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The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. [1] Membership is open to everyone.
The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California has over 20,000 members and organizes hundreds of programs each year on topics ranging across politics, culture, society, and the economy. Around 100,000 people attend these events in person annually. The club has 56 employees and an annual budget of $11.5 million. It is currently headed by an expert on international security and arms negotiations, former Pentagon official and businesswoman, Gloria Duffy, and attorney and foreign policy expert Philip W. Yun. Club events are broadcast on many public and commercial radio stations in the longest-lasting continuous radio program in the nation. [2] Recordings of these programs are deposited at Stanford University's Hoover Institution Archives. [3]
The club has radio broadcast its fora since 1924, and current broadcasts are carried weekly by about 230 public and commercial radio stations across the nation. Local residents in the Bay Area can view televised programs from The Club on KGO TV, and the club live streams or archives video of its programs on Facebook [4] [ non-primary source needed ] and YouTube [5] as well as posting them on the club's website. The club's podcast is at iTunes [6] and on the club's website and a bi-monthly magazine, The Commonwealth, is available to club members.
In addition to hosting speeches and panels, in the late 1990s the club resumed its early role initiating public policy projects. These have included Voices of Reform, a nonpartisan effort to bring together California's policy makers and opinion leaders to improve state governance. Voices of Reform became the independent organization California Forward. Similarly, the club's California Media Project merged into California Watch, part of the Center for Investigative Reporting.
The club also offers travel programs, with educational trips abroad each year to destinations such as Turkey, Southeast Asia, and Iran.
The Commonwealth Club occasionally comes under criticism from people who think it represents one or another political philosophy, and they often center upon criticism of specific speakers with whom the critics disagree. But the club's more than 400 events a year feature speakers from a wide range of viewpoints—conservative and liberal and moderate and radical, religious and secular, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian.
The Commonwealth Club sponsors the California Book Awards, which were initiated in 1931 to honor "exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers". The California Book Awards are funded by an endowment from Dr. Martha Heasley Cox, late Professor of American Literature at San Jose State University. Medals (gold and silver) and cash prizes are currently awarded in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, First Work of Fiction, Californiana (fiction or nonfiction relating to California), Juvenile Literature (up to age 10), Young Adult Literature (age 11–16), and Notable Contribution to Publishing. The winning books are selected by an independent jury. [7]
In late 2023, The Commonwealth Club of California merged with World Affairs of Northern California to form The Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California. It is headquartered in the Club's existing home on the San Francisco waterfront.
The Commonwealth Club was founded in 1903 by Edward F. Adams, the Agricultural Editor at the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. At its first meeting, Adams read a paper now regarded as the founding document of the club, in which he wrote "I have no fear of lack of following so long as it is self-evident that we only propose to find truth and turn it loose in the world [8]
Four prominent California leaders—University of California president Benjamin Ide Wheeler, San Francisco Chronicle managing editor John P. Young, San Francisco Normal School (later San Francisco State University) president Frederick Burk, and William P. Lawler, a judge who later became a California Supreme Court Justice—co-founded the organization with Adams. The original name for the Club was "The Agora," which in Greek means an open place of civic assembly, but it was quickly changed to "Commonwealth Club," connoting a quest for the common good. The first president of the club was merchant, author, and public official Harris Weinstock. [9]
Other initial club members included Bank of America founder A. P. Giannini, architect Bernard Maybeck, U.S. President Herbert Hoover, Bechtel Corporation founder W. A. Bechtel, members of the Haas family who headed Levi Strauss, Inc., U.S. Senator James Phelan, San Francisco Mayor and California Governor James "Sunny Jim" Rolph, Matson Navigation founder William P. Roth, Stanford University president and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur, M.D., Bank of California/Union Bank founder William Chapman Ralston, Crown Zellerbach founder J. C. Zellerbach, department store founder Joseph Magnin, California Governor J. N. Gillette, Italian Swiss Colony winery founder Carlo Rossi, and Isaias Hellman, prominent West Coast financier and first president of Wells Fargo Bank. Their goal was cooperation on civic betterment in spite of political and ideological differences. Speakers were invited to address club members to inform them about different perspectives on important issues, after which in its early days the club membership often issued reports, statements, or recommendations on public policy issues.
