C-ville Skeptics December 08 Newsletter

[cvilles...@gmail.com]

[quote]Greetings!

I thought I would send out a newsletter of sorts to get the ball
rolling as far as organizing the group. Details are below on the next
three events, as well as some initial thoughts on future events.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to Arch's for the first meeting
of what I learned was kind of a resurrection of a former Skeptics
group that had VERY recently dissolved. We had SEVENTEEN people show
up, which was pretty awesome given I expected MAYBE half of those who
RSVPd "Yes" to actually show up. We are already super awesome. ha

"Action items" below are in bold. Can't wait to hear from everyone and
I'll see lots of you at the Xmas dinner I'm sure! Call me if you want
to carpool; I live in Fry's Spring. (409-1383)

Best,
Amanda

Contents:
1. Xmas Dinner Meetup Dec 26
2. January Meetup
3. Darwin Day Party
4. Future Meetings & Discussion Topics
5. Administrative
6. Charity & Community Service
7. Entertainment section (fun links)

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"Xmas" Dinner Scheduled!
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** Our next Meetup is December 26 - join us at China King for dinner
and discussion! Please RSVP at least one day in advance so I can get a
properly sized table. I propose we discuss homeopathy as was mentioned
(by Kate?) at the meeting.
[b]RSVP Here:[/b]
http://www.meetup.com/The-C-ville-Skeptics-Group/calendar/9334111/

** Here are some links regarding Homeopathy (please add more!) to get
discussion going:
http://www.meetup.com/The-C-ville-Skeptics-Group/messages/boards/thread/5941566/#23692302

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January Social Hour
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** It's on the books!
Thursday Jan. 22 at Court Square Tavern. [b]RSVP Here:[/b]
http://www.meetup.com/The-C-ville-Skeptics-Group/calendar/9334135/

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February: Darwin's Birthday!
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** February 12 is Darwin's birthday! Let's plan to work with VAA on
some great events for Charlottesville. I thought for our part, we
could "kick off" the week of celebration with a birthday bash on
either Saturday February 7 or Sunday February 8 (The following weekend
is February 14 ... that seems like a lot of people could have
conflicts ). I will look in to finding a restaurant venue that would
like to get in on this. If we are motivated enough, we could maybe
even get some coverage in one of the newsweeklies or on cvillain.com.
[b]Let me know if you'd like to be on the planning committee for this
event.[/b]

** [b]As an aside: Does anyone want to be an official liason to VAA[/
b]? We should definitely cross-promote and attend their campus
speaking events that week.

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March, April and Beyond
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** Aside from regular dinners/happy hours with discussion topics, here
are some ideas for future meetings. This is also posted on the message
board, please add your thoughts and opinions!

** Religulous screening: Does anyone want to keep track of when this
is coming out? Perhaps UVA would be a good place to hold this (we'd
need a projector and all that jazz.) I can find out if we need to do
anything copyright-wise.

** Dinner with the Roanoke group?

** Book club? Here's a new one:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-12/pb-frp120508.php

** 2009 is the year of Astrology, celebrating the 400th anniversary of
the telescope. Some ideas for speakers were thrown out at the first
meeting ... but I wasn't familiar with any of them. Nicole?

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Administrative
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** Eventually we'll need a treasurer and some kind of loosely
organized officer system. A treasurer because at some point we should
divvy up the $19/month meetup.com fee with nominal dues, and have a
couple officers who can swing in and make sure a meeting still takes
place in the event I get the flu, am taken by the Rapture, run over by
a reindeer, etc.

Let's have a preliminary discussion of the number and nature of such
officers at the Dec. 26 meeting and try to solidify the plan at the
Jan. 22 social hour.

Here's a list of some possible officers/committees (thanks Dick!):
Membership & recruiting; Web site/blog; Programs/Speakers; other
special events; Secretary (to keep track of members, etc); Networking/
Outreach (to communicate with other secular groups in the region); ....
[b] what else?[/b]

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Charity & Community Service
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Autumn has volunteered to keep us abreast of any community service
opportunities! I have added a poll in the polls section of our Meetup
page to gather interest for such a project.

In the meantime, I thought it would be of interest to note that there
is an Atheists/Humanist team on Kiva.org. Kiva is a system where you
can make microloans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Last
time I logged in, the Atheist team was the biggest donor, but they got
overtaken by the Obama team! [:)] I loan through Kiva, its a great
organization if you're interested:
http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam?team_id=94

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Entertainment Section
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Some links I thought you'd enjoy:

** Your amazing brain: Top 10 articles from 2008
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16205-your-amazing-brain-top-10-articles-from-2008.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

** Nanotechnology: the next cultural war?
http://www.physorg.com/news147884089.html

**Haeckel Christmas cards:
"During the Victorian era Christmas was indeed regarded as a 'happy'
day, but one of uncanny terror; accordingly, cards and ornamentation
featured strange creatures with too many tentacles. But then Santa
Claus became popular, and many of these older designs 'fell out of
fashion'."
I can't help but think some of these look like the Flying Spaghetti
Monster.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28196673@N08/sets/72157611177529561/[/quote]