The Order of the Golden Bear
Cal's 'Secret' Society
The Order of the Golden Bear (OGB) is a group of people selected by past members from among the elite on campus who meet regularly in little known building on campus in closed, unrecorded meetings to discuss the University's activities. While the OGB is not entirely 'secret' in the sense of being unknown (they have a few webpages on their online site, some members list their membership on their resumes, and names used to be published in yearbooks), few people on or around campus know about the OGB and non-members have no way to know who is the current members are, what the content of disucssions is, nor what influence the OGB has.
The Cal alumni magazine notes "student members ... are culled from the leadership ranks of Cal's honor societies and organizations including fraternities, sororities, debate teams, the UC Marching Band and the Daily Californian." Previously, only males who were seniors and select faculty and staff were allowed to be members. The OGB voted to allow women to join in 1970, at which point several men left. New members are selected by being invited by at least three existing members.
Currently, there are reported to be around 2,000 members, though only a dozen to 50-60 may show up at a meeting. Meetings are held every other week at the log cabin Senior Hall (by the Faculty Club, just downhill from Haas). There, the alumni magazine notes, "Behind a main room used by others on campus, a hidden door leads to the order's meeting place. There a warden still sits on a throne carved from a trunk of a redwood tree." Discussions are supposedly frank, tolerant and open, and remarks are not to be attributed to speakers.
As of August 2007, the website lists the Steven Jackson as the Warden, Amanda Pouchot as the Chronicler, and Kevin Michael Argys as the Alumni Secretary. Pouchot was the director of programming for the Panhellenic Council (which coordinates the sororities at UC Berkeley). Argys is a financial analyst at Berkeley's Haas Business School. It's not clear who Jackson is.
Here is a somewhat random collection of names of past and present members (identified from the internet):
Richard Atkinson -- Kevin Michael Argys -- Zoe Baird -- Robert Berdhal -- DJ Cohn -- Debbie Cole -- Barton C. Cooper -- Mark Davis -- Steve Finacom -- Warden Steven Jackson -- Walter Haas -- Eugene H Harris -- Shelly K Hubner -- Mark Kelsey -- Clark Kerr -- Lance K Kim -- Richard D King -- William F Knowland -- Maggie T. Law -- Nancy P Lee -- Glen Loney -- Robert McNamara -- Lynn Nakada -- Nadesan Permaul -- Amanda Pouchot -- Steve Scott -- Elliott Varner -- Smith Robert -- Gordon Sproul