2026 May General Meeting Minutes

Pacific Beach Coalition
Clean It Out, for Steelhead Trout

May General Meeting

12 May 2026
6 – 7:30 pm @ Sharp Park Public Library in Pacifica, CA

Mission Statement 
The Pacific Beach Coalition is dedicated to preserving the ocean, coastal habitat and wildlife, and ending litter through advocacy, education, community-building and citizen action.

2026 April General Meeting Minutes

Meeting opened at 6:05pm

Introductions, Welcome New Friends!

WOW Earth Day EcoFest, Climate Week, Lynn Adams Trail, Coastside Gives, SAGE (Students Advocating for a Greener Environment) and Cora joined Sharp Park

  • EcoFest Feedback: more posters needed earlier with broader distribution, more and larger signs needed along Highway 1, lower attendance perhaps due to competitive date, community partners were pleased; additional Survey Feedback is welcome
    • BIG Thank you planning committee, sponsors, partners, and volunteers
    • Planning Committee meeting for debrief on Tuesday, May 19 at 5:30pm at Humble Sea Brewery, Pacifica – all are welcome!
    • We had 120 local groups and organizations support the Take Action cleanups, with more than 700 volunteers pulling up 777 pounds of trash. [See full metrics table]
    • Calera Creek – 58 volunteers, approx. 2400 lbs. of green waste!
    • Foster City – one of the Foster City councilmembers spoke at the cleanup
    • Pillar Point Harbor – Sea Hugger and Vida Verde joined, Harbormaster had to be excused
    • San Pedro Creek – John Keener led group of community leaders on a walking tour, sharing our ongoing cleanup efforts, water quality sampling methodology, and conservation/restoration challenges. Multiple trout (4-5” juveniles) were seen along a shaded bank by the whale carcass.
  • EcoFest kicked off SF Climate Week, PBC was represented at 20 total events, important annual opportunity to engage with local, regional, state, federal, international partners and collaborators. Amongst strong themes this year in areas of plastics and waste management, we had great engagement with Earth Island Institute, BCDC, CA Coastal Commission, ICLEI, HEAL Project, and many more potential partners.
  • Lynn Adams Trail dedication on Friday, April 24 was a proud moment for our past president

Mayor of Pacifica, Christine Boles

New City Manager, Sean Charpentier, starts May 11

  • Russ Hartman received the 2026 Pacifica Open Space & Parkland Advisory Committee Preservation Award on April 27, in recognition of extraordinary service in coastal stewardship. We’re so proud, congratulations Russ!
  • Pacifica Land Trust hosted an event on May 2 presenting and discussing Nature-Based Solutions in Pacifica. A recording is available on Youtube. 
  • San Mateo County’s Department of Emergency Management has launched the Emergency Communications Network (ECN) to streamline CBO communications with Cities and the County during disasters. The First Coastside Regional Meeting is scheduled for Thursday May 21, 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM, PDT at the Ted Adcock Community Center in Half Moon Bay.

Directors Report

  • Q1 Financials, Q2 Strategy
  • EcoFest was a net-positive financial event; raised approximately $20K with some outstanding sponsorships receivable, including potential in-kind donations still being processed.
  • Coastside Gives raised less for PBC than our goal; difficult to compare YoY in terms of dollars raised as we counted other donations as part of campaign last year, spent less resources this year with focus on opportunity to expand relationships with 78 nonprofits in the southern coastal region of our reach
  • In addition to the other SFCW events, Thrive Alliance’s OnBoard 2026 was a great opportunity for PBC to engage with 29 other local nonprofits.
  • We’ve applied for additional grant funding, exploring more revenue generating activities, and are expanding our education and workforce development associated programming

Program Coordinator, Greg Finkelstein

We are welcoming new Site Captains. Join the fun and make a commitment to making a difference.

  • Stewardship highlights; site captain coordination, reviewing Cleanup & HR tools
    • $110 in cash donations collected by Montara Site Captain Janice Pratt – thank you!
    • Cora from NCL/Crystal Springs project making seaglass jewelry. PBC plans to promote with social media. 100% of profits go to PBC. Here is the link to her website. Any extra seaglass? Share the link and promote the project to help PBC.
    • Supply needs: Reach out to Greg if you need any supplies for your cleanup or restoration site (buckets, gloves, etc)
    • Review Butt Buster Plan: we are reviewing the project with Painted Bucket maintenance coordinators James & Cecily, in addition to Lynn, to determine budget, strategy, and ongoing administration of the Terracycle partnership.
    • Vapes Update: we are exploring disposal solutions and have a local drop off point in HMB (Strawflower Electronics), as well as a few places in SSF and Millbrae. California Assembly Bill 2667 is in motion, which would prohibit sales of vapes with integrated video games, part of a growing issue in schools.
  • Education; 45 steelhead trout teacher’s toolkit downloads, 20 school assemblies scheduled
  • Give Backs; 12 so far, 16 more later in the year, with more inquiries, get on calendar soon!
  • Volunteers have planted more than 400 native plants this year. Thank you Water Warriors, and thanks to Mike Pham for supplying the water to help keep these alive until established.

