Dawkins says children are born atheists. In my case, it stuck. I wouldn’t say “under God” during the Pledge of Allegiance starting in 3rd grade. But I learned early on that atheism should be kept quiet, to avoid those horrified over-reactions and unwarranted assumptions about my morality & my soul. Uncalled for, but unfortunately still widespread. I now work in health care. People tend to assume that I must be Christian, and I don’t feel I can “come out” at work. I’m interested in helping put a more visible and positive face on atheism, as long as I don’t have to be out front, alone, when it happens.

I have Board experience for 3 years in a coop preschool. Unusual for an atheist, I actually joined a church 2 years ago.  (Don’t worry – it’s not catching.) It’s a UU church, where I’d guess about half the members are atheists & where social action projects are always underway.

I have some ideas to float, but I don’t have to be on the Board to share them. For example: The almighty Google says the last essay about atheism in the Seattle Times was written by someone from the Discovery Institute. We could write & submit an essay, perhaps urging “democracy not theocracy”, or perhaps simply explaining atheism & debunking misconceptions. Those who agree to be named could sign it, & the number given of those who endorse it but wish to remain anonymous. Second, if OK in tax law, Seattle Atheists could be a middleman for charitable donations.  We could identify some charities which publish names of donor groups in their reports  Atheists who are so inclined would donate to Seattle Atheists, then a specified percentage of those donations would be given by S.A. to the identified charities. Donors get the tax deduction, the people served by the charities benefit, and Seattle Atheists gets the “credit.” (It’s almost like giving anonymously & asking that you be listed as “atheist” in their records.)

Of course, the success of any organization is dependent on the dedication of its members, and especially of its board members.  And this includes the day-to-day functions that are critical to maintaining the vitality and strength of that organization.

As such, I am proud to have served as treasurer since the founding of Seattle Atheists, and I would be honored to continue serving in this role.

I am a newcomer to the organization, and also to public atheism. Mystical concepts such as god or creation never really spoke to me as much as the sense of community and the social interface religion provides its membership. As someone committed to the concept of community, I have tried to divine the positive psychological aspects of spirituality from superstition.

Fortunately, I found another place that I feel serves many of the same benefits: bars. As I learned about the historic tradition of pubs and coffee houses, I grew to understand that they can serve as centers of philosophy and learning as well as centers of food and drink. My goal is to create a space outside of religion for such communal activities and fellowship, and I have developed a skill set that would be appropriate: I cook, I brew, I can tend bar, plus I have an amateur’s interest in human psychology.

I think many of these skills are useful to the Seattle Atheists group. Essentially, I am focused on establishing a positive atheist community and social context. To me, public image is a reflection of social context. Community outreach is a perfect forum for building such a context.

To that end, in addition to anything that will be required of me, my personal focus will be on interoperability with other atheist organizations. I am presently an organizing member of the Tacoma Atheist Meetup, working with and for Amanda Banerji. I have started a project to bring a show about the atheist community to the local airwaves and online podcast reserves. I intend for it to focus on how the atheist and skeptical community can better communicate with itself and the world around us.

My professional life differs quite strongly from all of this, and could be a much more immediate interest to Seattle Atheists. I am an internet technology contractor, with specialized skill in AJAX, or more commonly “Web 2.0″ websites.  Other potential board members have platforms mentioning spearheading a new SA website, and I would be happy to bring what skills I have to bear on such a project. This would start with a better integrated website, but could lead to a streamlined book keeping and administrative process.

Furthermore, I would like to extend that work into a common technology platform for all member organizations of the Northwest Freethought Coalition in order to promote better community building.

I feel that my technological skills and social interests could be of use to the Seattle Atheist community, and I offer them freely.  If you agree with this assessment, I would welcome your support for a Member at Large position on the board of Seattle Atheists.

-Sam

Ten years ago, I declared myself a non-believer to family and friends. Since then, I have learned much about how Atheists are viewed by the general public. Because we are essentially outsiders, in the sense that we don’t naturally have a locus around which to gather, or a common doctrine. Our ideas are not always in agreement; we are easily and often misrepresented, and make a convenient target. And because we have  representatives of all stripes, we are viewed with distrust, anger, and not a little confusion.

I moved here three years ago from central Florida, from an environment that was openly hostile to non-believers. It was at this time that my ideas about the future role of Atheism began to take shape.

I have several friends in the gay community in central Florida who have been working to promote public acceptance of gay and lesbian couples through education, information, and presence. Every month, gay and lesbian couples are encouraged to walk in a mall simply holding hands — acting like everyone else. They emphasize that being gay is simply another way of being normal. The repetition and consistency reduces the perceived threat. This continues to be an effective strategy to positively broadcast their presence, and while some people have been hostile, there has been a general outpouring of support.

I believe that there needs to be a shift in the way Atheists are viewed by the public. Many outspoken Atheists have been mislabeled as “militant,” and extremists from both sides have dominated the public discourse. We’ve suffered repeated snipes from pundits, religious leaders, and politicians. The Rational Response Squad, Pat Condell, and various anti-religion blogs are doing much to undermine the perception of Atheism and polarize public opinion by using insulting language and promoting extremist viewpoints.

We need to alter public perception, first by being extremely clear about our views and goals. We need to have a positive public presence. We need to interact with our communities, including the churches, synagogues and temples, so that they know who we are and what we do and do not stand for. We need to be openly Atheist in a way that is not threatening to people who know little or nothing about our views.

In June, I founded the Tacoma Atheists Meetup, simply as a way to meet other Atheists locally. In just three months, the group has grown to 32 members, and continues to grow. Our mission has evolved over the past few months, from a purely social group to one that emphasizes charity, education, outreach, and interfaith dialogue.

