Our Committees

The Programming and Events Committees, respectively, play an essential role in the planning and organization of all Forum events for the following semester. Members of each committee work together to come up with ideas for new events and prospective speakers, invite guests, reserve venues, handle speaker travel and accommodations, and take care of other event logistics. After a semester of inviting speakers in Programming, one hosts the speakers they invited the following semester as an “Event Manager” in the Events Committee.

The Communications Committee serves as the marketing and public relations wing of the Berkeley Forum. The marketing team focuses on promoting the Berkeley Forum’s events through a variety of social and traditional media and partnerships with other organizations. Moreover, we use a variety of platforms; these include, but are not limited to, social media, our mailing list, class, and campus organization outreach, sharing our events with relevant departments and faculty, and sometimes even posting posters around campus. Members of the public relations team will work together to manage the organization’s brand and graphic standards, share the Forum’s work with the world and keep in contact with the general public and members of the press.

The Finance Committee is responsible for sourcing, budgeting, and planning all financial inflows and outflows of the Forum. Finance members have various responsibilities including conducting all crowdfunding outreach campaigns, negotiating with business and corporate partners, projecting event financials, drafting event grants, and planning future Forum expenditures. The committee has two concentrations: Internal Finance and External Finance. Internal Finance is primarily responsible for managing relations with on-campus departments and past donors along with ensuring the funding from the student union. External Finance works to create small business sponsorships and campus organization partnerships while minimizing speaker auxiliary costs. Focused on pursuing independent initiatives with regards to the motto of ‘many teams, one Forum,’ Finance members strive to maintain financial security and transparency within and for the organization.

The Moderating Committee moderates all Forum events. The Committee is responsible for providing the necessary platform for the audience to ask questions and interact with the speakers and panelists. All you need for Moderating is a passion for learning these skills, commitment to the committee and to its work, and some base level of comfort with speaking on stage and hosting a conversation.

The Systems and Technology Committee attends to all of the Forum's technical needs. During Forum events, the committee is responsible for setting up equipment and monitoring audio and video. The Systems and Technology Committee is made up of two subcommittees: Software & Data and Multimedia. These subcommittees work on multiple projects throughout the semester such as making internal software tools, managing and maintaining the Forum’s website, producing YouTube videos and podcast episodes, and analyzing the organization's data to improve efficiency.