Registration is now open for the weekend away.  It will be Friday 16th -Sunday 18th March which is the first weekend immediately after the end of the Spring term.

Tickets for the weekend will include trains to and from London, two nights accommodation in a hostel, and a ticket to the AHS convention speakers event.  We will be staying in a nice hostel near Kings Cross and booking a room out for the society so we won’t be sharing with randoms.

Although there will be an itinerary for the weekend, people are free to do there own thing and explore London while taking advantage of discounted travel and accommodation. The itinerary will include, amongst other things, a night out in Camden, the AHS convention, museum trips, and a trip to speakers corner.

You may remember back in September  that we offered a £10 discount on our weekend away  for those people who paid their membership before the end of September: listed below are the ticket prices for the weekend.

Early Bird: £80 (85 W/O Railcard)

Standard: £90 (£95 W/O Railcard)

Spaces are limited, to confirm a place all you need to do is give your name and a £10 deposit to a committee member.  You can do this at any meeting.

The weekend away is always a highlight of the year so I hope many of you will join us this year.

Leeds Atheist society are excited to announce that this Non-Prophet Week we will be raising money for Médecins Sans Frontières.  They are a really great charity that provides medical aid where it is most needed, regardless of race, religion, politics or gender.

During Non-Prophet Week Leeds Atheist Society will be hosting a quiz and games night on the 8th November with all the proceeds going to MSF. We will also have some good old fashioned bucket shaking going on throughout the week.

Following on from the talk on Tuesday about getting involved with your society: Non-Prophet is an excellent opportunity to do just that! We are looking for members to do some individual fundraising, this could be absolutely anything such as a sponsored event (such as a sponsored silence) or running a bake sale on campus.  If you want to help us raise money for this great cause then drop as an email (leeds@atheistsoc.org) or speak to a committee member at a meeting. If you need some ideas, have a look at what other societies did for NPW last year here.

As promised in last night’s intro meeting here is the Semester One Timetable for Leeds Atheist Society 2011-12

We’re only a month away from the start of freshers week and Leeds Atheist Society are gearing up for another event packed year!

Here are a few new things to look forward to in the coming year:

Debates: The society has a history of staging lively and open debates, this year we’ll be hosting lots more!  What’s different this year is that most of our debates are about issues that will divide ths society, rather than debates with theists where no-one changes there mind.

Public Engagement in Science Lectures: Based on the success of some science lectures we’ve had in the past, we’ve decided this year we’ll run a series of them! The lectures will be about various topics, all at the cutting edge of current scientific research! These events are not just here as a platform for science: they are forum to question scientific ideas  and ask an expert about the potential applications of publicly funded research.

Non-Prophet week: It is often suggested that atheists are an uncharitable bunch! Here at Leeds Atheist Society we actively challenge that with the charity work we do! Non-Prophet Week is a national initiative. During this week atheist societies are encouraged to raise money for their charity of choice. There’s competition element too, we compete with all the other AHS societies, last year Leeds came a disappointing  third place!

Today we’ve announced our intro period timetable: we’ll be having a stall on campus all week where we’ll be  talking to people and signing up the godless.  There’s a trip to Leeds City Museum, a house party and lots more!  Check out our events calender for more info!

Over the next few weeks we’ll be releasing our full events timetable and plans for the year ahead!  In the meantime, the society is still running socials every Tuesday, this week we’ll be at the Cuthbert Broderick from 7pm.

Leeds Atheist Society

Annual General Meeting 2010/11 Minutes

Baines Wing 1.13, 7pm.

Attending: John George Salter, James Murray, Michael Bramham (minute taker), Jonathan Lomax, Chris Worfolk, Elettra Rastelli, Norman Ralph, Nicola Jackson, Zoltan Connel, Willaim Noble, Liz Hodson, Elina Leino, Curt Strangward, Kat Rawlings, Vivien Wakely, Paul Irving, Tom Leadbeater.

Intro (John Salter)

Outlined the agenda for the meeting: Ratification of last year minutes, reports from committee and elections and Any other Business.

Ratification of last year’s Minutes (James Murray)

All agreed that the minutes are a true and accurate reflection of last year’s meeting.

Action: Website needs updating to indicate that Mike Lake is a honorary member of the society.

Presidents Report (John Salter)

Has not been a good year for Atheist Society

John felt he was a large part of this by not fulfilling his role as society president

There was still some good events, Reason Week, Weekend Away, some of our Tuesday events and course continued to be popular.

John’s advice to the new committee was to make sure that ideas became reality.

Finances Report (James Murray)

Started the year with £20

Total income for the year = £1562.02

Expenditure = £1307.90

Our weekend away made a profit of £23

We raised £57.21 for Wateraid at our charity quiz night

Reason Week Fundraising £253.87 but cost us £626.55

At the end of the year

We’ve spent £48.44/member a 968% return of investment on a £5 membership!

In our account we have £33, a profit over the course of the year of £13, leaving the society in its healthiest financial state ever!

Officers Reports

Events: Difficulty in bringing in external speakers although we had some excellent university based speakers.

AHS: Nicola Jackson has been secretary of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student societies (The AHS) for the year 2010/11.  Society secretary James Murray has been the Treasurer of the AHS since January and was formally elected at the EGM in March.

Major success of the AHS was the convention in March, a huge event which was well attended and received.

Nicola Jackson coordinated the national; Non-Prophet Week’ raised £2341 for various charities; Leeds Atheist Society making the third biggest contribution.

The AHS Yorkshire region has expanded now includes Bradford and Sheffield.

Other Chris Worfolk has updated our website to make it easy for everyone to edit and is in the process of creating a library of our talks that will be available online. He also gave three talks to the society over the course of the year and assisted with some of the larger events.

Elections Chris Worfolk acting as returning officer

President: Candidates James Murray and William Noble

James (12) William (2) RON(0)

James Murray duly elected president

Secretary: Candidates Michael Bramham and William Noble

Michael (3) William (9) RON (1)

William Noble duly elected secretary

Treasurer: Candidate Elettra Rastelli

Elettra (13) RON (2)

Elettra Rastelli duly elected treasurer

Vice President: Candidates Michael Bramham and Curt Strangward

Michael (9) Curt (4) RON (0)

Michael Bramham duly elected vice president.

Any Other Business

A motion to present AC Grayling with an honorary membership to the society was passed.  This was in recognition of his appointment as President of the British Humanist Association.