| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Andrew Staker" |
| Date: |
25 Apr 2004 03:25:10 AM |
| Object: |
Setting up an atheist group on campus |
Hi. I am a new poster/reader to this group. I am in Adelaide, Australia and
am trying to set up an atheist group on campus. This is mainly a reaction to
the visible presence of many religious groups around the place (mainstream
Catholic/Anglican/Protestant as well as the largest, Evangelical Union).
My current plan is to put up Expression of Interest posters... as the
formation of a university club requires the signature of 10 students. I
think this is not the difficult part. I simply don't know what to do from
then on. Some pointers/advice would be great.
I have heard that when such a thing was tried in the past, posters were
quickly removed. I relish the potential tension that might develop.
Andrew
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| User: "torch" |
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| Title: Re: Setting up an atheist group on campus |
25 Apr 2004 03:39:03 AM |
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"Andrew Staker" <mallowisious@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:408b75dd$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
Hi. I am a new poster/reader to this group. I am in Adelaide, Australia
and
am trying to set up an atheist group on campus. This is mainly a reaction
to
the visible presence of many religious groups around the place (mainstream
Catholic/Anglican/Protestant as well as the largest, Evangelical Union).
My current plan is to put up Expression of Interest posters... as the
formation of a university club requires the signature of 10 students. I
think this is not the difficult part. I simply don't know what to do from
then on. Some pointers/advice would be great.
I have heard that when such a thing was tried in the past, posters were
quickly removed. I relish the potential tension that might develop.
Andrew
Why dont you contact the Australian Secularists ? - tell them what you want
to do - they may be able to help
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
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| User: "Jeff Jones" |
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| Title: Re: Setting up an atheist group on campus |
25 Apr 2004 07:22:00 AM |
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"Andrew Staker" <mallowisious@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:408b75dd$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
Hi. I am a new poster/reader to this group. I am in Adelaide, Australia
and
am trying to set up an atheist group on campus. This is mainly a reaction
to
the visible presence of many religious groups around the place (mainstream
Catholic/Anglican/Protestant as well as the largest, Evangelical Union).
My current plan is to put up Expression of Interest posters... as the
formation of a university club requires the signature of 10 students. I
think this is not the difficult part. I simply don't know what to do from
then on. Some pointers/advice would be great.
I have heard that when such a thing was tried in the past, posters were
quickly removed. I relish the potential tension that might develop.
Andrew,
Get in contact with these folks:
http://www.campusfreethought.org/
They will help you tremendously.
Jeff Jones
Austin, Texas
aa #2044
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| User: "L. Raymond" |
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| Title: Re: Setting up an atheist group on campus |
25 Apr 2004 08:44:30 PM |
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"Andrew Staker" <mallowisious@hotmail.com> wrote:
Hi. I am a new poster/reader to this group. I am in Adelaide, Australia and
am trying to set up an atheist group on campus. This is mainly a reaction to
the visible presence of many religious groups around the place (mainstream
Catholic/Anglican/Protestant as well as the largest, Evangelical Union).
My current plan is to put up Expression of Interest posters... as the
formation of a university club requires the signature of 10 students. I
think this is not the difficult part. I simply don't know what to do from
then on. Some pointers/advice would be great.
I have heard that when such a thing was tried in the past, posters were
quickly removed. I relish the potential tension that might develop.
I'd recommend you contact the Center for Inquiry (CFI), a branch of
the Council for Secular Humanism. CFI is based in New York state but
has branches in Russia, France, Peru, Germany, Nepal, Nigeria and
Canada, so there's no reason not to see about getting them to
Australia. CFI has a special outreach program called CFI On Campus
(formerly Campus Freethought) which was created specifically for what
you want. They provide a PDF file which explains how to work with
them to start a group. Of course, you'd have to get them to the
country first, but it can't hurt to try. The how-to info is here:
http://www.campusfreethought.org/docs/og.pdf.
The gentleman who heads CFI On Campus is D.J. Grothe, and he's
actually here in Texas for the next week or so. He's very
enthusiastic, and would no doubt love to hear from you.
Some links
Campus Freethought http://campusfreethought.org/
CFI http://www.centerforinquiry.net/
Council for Secular Humanism http://secularhumanism.org/
--
L. Raymond
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Setting up an atheist group on campus |
25 Apr 2004 05:57:03 AM |
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From my experience with groups, the primary motivation for folks getting
together is socializing. Out of 50 folks, you might have 2 that "might be"
persuaded to some sort of mild activism, but that's about it.
So, you could put up some posters advertising that an atheist social group
is forming, and anyone interested could either:
1) call you on the phone (you'll want to get an answering machine to handle
the prank calls), or
2) meet you at (a) the library (b) some cheap restaurant for burgers or
something (c) some other suitable meeting place. And you should be ready to
deal with pairs of theists who want to convert you to Jesus . . .
Usually, going out for hamburgers or what-not works pretty well for a group
that's just starting out. But once you get folks showing up, you
automatically become The Ringleader, the person who started everything up
and the person they will expect to make most decisions and to keep things
running. Depending on how outgoing and sociable a person you are, you can
expect the group to fluctuate anywhere between 5 and 50 people. If you
want to grow as an organization beyond that, you need to figure out a way to
get the group to vote for a few folks to take responsibility to do some
stuff. Like, maybe a Treasurer to handle $$, a President to oversee
everything and act as a general PR guy, a Vice Pres to do something else,
and a few other folks to plan social activities (like (a) movie night, (b)
education night (where you have a speaker come and talk about something),
(c) game night, (d) bowling/swimming night, (e) eating out night.
That's it for now . . . e-mail me if you're serious about doing this.
-Tock
"Andrew Staker" <mallowisious@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:408b75dd$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
Hi. I am a new poster/reader to this group. I am in Adelaide, Australia
and
am trying to set up an atheist group on campus. This is mainly a reaction
to
the visible presence of many religious groups around the place (mainstream
Catholic/Anglican/Protestant as well as the largest, Evangelical Union).
My current plan is to put up Expression of Interest posters... as the
formation of a university club requires the signature of 10 students. I
think this is not the difficult part. I simply don't know what to do from
then on. Some pointers/advice would be great.
I have heard that when such a thing was tried in the past, posters were
quickly removed. I relish the potential tension that might develop.
Andrew
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.656 / Virus Database: 421 - Release Date: 9/04/2004
.
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