UPCOMING EVENTS: SUMMER/FALL 2017
Event dates can also be found on our calendar page
Coffee And Conversation
Sunday October 8, 2017 10:30am to noon
Location: Mitchell Park Library, 3700 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto CA 94303
This recurring event happens on the second Sunday of every month at the Cafe in front of the library at Mitchell Park Community Center. There is no predetermined theme, just friendly and respectful conversation. RSVP if possible so we can arrange the tables. If it’s raining or too chilly to be out in the open, we’ll be in one of the conference rooms inside the library or on the second-floor covered balcony that overlooks the library entrance. Look for the little blue Ethical Culture Society sign and you’ll know it’s us! You can RSVP using our Meetup page if you have a Meetup account, or you can contact us by email or this site’s contact form .
Sunday Spotlight: Homelessness and What We Can Do to Help
Sunday, October 15, 2017 11am to 12:30pm
Neutra House, 183 Hillview Ave., Los Altos, CA 94022
Join us to hear from an inspiring, active speaker who will share information about working to make our community and our world a better place.
Our guest in October is Pastor Paul Bains, President & Co-Founder of Project WeHOPE. The mission of Project WeHOPE is to help homeless individuals and families, and those at risk, to rebuild their lives. Project WeHOPE provides a shelter, as well as Dignity on Wheels, a mobile hygiene outreach program that provides free showers and laundry service for homeless living in encampments, rotating shelters, vehicles, or temporary spaces. Learn more these and other efforts to help individuals rebuild their lives and ultimately get off the street.
We welcome you to participate by listening and engaging in thoughtful dialogue, with a little live music mixed in. We provide the coffee, tea, and a welcoming space for inquiring minds and open hearts to learn from one another.
Doors open at 10:30 a.m and the main program runs from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. We invite you to join us for light refreshments before the program and to stay afterwards for further discussion, including a focus on ways to engage in personal and collective action. All are welcome.
By the way, we’d love your input on our programs! If you have an idea for a topic or speaker for Sunday Spotlight, please let us know. The easiest method is to use our contact form and write something like “spotlight suggestion” in the subject line.
Wednesday Ethics Discussion Topic: Do I Confront People about Their Habits or What They Wear?
Wednesday October 18
Chapter 26 in Arthur Dobrin’s Book, Ethics for Everyone. The scenario: One person wears perfume that others find “overpowering and cloying” and that others say will keep them away from meetings, Should someone tell the person to stop wearing the perfume? Who has the right and responsibility to do that? Does it matter how well you know the person?
Discussion starts at 7:30. Soup at 6:30.
Please RSVP for location details, as this event is held at a private home. Use our Meetup page if you have a Meetup account, or you can contact us by email or this site’s contact form .
Book Discussion: Philanthropy in democratic societies
Sunday October 22, 2017 11am to 12:30pm
Location: Mitchell Park Library, 3700 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto CA 94303
Our book this month is “Philanthropy in democratic societies: history, institutions, values” edited by Rob Reich, Lucy Bernholz and Chiara Cordelli. We try to reserve the Greenmeadow Room upstairs in the Mitchell Park Library. There room has limited space, so please RSVP via our Meetup page if you have a Meetup account, or contact us by email or this site’s contact form .
Sunday Spotlight: Philanthropy and Democracy: Dangerous Liaisons
Sunday, November 19, 2017 11am to 12:30pm
Neutra House, 183 Hillview Ave., Los Altos, CA 94022
Our guest in November is Rob Reich, Professor of Political Science at Stanford.
We tend to think of philanthropy as unequivocally good, the direction of private resources toward public benefits for which citizens should respond with gratitude. Yet philanthropy can also be an exercise of power, private power in the public sphere. We invite you to join Stanford’s Rob Reich, faculty director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and of the Center for Ethics in Society, for a discussion about how philanthropy can both support and subvert democratic governance.
We welcome you to participate by listening and engaging in thoughtful dialogue, with a little live music mixed in. We provide the coffee, tea, and a welcoming space for inquiring minds and open hearts to learn from one another.
Doors open at 10:30 a.m and the main program runs from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. We invite you to join us for light refreshments before the program and to stay afterwards for further discussion. All are welcome.