New Exec Board for 2013-2014!!

Congratulations and a warm and happy welcome to these people!

President: Brian Green

Co-Vice Presidents: Emma Tehrani and Jay Feldman

Secretary: Vivien Castillo

Treasurer: Sean Sullivan

PR Director: Lauren Daurizio

Execs at Large: Gwendolyn Sandoboe and Samantha Finley

Religion for Atheists? - A Spirit Week Event

Religion for Atheists

When: Sunday, April 28 12:30–2 pm

Where: Rockefeller, Uncommon Room

A discussion based on philosopher Alain de Botton’s book of the same 

name which argues that “it must be possible to remain a committed atheist and nevertheless find religions sporadically useful, interesting and consoling.” Do you agree? Think he’s full of nonsense? 

Come have lunch and talk about religion as separate from belief, with believers and unbelievers alike.

There will be lunch served! Hope to see you all there!

Spirit Week Events Schedule: http://spirit.uchicago.edu/pdf/Spirit%20Life%20Flyer%20S13.pdf

Weekly Update! Elections, Game Night, Ask an Atheist Day! So many wonderful things!

It's third week! That is exciting because we have SO MANY wonderful events coming up!! Read on to find out about all of them!

Meeting Reminder

You know it's been coming, I've been reminding you about it incessantly, you must be as excited for it as I am...this week's meeting is...Elections!! That's right, our meeting this week, April 18, at 5:45, in the Uncommon Room is going to be an extravaganza of democracy. We are going to vote harder than anyone has voted before. We are going to channel Benjamin Franklin and Aaron Burr. We are going to ensure the continued existence of SA. We are going to eat pizza and ice cream. (Email lheins74@gmail.com with dietary restrictions). Doesn't that sound awesome? So come!

And of course, nominations are still open until elections begin, so feel free to keep nominating. You can check out the current nominees here. Also, recognize that perhaps we need more positions! Poster fairy? Food czar? Webmaster? 

All non-standard positions will have their existence voted on by the exec, but other than that, you're good to go!

Upcoming events:

• Game Night is this Wednesday, April 17, 7pm-10pm, at Jay Feldman's apartment. It's going to be really fun, so come, play games, eat food and have a good time. You can feel free to come late or bring games if you want. Facebook event here.
• Ask an Atheist Day is this Thursday, April 18. Stop by our table outside of Cobb Hall to pick up candy and stickers, tell other people to come by and ask us any questions about atheism they like, and if you have a half hour at some point, join us at the table! You can sign up for slots here, but also feel free to just show up. Also, support us by saying you're coming on facebook!
• Kate Donovan of Northwestern University is giving a talk on the myths and misconceptions surrounding schizophrenia this Saturday, April 20. Find more information here and contact me at cmessinger@uchicago.edu if you want to go.

Future Events

• Tim Short will be giving a talk on growing up in the South, being homeschooled by fundamentalist parents, and going to and then leaving Liberty University on Monday, April 29 (fifth week).
• Jesse Galef will be giving a talk called Defense Against the Dark Arts: The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion Monday, May 6 (6th week). That's going to be extra super awesome. 
• Tuesday of 7th week, we'll be screening Dogma! More information to come on that soon.
• The Secular Student Alliance National Conference is in June! There are actually two of them, and they're accepting registration now! It would be really fun to go with a lot of you, so consider registering!

Links: 

• Guys, I updated our calendar! It has all of our upcoming events! Check it out! 
• In the midst of recent discussions of Islamophobia and language, I think that this post by Alonso Fyfe about the phrase "barbarian Muslims" is really thoughtful and appropriate. 
• From last week: The longer fictional thought-experiment on lookism.
• Sort of re: our meeting two weeks ago: Is the Christian church a place for LGBT people?
• And the election nomination form, in case you forgot, is here.

See you all on Thursday!

Atheist Shoes, Attractive People, Fun Hangout Time and Elections! Lots of important stuff here, folks!

Hello hello hello! Welcome to second week!

