Interested in Volunteering for Secular Woman?

 

As a board member and VP of Programs at Secular Woman, I’ve got a lot of projects on my plate. Today I was talking to the other board members about our committees and our volunteers, when I realized that I only have one person on my committee! And this is a pretty big committee for Secular Woman: we oversee most of the projects created by the organization (conference grants, the speakers bureau, and other specific programs).

So, I’m putting the call out to anyone interested in becoming a volunteer for an awesome (IMHO) secular organization. If you’re interested in helping organize and have the time and skills required, please consider joining Secular Woman’s Programs Committee. To be considered for this committee, you must be a member of Secular Woman and submit an application through our website (choose “Programs” in the “Select Committee” category).

I’m looking for people with skills or experience with the following:

• grassroots movements (secular or not)
• organizing local/regional/national groups (secular or not)
• organizing or participating in conferences/conventions/rallies (secular or not)

If you don’t have experience with any of those things, but think you’re capable of helping, feel free to submit an application anyway. I look forward to hearing from some really awesome people!

A National Women’s Secular Group

Yes, you read that title correctly. That’s what we’re talking about here. Why, you ask? Well, because one has just launched and I helped create it! It’s called Secular Woman and we plan to do big things! Our mission is to amplify the voice, presence, and influence of non-religious women. You can read our values and more about us here.

This logo is based on the radium atom, an element discovered by Marie Curie (a kickass secular woman).

This group has taken a lot of work and love to put together, especially since there are only four board members (including me) at the moment! If you want to know more, visit our website, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter, and read our press release!

A First Step to Ending Harassment at Conferences

At the beginning of this month, I was appointed to the Humanists of Florida Association’s board of directors. It’s pretty awesome (and, yeah, I’m the youngest board member). This occurred just in time for me to take a major role in organizing our annual conference coming up this fall. We’ve got a great speakers list and I’m really excited about it.

Recently, as some of you may know, there has been a lot of talk about sexual harassment at conferences [see 1, 2, 3]. One of the ways suggested to make conferences safer and more comfortable for women is to introduce an anti-harassment policy at conferences. So, that’s what I’ve done for this upcoming HFA conference. This policy will be in every packet handed out to attendees and it will also be given to speakers. I cannot describe how happy I am to be in a position to effect some real change in our community and I hope that every participant at our conference feels safe and welcome.

LOL, Christian Privilege

Happy atheists standing under our billboard

As some of you might have read on The Friendly Atheist, the Tallahassee Atheists recently put up a billboard. Just last week we moved the sign to a new location in town (because the contract was up for the other location) and, well, we get email.
Here’s the exchange between this angry christian and Mark Palmer (founder of the group, the one who usually deals with PR, and also a lawyer).

Calling All Secular Floridians & Southerners

In Starke, Florida, some wingnuts put up a ten commandments monument at the Bradford County Courthouse on the “National Day of Prayer”. So now American Atheists and a bunch of other secular group in Florida (including Tallahassee Atheists) will be protesting this unconstitutional slab of granite.

Please join us if you’re free that day and you live in or near northeast Florida.

Here’s some information about the event from the American Atheists site (for those who don’t have a facebook):

Separation of church/state supporters will be meeting on May 19th, 2012 from 11 AM until about 2 PM at the Bradford County Courthouse. If you have any questions, please contact Bridget Gaudette at bgaudette@atheists.org or at 407.399.5808.

If you want to do a lot of face-palming, read this story about the dedication of this monument. (Warning, that link is to a Baptist news site. It’s extra derp.)

PS: Here’s a bonus quote full of stupid from that “news” article:

“Prayer is omnipotent – it can do anything that God can do,” [Dan Davis, pastor at Mandarin Baptist Church in Jacksonville] said.

Enjoy.

Help Teresa MacBain

Teresa MacBain recently came out as an atheist at the American Atheist convention. This was a pretty big deal for her because up until that point, she was a pastor for a Methodist church. As you can imagine, she’s no longer working for the church and they’re not helping her. You can read more about her story in this NPR article.

The Humanists of Florida Association (an organization that I’m a part of, but that’s another story) has decided to try to help Teresa out financially. They’ve started a ChipIn project to raise money for their new Ex-Clergy Fund, and the first recipient will be Teresa. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Teresa a bit over the past few weeks. She’s a wonderful person, so please help her out in any way you can.

If you would like to chip in, click this link (WordPress won’t allow me to embed the widget).

Sam Harris: We Should Racially Profile

Fuck Sam Fucking Harris. I’m just too angry to even make a coherent argument. Bascially, Sam Harris thinks that:

We should profile Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim, and we should be honest about it.

PZ Myers said what I was thinking (and did it better than I could right now). This showing of islamophobia is just too much for me. After reading Lying (which I could barely make it through) I was already starting to dislike Harris’s writing, but reading this blog post just makes me realize that I’m done with Sam Harris entirely. I now regret even buying that Kindle Single for $2.99 and I won’t be buy any of his books in the future (I’m not trying to boycott him or anything; I just don’t like giving the little bit of money I have to bigots of any kind or even to writers whose writing I don’t enjoy).

This is the reason I’m active in the atheist/skeptic movement: I don’t want people like this to be the public face of atheism.

The Salamander Song

A bunch of us went out to lunch during the conference to Voodoo Dog, an awesome hotdog place.

Last weekend, Shelley Segal was in town for a Humanists of Florida Association conference. She performed a few songs during the conference, but the really awesome part was when she performed after the conference. During this impromptu show, she performed my new favorite song: The Salamander Song. The sad thing is, though, that she hasn’t recorded it yet. However, Mark Palmer (HFA executive director and a friend of mine) was able to convince Shelley to perform the song for his podcast. So, here it is! The song starts at about 14:30 (but the explanation of the song starts a few minutes before that, at about 11:00). The audio quality is not the best, but the song is still very funny and totally awesome.

Also, if you haven’t bought her album, “An Atheist Album,” you can find it on iTunes and Amazon. *cough*gobuyit*cough*