A society for atheists, rationalists, secularists and humanists
I would like to publicly congratulate the Leeds Atheist Society for electing a dynamic, enthusiastic and hopefully hard working new committee. I truly believe they are up to the almost impossible task of making Leeds Atheist society even better! For those that were not able to make the AGM, they have some great ideas and judging by their speeches we will be inviting more outside experts to come talk.
I’d also like to congratulate the following for getting elected (including myself :D)
John-George Salter - President
James Murray - Secretary
Michael Bramham - Treasurer
Chris Worfolk - Vice President
Jonathan Lomax - Meetings Co-ordinator
Nicola Walker - Interfaith Co-ordinator
George Shore - Publicity Officer
Nicola Young Jackson - The National Federation of Atheist Humanist and Secular Student Societies (AHS) Representative
Told you it was a pretty amazing new committee! Chris will get the profiles of the new committee up shortly.
I’d also like to thank Norman Ralph and Sophie Stringfellow for their four and two years service to the society respectfully. Both having served as president. We wish you all the best for the future. If you are stuck for something to do at 6pm on Tuesdays I suggest you watch the Running Man recruitment video on loop and reminisce on the good times. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJrn6SHVn8U&playnext_from=TL&videos=mz6vqv21Tek
My present to Sophie, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KJwiE0ddcA&playnext_from=TL&videos=2ut_uFsZBns
My present to Norman,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bioGcpC2gI
Want to run the most successful non-religious student society in the UK? Then run for a committee position at our AGM this Tuesday.
The posititions up for election are:
President (exc)
Vice President
Secretary (exec)
Treasurer (exec)
Meetings co-ordinator
Interfaith co-ordinator (including courses)
Publicity Officer
AHS Rep
N.B. AHS Rep and exec must be students and it is prefered that Publicity officer will be also.
If you would like to know more about the roles all of the current committee will be in the Reason Week Marquee from 7pm tonight and most of us will be there all day too. Feel free too email us with questions.
Getting up at 6am, after a night out painted as a blue Avatar is never easy. The excitement of meeting other students from around the country, with the same obsession I have made it a lot easier. After a somewhat eventful journey down south and then through the enlarged rabbit warren Londoners call the tube, I arrived at St Ethelburga's where the first NUS Interfaith Forum was due to take place.
The forum started off with a welcome from Ben Whittaker, NUS Vice President for Welfare. This was followed by an introduction by Kat Luckock, NUS Student Inter-Faith Coordinator. She went though why the forum has been set up and forum guidelines.
We then got into small groups and discussed what Interfaith is, what we have been involved with personally and issues and challenges that we have faced. My group had four faiths represented, with varying experience in interfaith work from a strong interest to someone that set up a coexist society at Warwick and someone that organises interfaith football at Bath. Each group presented their discussions to the rest of the room. One thing that became startlingly apparent was the Leeds Atheist Society has arranged and been involved in more and a wider variety of Interfaith events than any other group present, including interfaith/coexist societies!
After a lovely lunch Campusalaam trained us in the FlashPOD method. This is a way to record a deep discussion of a specific event or issue and then share it online.
The day lived up to my high expectations. After almost two years of arranging Interfaith events mostly through Leeds Atheist Society, meeting other people with the same goal was invaluable. We shared stories of problems we had encountered and how we had over come them.
It was great to see that it is not just Atheists who believe in the importance of Interfaith. The forum was made up of mostly Jews and Muslims and I met one Sikh and one Baha’I too.
The forum is going to meet with the Minister for Universities, David Lammy on 4th March. How this is going to be ran was discussed by the forum.
Amongst the project aims the six Interfaith Forums will help the members to develop a strong inter-faith collaboration and enhance campus cohesion by creating space for interfaith dialogue and activities.
I believe it is already doing this. By using the FlashPOD method my group discussed why certain faith societies are less than enthusiastic about supporting interfaith events run by Leeds Atheist Society. I found this extremely insightful. Apparently people of faith feel they have nothing in common with Atheists and the idea that we want to spend time with them is greeted with suspicion as they think that we think they are stupid. I at least managed to dispel the popular myths about atheism.
Many of us that attended the forum have added each other to facebook so we can keep in contact until the next forum meeting. It was defiantly worth travelling 400 miles on Valentines day to attend.
I hope that the future forums will include more networking and small group discussions. These will facilitate the sharing of ideas for how to arrange successful interfaith events and discussion of problems that arose when staging these events. There is also need for training and a sharing of know-how on how to word things, as these are contentious issues and insensitivity benefits no-one. It would be terrible to unintentionally offend two faith societies on campus within minutes, wait that might have already happened!
I have suggested Leeds SU as a venue for the next forum and have sent in an article similar to this to the NUS, which will hopefully be appearing on their website shortly.
