Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by qnr on January 10, 2010 at 9:19pm

Well, I generally like challenges, but I'm afraid that teaching jelly to wrestle is a bit beyond the pale for me (he says, innocently).

Permalink Reply by Bailey Laird on January 10, 2010 at 9:33pm

I'd be up for playing in jelly. Sounds fun and sticky! But ya I think we could come up with some really good ideas for helping out and making some kinda difference.

Permalink Reply by Alicia Foy on January 11, 2010 at 6:27pm

I don't know if Jelly wrestling would portray the right sort of image lol ^_^ we will definitely keep that in mind though!

One of the things we tried to do Last year was Entertainment Coupon Books, 20 dollars a piece, cooperation was difficult to obtain from the few group members we had due to schedules and totally understandable stuff.

Entertainment sent more more books for 2010 I tried to sell some at work and had no luck whatsoever.

promo items we have all discussed are the "live strong" style braceletts as well as novelty dog tags.

Permalink Reply by Kyle Sanders on January 11, 2010 at 11:04pm

We had discussed charity work as a way to get the good name out there. I will call the Food Bank tomorrow and find out times and requirements from them, but with our combined experiences with the food banks that we talked about it seems like the best place to start.

Care packages are also a great idea that was brought up. I will also talk to the chaplain on base tomorrow and see what kind of programs they have information about. Also, has anyone contacted the UU church and asked if they have any atheist/agnistic groups or contacts? In my experience they've been a great resource to the non-religious community.

Another suggestion from Sunday was the adopt a highway program. However, after some quick research I found that the group would have to commit for two years to cleaning a two mile stretch of road at least four times per year. It doesn't sound feasible right now for nine members.

I don't think that fund raising should be an objective at this time, and the focus should instead be on creating visibility and providing events worth inviting potential members to. The appeal of talking about how we're all atheists might not be enough to get people out of their homes, but an opportunity to participate in doing something good while relating with other atheists will.

Image is important like we talked about. Maybe some 'Friendly neighborhood atheist' or 'altruistic atheist' t-shirts would be something good to wear to volunteer events, maybe even a simple CCA shirt, or 'hello my name is' stickers. Charity events are not places we'd want to wear the shock factor shirts to.

Sorry so long, I've had some coffee and time to think tonight.

Permalink Reply by Alicia Foy on January 13, 2010 at 5:38pm

WEll we do have the group T-shirts from that we printed about two years ago, we are working on getting new ones printed with Marks design however cost is a factor.

Permalink Reply by Kyle Sanders on January 14, 2010 at 6:49pm

I'm looking forward to our next meeting, I've made lots of calls this week and have some good information. Just wondering, has anyone reached out to the UU church here yet? I got a call back from the pastor who has some good information and gave me the number of a volunteer coordinator. I didn't know if any of you had been to services there.

Permalink Reply by Alicia Foy on January 15, 2010 at 11:00pm

I knew that the church was here, but I never really looked into it. Though, I have heard some good things.. I checked out their website a few years back and they were having a whole sermon series on Stargate, I thought that was awesome ^_^