Presidents of the club in the second half of the 20th century included actress and Ambassador Shirley Temple Black, California Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin, and UCSF Chancellor Julius Krevans. Club members include prominent national leaders like former Secretary of State George Shultz and former Defense Secretary William Perry, as well as citizens from professions such as business, law, medicine, teaching, the arts, technology and journalism.
The club has hosted numerous world-class speakers including many U.S. presidents and other major political leaders in the United States and abroad, business leaders, and influential social activists. Speakers receive no honoraria. The club's digital and pre-digital speeches and other records since 1903 are archived at the Hoover Library at Stanford University. [10]
In 2002, The Commonwealth Club launched Inforum, dedicated to serving the needs of people in their 20s and 30s interested in non-partisan public affairs. In 2007, the club created Climate One to bring together academics, industry, and activists on all sides of energy and climate change issues for discussion and planning.
The club has its headquarters in San Francisco. Though the majority of its programs are in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Marin County and Lafayette (in the East Bay area northeast of San Francisco), it also hosts occasional events in Sacramento, Southern California and Washington, D.C. A second, small office serving Silicon Valley is in Milpitas, California.
In September 2017, the club celebrated the opening of its first owned headquarters, a 24,000 square ft, $33 million building, on the San Francisco waterfront at 110 The Embarcadero. [11] The building was designed by Leddy Maytum Stacy, a San Francisco architectural firm and winner of the American Institute of Architects 2017 Firm Award. [12] The building is specifically designed to be a civic forum, with auditoriums, the Meyer Sound Constellation system, Copper Loop hearing technology, informal conversation areas, audio-video production facilities, digital information screens and other unique elements to serve the club's mission. It is also a historic restoration of a building that was the first headquarters of the International Longshoremen's Union. The club's HQ is environmentally sustainable, with features including cooling with outside air, paneling with wood reclaimed from the original building on the site, LED lighting and tile and carpeting with recycled content. It is also located close to public transit facilities serving the Bay Area.
The list of notable speakers and speeches numbers in the thousands and includes domestic and foreign political and military leaders, Nobel prize-winning scientists, authors, activists, and artists. A book of important club speeches, Each a Mighty Voice, was published in 2004 by Heyday Books.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his New Deal speech at the club. While in office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke at the club, as did Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. During his term as Vice President, Dan Quayle delivered his famous Murphy Brown speech to the group. In 2010, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave only her third public speech since taking office at the club. Other major recent speakers include former Vice President Al Gore; filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola; comedian John Cleese; former secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice, George Shultz, James Baker, and Madeleine Albright; California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen; authors Christopher Hitchens, Michael Crichton, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Greg Mortenson; microcredit entrepreneur and Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus; historian Victor Davis Hanson; airline pilot Chesley Sullenberger; CIA Director Leon Panetta; former NBA star Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and business leaders Eric Schmidt, Richard Kovacevich and David O'Reilly.
Growing out of Study Sections that were formed in the club's early days, today the club has fifteen ongoing member-led fora, each of which meets frequently to host speakers and engage in discussion on topics including the arts, bay gourmet (food and wine), Asia-Pacific affairs, business and leadership, environment and natural resources, grownups (second half of life issues), health and medicine, humanities, international relations, LGBT issues, the Middle East, personal growth, psychology, and science and technology.
An intensive look at a single subject is sponsored each August through the club's Platforum, where events are held daily throughout the month on the topic, examined from the perspective of many different fields. Annual Platforum topics have included China Rising (2006), Cool Clear Water (2007), How We Eat (2008), For Richer, for Poorer: Surviving and Thriving in the Great Recession (2009), and The Ascent of Woman (2010). The Platforum series include not just lectures and discussions, but often meals, travel, and experiential learning such as kayaking on San Francisco Bay (Cool Clear Water).
Inforum is the club's division for younger community members. Since its founding in 2002 Inforum has engaged a new generation in civic discussion through its lively and controversial programming. [13]
Over the years a number of issues have been studied in depth by club leaders, member committees, or scholars commissioned by the Commonwealth Club. Among the topics studied have been direct democracy (the initiative process), air pollution, a statewide water plan, restrictions on child labor, automobile and industrial accident compensation, and legislative procedures. The long-standing mandate of many such studies has been "to investigate and discuss problems affecting the welfare of the Commonwealth and to aid in their solution." Many policy innovations in California—such as public defenders' offices and a printed voter explanation booklet to go with ballots—originated in studies and discussions at the Commonwealth Club.[ citation needed ]
One of the most extensive of these studies was commissioned in 1953 and lasted until 1956. It resulted in the book California Social Welfare: Legislation, Financing, Services, Statistics published by Prentice-Hall. Vaughn Davis Bornet, a recent Ph.D. recipient from Stanford University at the time, authored the book.
