Worcester Economic Club marks 500th meeting
Winston Churchill spoke here. So did U.S. President William Howard Taft, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Meet the Press host Tim Russert, publisher Steve Forbes, and columnist Art Buchwald. They have all come to Worcester as guests of the Worcester Economic Club, which has managed to land big-topic speakers to the city since its inception 103 years ago.
The organization marked its 500th meeting as a black-tie occasion with guest speaker Jeff Carney, president of Fidelity Institutional Retirement Services Co. He praised the recently passed federal Pension Protection Act, which encourages 401(k) participation. "You can’t solve it one investor at a time," Carney said. "We need to make those plans robust."
The Worcester Economic Club meets four to five times a year and has about 300 members, who pay $195 a year to attend sit-down dinners at which they hear about big-picture topics that drive the economy. The club has its antecedents in Worcester’s old-guard industrial elite, and has been fortunate in its ability to leverage long-standing relationships and local academic contacts to bring in the big names, some of whom are board members of area colleges or other organizations. Worcester Economic Club President Michael Grenon, vice president of Westboro-based Grimes & Co., who has been affiliated with the club for a decade.
Says despite the club’s old-guard history, it seeks speakers from both the left and the right side of the political spectrum. "The goal is to provide a forum to anyone who is timely," he says, noting that club members often express their opinion about whether they think the club is going too far left or too far right. "People are attracted to the quality of the speakers," he says.
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