Forum Club of the Palm Beaches

The Forum Club of the Palm Beaches was founded in 1976 as the offshoot of a group of business leaders who decided they would like to hear political speakers when they met regularly for lunch in downtown West Palm Beach. The club was incorporated as a non-profit, non-partisan political and public affairs organization.

Former newspaper editor Bob Kirkpatrick was hired as executive director and a 23-member Board of Directors was created comprising a cross-section of Palm Beach County’s top-level executive, professional and civic leaders. A number of the club’s founders are still active members including: Jon Moyle, Dave McIntosh, Harry Johnston and Bill Brooks.

“It (the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches) is organized to present knowledgeable and prominent public affairs and political personages in forum style meetings,” according to the first club directory. “The club’s sole purpose is to inform and educate the community’s social, business and political interests and to promote a more active participation by all citizens in the democratic process on the local, state and national levels.”

There have been only two executive directors during the past 32 years. After 17 years in the post, Kirkpatrick retired in 1993. Former newspaper city editor Gayle Pallesen has held the position since then.

From the start, the Forum Club began compiling an impressive roster of speakers. The first speaker the club ever heard was Jimmy Carter, who was running for president at the time. Before long, Vice President Walter Mondale was added to the roster along with then Gov. Reubin Askew. And, one by one, leaders have continued to come … From the halls of Tallahassee and corridors of Congress. From the highest court in the land and lands on the brink of war. Out of White House offices and foreign embassies. Prime ministers and military leaders. Statesmen and revolutionaries. Astronauts and ambassadors. Politicians and wannabe politicians.

The initial meeting place, Christopher’s Restaurant in the downtown West Palm Beach Holiday Inn, fell way to the wrecking ball two years after the club was started. The luncheon location was then moved to the Helen Wilkes Hotel where the club met until the hotel closed in 1999. Years later, it too was demolished. From the Helen Wilkes Hotel, the club then moved to the West Palm Beach Sheraton at CityPlace (now the West Palm Beach Marriott). A larger venue was needed as attendance and membership continued to grow. In November 2003, the Forum Club moved to its current location at the Cohen Pavilion at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.

When the club was formed in 1976, membership was limited to 200. With membership now in excess of 600 and a growing waiting list of applicants, the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches has become Florida’s largest non-partisan political and public affairs organization with the highest attendance record of any such organization in the state.