Hug an Atheist!

The Peoria Secular Humanist Society is proud to present Hug an Atheist, a documentary film about atheism in the USA, dispelling the myths and untruths following ordinary American atheists on their journey through life, by Sylvia Broeckx.  The film will be shown at Landmark Cinemas on Saturday, May 3rd at noon.  There is a $5 suggested donation.

Notes from latest meeting

Here are the notes from our meeting on January 14th 2014.  We have decided on a few changes, all of which will take some time to implement.

1.  We are going to begin accepting donations to help cover our costs for meetup fees, website costs and next year's picnic.  I am going to look into setting up a paypal account or finding another means of letting members donate electronically, cash and checks will be accepted as well.

2.  We are going to find a different location for our discussions.  Most likely this will be a room at a public library, it will be free and easier for us to hear each other speak.  Discussions in a restaurant with smaller groups work well but with larger groups it becomes difficult for members at other ends of the table to hear each other.  For now we will continue meeting on Tuesdays but probably a little bit earlier (we will always have the option for meeting for dinner after our meetings also.)  As always, updates will be posted at the meetup group.

3.  I am going to move forward with the adopt-a-highway idea that was suggested over a year ago.  I had concerns about us not being able to find enough members to participate but it was suggested that I should stop worrying and start acting.

4.   The idea of us becoming a non-profit organization came up again as well.  We discussed this a little bit with mixed opinions about if and when we should take that step.  The Springfield Area Freethinkers have spent most of the summer preparing bylaws as they are applying for non-profit status.  They are meeting this Saturday to vote on the bylaws and I am going to join them and hopefully learn a little bit more about their organization.  If anybody would like to join me, send me an email and we can carpool.  After this meeting I will set up another meeting specifically to talk about the issue of us becoming a non-profit.

Thank you to everybody who attended and to all who have helped us grow over the last few years.  It has been my pleasure to lead this group and I look forward to seeing how these changes help our group along.

2013 is over

Thanks to everybody who helped in making 2013 a good year for the Peoria Secular Humanist Society.  At the beginning of the year we had hoped to venture out and do more than just our social meetings and it looks like we haven't done much in that area.  However, we have gotten together for discussions more than ever before and the discussions have gotten more interesting as well.  The book review meetings look promising and we will have our next meeting on January 14th at 6:30 at the Peoria Pizza Works to discuss what we would like to do in 2014.

Summer Picnic at Glen Oak Park

Hopefully this will become an annual thing, but we are going to meet up for a picnic at Glen Oak park.  If you are new or interested in the group, this would be a great chance to meet some members and find out what we are all about.  If you are an existing member but haven't been in a while, this is the time to catch up with the rest of us.  This is a family friendly event and a playground will be close to where we are meeting so feel free to bring kids!  We are meeting at the Glen Oak Park Pavilion Porch, it is on the main park district building.  The picnic will be on Saturday, July 13th at noon.

It will be a pot luck style picnic so feel free to bring your favorite dish.  We will also provide gondolas and drinks so bringing a dish isn't necessary.  Unfortunately alcohol is not allowed in the park.  More information about the event is available on meetup.  RSVP's will help make sure that we have enough food but last minute food runs aren't all that difficult either so feel free to head on down and get to know the Peoria Secular Humanist Society.

Spring is here!

During the past couple of months, we held steady with our regular discussions and movie nights and even had a letter to the editor published in the Peoria Journal Star!  Looking forward, we will continue these regular meetings as well some other exciting events.

Tonight, many of us are going to see Professor Kenneth Miller from Brown University give a lecture on evolution vs intelligent design at Bradley University.

On April 27th, we will do our second group blood donation.  Anybody who would like to participate should RSVP on meetup or email me peoriasecularhumanists@gmail.com

As the weather continues to warm up, we are going to plan on having a group picnic.  This will be a public park and open to all old and new group members as well as family members of all ages (ie. kid friendly).  More details to come but I also think it would be a good time for us to take our first group picture!

Thanks to everyone who came to donate blood today.  Look for the next blood donation meetup in a couple of months when we are eligible again.  This was a big week for us with the very informative lecture from Rob Boston from Americans United for the separation of church and state regarding religious freedom on Monday and our regular meetup discussion on Tuesday.

Moving forward, we will have a movie night next week and another discussion the following week.  We are still looking for more ways to help our community as well.  Check Meetup for details.

Nick

Coming up this week

Hey everybody, we have a lot going on this week!

On Monday, many of us are attending a lecture at Bradley University entitled "Religious Freedom:  What it is and what it is not" by Rob Boston from Americans united for the Separation of Church and State.

On Tuesday, we will have our regular group meeting at the Peoria Pizza Works at 7:00.  Maybe we will discuss the lecture from the day before or maybe we will find something else to talk about.

Saturday will be our trip to the American Red Cross to give blood.  We currently have 7 people signed up and there is still time to sign up before the reservations are made with the Red Cross.  RSVP's can be made on meetup or by emailing me at peoriasecularhumanists@gmail.com

So far 2013 has been a great year for us with several new members and successful meetups, let's keep the mojo going!

Nick