First, why do we need to have one of these groups?

• They provide a community to students who do not want to participate in religious communities

  • Demonstrate that there is a welcoming alternative to religious groups where students can get together and discuss topics which may be taboo, not only concerning religion, but any topic within daily life.

• They give support to students who may need help in “coming out” to others

• They demonstrate that it’s okay not to believe

  • We can be good without a god,

  • There are more of us than people may think,

  • Believing in one less god doesn’t make us amoral, greedy, etc

• They help bolster the idea that rational thought is a good thing

  • “Question everything, demand evidence, defend your mind”

  • Dispel the notion that the world is so much more beautiful when one believes that a god made it.

• They dispel commonly held misconceptions about atheists/agnostics/etc, religion, pseudoscience, new-age beliefs, and so on

  • Some of the popular misconceptions of today are actively causing harm to people

  • Plainly false information is being taught in school as science

    • Misunderstanding of science in general

    • Tendency of creationists to try to foist beliefs on people illegally, unconscionably, and without understanding what they’re talking about in the first place.

  • Lack of evidence-based reasoning is rampant

  • Misunderstanding of science

• To call for accountability for the tribalism, child abuse, spousal abuse, self abuse, murder, lying, etc. that religion inspires

  • The “good parts” of religion don’t require religion.

    • Civil rights (marriage equality, racial equality, gender equality, etc),

    • Conservation,

    • making the world a better place in general

This is why this group is so important to me, and to the campus and outer society. These ideas are what will be displayed and communicated through the connection to the public – the advertising and public outreach director. It is important that people know that we exist, understand what we’re about, and recognize us as a legitimate group on campus – one that would be worth allying with.

How can I help?

I would like to be the director of public outreach:

• I’ve been doing public outreach since I started going to meetings

  • I get lots of hits on my blog for Google searches for an atheist group at UCSB

  • I’ve gone out of my way to try to get the word out – inviting people to events, posting on forums and other sites about events and the group

    • I sent Hemant Mehta (the Friendly Atheist) info about our Dan Barker event, which he posted on his popular blog.

  • I’ve been the acting group photographer (sort of), so that’s an added bonus

  • Basically, I’m an active member of the group who has always tried to help out in the ways that I could, and I want to be more officially involved in group goings on

• I understand the message we’re trying to get across (see above)

  • What we definitely should NOT do is put up posters that declare war on religion, saying “Religion needs to die” or some caricature of a religious person

  • We need to reach out to people of all religious persuasion and help them realize that we’re fighting against common enemies:

    • A lack of critical thinking

    • Dangerous, harmful beliefs (vaccines? Homeopathy?)

    • Needless tribalism

    • Unnecessary shame

    • Unreasonable hate (prop 8)

    • Any detriment to moral progress

What would I do with the position?

• Website

  • The Facebook page is okay, but a website would lend more to our desired image of a legitimate campus group.

  • A website would lead to better communication with people looking for a group like us. Help the group become more visible.

  • Good place for news – facilitate communication

  • Domain name comes with official email addresses, i.e. smoss@sureucsb.com – lends more credibility to any one of the fellow officers

    • Appointee: webmaster

• Official mailing list

  • Facebook’s messaging system is unreliable

  • But whatever works for people

• Blog

  • Appoint someone (possibly myself) to upkeep the blog with general news/events, get guest posters (members, etc.)

  • Keeping a regular blog would also help the group to become more visible.

• Advertizing

  • I will investigate more effective tabling practices

    • Location

      • Would it be more effective to move the tabling/activity to a more heavily visited area?

      • Handing out fliers for specific meetings instead of having a table?

    • Interaction

      • Would having interactive tabling help to get people interested?

        • Free food, “trade your soul for a cookie,” “fiction for fiction”

  • flyers and general notices in the dorms

    • This has been investigated, but I don’t know if much has been done with it.

  • Girlfriend is a scenic design major with plenty of good ideas

• Events:

  • We should investigate charging a nominal fee for some events.

    • Charging $1-2 for entrance to an event would be extremely helpful, especially with events the size of the Dan Barker talk.

    • A small fee may add to the incentive to go – implies that there is something more interesting going on

    • Retain the raffle, just use the tickets

    • If you’re worried about religious people not wanting to “fund” us, we could offer Real Life free tickets (?)

• Meetings

  • Instead of having indoor discussions every week, have more community activities – sports? Movie theater? etc