Semester One Timetable Released!

Posted on September 28, 2011 by James Murray

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

‘Why I’m Not a Christian’

4 October 2011 19:00

One Life: The Meaning of Life

7 October 2011 20:00

Leeds Atheist Society:Your gateway to the World

11 October 2011 19:00

One Life: Unweaving the Rainbow

14 October 2011 20:00

From Rutherford to the Large Hadron Collider

18 October 2011 19:00

One Life: Ethics

21 October 2011 20:00

Film: Jesus Camp

25 October 2011 19:00

Halloween Party

28 October 2011 20:00

Give it a Go: Speed Debating!

1 November 2011 19:00

One Life: Applied Ethics

4 November 2011 20:00

Non-Prophet Week: Charity Quiz Night

8 November 2011 19:00

One Life: Science and Critical thinking

11 November 2011 20:00

German Market Social

15 November 2011 19:00

One Life: Freedom of Expression

18 November 2011 20:00

Faith Schools – Why it Matters.

22 November 2011 19:00

One Life: Leading a Better Life

25 November 2011 20:00

Science Lecture – TBC

29 November 2011 19:00

One Life: Wrap

2 December 2011 19:00

Film: Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People

6 December 2011 19:00

Winter Solstice Meal

13 December 2011 19:00
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Only a Month to go!

Posted on August 20, 2011 by James Murray

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.

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The AHS annual general meeting

Posted on July 16, 2011 by James Murray

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!

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BHA Presidential Reception

Posted on July 2, 2011 by James Murray

Last Friday saw the society president James Murray, along with Leeds Atheist Society representatives Chris Worfolk, Nicola Jackson and Elina Leinio, head down to London for a drinks reception with British Humanist Association. The occasion was to celebrate Polly Toynbee‘s time as BHA president. The event was initially planned to mark the beginning of Prof. AC Grayling presidency of the BHA. However the negative press surrounding the £18000-a-year private university he had set up led him to resign, as he felt this would be in the best interest of the BHA. He also didn’t attend the BHA conference in Manchester, where he was billed to keynote, due to a planned protest.

On to the evening itself, it was held in the Scott room of the Guardian offices. Some of the more distinguished guests in attendance included human rights activist Maryam Namazie, former Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris (or Dr Death to Daily Mail readers) and philosopher and writer Peter Cave. Polly give a stirring speech warning humanists that there are many battles still to be won particularly with the resurgence of religious politics in the last decade. In particular she talked about the increased influence that faith-based organisations are having in education due to the amount of free schools that are being built. The abortion debate is once again being discussed in politics, and conservative Christian views are strongly influencing government policy. Finally end-of-life care is a major area in which reforms need to be made. Currently in the UK we do not have the right to choose the manner of our deaths, even when faced with degenerative diseases, an issue addressed in the recent documentary presented by Terry Pratchett.

All in all it was an enjoyable evening that the BHA put on and it was great to catch up with some AHS colleagues and BHA distinguished supporters and members.

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Secular Ball

Posted on June 1, 2011 by James Murray
Last Friday, the Brook Merrion hotel hosted Secular Ball, Leeds Atheist Society’s end of year celebration.  In a change from previous years, the ball was not just for LAS but for all the free-thinking groups in Yorkshire!
I’m delighted to say the evening was a huge success, great food, great entertainment and an after party that lasted into the early hours:  it really ended the year with a bang! I’d like to thank two people in particular who were responsible for making the evening so enjoyable for us all. Firstly our outgoing vice president Chris, in a sort of last official act  for the society, for organising the whole evening;  secondly our resident magician Leo Dragon, for the fantastic entertainment!
As for the society’s committee, we are all hard at work planning next year and I can promise you it is going to be special!
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AGM Minutes

Posted on May 6, 2011 by James Murray

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.

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AGM Agenda

Posted on April 28, 2011 by James Murray

A Reminder that the AGM is next Tuesday (May 3rd) at 7pm in Leeds University  Business School 1.03.

As per LUU guidelines, here is the agenda of the AGM:

1.      Ratification of last years AGM minutes

2.      Presidents’ Report

3.      Finance Report

4.      Election of new President, Secretary and Treasurer

5.      Any Other Business

This is the one time of the year where you get a say in who runs the society and voice your opinion how the society is run.
If you wish to stand for election, no nomination is required, just turn up on the day and present your manifesto (no longer than 5 minutes). Voting shall be by show of hands and secret ballot, and decisions will be made by simple majority. Full details of committee positions available can be found here

We hope to see many of you there.

