayan culture and the work that Natun has been doing. Three of us have had a chance to meet with students that we support. A number of years ago we were able to use a District Grant to support the creation of a tutoring program in which university students who have had their educations supported by Natun give back to their communities and serve as role models for younger students for whom Spanish is a second language since they’ve grown up in homes where one of the indigenous languages is spoken. One of those tutoring sessions was taking place in the pre-school today while we were working outside.
 
 
Click HERE to see more pictures from our work here in Guatemala.
 
Don Jack