The club produced "Final Choice", a documentary that aired on PBS in 1998. It followed the families of three terminally ill individuals and explored the issue of physician-assisted suicide.
From 2003 to 2007, the project "Voices of Reform" examined the need for improvements in state governance in California. VOR led to the establishment in 2008 of the independent reform organization California Forward. [14]
One current initiative is Climate One, directed by Greg Dalton, which convenes leaders from business, government, and civil society to discuss a low-carbon, global economy. Climate One holds private leadership roundtables as well as public discussions and gives the annual Stephen Schneider Climate Science Communication Award. Climate One guests have included then–California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, Chair of the Nobel Prize–winning IPCC Rajendra Pachauri, and General Motors chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner.[ citation needed ]
A 2011 speaker series on social entrepreneurship, including interviews with leading social entrepreneurs, produced the book The Real Problem Solvers, by Ruth Shapiro, which was released by Stanford University Press at the end of 2012. [15]
In 2018, the club teamed up with LGBTQ radio and TV host Michelle Meow to host her daily radio show before a live audience one day each week. Guests on The Michelle Meow Show at The Commonwealth Club have included Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, scientist and educator Tam O'Shaughnessy (life partner of astronaut Sally Ride), Katie Sowers (the first out LGBTQ coach in the NFL), The X-Factor finalist Jason Brock, comedian Sampson McCormick, Olympic skater Adam Rippon, and others.
Because the club is strictly non-partisan and does not take positions on issues, when a project matures to the point that policy prescriptions are being considered, as in the case of Voices of Reform, the club assists the project to become a separate entity from the club itself.
The Hoover Institution is an American public policy think tank which promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and limited government. While the institution is formally a unit of Stanford University, it maintains an independent board of overseers and relies on its own income and donations. It is widely described as conservative, although its directors have contested the idea that it is partisan.
Peter Mark Robinson is an American author, research fellow, television host and former speechwriter for then-Vice President George H. W. Bush and President Ronald Reagan. He is currently the host of Uncommon Knowledge, an interview show by Stanford's Hoover Institution. He is also a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a co-founder of the Ricochet website.
Ray Lyman Wilbur was an American politician, physician, and eugenicist. He was a medical doctor who served as the third president of Stanford University and as the 31st United States Secretary of the Interior under President Herbert Hoover, also a Stanford alum.
A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific time frame or a strict academic scope. Teach-ins are meant to be practical, participatory, and oriented toward action. While they include experts lecturing on their area of expertise, discussion and questions from the audience are welcome, even mid-lecture. "Teach-ins" were popularized during the U.S. government's involvement in Vietnam. The first teach-in, which was held overnight at the University of Michigan in March 1965, began with a discussion of the Vietnam War draft and ended in the early morning with a speech by philosopher Arnold Kaufman.
The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO), commonly known as the San Francisco Conference, was a convention of delegates from 50 Allied nations that took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San Francisco, California, United States. At this convention, the delegates reviewed and rewrote the Dumbarton Oaks agreements of the previous year. The convention resulted in the creation of the United Nations Charter, which was opened for signature on 26 June, the last day of the conference. The conference was held at various locations, primarily the War Memorial Opera House, with the Charter being signed on 26 June at the Herbst Theatre in the Veterans Building, part of the Civic Center. A square adjacent to the Civic Center, called "UN Plaza", commemorates the conference.
Gloria Charmian Duffy is a former U.S. Department of Defense official, businesswoman, social entrepreneur and nonprofit executive. Since 1996, she has been the president, CEO and a member of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Club of California, America's largest and oldest public forum, founded in 1903. From 2010 to 2017 she led the acquisition, financing, design, entitlements and construction of the club's first headquarters building, at 110 The Embarcadero in San Francisco. The grand opening for the club's new building took place on September 12, 2017. The building received a 2016 California Heritage Council award for historic preservation.
