Chinatown Walking Tour

Enjoy a Commonwealth Club Neighborhood Adventure. Join Rick Evans for a memorable midday walk and discover the history and mysteries of Chinatown. Explore colorful alleys and side streets. Visit a Taoist temple, an herbal store, the site of the first public school in the state, and the famous Fortune Cookie Factory. There is a short break for a tea sample during the tour.

Location: Meet at corner of Grant and Bush, in front of Starbucks, near Chinatown Gate
Time: 1:45 p.m. check-in, 2–5 p.m. tour
Cost: $45 non-members, $35 members
Also know: Temple visit requires walking up three flights of stairs. Limited to 12 people. Participants must pre-register. Tour operates rain or shine. Photo by H Sanchez/Flickr.

Michael Ellis, Footloose Forays

Come discover one of the Bay Area's most spectacular and pristine natural wonders. After departing Sausalito we will cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge and past Pt. Bonita, looking for marine mammals that inhabit the area. If time permits we may also venture out over the continental shelf to look for unusual species that are found on this edge. Then we'll move to the main Farallon Island. Only members of the Pt. Reyes Bird Observatory and the Coast Guard are allowed on the island. We will stay in the protected Fisherman's Cove for a while to soak up the immense amount of life that abounds here. Afterwards, we will cruise over and look at the south side of the island, where most of the manmade structures are located.

Ellis began going to the Farallon Islands as a researcher in 1977 and has been leading trips there ever since. 

Location: Meet at the Salty Lady, Sausalito Sport Fishing Pier, foot of Harbor Drive, Sausalito. From 101, take the Sausalito/Marin City exit off. As you exit bear right on Bridgeway toward downtown Sausalito. Go three lights and turn left on Harbor Drive. Follow until it dead ends at some large parking lots just opposite Caruso's. The pier is obvious. Park in the large lot to the left (north). If you are unfamiliar with this area please review a map prior to departure.
Time: 7:30 a.m. meet, 8 a.m. sharp boat departs
Cost: $155 non-members, $155 members 

Denise King, Artist and Exhibit Development Manager, the Exploratorium

Take a peek behind the scenes of San Francisco's hottest new exhibit space. After years by the Palace of Fine Arts, the Exploratorium recently revealed its exciting new digs along San Francisco's waterfront. King will lead us on a tour of the shops and lab where she does her development work for the Exploratorium's special exhibits. She will focus on how she builds life support systems into her exhibits, incorporating live plants and organisms, and well as the difference between exhibits and artwork. The tour is limited to 20 people.

MLF: The Arts
Location: The Exploratorium, Pier 15/17, San Francisco
Time: 10 a.m.-12 p.m. tour
Cost: $45 non-members, $35 members
Program Organizer: Lynn Curtis 

Camille Seaman, 2013 Senior TED Fellow

Photographer, Camille Seaman, has traveled between both the North and South Polar Regions for the last ten years documenting the fragile environment and its otherworldly beauty. Her work captures the essence of awe and beauty of indigenous cultures and environments in a sophisticated documentary/fine art tradition. People often wonder what one person can do to help save this planet we call home, Seaman will discuss this question from the perspective being part of both an indigenous culture and a modern world.

MLF: The Arts
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 non-members, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Lynn Curtis 

Mary Ruckelshaus, Ph.D., Managing Director, The Natural Capital Project
Heather Tallis, Ph.D., Lead Scientist, The Nature Conservancy
Rich Sharp, Ph.D., Lead Software Developer, The Natural Capital Project

The appeal of seeing nature as a vital asset – as natural capital – has spread like fire over the last decade. This concept appears in thinking about agriculture, water, energy, health, fisheries, forestry, protection from hazards, mining, cities and the infrastructure supporting these and other vast sectors – and it increasingly appears in the ways communities, corporations, governments and other institutions frame decisions. Despite this awareness and energy, however, our state and planet remain besieged by degradation and growing threats of catastrophic change.

Leaders of The Natural Capital Project and The Nature Conservancy will talk about how they are using the power of open-source software tools to transform how communities and institutional leaders around the world include the value of natural capital in decisions improving outcomes for biodiversity and human wellbeing.

