California

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, GAMMA ASSOCIATION
Website www.pbknca.org

For the past two years, the Northern California Association has been averaging 960 members a year. We contact our members through regular newsletters three or four times a year. Our website is regularly updated with our newsletter at www.newsletter.pbknca.org. The website is maintained by one of our members, Ray Hendess.

To attract new members, every other year or so we send a copy of our November newsletter (this is the one that emphasizes membership) to thousands of initiates in the Northern California area whose addresses we receive from National. We also publish a directory every three years, which seems to motivate some people to join.

We also try to attract members through our activities. In the past two years we have visited the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the San Mateo History Museum in Redwood City, Copia (the Center for Food, Wine, and Art) in Napa, the August Rodin Galleries and Sculpture Garden at Stanford University, the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in Danville, Chimney Rock at the Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Seymour Marine Discovery Center along with the UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, Buck Institute on Aging, San Jose Museum of Quilts, McEvoy Olive Ranch, Pacific Heights in San Francisco, Audubon Canyon Ranch, Luther Burbank Experiment Farm, Pt. Reyes Tule Elk, Lindsay Wildlife Museum, Egyptian Museum, Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory, UC Berkeley Seismological Lab, Whale and Bird Watching Boat Trip, and San Francisco Opera House Backstage Tour.

In addition to the various activities above, we also have annual traditions: our San Francisco Holiday Walk, our Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner, and our Asilomar Conference. Although most of our members are older, we do try to encourage our young Phi Betes. They seem most interested in networking activities and in the past we have had a younger member in charge of arranging activities via email.

The main purpose of our Association is to raise money for scholarships. At our Annual Meeting and Awards dinner, we honor professors and graduate students from area universities. To the professors we give Teaching Excellence certificates and $500 honoraria. The students receive $4,000 scholarships. In the past two years we have honored eight professors and awarded $66,000 in scholarships.

, Corresponding Secretary and Asilomar Chair, Northern California Association

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – EPSILON ASSOCIATION

Epsilon Association has offered a number of interesting programs to its members. In spring 2006, PBK Visiting Scholar, Elizabeth Barber, spoke on “The Mummies of Chinese Turkestan,” and “How the Human Mind Shapes Myth: Prometheus, Pele, and the Curse of Fire.” Dr. Barber is a professor of linguistics and archaeology as well as co-chair of the classics department at Occidental College. Other programs included a tour of In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite at the San Diego Museum of Art, and a performance of The Violet Hour by Richard Greenberg at the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park with a docent introduction, pre-theater dinner party and post-theater libations.

Each year Epsilon Association recognizes outstanding juniors in the public schools of San Diego County with a book award, presented by a member of Phi Beta Kappa at the schools’ award ceremonies held in late May and early June. The books are inscribed and packaged at a party given by Kenneth Martin, who is Co-chairman of the committee as well as Association President. Approximately fifty awards are presented each year. The High School Book Awards also provides Epsilon Association with the opportunity to create awareness of Phi Beta Kappa and its purpose.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, ALPHA ASSOCIATION

Alpha Association has maintained its membership count of approximately 2,000 and continued its long-standing scholarship programs and member events.

In the last two years grants totaling $135,000 were distributed through three programs to international graduate students in local universities, to newly elected Phi Beta Kappa seniors in the ten chapters represented in our Association, and in modest awards to outstanding high school seniors in selected local public high schools.

Major events in the last two years have featured speakers Richard H. Day, an economics professor, Gary Small, M.D., professor of neuroscience and psychiatry, Alan J. Heeger, Nobel Laureate in chemistry, and Elizabeth J. Barber, a professor of linguistics. The 2004 annual spring meeting was held at the Los Angeles Music Center followed by a visit to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, with a speaker from the venue and an opportunity to tour. The 2005 annual meeting was held at the Pasadena Playhouse with a talk about the history of the playhouse and a conducted tour.

Alpha Association continues to attract new members through publicity of its activities in an annual newsletter, Key Notes, and an “invitation to join” letter, sent this fall to some 26,000 Phi Beta Kappa members in this area of Southern California. Individual contacts are continuously being made in the effort to attract members of all ages.

Alpha Association has a website: http://pbk-socal.org, kept current by one of its councilors.
Jean Paule, Corresponding Secretary and Archivist, 11/21/05

Colorado

ALPHA ASSOCIATION OF COLORADO
Website www.pbkcolorado.org

Alpha Association of Colorado has 172 active members, and we do mailings to an additional 80 past members who have a continuing interest in our organization. There are over 9,000 Phi Betes living in Colorado. The two highlights of our year continue to be the annual winter banquet, with an interesting local guest speaker, and our summer discussion, a lively conversation among members in the wonderful garden of our founding member. As do many associations, we arrange tours of local museums and exhibits and have attended symphony and opera events.

We have established an Endowment Fund to support our very successful scholarship program. Since 1993 we have awarded $24,000 in scholarships for Phi Beta Kappa initiates to pursue graduate studies.

We mail a four-page newsletter four times a year and do periodic e-mailings of events or items of special interest, such as the announcement of PBK Visiting Scholar lectures at our four Colorado PBK chapters, as well as local events that might be interesting to members.

To recruit new members, particularly more recent PBK initiates, we have established a Young Phi Betes program, which is headed by a young association member. She has organized three social gatherings at local restaurants and invited other young, recent PBK initiates living in Colorado, using a database provided by the National Society. These gatherings were well attended, but more follow-up needs to be done to improve networking opportunities. Board members and officers also attend all four chapters’ initiation ceremonies and speak to initiates about continuing their involvement with Phi Beta Kappa by joining a local association after graduation.

