Rotary Club of Oakland

08/24/2026

How about Two-fer Tuesday? Two great Oakland orgs and one incredible location for networking. Hope to see you tomorrow at our Summer Mixer.

08/14/2026

Yesterday Oakland Rotary welcomed District 5170 Governor Geeta Kadambi to our club. She spoke to the importance of growing Rotary and showcased her new book highlighting the 63 clubs in the district that stretch from Oakland to Watsonville through Silicon Valley.

We also heard from our two Oakland-Fukuoka exchange students, welcomed a new member, and engaged in fellowship and some fun.

Interested in exploring Rotary and the power of purposeful giving locally and globally? Join us!

08/14/2026

08/11/2026

It’s that time of year again - when we welcome to Oakland the new District Governor for Rotary District 5170 for 2026-27.

Dr. Geeta Kadambi (Ph.D.) is a Scientist and Patent Agent. She is the founder and CEO of Riddhi IP LLC, a patent law firm, and has worked at NASA as a scientist. Geeta is a former Human Relations Commissioner for the City of Fremont, CA. Besides being an active Rotarian, Geeta has served as Senior Advisor and Board Member for several organizations.

Geeta served as Area/Assistant Governor for the years 2022-2024, Chair of the Avenues of Service Event in September 2023. She served as District Membership Co-Chair (Membership Attraction) in 2022-2023, and District International Service Chair in 2020-2021. She was Awarded “Rotarian of the year” award in 2023. Geeta was Charter President of the Rotary Club of Fremont Bridge in 2018-2019.

Geeta is passionate about fighting diseases, education and providing clean water. Geeta has participated in 11 Global grants around the world thus far.

Geeta loves to travel, reading books, painting, window shopping and has a sweet tooth. She is never shy to beg for donations for Rotary. Geeta has been married to Vasu for the last 32 years. They have a daughter, a son, and one grandson.

Join us this Thursday at the Henry J to welcome our District Governor and hear her vision for the year. Among the things she’ll be promoting is the Rotary Collaborative Impact Summit on September 19.

08/04/2026

Items August here at Oakland Rotary and what an August it is. We have book authors and food critics, district governors, educators, and advocates. And of course our annual Rotary Summer Picnic at Lake Temescal.

Hope to see you starting this Thursday with former SF Chronicle food critic and now author Dianne Jacob.

07/30/2026

Care about the rule of law? As our country marks its 250th anniversary, let’s take a moment to learn about how we preserve the institutions that have made America great.

Former Deputy General Counsel of the US Department of Defense Harold Kwalwasser will be joining us at Rotary today.

Hope to see you there too! As usual, we’re at the Henry J in the heart of Oakland on the shores of .

07/22/2026

Join us this Thursday for our fun off-site visit to Dinos Alive at the Henry J! Kids and families welcome.

Rotary District 5170

07/14/2026

This year’s Rotary Oakland student exchange program with our sister Rotary club in Fukuoka, Japan just started.

The Oakland Rotary club has a sister Rotary club in Fukuoka, Japan as does the City of Oakland have a sister city there.

Our joint Rotary clubs also have an annual short term student ambassador exchange program.

Our student Mr. Cedar Boughazian left for Fukuoka last Friday July 10th at noon. Cedar is a high school sophomore already taking advanced Japanese. Cedar is also a black belt in Japanese Karate and has training in Kendo (samurai sword martial arts), Shodo (Japanese writing) and Sushi making.

In addition, Cedar rock climbs, plays the guitar, and is a recipient of the Jake Rockeman “You Make a Difference” award. The Jake Rockeman Award is an annual honor presented by the West Contra Costa Unified School District’s (WCCUSD) Special Education Community Advisory Committee (CAC) to recognize students who have gone above and beyond to make the lives of special education students more accepted and valued within the district.

Mr. Boughazian will be an excellent ambassador for Oakland Rotary and for the City of Oakland.

07/06/2026

Welcome to a new Rotary year! Welcome to President Merlin Edwards, President of the Rotary Club of Oakland for the 2026-27 year. His motto: “Business is our world, service is our commitment.” Join us on Thursday, July 9, for his inauguration.

We have a great lineup of speakers and events this month as per usual:

July 9 - Inauguration of President Merlin

July 16 - Paul Hollis, the Director of the US Mint, will be speaking about how they are celebrating America’s 250th.

July 23 - Our monthly offsite this month is right at the Henry J, visiting the Dinos Alive exhibit going on right now. Great fun for families and kids of all ages.

July 30 - Care about the rule of law? Come listen to former US Dept of defense Deputy General Counsel Harold Kwalwasser talk about what we can do to preserve the institutions of our democracy.

Finally, we lift up the Rotary International theme for this year - Create Lasting Impact. We try to every year, and look forward to doing so together this year.

Rotary District 5170

07/05/2026

Happy 4th of July, Fellow Rotarians! Today we celebrated America’s 250th at the 59th Annual Piedmont Fourth of July Parade. Rotarians young and young-at-heart gathered to wish our democracy a happy birthday and many civic returns.