The City Club of Portland is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

civic organization based in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. Established in 1916, the organization had approximately 1500 members and a paid staff of 4 in 2013. The former Mayor of Portland,

Sam Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and ...

, served as executive director 2013 to 2015. The current executive director is Julia Meier.

Organizational history

The City Club of Portland was organized in 1916 by a small group of men who began meeting in a

downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found. ...

restaurant to discuss the city's public institutions and

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

. Their goals included assembling a wide variety of participants, discussing civic problems, and improving the city's economic and social conditions. The City Club of Portland was closed to women until pressure by lawyer and future City Commissioner Mildred Schwab was successful in opening its meetings. The club, all-male for roughly six decades, began admitting women to membership in October 1973. In January 2013 the City Club of Portland captured headlines by announcing its choice of former mayor of Portland

as the group's Executive Director.Brad Schmidt, "Adams Named City Club Head," ''The Oregonian,'' January 17, 2013, pp. B1-B2.

Membership and staff

News reports at the time of the Adams selection indicated that the City Club had a membership of approximately 1500 and a paid staff of 4, including its director. A new membership costs $190 per year for individuals, with renewal at $165. The current executive director is Julia Meier.

Friday Forums

City Club functions include Friday Forums built around speeches by experts in government, the arts, sciences, and education. The forums, which are open to the public, take place between 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. on Fridays at the

Sentinel Hotel The Sentinel is a hotel in downtown Portland, downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. It is composed of two buildings, both of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The east building was completed in 1909 and was ...

(ex-Governor Hotel) in downtown Portland. Audio recordings of the forums, updated weekly, are available online as

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical samples in a continuous sequence. For example, in CD audio, sa ...

files that can be downloaded from the City Club web site. Local radio and television stations broadcast live or taped forums at various times during the week. Speakers at City Club meetings over the years have included

Lewis Mumford Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a wr ...

, an expert on

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

, who in 1938 urged Oregonians to do a better job of protecting their

natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...

s and "issued a stern challenge to the leaders of Portland who had frustrated attempts at rational city planning since the Olmsted Report in 1904... ". The Olmsted Report, received by the city in December 1903, had emphasized creation of the

40-Mile Loop The 40-Mile Loop is a partially completed greenway trail around and through Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It was proposed in 1903 by the Olmsted Brothers architecture firm as part of the development of Forest Park. One greenway expert c ...

, a system of parks and linking parkways in Portland that would take advantage of natural scenery. A few of the other speakers and forum topics have been: * Gov.

Tom McCall Thomas Lawson McCall (March 22, 1913 January 8, 1983) was an American statesman, politician and journalist in the state of Oregon. A Republican, he was the state's thirtieth governor from 1967 to 1975. A native of Massachusetts, McCall grew up th ...

(1974), "Tom McCall Farewell" *

Karl Menninger Karl Augustus Menninger (July 22, 1893 – July 18, 1990) was an American psychiatrist and a member of the Menninger family of psychiatrists who founded the Menninger Foundation and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. Biography Menn ...

(1981), "Our Criminal Injustice System" * Sen. Mark Hatfield (1982), "The Nuclear Arms Freeze" *

David Broder David Salzer Broder (September 11, 1929March 9, 2011) was an American journalist, writing for ''The Washington Post'' for over 40 years. He was also an author, television news show pundit, and university lecturer. For more than half a century ...

(1983), "Setting the Stage for the '84 Election" *

Eleanor Smeal Eleanor Marie Smeal ( Cutri; born July 30, 1939) is a modern-day American feminist leader. She is the president and a cofounder of the Feminist Majority Foundation (founded in 1987) and has served as president of the National Organization for Wom ...

(1984), "Why and How Women Will Elect the Next President" * Rev.

Jesse Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...

(1987), "Peace, Justice, and Putting America Back to Work * Sen.

Elizabeth Dole Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford Dole (née Hanford; born July 29, 1936)Mary Ella Cathey Hanford, "Asbury and Hanford Families: Newly Discovered Genealogical Information" ''The Historical Trail'' 33 (1996), pp. 44–45, 49. is an American attorn ...

(1990), "Leadership for the Year 2000" * Kimbark McColl (1993), "Twenty Years of Planning in Oregon" * Mayor

Vera Katz Vera Katz (née Pistrak; August 3, 1933 – December 11, 2017) was an American Democratic politician in the state of Oregon. She was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives and was the 49th mayor of Portland, O ...

(2000), "The State of the City: Connecting the Dots" * Molly Raphael (2004), "Why Libraries Matter in the 21st Century" * Gov.

John Kitzhaber John Albert Kitzhaber (born March 5, 1947) is an American former politician who served as the 35th governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003, and as the 37th governor of Oregon from 2011 until his resignation in 2015. A member of the Democratic Party ...

(2005), "On the Road to Revolution: Fear and Loathing in the U.S. Health Care System"

Footnotes

External links

* * {{coord, 45.5211, -122.6806, type:landmark_region:US-OR_source:googlemaps, display=title Civic organizations in Oregon Organizations based in Portland, Oregon Clubs and societies in Oregon 1916 establishments in Oregon