First of all, I should note that I spent about 4 minutes trying to simplify the title of this blog post but it kept sounding less and less interesting. At one point, I was just going to title this, “something important” and leave it at that but I’m pretty happy with the result.
Moving on, The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit that has been around for over 100 years. From their Wikipedia page, here is a brief description:
The Commonwealth Club 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. Membership is open to everyone.
and
The Commonwealth Club has more than 19,000 members who help host over 400 events each year on topics ranging across politics, culture, society, and the economy. Around 50,000 people attend these events. It is currently headed by Dr. Gloria Duffy and is broadcast on many public radio stations in the longest-lasting continuous radio program in the nation.
It’s a group that I’ve been very lucky to have been a member of for the past few months. I attend at least one meeting each week and have learned a lot. There is a division of the club called INFORUM. I found myself going to more INFORUM meetings because the topics and speakers appealed to me more than the regular meetings. INFORUM is described as:
The idea of INFORUM began with the basic tenet that young people not only deserve but desire unbiased, trustworthy information from a full range of stances, and that they want their sources qualified. The Commonwealth Club has a 103 year tradition of civic debate, and INFORUM honors and continues this tradition by providing a forum for young people to access the best informed, most involved, and brightest minds – be they politicians, business gurus, policy workers, thought leaders, trendsetters or culture-jammers.
This week, I was invited to join INFORUM as a board member. My focus will be on a few things. First of all, I’ll be analyzing how INFORUM connects with people via Twitter, Facebook and other social networks and work with them to extend the reach of their social network presence and engage more people and generate interest for programs both virtually (since some events are streamed) and in the real world. Additionally, I’ll be submitting ideas for speakers we can invite and topics to cover in meetings. My roots in the tech community and work with local charities has a small level of reach that makes for some great topic ideas. Finally, I’ll be taking on some additional smaller tasks to help with as I have time.
This isn’t going to be a huge time sink but will be an exciting opportunity for me to take on as we close out this year and begin another. Thanks everyone for your support. I encourage all of my followers in and out of California to check out The Commonwealth Club and, most importantly, INFORUM. Membership is only $75 if you’re under 35 and most events are streamed online for free.