Naturalists

  • May eNews features 3 threats to steelhead: habitat decline, pollution, and in-stream barriers
  • Could the dead whale at Moss Beach be due to orcas? (Coastside News)

Pelican Squad!

  • Next trainings: Saturday May 16, June 20 at Esplanade Beach, Pacifica

Communications Team

  • Email outreach stats
    • “Big send” emails (monthly listing and monthly newsletter) are going out to ~15,000 individuals via Constant Contact. 
    • Open rate for all emails (with a few exceptions) is consistently above 50%, which is really good. According to a Neon One Nonprofit Email Report, nonprofits have an average open rate of 28.59% and an average click rate of 3.29%. 
    • Our monthly listing gets the highest number of clicks: anywhere from 64 (May 2025) to over 224 (Sep 2025). People use these emails to sign up for cleanups and to look at maps.
    • Our monthly newsletter gets between 50 and 100 clicks. Last November it was 340 because there was a video of Terri Brown during Butt Blitz. People seem to like videos. Goal is to drive more people to PBC website.
    • Monthly email clicks are usually lower – less than 20. These are going out to fewer people.
    • We will start sending general meeting agendas and minutes using Constant Contact to allow for better tracking of who reads the emails, list management, etc.
  • Social Media stats: These are stats for the last 28 Days, from April 14th – May 11th. The percentages are compared to data from March 17 – April 13th.
    • Facebook
      • Views up 90% for a total of 27,700 views
      • Link clicks are up 275%
      • Content interactions are up 126%
    • Instagram
      • Views up are 100%, for a total of 26,800
      • Content interactions are up 47%
      • Follows are up 67%
    • The top pieces of content from the last 28 days:
      • Collaborative posts (where two accounts share the same piece of content): EcoFest promotion with The Marine Mammal Center, school assembly recap with Sea Crest School, Lynn Adams Trail announcement with Mayor Boles, and Sharp Park cleanup with special guest, Cora from Jewelry of the Sea – a local high school project
      • Other Posts: Earth Day recap post showcasing one of the poems written at EcoFest, and a compilation reel in promotion of Coastside Gives
      • Thank you to everyone who engaged with PBC’s social media content in the last month!
  • Coastside Gives update – collected $1600; did you tune into https://khmbradio.com/ to hear Patrick with Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame DJ Peter Finch? 
  • Editorial Calendar (work in progress)
  • Jana from Com Team has resigned, as she is full-time with Marine Mammal Center. It’s a big loss for PBC. We wish Jana the best!
  • Our waivers, setup as Google Forms, are in review, please flag any issues to com@pacificbeachcoalition.org 
  • Recent outreach events at Ortega Elementary, Skyline College were a fun success!
  • May 19; Marine Science Institute will be bringing 250 Bay Area elementary students to Pacifica State Beach for Kids Ocean Day from 8am-2pm. Volunteers are invited to support the event and there will be an aerial art photo of everyone in the shape of a Guitarfish. 
  • May 19; PBC will attend the Oceana High School community service fair 12:35-1:30pm
  • May 21; Coastal Erosion Event at Odd Fellows in HMB at 7pm
  • May 22; Pacifica School Volunteers “Read Aloud” event at Sunset Ridge Elementary for Oceans 411 week, more readers wanted and here is the link to sign up
  • June 6; outreach volunteer opportunity at Pacifica Pride – PBC will be tabling. Contact our info@pacificbeachcoalition.org  if you would like to help us celebrate!

Roundtable

  • Fog Fest Planning: Cecily is willing to host the float building at her house again this year, and Sarah already has design ideas for the float (Bring us your plastic detergent bottles to help build a steelhead trout)
  • Our 2027 Earth Honoree nomination process will begin next month.
  • CA Coastal Cleanup Day (Sept 19) site captains, teen site captains, naturalists: let Greg know your availability and if you have any supply needs for CCD.

Meeting adjourned at 7:31pm