RSO Fair

Date: Friday, October 5th
Time: 3-5:30 pm
Location: Main Quad

Details: Representatives from several hundred student organizations, numerous offices, and community partners welcome students back to campus each year at the SARF - and help new students begin to make the most of their UChicago experience. If you're interested in the Secular Alliance, and want to find out what we're all about, come visit our table!

Meet, Greet, and Eat

Date: Thursday, September 27th
Time: 3-5 pm
Location: Bartlett Quad
RSVP: Facebook event (optional)

Details: This is a chance for you to come by and meet the Secular Alliance at our welcome picnic/open house. Many of our exec will be there, so come, eat snacks and cookies with us, ask us questions, toss around a frisbee, and have a good time!

We'll be on a sheet with a big sign that says Secular Student Alliance.

Current Secular Alliance Nominations

President: Chana Messinger, Brian Green
Vice President: Liam Heins, Alicia Beirstedt, Brian Green
Secretary: Emma Goehler, Liam Heins, Alicia Bierstedt
Treasurer: Jay Feldman, Brian Green
PR:  Anastiasia Klimchynskaya, Liam Heins
Exec: Jay Feldman, Emma Goehler

SA Elections 2012

Democracy is yay!

1. We are adding two new positions to the exec board. The possible positions (with general and mutable job descriptions) are now:

 - President: Runs exec meetings, delegates, default for running meetings, is ultimately responsible for all administrative and budgetary functions (i.e. buck stops there), keeps in contact with national SSA and other SSA's around Chicago
 - Vice President: Takes over any presidential job if they cannot. Their role is mostly coordinated with the president, but they should be the point person on event coordination, especially regarding volunteer opportunities.
 - Secretary: Takes notes during exec meetings and possibly meetings, sends weekly emails, maintains our internet presence through facebook and twitter
 - Treasurer: Works with ORCSA, helps plan budget, in charge of reimbursements
 - PR director: Makes and distributes flyers, point person for talking to other groups, though this is negotiated with president and vice president
 - Exec at large (x2): In charge of recruitment (this means going to RSO fairs, talking about SA at house meetings, potentially going to similar groups to talk about SA), distribution of flyers, makes facebook events, gets to come up with a better name for their position than exec at large

 - All exec board members are responsible for helping suggest meeting and event ideas, keeping the facebook group and twitter account active, contributing to the blog, trying to grow SA, trying to understand what the groups want, and showing up to (almost) all exec and normal meetings.

2. Logistics:

 - By 7:30pm today, I will write an email to every person who has been nominated for a position (one email per position) that will ask if you want to accept the nomination. You will have by 10:30 tomorrow morning to respond. It's an opt-out system, so if you don't respond, I'll assume you accept. If you show up day of, you can also decline then.

 - Tomorrow, some point after 10:30am, I will make a google doc with all the nominations, which I will make public. Please keep all discussion about the nominees private.

 - You can then continue nominating people until Friday at 11:59pm. You can nominate people from now continuously until then. You can nominate someone today, before 7:30pm, so they get an email. You can nominate yourself or others for multiple positions, but take it seriously. 

 - Then nominations will be closed until the day of the elections, May 15th. If you arrive on time (6pm) and declare your nomination upon arrival, you can nominate yourself or someone else that day, as well.

 - To be eligible to vote, you must have come to at least one meeting before this election. To be eligible for office, you must have been to at least two.

 - To vote, you must be present at the meeting. 

 - To run, you must be present at the meeting. If you have an extenuating circumstance that prevents you from being at the meeting, you must email me by midnight tomorrow (Thursday). If you wish to run for office, you can be on skype, or you can submit a short (<300 words) speech that will be read aloud on your behalf. 

3. Everything else will be explained at the meeting. Feel free to email me with questions. I will not tell you early who is running for what. Everyone who is running for something should be prepared to give a short speech.

Weekly Update 4/23/12

I feel like I should stop calling these updates. That sounds so formal . These are nuggets of secular awesomeness that would be telepathically inserted into your brains if I could figure out how to update the MentaModem(tm). Alas, email will have to suffice.

Important Announcement: Elections are coming up. NOMINATIONS ARE DUE BY MIDNIGHT on FRIDAY, MAY 11. Please email ssauchicago@gmail.com with your nominations for President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and PR/Outreach Director. Put 'SA Elections' as the subject heading. You may nominate yourself or anyone from the group who has come to more than two meetings this year.

Meeting Reminder

We're going to have a meeting Tuesday, April 24th at 6:00 pm in the Uncommon Room of Rockefeller chapel. We're going to discuss humanism and art with the meeting led by Josh Oxley. So all you humanities people, don't say we don't love you!

Questions and Thoughts: 

• What role does art play in human life? 
• Can art be transcendent? How does that transcendence relate to religious transcendence?

Link from Josh: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/20/art-museums-churches