Editor's Note

We are celebrating our 50th Anniversary this year with several activities sprinkled through the year. Our programs are almost in place and our members are working very diligently to get them all finalized.

There will be a one-day 50th Anniversary OWA+DP Symposium to be held on Saturday 22 April 2023, from 10 am to 5 pm in the Brower Center, Berkeley. I have introduced our speakers for the event below to get you interested, and I hope that you will put this on your calendar.

In our last retreat, we asked people what they have in mind that is most urgent. The answer was resounding: housing. Many members have been very concerned about the inequality and inadequacy of housing. It is shameful that the wealthiest country on earth has so many homeless; why is it that we as a civilized society cannot find the means to provide affordable housing for every citizen? Is it due to a lack of will or conscience, bad social priorities, greed, government incompetence? I just returned from Singapore. Seeing the vast quantity of government-funded housing for all economic classes, we have to ask, how do other countries, with far less collective wealth than the US, manage to make a reasonable effort at housing everyone? Those are the questions we want to ask in this Symposium.

Our 40th Anniversary Symposium was held at the College of Environmental Design on the Berkeley Campus. We learned last November from the Dean of the college that the auditorium we reserved two years before would not now be available. Fortunately, the David Brower Center, in downtown Berkeley, was able to accommodate us in a large conference room with an adjacent outdoor terrace. It does mean that fewer people can attend this conference, however.

The Symposium is a whole day event, a two hour presentation in the morning and a two hour presentation in the afternoon with a lunch break and a final discussion moderated by our discussant. Tickets for the symposium include a box lunch from a well-known local restaurant. Because we are holding the Symposium in the Brower Center Conference room instead of the college, it will be closer to the BART Station and the UC Art museum.

The Symposium committee is finalizing all necessary details. By early February, you will be receiving our formal announcement of the Symposium online, its schedule plus all the necessary registration and payment requirements.

Please put this date in your calendar:
Date: Saturday 22 April 2023
Time: 10am to 5pm (Registration starts 9:15am)
Place : The David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley, California

There will be an evening reception for the speakers after the Symposium in a small restaurant, Cafenated, in Berkeley. You are highly encouraged to come and meet the speakers. Payment for the reception is separate from the Symposium ticket.