What is the ERT of San Francisco

As the name implies, ERT, the Economic Round Table of San Francisco, is an informal  group in which a guest speaks for about 30 to 45 minutes and
then entertains questions for the remaining time. Usually, the discussions are “off the record”. The meetings take place every Wednesday morning from 8 am to 9 am.
Because of the Covid-19 virus, ERT is currently conducting its meetings via
Zoom, with “doors opening” at 7:45 am for a few minutes of informal conversation, before the formal start of the meeting. The ERT president, currently Stephen Cornell, sends out a reminder message every week with the name and topic of the following meeting and the Zoom link information.
ERT has been meeting for 80 years and our guests have come from a wide
variety of disciplines. In the past we’ve had publishers, journalists, bankers, economists, politicians, community advocates, university professors from the Bay Area and beyond, CEOs of start-ups and successful legacy businesses, researchers, scientists, artists and think tank leaders —all have shared their thoughts and opinions with us. And, in this Zoom world, our
speakers now come from around the United States and the world.
 
The ERT members are of varied ages, professions and political stripes—a few doctors professors, CEOs, small business owners, and several attorneys They are refreshingly candid and highly intelligent. 
Members pay a small annual fee. The original intent of that fee was to pay for coffee and pastries that we used to have available when meeting in person. More importantly, each member commits to bring 2 guest speakers a year. This is actually the key for our on-going success. Before becoming a member, we invite friends to join us for a few meetings as guests. This way, he/she can assess the group and see if the ERT is a good match for him/her.
Hartmut Fischer is the “gatekeeper” for our Zoom sessions. Moshe Reder helps with the use of graphic material if you are not familiar with “sharing screen” facility on Zoom. Moshe and Stephen are also the co-hosts of Zoom, together with Hartmut, and help with the admissions of people to the sessions.