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Wild Hairs & Brainstorms

Water cooler seems like the proper place to enter this wide open topic. I hope I'm correct about that (... I'm just brainstorming, after all.)

Here's an example of the kind of thing I'm thinking belongs under this topic:

Is there any reason that AtheistNexus couldn't become a pseudo-charitable business similar to those of the religious groups? If we gathered together a hundred good recipes, for example, is there anything that would stop us from publishing an Atheist Family Cook Book and selling it for profit to generate money for our organization? And better yet, could we eventually aim ourselves toward become an Atheist Publishing House to earn money through the works of those popular authors we all tend to read anyhow... Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens and the like? Could we sell other things? What do you think?

It's just a thought, of course, but lets kick it around and talk about it's possible merit. Or... let's discuss you're Wild Hair idea...

Tags: brainstorms, ideas

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Permalink Reply by Randall "Doc" Fleck on August 11, 2008 at 6:47pm

Great... Your work can be anything you'd like, any genera, and doesn't have to be related to atheism at all. We want to simply become a publishing house for our own people (and non-atheists if they'd like) to guarantee our voice is heard when we need it to be and to earn some non-profit money to help support Nexus.

Church groups and religions do this all the time... why shouldn't we?

I'll be sending you a friend request. Please accept it. Your help will be appreciated to put this thing together.

In the mean time, take a look at this: (As a last resort, we can do this.) http://www.lulu.com/en/?gclid=CIGX-Lj0hpUCFQZqswodTmH6tg

Doc

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Permalink Reply by Goz on September 6, 2008 at 4:48pm

As would I.

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Permalink Reply by Calla on August 11, 2008 at 12:50am

How about t-shirts (e.g. with the Nexus logo, and/or some witty phrase, on them)? I'd buy one of those. Although I guess there's lots of places that sell cool t-shirts already...

As for all the other ideas, I'd love to see even a couple of them come to life!

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Permalink Reply by The Nerd on August 11, 2008 at 12:51am

This idea is also being worked on.

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Permalink Reply by Randall "Doc" Fleck on August 11, 2008 at 6:53pm

I think we have already started that through a CafePress store. Click on "Shop" from the bar menu above.

But yes.... T-shirts, hats, flags, mugs, bumper stickers, and the like can all be sold to benefit the website.

A publishing house, however, can benefit individual members (our writers and artists and musicians) and at the same time earn money for maintaining Nexus.

I think all these ideas are in the realm of reality. We only have to organize ourselves and do them. Nexus (and the efforts of some brilliantly farsighted people) is making that happen.

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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on August 12, 2008 at 7:06am

T-shirts: "There's A REASON Why Atheists Don't Fly Planes Into Buildings"

Others.

And the cafepress link is empty.

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Permalink Reply by Randall "Doc" Fleck on August 12, 2008 at 4:45pm

LOL... Yes there is..! And more than just one reason, I should hope.

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Permalink Reply by Randall "Doc" Fleck on August 16, 2008 at 9:53am

Have any of you got magazine publishing experience? That's another idea we ought to explore.

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Permalink Reply by Randall "Doc" Fleck on August 18, 2008 at 3:10am

You bet it is Everett... I know you're busy with plenty of other projects but are you thinking at all about editing and contributing for a Nexus Monthly magazine? We really ought to be getting something in place for one, don't you agree?

I'm pretty sure you'd find support on this from Brother Richard especially since he'd probably want to contribute to it. There's no doubt that our membership would would appreciate reading a good news feature or two.

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Permalink Reply by The Nerd on August 18, 2008 at 11:31am

Ooo! I would love to sign up for a monthly feature; I just couldn't begin to decide what the topic should be. What are we going for here?

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Permalink Reply by IsThatLatin on August 18, 2008 at 12:06pm

I don't mean to be a killjoy here (it's always fun to come up with variuos creative ideas), but does anyone have any more ideas as to how to make any of this economically feasible/financially possible? Can't do anything without the cashflow...

Also, how about some non-psuedo-charitable stuff? I'd really like to see A/N push to do some real good in the world under an atheist banner, to counteract all the negative perceptions of the godless.

I would also like to see A/N become a hotbed of activism. That's just me.

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Permalink Reply by Chrys Stevenson on August 18, 2008 at 6:30pm

I agree about doing community work. I saw a story about "Clean Up Australia Day" yesterday - community groups go out and clean up litter - and I thought it would be cool to have a heap of people in atheist t-shirts doing that!

I've been toying with a bigger idea though, and it might just mesh with the idea of a magazine. I'm thinking maybe we could try to make 'Nexus' a real 'nexus point' for Atheist organizations from around the world. They can go on doing their own thing, but if they have issues or causes where they want wider support, they could communicate through Atheist Nexus. I was thinking, for example, of a group called "Combined Australian Atheist Organizations". There could, of course be "Combined" groups for each country and maybe a "World Atheist Organizations" group for communication about global issues.

I'm thinking of atheists getting together for conferences, to lobby governments, to start letter writing campaigns to newspapers, to get together for charity or community work - whatever we can do to network and use the power we have in numbers (if only we can all get together).

Now back to the magazine idea, most individual atheist organizations couldn't afford to publish their own magazine, but maybe we could offer them a column in ours - not just groups from the USA but from around the world. It would be a great way to keep in touch with each other, boost subscriptions, spread the word about Nexus and make Atheist Nexus a true 'nexus' for global atheism.