CORO LUNCHEON, YALE GALA, INTEGRATION INTO THE BAY AREA

Friday I attended Coro Northern California's 10th Annual Leadership Luncheon to support a program a definitely benefited from and to start exploring the world outside of tech in the Bay Area. Over 700 people attended Coro's annual fundraising event where Cokie Roberts, political analyst for ABC News, spoke and several current Coro program participants gave insights into their experience with the training they received. Coro's presence and power is definitely the strongest in the Bay Area since this is where the foundation and flagship program, the Coro Fellows Program, was created. Roberts gave a decent speech on leadership, but I think she plugged too much for her new book, "Founding Mothers," by integrating content from it into the speech. At least one example was a stretch which is not worth boring you with.

Christine and I attended her Yale California Alumni Gala, where she went for her graduate studies, on Saturday. Sometimes these events are a good way to meet people outside your normal daily walk and network if the opportunity comes up. The guest speaker was Mayor Jerry Brown, mayor of Oakland and former Governor of California. I have say that he was entertaining and somewhat insightful. Great speech on his experiences on how to get things done. One example is a charter school he started in Oakland that is set up as a military academy and is very successful... at least from his perspective. I remember Brown when he was seeking the 1992 Democratic Presidential nomination because he visited my college campus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I didn't agree with his general policy approach back then or now since he's a bit too left leaning for me, but on the surface level of his education policy I'm interested in learning more about his current efforts in Oakland.

After our wedding and honeymoon this month, Christine and I plan to get more involved in the Bay Area through volunteer work and our church. We've already targeted a couple organizations to help out, and I definitely look forward to our time after the wedding and getting more integrated into the Bay Area community.