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

Our bi-weekly discussion was held on January 29th and revolved around the book "Good Without God", by Greg Epstein.  In this book, Epstein encourages humanists to work with religious organizations rather than always seeing them as enemies.  He claims that some of the more liberal churches should be considered our allies.  This claim lead to some very interesting conversation as not everybody in our group necessarily agrees with this particular sentiment.  Note that this idea isn't necessarily the overall theme of the book, it was just the portion that sparked the most discussion among us.

Agree or disagree, we had a wonderful meeting and I enjoyed the chance to sit down once again with everybody and enjoy some lively discussion.  Again, anybody is welcome to present information or lead a discussion at a future meeting, just contact me with your idea.  Remember to keep checking meetup for updates on future meetings.

Results From The Discussion Held On January 15, 2013

Our new website is finally published!

We had several new faces yesterday at what turned out to be a pretty productive meeting.  Our topic of discussion was to get ideas for what the group should do in 2013 and we had some pretty interesting ones.  We are currently looking to branch out and make ourselves known in the community while hopefully making a positive difference.  Right now we are looking for members to get involved in several different ways: 

• Leading a discussion or presenting some information to the group at a meeting:  This could involve doing a book review or researching a topic of significance.

• Writing letters to the editor in local newspapers:  This could involve writing a letter and submitting it to the group for approval or simply bringing an article of interest to our attention so that another member could respond.  We would love to have the Peoria Secular Humanist Society represented to our community in this way.

• Attending local public meetings:  We would like to start having members attend local government or school board meetings.  If you know the time and place of a meeting that you feel some of our members should attend, please send the info to us.

If you are interested in helping out in one of the above mentioned ways, please send an email to our new address:  peoriasecularhumanists@gmail.com.  Also, if you were unable to attend yesterday's meeting but would like to make a suggestion, please email as well.  I look forward to the exciting activities that are to come this year!

Nick