In summer 2005 we mailed a comprehensive survey to our members in an effort to determine how to better meet their needs and interests. Board members, many of whom have served for several years, felt that the Alpha Association was at a major transition point and required input. Attendance at events has been declining, although membership and support of the scholarship program remain steady. We were very encouraged by a 29% response rate to the survey, which indicated our members are very interested in the future of the association, even though they may not be active participants. "Interest in the liberal arts" was the most important thing about belonging to the Alpha Association. Respondents also reported on the types of events and activities in which they were interested, as well as their own time constraints and their ability and willingness to become involved. As a result of the survey and follow-up meetings, the Board drafted the following mission statement to focus our energies in the coming years: Promote intellectual fellowship and support academic excellence.

To begin achieving this mission, we are undertaking the following new actions:

A high school student recognition committee has been established to make recommendations to the board about how we might work more closely with high schools and raise the awareness of Phi Beta Kappa among students going on to universities.

We will host a monthly lunch and discussion at the local University Club, giving members a chance to get together for good food and good conversation. The first of these was held this fall and was a great success. The topic was, "What is the future for books and reading?"

We look forward to developing new networking opportunities for members and further supporting intellectual fellowship and academic excellence.
, Secretary

New Mexico

THE LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO ASSOCIATION

The Los Alamos, NM Association has for 49 years honored the highest-ranking seniors of Los Alamos High School with a dinner at which a distinguished New Mexican is the speaker. The Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Opera; the Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory; the cartoonist for the Albuquerque Journal; the chief justice of the NM Supreme Court; and many others have given interesting and often inspirational talks to the young people and the Phi Beta Kappa members who attend. The Association also awards a $1000 scholarship to an outstanding member of the high school graduating class.
Rosalie Heller, Secretary

Washington

PUGET SOUND ASSOCIATION, ALPHA OF WASHINGTON
Website www.psa-pbk.org

For 52 years, the Puget Sound Association of Phi Beta Kappa has fostered intellectual growth and creativity in the Puget Sound area. On the occasion of its golden anniversary, the Association celebrated its history and that of the region with a dinner. "Whatever Happened to the Smith Tower? Seattle Fifty Years On" was the title of the talk by Ralph Hennes, Historian.

For the past fifty years, the organization's ever growing scholarship program has served the principal goal of encouraging young scholars in their pursuit of knowledge. In 2005, five awards of $1500 each went to undergraduates, two at the University of Puget Sound and three at the University of Washington. One UW student received $3500 as winner of the Ernest R. Stiefel graduate award, named in honor of the association's longtime treasurer. The scholarship programs are supported by individual donations and by fund raising efforts by the Board of Trustees.

Last spring, outstanding graduating seniors in 84 area high schools were presented books, each personally inscribed with the recipient's name, name of school, and congratulations from the association. The hope is that such recognition will encourage young people to continue to pursue higher education.

Community members and organizations also are honored each year by the Pathfinder Awards. Presented at the spring luncheon, the award recognizes those who reach "beyond their professional boundaries with specific projects that stimulate intellectual achievement in others." In 2005, two groups and two individuals were honored. Barbara Clinton, faculty member at Highline Community College motivates and encourages promising students who are struggling in the school environment. Steve Miller, co-founder of the League of Education Voters, and a tireless advocate for public education, was the primary author of two initiatives, which have had profound effects upon education. An organization known as “We the People” promotes a program of civics instruction, which research has shown to produce students who outperform their peers in political science courses, and who register to vote at twice the usual rate. The Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society encourages young people to play the pipe organ through scholarships and lessons, and also by rebuilding and maintaining organs in schools and theaters, and by keeping the history of pipe organs alive.

Regular organization events include biannual luncheons, in Tacoma in the fall and Seattle in the spring, making them accessible to the two PBK chapters with whom the association collaborates, -- the University of Puget Sound and the University of Washington. Fall 2005 found the group on the UPS campus, enjoying a lecture on jazz by Jim Wilke, nationally known musical historian and critic. Spring, 2006 is scheduled for a luncheon talk in Seattle's College Club by Deborah Jacobs, librarian at the new Seattle Central Library, which two groups of association members and their friends toured within the past year. The tours were conducted by men responsible in part for the design and construction of this magnificent new building.

Other speakers at luncheons during the past two years have included Prof. William P. Reinhardt of the University of Washington; David Brewster, executive director of Town Hall, Seattle; James Loewen, author and nationally known iconoclast; and Ron Thomas, President of the University of Puget Sound.

Besides the new Seattle Central Library, tours have included the Henry Art Museum on UW campus, historic Boehm's candy factory in nearby Issaquah, Kubota Japanese Garden, King County Port Commission, and the newly renovated Seattle Opera House, renamed Marion Oliver McCaw Performance Hall. An eagerly anticipated tour scheduled for spring 2006 will be of the U. S. Federal Courthouse with tour host PBK member James Robart, United States District Court Judge.

Saturday morning Kaffeeklatsches have allowed even more topics to be explored. Held at member homes, each has a discussion leader on topics of current interest. These have included the law of intellectual property and universal health care. Coming up winter and spring 2006 are "blackboxvoting" and holistic medicine.

PSA-PBK is not large, just 355 members last year, but it is active. Spring and fall, the Key Connection does keep members connected. The Board of Trustees meets the first Friday of each month at the Centre Building in downtown Seattle with a lively agenda and active committees.
Webmaster and member Chuck Goldstein keeps an up-to-date website: www.psa-pbk.org.