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Notice of Annual General Meeting

Posted on April 2, 2011 by James Murray

Leeds Atheist Society are pleased to announce that our AGM will be held on the 3rd of May in Leeds University Business School, room 1,03 at 7pm.  The AGM is your chance to make an impact on the society and get involved with making it better next year!

Positions available:
President – Is the person that sets out the society’s objectives for the coming year and makes sure that they are met!  Responsibilities include setting the agenda and chairing of committee meetings, dealing with the union, Events management,  as well as being the poster person of the society
Secretary - Very much the secret power of the society! They will be responsible for taking the minutes of meetings, room bookings, keeping membership database up to date, and  being  the second point of contact with union.
Treasurer-The person that looks after the society’s finances. They are responsible for keeping the accounts up-to-date, coming up with fundraising strategies and will also function as our AHS representative this year.

These are the executive positions up for election however the current committee are happy to open up further positions in response to interest.  Those who do want to be on the committee next year should prepare a short (ca. 5 mins) presentation of their manifesto outlining what they can bring to the society and why they should be elected.

If you would like to know more about the roles or the society drop us an email or come along to one of our spring holiday socials at the Stick or Twist on Tuesday 7pm.

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Reason Week 2011

Posted on March 17, 2011 by James Murray

On March 7th Leeds Atheist Society began their fifth annual Reason Week.  If you are not familiar with Leeds previous reason weeks, we have usually held it in a marquee on a central area of campus and the marquee was occupied for the whole week and we’ve had events all day!  Unfortunately the layout of the university campus has changed and there is no longer a suitable area to set up  a marquee; so the committee decided we would shift the focus towards a speaker orientated week.

We still wanted a presence on campus all week so we had a stall set up outside the university union and were running events from their and advertising our evening events.  At times it was a battle against uncharacteristic Leeds weather; we had to move our stall under cover to avoid rain and weigh down our leaflets to stop them blowing away!  Despite this we were still able to run our events, these included awareness discussions on Human Rights, Science and Medicine, Sex and Sexuality, Scepticism and Morality. We also had ever popular Make Your Own God:  a blue peter style arts and craft session, Ask an Atheist,  an afternoon promoting the Census Campaign and Debaptisms!

The main evening events started on Monday with a discussion on Religion as a Human Creation; the panel was made up of a Humanist, Sea of Faith and a Quaker.  It was good discussion although we didn’t get much further than agreeing religion was a human creation!  A side note, I still don’t really know what Sea of Faith are but enjoyed meeting and talking to them.

Tuesday we had Dr. Antony Lempert chair of the Secular Medical Forum who delivered a talk entitled ‘Cutting Religion out of Medicine’, it was entertaining but the serious message of the talk was put across very strongly, I highly recommend him if you want to know how religion still interferes with medicine in Britain today. His details will be available on the AHS speakers directory soon.  Afterwards we headed down to our favourite karaoke bar!

Wednesday saw chief executive of the British Humanist Association Andrew Copson come up from London to talk about humanist ethics, he was enjoyed by all and we then went down to a local restaurant with Andrew and had some fantastic food!

Thursday we headed down to Humanist Society of West Yorkshire who were hosting a debate on Humanist chaplins, the debater for was head of the humanist chaplaincy network Gjisbert Stoet and chair of HSoWY chair Paul Dean argued against.  Both sides made very compelling arguments and certainly give us all a lot to think about on the issue.

Friday we had Mark Edon talking about Creationism in the UK and the work that the British Centre for Science Education do to combat it.  Generally thought of as an American problem, but is becoming one in the UK too; one example Mark brought along a genuine looking GCSE biology textbook that taught creationist pseudoscience and this book was sent out to secondary schools across the UK! The BCSE details will be available on the AHS speakers directory very soon.

The final event of the week was LAS’s famous All night debate we were outside the union from 10pm to 3am chatting to, mostly drunk, students over hot drinks and sweets. We had some entertaining discussions, and some idiotic ones such as one student who shouted at us for being atheists then walked off saying ‘I don’t believe in God but I’m not an atheist!’

I thoroughly enjoyed coordinating Reason Week 2011! The highlight of the week for me was all night debate, after Reason week had finished we had a couple of hours sleep and then headed to London for the AHS convention!

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We need your books

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Chris Worfolk

One of the great initiatives going on here in Leeds is the Humanist Library. This is a project to build a freethought library, right here in Leeds, filled with books on humanism, secularism, theology, philosophy, science and all manner of related topics.

The project was founded in December and has really kicked into hear now, but needs your help – we need donations of books to help us build the library, so if you have any items you’re willing to donate that would be appropriate for the project, please get in touch.

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