It is with some sadness that I write this post. The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies AGM was held last weekend in Southampton and the event marked the end of my term as AHS treasurer. It was a position I gained a lot from but, for this year at least, I’ll be taking a back seat from national involvement. The upside is I can now devote more time to being Leeds Atheist Society president and ensure that it is the best year ever for us!
The build up to the AGM was marred by two member societies, Hull and Edinburgh Humanists (a founding member), leaving the AHS. The main reason for this was that, Edinburgh in particular, felt that the AHS had become too expansionist and were ignoring their established members. This is certainly something to think about for the new executive.
Our treasurer Elettra Rastelli, former committee Norm Ralph and Nicola Jackson (who hold AHS positions) and I made up the Leeds contingent. The AGM itself was very well hosted by the guys at Southampton Atheist Society, special kudos to their president Dan Palmer for getting us an exclusive showing of the new film ‘The Ledge’ before its general release in the UK. There were three motions debated: The first was to represent different organisations on the AHS board, namely the National Secular Society and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. The second was a motion to allow joint candidates to run for executive positions. The third was creation of a vice president position within the executive. The first two were defeated the third withdrawn after much debate. The new executive were elected, Jenny Bartle (Bristol) as president, Mike Paynter (Bristol) as secretary and Dom Blackclok (UCL) as treasurer. The AGM was brought to a close by Dr Evan Harris who gave a talk entitled ‘The Secularist Manifesto’. A fuller account and minutes will soon be available from the AHS website.
Going forward, I believe Jenny, Mike and Dom are absolutely the best people for the job. I know from discussions I’ve had with them that they are already looking to address the problems from last year, in particular with regards to greater transparency and democracy in the AHS. I’m sure they’ve got some great ideas of their own to bring to the table.
My sincere best wishes to the new executive, I’m sure they’ll do a wonderful job and I look forward to the next AHS event!