Community Cafe Bainbridge

The Oatmeal Club meets for breakfast and camaraderie every Thursday morning at 7am sharp and ends precisely at 8:20 - typically after a guest's topical presentation and a lively Q&A session. It's been meeting and growing for 26 years, and there is now a long waiting list to join. This podcast interview with three of its long-time members examines the remarkable phenomenon of this long-lived informal group. The men's Oatmeal Club has grown to become a legendary institution on Bainbridge Island since its founding by eight men at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church in 1989. And, after all those years, it now has a long waiting list of men -- mostly retirees -- wanting to become members. Yet it has no operating rules and no governing body. What's the secret for such lengthy success? In this podcast, three long-time members of the Club -- Reid Hansen, Jim Kadlec and Don Marsh -- gather with BCB host Jack Armstrong to talk about the club's history, the benefits members experience by being part of it, and the ama