Our meeting this week, April 11, at 5:45, in the Uncommon Room is going to be really really awesome. We are going to talk about lookism. Bet that's an -ism you haven't heard of, but in fact, attractive people are more successful in a variety of ways. Weird, right? To blow your mind even more, we'd love it if you read this great short piece before the meeting (won't take longer than 10 minutes or so) since we'll be discussing it. Come with your stories of having seen or experienced lookism in any directions, your feelings about its existence and what you would do to change it if you could. 

(Also, the reading linked to is an excerpt from a slightly longer piece, which is definitely worth a read if you've got a bit of time).

Elections!

• You knew I was going to talk about elections, right? So here's the deal. The form is here. You all should keep nominating yourselves (and other people! you know awesome and brilliant people in this organization that would be good at exec, right?).  I have not yet emailed people who have been nominated for things, so I will start doing that in a few days. Then, on Monday, April 15, I will post all nominations up to that point, so people can see what's going on, and adjust their nominations or add more.
• Please nominate people (and yourselves)! If you're worried about competition or want to wait until you see the list, don't! Nominate first, see the list, and then you can nominate more or withdraw as you wish!
• People can run in absentia! They'll just have to email in a short paragraph about why they should get the position.
• Feel free to ask me or other execs questions by email or facebook or in person any time about exec and positions and what it's like.

Announcements/Upcoming events:

• Elections are third week, April 18th!
• We're having a game night Wednesday of 5th week, May 1st, at Jay Feldman's apartment. Keep the date open!
• We'll also be screening the hilarious movie Dogma Monday of 7th week, May 13,so keep that evening open as well.
• The Secular Student Alliance National Conference is in June! There are actually two of them, and they're accepting registration now! It would be really fun to go with a lot of you, so consider registering!

Links: 

• What do you think of Sam Harris and his response to all of his critics?
• If you didn't go to SkepTech, that's ok! The videos are coming up here!
• Regarding our conversation about gay marriage last week, here are some critiques of the Red profile picture equals symbol and the Human Rights Campaign
• Atheist shoemakers do citizen science to figure out why their packages went missing. Anti-atheism bigotry, perhaps? Also, I want those shoes.
• And the election nomination form, in case you forgot, is here.

See you all on Thursday!

Welcome Back! Meeting this week + elections!

Meetings are at the same time and place as last year, so come to the UnCommon Room in Rockefeller Chapel at 5:45 for cookies, warm drinks and a relaxed meeting. People have been telling me that they'd like the chance to actually meet each other, so we'll make introductions, hang out, and chat about Prop 8, DOMA and the Supreme Court as well as anything else we'd like.

ELECTIONS!!!

Elections are third week!! As of now, the only nomination we have is for Christopher Hitchens for President. As excellent of a job as I think he'd do, I'd like some other folks in the running. Here's how it works:

1. You use THIS FORM to nominate yourself or someone else for an exec position. If you've nominated someone else, I will email them telling them they've been nominated.

2. If they accept the nomination, their name will go on the list of nominated people which I will keep updated and public to people. Nominations can be made up until elections actually start.

3. On our SA meeting of third week, we will all meet in the uncommon room, where there will be pizza and ice cream. 

4. We will hold elections, starting with election for President, and then going through VP, secretary, treasurer, PR director, Exec at Large, etc. 

5. Then we have a new exec! Hooray!!

Please, please, let me know if you have any questions. I strongly encourage anyone who wants to get more involved to run. Exec positions are created by the people who inhabit them, and they're definitely very malleable. The exec at large positions in particular can be whatever you want them to be, in coordination with the new president. You can also (there's room on the form) add new positions, like webmaster, food czar (responsible for getting food for meetings), grand master of all existence, etc.

SPECIAL ATTENTION FIRST YEARS: Yes, you can run for things! We have had at least one second year on exec every year this club has been in existence, and we really want you to be involved. You are, to be cliche and overly earnest, the future of this club. If you're worried about commitment or time issues, I recommend treasurer, PR director or exec at large. I promise it can be done, and it's really worth being involved. Talk to me if you have questions or concerns!

Again, here's the form!!