Commonwealth Club of California

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The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is one of the oldest and largest public affairs forums in the United States.

It has 18,000 members who help host over 500 events each year on topics ranging across politics, culture, society, and the economy. It is currently headed by Dr. Gloria Duffy and is broadcast on many public radio stations, occasionally even live.

The Club has broadcast its forums since 1924, and current broadcasts are carried weekly by National Public Radio (NPR). Local residents in the Bay Area can view televised programs from The Club on KGO TV. The Club also issues free podcasts each week, a blog, and a monthly magazine and a monthly program update guide.

In addition to hosting speeches and panels, The Club runs the Voices of Reform project, which is a non-partisan effort to bring together California's policy makers and opinion leaders to improve state governance, and it runs a travel program, which leads several trips abroad each year to destinations ranging from Turkey to Russia to China.

[edit] History

The Commonwealth Club was founded in 1903.

The "Club" has hosted numerous world-class speakers including many former U.S. Presidents and other major political leaders in the USA and abroad, business leaders and influential social activists. Speakers receive no honoraria.

The Club has offices in San Francisco and San Jose. It has some events at the Santa Clara, California convention center. Though the majority of its programs are in San Francisco and San Jose, it also hosts occasional events in Sacramento and Southern California.

[edit] Sample of speakers

The list of notable speakers is long and is sometimes referred to simply as "everybody".

While in office, Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke at the club. During his term as Vice President, Dan Quayle delivered his famous Murphy Brown speech to the group. One recent live "Address to the Club" was Condoleezza Rice's presentation of her new policy initiatives before her 2005 tour of world leaders in the Mideast. Other recent speakers include Katie Couric, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christie Hefner, Anna Quindlen, Shelby Steele, and Steve Ballmer.