The Century Foundation is a progressive think tank headquartered in New York City with an office in Washington, D.C. It was founded as a nonprofit public policy research institution on the belief that the prosperity and security of the United States depends on a mix of effective government, open democracy, and free markets. Its staff, fellows, and authors produce books, reports, papers, pamphlets, and online publications. The Foundation also hosts policy-related events and workshops for various audiences, including policy experts, journalists, college students and other academics, and the general public. It also manages several ongoing policy projects and operates a number of websites on various policy-related topics.
INFORUM is a division of the Commonwealth Club of California that hosts panel discussions, debates, and social events for people in their 20s and 30s in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a current membership of over 1,500, it is the largest such organization on the West Coast and one of the largest in the country.
Commonwealth North is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization based in Anchorage, Alaska. Founded in 1979, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in Alaska. Membership is open to everyone.
The Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs (CIPA) is Canada's oldest organization devoted to studying and publicizing current issues affecting Canada and public policy. Founded in 1932, it holds an annual conference every August on the shores of Lake Couchiching and smaller events during the year, in Toronto and other major cities. In 2019, the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs was merged into the Canadian International Council, and continues as an annual Couchiching event which the CIC hosts.
George Pratt Shultz was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held four different Cabinet-level posts, the other being Elliot Richardson. Shultz played a major role in shaping the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration, and conservative foreign policy thought thereafter.
The Economic Club of New York is a U.S. nonprofit and non-partisan membership organization dedicated to promoting the study and discussion of social, economic and political questions.
Climate One is a weekly podcast and radio program, aired on more than 60 public radio stations around the U.S. A special project of The Commonwealth Club of California, Climate One is based in San Francisco, California. Through its podcast, national radio show, and live convenings for thought leaders and concerned members of the public, they create opportunities for dialogue and aim to inspire a more complete understanding the implications of a changing climate on society, energy systems, economy and the natural environment. Founded in 2007 by Greg Dalton, Climate One has brought together over a thousand policymakers, business leaders, scientists, activists, and others to examine the personal and systemic impacts of climate and advance the conversation about a clean energy future.
The 1990 Institute is a San Francisco-based not-for-profit organization with a mission to champion fair and equal treatment for Asian Americans and a constructive U.S.-China relationship through leadership, education, and collaboration. The institute has had three decades of impact with programs that promote cross-cultural understanding both within the United States and China and is currently managed by academic, business, and community leaders.
Robin Gianattassio-Malle is an American journalist and producer specializing in the use of aural and visual media and is founder and executive director of Blue Egg Media, established in 2008.
Lanhee Joseph Chen is an American policy advisor, attorney, and academic. Chen serves as the David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution, director of domestic policy studies and lecturer in the public policy program at Stanford University, and lecturer in law at Stanford Law School.
The Twilight Club of Pasadena (California) is a private social group that was founded in 1895 as an organization where prominent men could assemble on a regular basis and be stimulated by lectures from notables of the day and entertained by individuals and groups of distinguished talent. From its earliest days its membership size was fixed and a waiting list kept. Its sole function was to serve as a convocation of interested and interesting people who gathered to hear speakers on issues of the day. The group met eight evenings a year. The group is much the same today.
Robert Harris Mnookin is an American lawyer, author, and the Samuel Williston Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He focuses largely on dispute resolution, negotiation, and arbitration and was one of the primary co-arbitrators that resolved a 7-year software rights dispute between IBM and Fujitsu in the 1980s. Mnookin has been the Chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School since 1994.
The World Affairs Council (Northern California), branding itself simply as World Affairs, is the Northern California chapter of the World Affairs Councils of America, a non-partisan and non-profit organization founded in 1918. It is located in San Francisco, California. The Council describes its mission as to "convene thought leaders, change makers, and engaged citizens to share ideas, learn from each other, and effect change in the belief that "Connecting people in this way leads to informed thinking, conversation, and actions that transcend traditional boundaries and lead to lasting solutions to global problems" and that solutions to the "world’s most challenging problems are found when the private, philanthropic, and public sectors work together." "Since its inception, it has valued thoughtful discourse and been committed to presenting a variety of views and opinions on topics bearing on global issues and providing in-depth analysis and rich context." Its CEO for 20 years was Jane Wales; she resigned in 2019, succeeded by Philip Yun.
Angela Glover Blackwell is an American attorney, civil rights advocate, and author. In 1999, she founded the research and advocacy nonprofit organization PolicyLink, and after twenty years as president and CEO, became the Founder in Residence. Blackwell has regularly provided expert commentary in a variety of news media and hosts the podcast Radical Imagination.
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