Commonwealth Club

About the Commonwealth Club of California: Founded in 1903, The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's premier public affairs forum, with more than 25,000 members. For the past 11 decades, the Club has fostered free speech and civic dialogue on a wide range of topics, addressing key issues in society, culture, politics, the economy and more in about 500 live programs each year. Based in San Francisco with a second office in San Jose, the Club presents speeches, debates and discussions each year on issues of regional, national and international significance. The Club continues to host its guests-from presidents and activists to scientists and chefs-at its headquarters on the Embarcadero in downtown San Francisco as well as at venues around San Francisco, Silicon Valley, the East Bay and Marin County. In addition to its traditional forums, the Club hosts the Climate One project on climate change, and Inforum, a division oriented to younger community members. It has sponsored public policy projects over the years, ranging from early 1900s studies and reports leading to environmental and social legislative and policy innovations, to more recent efforts to improve state governance in California. The Club has produced a PBS film, published books and publishes a bimonthly magazine, The Commonwealth. About 1 million people listen to The Commonwealth Club's weekly radio broadcast-the oldest continuing radio program in the country-on more than 230 public and commercial stations across the country. The Club's podcasts are downloaded about 5 million times each year. The Club's videos also appear on the California Channel, C-SPAN and YouTube, where they have been viewed millions of times.