World Affairs Council Sees an Upswing in County Membership

The World Affairs Council of Ventura County, barely two years old, has overcome a slump triggered by the Persian Gulf War and the recession to regain its financial footing and begin once again to attract new members.

Billed as a worldly social club where members can talk to international figures about current affairs, the council was launched in 1990 in the shadow of the larger Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

The organization, to which 500 area residents belong, sailed through its first six months, easily drawing in corporate and private members from a wide range of occupations from throughout the county, Executive Director Cynthia Cooke said.

But six months after its first official function at the Sherwood Country Club, the council began to experience financial problems, around the start of the Persian Gulf War, Cooke said.

And as the recession deepened in the war’s wake, the council’s steady influx of new members slowed to a trickle, Cooke said. Its bank account began to dwindle as many corporate and special members pulled out or chose to contribute less to the council, she said.

“Boy, I’ve got to tell you it was like pulling the rug out from under us,” Cooke said. “Had the recession hit first, we might never have started (the council).”

Cooke said membership had leveled out until about six weeks ago, when the council began to see a remarkable turnaround. The number of special members, whose fees range from $250 to $1,000, has doubled from 12 to 24. And the number of corporate members, who pay from $500 to $5,000 for membership, is picking up again. The annual fee for individual members is $35 to $50.

The council is one of 115 similar but separate organizations nationwide, 11 of which are in California. Its purpose is to educate people on international issues and help them gain insight into other cultures.

Cooke, 49, decided to form the council in her search for a social circle of interesting, thinking people. She said she has found what she was looking for.

The council so far has attracted 35 prominent figures, such as the ambassadors to the United States from China and Hungary, former Pentagon official Frank Gaffney and former Nicaraguan vice president Sergio Ramirez. Often, the local organization is able to persuade speakers to come to the county after they have appeared before the 40-year-old Los Angeles council.

Tonight, in a speech in Thousand Oaks, renowned scientist Edward Teller, known as the “father of the H-bomb,” will discuss the future of defense systems and U. S. policy changes that he believes need to occur to ensure a safe world.

In an interview last week, the Hungarian-born Teller, 84, said he agreed to speak “because they asked me. And furthermore, I have some things to say. . . . I don’t consider myself a celebrity. It is close by, it is easy, I am going.”

Teller has spoken before other world affairs councils. “Generally, I consider them reasonable and important people,” he said. “(They) understand that the world is small and that we should be interested in international affairs.”

For the council’s first event two years ago, Cooke did much of the legwork, drawing about 100 people to a $100-a-ticket event that featured a U. S. assistant Treasury secretary, a Rand Corp. executive and a Los Angeles Times journalist.

“The invitations went out and we did a lot of phone calling, because no one had ever heard of the World Affairs Council,” she said. “We really had to introduce the idea.”

Now, members range from a retired homemaker to an executive with an international business in the county.

“I find them very exciting people,” Cooke said. “They’ve traveled all over the world. . . . These are the people who vote, are involved in communities, school boards.”

At monthly private dinners, the council’s corporate and special members can rub shoulders with international leaders in politics, business and diplomacy. The group also holds Friday night cocktail parties.

Two regular members, Marla Buckert and Catheryn Ford, said they like the fact that important international figures come to Ventura County to talk to them.

“I wanted to join because I’m always interested in what’s going on nationally and internationally,” said Buckert, 54, a Ventura real estate agent. “I thought it would be a good source of information that wasn’t available through other means.”

“I feel that there are a great many things that I’m learning from the programs,” said Ford, 70, a retired homemaker of Camarillo.

Council members say they believe that their ability to draw speakers will increase as membership grows.

Frances Brohan, media director for the 9,000-member Los Angeles council, agreed.

“I think a lot of leaders . . . see a lot of potential in that area, and that makes it an attractive podium,” she said.

Brohan, describing Cooke as a dynamic leader, said, “I think she has put a really Herculean effort into building a council in an area that’s developing a lot. I think they have a good chance to be an important council.”

Council board member Bruce Meikle, partner at the international accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche in Oxnard, said Ventura County is home to a number of companies that do business overseas. Employees of these companies, he said, could benefit from joining the council.

“I just don’t think you can be as isolated (from international affairs) as you were in the past,” Meikle said. Deloitte & Touche, a corporate member of the council, donates an office and phone line to the group.

Teller, tonight’s speaker, is a controversial figure who is sure to elicit discussion among those who attend his talk, Meikle said, acknowledging, “I may not agree with everything he’s saying.”

Iraj Broomand, who was recently elected as council chairman, has plans to bring international affairs not only to the county’s adults, but to its children as well. He hopes to get more corporate memberships to strengthen the council’s financial base, and then take international educational programs into local schools.

“I am hoping that through this kind of thing, we will be able to bring to Ventura County a level of international political sophistication that is necessary for everybody in what is presently a volatile and changing world,” he said.

“In my view, a human being, regardless of who they are, enjoys intellectual intercourse and that is one of the major attractions of world affairs councils.”