C-ville Skeptics January 09 Newsletter

[cvilles...@gmail.com]

---ARCHIVING This newsletter in google. Sorry if you are getting it
twice! As of next month, you will only get it once.------


Greetings!

Happy 2009! The Year of Astronomy has begun!

An important note, I will be switching the newsletter to the Google
Groups format after this edition (for a few reasons ... namely
formatting, but also so non-Meetup members can opt in, and so there's
a tidy archive, etc etc). To opt in without having to sign up with
Google, send a BLANK email to cvilleskeptics
+subs...@googlegroups.com. Don't put anything in the subject
line ... you should get a confirmation email right after.

Thanks so much to Dick W. for taking the reins at the Dec. 26 meeting
while I was busy with a stomach virus (I admit that at one point I
exclaimed, "Please Baby Jesus make it stop!" ... and it did not
stop...).

Thanks also to Nicole for setting up the blog, it looks awesome!
http://cvilleskeptics.blogspot.com

Best,
Amanda

Contents:
1. January Social Hour - Discussion topic is....
2. February Meetup
3. Promoting the Group - Flyers, Facebook, Newsletter, Blog & More!
4. Future Meetings - BOOK CLUB & TELECHAT!?
5. Administrative
6. Civic Action
7. Events

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Social Hour Jan. 22
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** Our next social hour is Jan. 22 at Court Square Tavern. If you'd
like to enjoy adult beverages, it might be good to plan on sharing
pitchers of beer ... I'm nervous about the service situation with a
large group, but rest assured I will call ahead and gently but firmly
suggest they have a waitress on hand that night (I worked there many
years ago...I know how it goes... LOL)

RSVP Here:
http://www.meetup.com/The-C-ville-Skeptics-Group

** Let's discuss morality!!! Woo hoo! Religion thinks they have dibs
on morality. Do you think so? Is conscience a superstition? Here are
some links to get us going (Feel free to add your own links & thoughts
here too):
http://www.meetup.com/The-C-ville-Skeptics-Group/messages/boards/thread/6048937/#24174409

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February Meetup
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** It's on the books! This will be another social hour, but there
*may* be cupcakes to celebrate Darwin Week:
http://www.meetup.com/The-C-ville-Skeptics-Group/calendar/9334141/


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Promoting the Group
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** I've set a goal of getting 100 people to join the group, either via
Meetup or Facebook, by the February social hour. I've posted our
events (location excluded) at the C-ville, Cvillain, The Hook,
Avenue.org, Skepchick.org (thanks for the tip Eileen!) my blog,
Craigslist, Dawkins.net and Facebook; hung some flyers, and ordered
free business cards from Vista Print. These will be available at the
next meeting hopefully if you want a few to share. Twitter page
forthcoming.

If you want to help promote, here's some ideas:

- Blog about our events

- Download the tabbed flyer in the "Files" section of the Meetup site
and hang it up (or tell me where's a good place to hang flyers in
town... I'm stumped!)

- Post about our events in any locally-oriented forums.

- If you see any Web sites with a directory of groups like ours,
please submit our group there

- Link your blog to the Skeptics blog

- Keep an eye out for interesting speakers and discussion topics

- If anyone wants to make a MySpace page for the group, feel free

- Add our facebook and/or newsletter badges to your blogs/Web pages.
(these are on the blog too... I can give you HTML code if you'd
prefer)

- Oh, and last but not least... TELL PEOPLE! Is that old fashioned?

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Future Meeting Idea?
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** Eric Maisel has a new book called The Atheist's Way. I would like
to propose doing a "Book Club"-oriented meeting sometime in the Spring
featuring this book. One cool thing is, Mr. Maisel does "telechats"
for free, so after we've all read the book and discussed it, we could
arrange to speak with the author if that sounds like something
everyone would like to commit to...

More about the book and telechat topics here:
http://www.theatheistsway.com/speak.html

If you would like to do this (I think a commitment of ten people to
purchase and read the book would be a good goal), email me:
snyderwagon (at) embarqmail.com

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Administrative
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** Ah, the taboo part... Money!
Meetup.com charges about $19 a month for use of its services. I am
actually very happy to donate $19 a month to the cause, BUT I won't
turn down any voluntary donations either! It would also be cool to
secure a real non-Meetup domain name (like CvilleSkeptics.org or
something), which is generally very inexpensive. So, if you'd like to
donate at any time, feel free but in no way pressured to send a dollar
or two via paypal to snyde...@embarqmail.com. I will keep an
account of the monies in and monies out, and will make this public
(minus the names of the donors).

Likewise, if anyone has a trust fund they don't know what to do
with... just kidding! Sort of.

**I'm going to delay the discussion about officers for a couple more
months since new folks are joining all the time, and it might be an
easier discussion to have once we have ourselves and our goals as a
group more defined and solidified.

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Civic Action
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**I signed up for Lobbyist in a Box via the Virginia Legislature; you
can track up to five bills for free, so if anyone knows or sees any
legislation we should keep an eye on, let's add it to a watch list -
I'm all about letters to congress!

**On that note, The Secular Coalition wrote a letter to Obama
regarding Rick Warren giving the invocation at the inauguration. Their
letter noted the divisiveness of Rick Warren, but I would go one step
further and question why there is an invocation at all. While I
appreciate the cultural pomp and circumstance that goes along with the
inauguration, the prayer part is a relic.

You can send Obama's crew your own letter re: the invocation and/or
Rick Warren here: http://change.gov/page/s/yourvision

The Secular Coalition's letter is here if you need some inspiration:
http://www.secular.org/news/Obama_inauguration081219.html

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Upcoming Local & National Events
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** American Atheists National Convention - Atlanta, GA in April:
http://atheists.org/events/National_Convention

** Washington Area Secular Humanists Winter Banquet - Jan 17th in
Fredericksburg:
http://wash.org/banquet2009.html

**Center for Inquiry World Congress - Bethesda, MD in April:
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/worldcongress/[/quote]