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Please join the Salem City Club and Civic Organizations as we celebrate the many non-profits which contribute to our community. See what we can do together to enrich and strengthen our neighborhoods, our city, and the Willamette Valley. Friends and family are welcome. Light refreshments are provided.
Featured Speaker:
Gwen Carr, Director of The Bush House Museum
Carr is a familiar face not just in Salem but in the Northwest. She has served on a variety of local community boards, including Oregon Black Pioneers, Willamette Heritage Center, Oregon Geographic Names, and Salem YWCA. She moved to Salem from the Los Angeles area in the early 1980s, escaping the big city. She was in her early 30s and had experience as a manager at a small insurance company, but struggled to find a supervisory position. A friend told her she would have a hard time in Oregon. Carr was hired by SAIF in March 1981, not long after it became the nation’s first public corporation specifically focused on workers’ compensation insurance. Her first job, as part of a three-member team, was to help the underwriting division make the shift from state control to independence as a self-supporting, not-for-profit public corporation. (Gwen Carr Sees Opportunity As New Director of Bush House Museum | Statesman Journal, July 1, 2025)
Join us on September 26 as the Salem City Club hosts Secretary of State Tobias Read. Secretary Read has been an outspoken proponent for the celebration of Democracy Day and the responsibilities of citizens in preserving our freedoms. In particular, as the elected state official in charge of elections, he will address current challenges in voting procedures, including our national model for mail-in voting. Plan to attend for what promises to be a lively session.
Speaker Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read Tobias Read is Oregon’s 30th secretary of state, and was born in Montana and raised in Idaho. He has his bachelor’s degree from Willamette University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington. He brings a wide range of public-sector and private-sector experience to the office. He worked at the U.S. Treasury and Nike prior to being elected as state representative in 2007 and then state treasurer in 2017. Currently, he is serving his first term as Oregon Secretary of State, and lives in Beaverton with his wife Heidi and their two children.
Program Sponsor Pac/West Lobby Group
Doors Open: 11:30 am Program Begins: 12:00 pm
Registration Members: Free Non-Members: $10
In today’s environment, many claim to be part of the “media.” But oftentimes, they represent special interests or no interest, lacking training or ethics. Veteran Oregon journalist Les Zaitz will help sort out how to decide you can trust a news source and when you should treat a source with deep skepticism. Facts matter. Les will explain why.
SpeakerLes Zaitz, Editor/CEO, Salem Reporter Les Zaitz, a respected journalist, serving Oregon for more than 50 years, has worked for The Oregonian, owns local newspapers and established one the country’s most successful online news sources, Salem Reporter. According to Zaitz, he has tried retiring several times but the call to serve the interests of truth and accountability holds him in check. He does find time to manage a small ranch in eastern Oregon with his wife, Scotta Callister, another veteran Oregon journalist.
Program Sponsors Tom and Cecie Delve Scheuermann, SCC members “We have both been long-time supporters of good, responsible journalism, and we admire Zaitz’s work and journalistic integrity.”
Contact Us
Salem City Club
PO Box 2283 | Salem, OR 97308
office@salemcityclub.com