MLF: Science & Technology/Humanities/International Relations
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 non-members, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Chisako Ress
Also know: In association with the Natural Capital Project and the Nature Conservancy

Anthony D. Barnosky, Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley; Cox Visiting Professor, Department of Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University

Monday Night Philosophy highlights Professor Barnosky's research into how global change influences extinction dynamics and biodiversity maintenance. The most recent generation has witnessed humanity changing the planet in both positive and negative ways. Barnosky explains that the key challenge for the 21st century is to ensure that the negative changes, now accelerating, do not limit our capacity to make our children's world at least as good as our own.

MLF: Humanities/Science & Technology
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 non-members, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: George Hammond

Sylvia Raker, Creator and Director of Business Development, Exploratorium Global Studio

Adam Tobin, Managing Director, Exploratorium Global Studio

Raker, a scientist as well as a business executive, and Tobin, former head of Exploratorium exhibit development, will discuss the Global Studio's mission to help foreign governments and public entities create learning environments, build human capacity and transition to more knowledge based economies, while respecting their specific cultural and social conditions. One area of significant activity for the Global Studios is in the Middle East, where countries such as Saudi Arabia are making substantial investments in education.

MLF: Middle East
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program
Cost: $20 non-members, MEMBERS FREE, students free (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Celia Menczel 

Richard Louv, Journalist; Author, The Nature Principle: Human Restoration and the End of Nature-Deficit Disorder

Louv’s best-selling book Last Child in the Woods sparked a national debate that spawned an international movement to reconnect kids to nature. He coined the term "nature-deficit disorder," influenced national policy and helped inspire campaigns in more than 80 cities, states and provinces throughout North America. Now, Louv delivers another powerful call to action, this time for adults, offering a new vision of the future, in which our lives are as immersed in nature as they are in technology.

MLF: Health & Medicine
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing
Cost: $20 non-members, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Bill Grant

Lloyd Dean, President and CEO, Dignity Health
Kevin Grumbach, M.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Family and Community Medicine, UCSF; Co-director, UCSF Center for Excellence in Primary Care; Co-director, Community Engagement and Health Policy Program, UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Patricia Knight, M.S., J.D., Founder, Pacific Coast Health Advocacy LLC
Lisa Aliferis, Health Editor, KQED – Moderator 

Now that the Affordable Care Act is taking effect, with its health coverage mandate for 38 million more Americans and requisite expansion of Medicaid, California and the nation are anticipating a doctor shortage that could impede access to primary care for many patients. According to a new study, by 2025 the U.S. will need at least 52,000 more primary care doctors to keep pace with a rapidly aging population. Yet many medical students are now choosing higher-paying specialties over primary care, especially when faced with mounting tuition and student debt. What is the best way to handle this expected primary care physician shortage, from the perspective of policymakers, physicians, patients  and the health-care industry? How will health-care organizations adapt? Who is at risk of not having appropriate care? Our panel of experts and insiders will discuss these issues and more in this important program on the primary-care crunch that may worsen as more people gain coverage in 2014.

Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: FREE
Also know: Underwritten by the California Wellness Foundation

Mary Ellen Hannibal, Author, Evidence of Evolution; 2011 Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow

Hannibal will give a slide presentation and shares her latest work, The Spine of the Continent.  Praised by luminaries such as E.O. Wilson and Paul Ehrlich, in the words of Thomas Lovejoy, Hannibal's book "is the biography of a big conservation idea." Hannibal chronicles the development of the science that tells us what can be done to heal the wounds in our life-support system, nature. Hannibal has plenty of tales to tell of heroic people who are doing the right thing by the creatures and landscapes we love, from a hairdresser who relocates beaver to a waitress-turned-whistleblower who was unjustly prosecuted regarding the death of a rare jaguar to the scientists who are racing to apply their knowledge. Hannibal's journalism accolades include Stanford's Knight-Risser Prize for Western Enviromental Journalism and the National Association of Science Writer's Science and Society Award.

MLF: SF Book Discussion
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing
Cost: $20 non-members, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Barbara Massey