Oh and I think Leeds Atheist Society are officially entitled to the title ‘King of UK Interfaith.’ :D
First off I would like to issue an apology from the society for those who were looking forward to our event "Fitna: The Big Debate" which was going to be taking place Tuesday - February 9th, as this will no longer be the case.
Despite us announcing the events months ago, the union have decided to step in 5 days before the event and not allow us to run the event because they claim it violates the university's freedom of expression policy.
We are currently in talks with the union as to what steps will be required it in order for us to be able to run the event as it will be rescheduled for a later date. Watch this space for more information.
Leeds Atheist Society is now entering into its fourth year of existence and its fourth committee are embarking on an exciting and challenging programme of events and campaigns.
One of the effects of the society reaching the grand old age of four is that many of our members in the first three years have graduated university, moved away from Leeds or have simply lost touch with the society. This is something the society would like to rectify and to achieve this A-Soc is launchin an alumni programme to help maintain contacts and develop a longer term association with our past members.
As the almuni co-ordinator, I would like to extend an invitation to all our previous members to get in touch via the Contact Us page. The scheme is free and open to all past members.
Benefits of joining the alumni programme include a termly news letter, access to society events and socials, a dedicated section of the website and the opportunity to take part in a discretionary donation sceheme.
I hope to hear from as many of you as possible, if only to let us know how you are getting on since leaving the society.
Following on from the recent AGM, it is with some sadness that I write what is likely to be my final post as President of Leeds Atheist Society.
The past year has been a great experience for me, both as an atheist and as president. I have been a part of one of the strongest years the society has had performance wise - with our membership roster now approaching the hundred mark and our finances looking healthy for the first time in three years.
I have also had the pleasure of meeting some great new friends and future leaders of the society. Many of our new committee are just finishing their first years of study at university. In fact, this is by far the youngest committee we have ever had, yet strangely also one of the most experienced! I look forward with great interest as to the future direction of the society under my successor, Sophie Stringfellow. I wish her and her new executive all the best.
Fortunately for me, I have kept a small finger in the A-Soc pie as I was returned as the new AHS Representative for the society, taking over the reigns from Tom. I hope that I can continue to serve the society's bets interests on the national stage.
Thanks to all the members of Leeds Atheist Society and I hope to see many of you return as members next year. Remember, we are not just a stuident society and are open to all. We have a really good alumni scheme in place for all you graduates out there!
Luckily, my reign is not quote over and we have plenty of great events lined up for the rest of the year (and all summer too!) Check out our events listings for all the latest info!
Last night saw our 2008/2009 AGM. Those who were there will agree that we have really grown as a society over the past year and hopefully we continue this trend next year!
Congratulations to the newly elected committee, who are now as follows:
President: Sophie
Secretary: Tom
Treasurer: Zoltan
Vice President: Chris
Meetings Coordinator: Jonni
Courses Coordinator: John
Campaigns Coordinator: Laura
Interfaith Coordinator: Nicola
Humanist Chaplain: Rosie
AHS Representative: Norm
Exams are over! I know I am relieved to go back to my normal timetable of lectures and at least four A-Soc events a week to keep me occupied.
Well, with the launch of our new course, Perspective, starting on Friday our wish has come true.
We kick off by inviting Ba'hai Society to come and tell us a bit about themselves and what they believe in. We will be hosting them in Meeting Room 5 in the ARC at 7pm this Friday. As usual food and drink will be provided.
We will be introducing a different society each week, including the Christian Union, Islam, Paganism and more besides.
In keeping with this Semester's focus on education, I will be giving a talk on the Life and Times of Mohammed this Tuesday in Meeting Room 3 at 7pm.
Hope to see you there!
Tonight say the first A-Soc event of 2009 take place in the Old Bar. We officially kicked off the new year with a social,a chance for those back in Leeds (and those that never left :P ) to take a break from work and chill out with soem good company. the decent sized turn out shows that there are many of you no doubt working hard for the upcoming exams.
To help ease you back into the A-Soc calendar we have a couple of relatively light events during the exam period. We start with Sinnimation - a collection of cartoons specially chosen by your committee that have a slight connection to religion, but are just plain funny! Expect The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, God, The Devil and Bob and many more! The second week back is a little more serious with us showing the moving docu-film "Baby Bible Bashers", a look at young Christian evangelists and their 'work'.
Well, Leeds pulled it off!
Leeds Atheist Society has just hosted the second conference of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (AHS for short :P ).
The event was a great success. The constitution was ratified and its directions put into place. Two of our members were elected on to the Executive of the AHS. Tom Leadbeater, our recently elected AHS Rep for A-Soc was chosen as the organisation's Treasurer, a prestigious job. I was elected President of the AHS, which means that hopefully A-Soc's aims and objectives should get a good hearing at a national level.
Congratulations to Chris, our Events Sec who was appointed as a trustee for the AHS, a position that I am sure will be walk in the park for him.
Thanks to those A-Soc members that came down to support your representatives and ensure that we were shown off in the best possible light.
Watch this space for more information and upcoming events!