Our first group event will be the Pierce County AIDS walk on Sept. 6. We have made food deliveries to people in need, and are sending messages of support to cancer patients. In addition, we have a Facebook forum, called “Atheists and Theists for Mutual Understanding.” I have spoken with two local pastors about starting discussion groups. They were incredibly receptive, but a bit stunned.

Our future plans include Adopt-a-Highway, a website and forum. We are also planning an ad on a local AM station during Sunday religious programming that highlights our charity activities and emphasizes our similarities.

My personal goals are to completely change the public perception of Atheism, to create a dialogue between Atheists and theists, and to educate the public about critical thinking, argument, rhetoric, logic and philosophy. I feel that these are the key areas that prevent people from understanding Atheism and its aims. Only when people are educated will they be able to effectively combat discrimination and stereotyping.

This is an exciting time. People are moving away from religion toward reason in greater and greater numbers. We need to provide them with a viable alternative — a community that demonstrates that it has morals and ethics and works for the public good. We need to send the message that religion is not your only solace — reason and science can be as well.

I would like to offer my services to help advance Atheism in Seattle. S.A. is a wonderful group, and has tremendous potential if guided responsibly. I will do everything in my power as Vice President of Seattle Atheists to assist the President, Board and members in their efforts to positively promote Atheism in Seattle.

My name is Case and I’ve had the pleasure of serving Seattle Atheists as a board member for one year now. I’m honored to have been nominated for the position of President. Under the guidance of Kyle Hepworth and rest of the SA board, it has been a good year for our organization with many successful events, steady growth in membership, and a budget surplus.

After accepting the nomination, I’ve had to think carefully about what it is I can bring to the organization.

Communication: I firmly believe that good leadership can set the tone for how an organization interacts within its community, and how its membership feels about being in the group. It is my intention to publish a monthly statement on our website to post upcoming events, address issues affecting our community and organization, and share with its members the state of the organization. It will be a monthly masthead format much like a ‘letter from the editor’.

Energy: I think we need to update our website and handouts with a fresh new look. I am going to push for a compete overhaul of our website, an effort that I will lead. I want our website to be cleaner, easier to navigate, and more up-to-date.

Accountability: I’ve seen many wonderful efforts/ideas fall between the cracks for lack of follow-up/accountability. My pledge is that for every committee that is formed by me, I will be personally see to the success of that committee.

Bang-for-the-Buck: If there’s one thing our recent partnership with Seattle Atheists/Agnostics Meetup Group has taught us, it’s that unlike any other medium available to us, it brings out the atheist community in droves to our SA events. We can take this one step further by using other websites to get our message out. If elected, I’m going to formally funnel efforts into a Web Committee that will be charged with keeping our message updated through selected social networking sites and YouTube.

Outreach: I know our membership wants to contribute to our success–some are unsure on how to do it. I will continually canvas our membership to uncover talented members and encourage them to become more active. One initiative in which I’ll do this is with a special “Day of Reason” event where anyone can give a presentation on a favorite atheist-related topic.

Exciting Events: I will continue current efforts to bring in speakers, as well as host discussion salons that give atheists a chance to discuss topics affecting the community, and continue our tradition of great volunteer events.

Community: Last, but most important–one of our biggest challenges as an organization is the lack of volunteerism among its members. I think this can be turned around by fostering a stronger sense of community. When our membership meetings transform from a roomful of atheists to a roomful of friends, I’ll know I’ve succeed in this effort. This the most important effort I can bring to our organization.

***

On Sep 21, we will be given an opportunity to give our nomination speech to you, the SA membership. I hope to not only discuss the points I’ve made above, but also the challenges facing our organization. I hope you’ll come out to hear us all talk, and take part in this important process.

Thank you,
Case

Having spent the last year on the SA board, I’ve gotten to know active members of SA and talked face to face with Atheists and Theists alike from the Seattle area about what it means to be an Atheist organization. I have developed a strong sense of what people want from a local Atheist organization. They want an organization that is bold and aggressive enough to lead and stand for something, yet tactful and compassionate enough to put a good face on Atheism and make allies in the community across religious and social boundaries. They want an organization that fosters a sense of community and belonging but also has a purpose and a message. A group with room for everyone whether they just want to show up and chat, listen to a lecture, or become active in the club and promote equal rights for Atheist through outreach and education.

Most of the things I would like to do fall under 3 major synergistic areas:

1. I would like to significantly increase SA’s membership base through administrative streamlining of the membership application and renewal process as well as keeping membership dues low and actively inviting people join SA to support the activities that we bring to the community.

2. I would like to increase the number of activities that SA does by empowering and facilitating volunteers so that tasks can be efficiently delegated and the board of directors can concentrate on administrative tasks. This will allow the board to put their effort into things like finding the next event, the next speaker, the next volunteer opportunity and finding great people to help us run these events, instead of getting bogged down in the minor details of the events. With my experience of leading Columbia Basin College’s SciFi club for 2 years throwing 14 hour multi-event conventions 3 times yearly I know that, no matter how dedicated they are, a small group of people cannot do everything. With good communication and task-oriented delegation strategies I was able to host a convention with numerous simultaneous events and hundreds of participants without going crazy. I hope to bring that same strategy to the SA board so that we can host more events (and even simultaneous events as the summer season gets very busy) as I’d like to see SA have a presence at every community event we can possibly get into.

One of the fears people have of delegating activities out of the board’s immediate control is that someone might say or do something we wish they hadn’t with no one there to stop them. Sarcastic rude Atheists with no social skills?! Well, yes… they exist and I’m well aware of valid concerns about how an Atheist organization might be unfairly targeted with negative press and community sentiment over even a minor issue but this is not an issue that is unique to us. All organizations that deal with the public have this problem and we need to adopt strategies to ensure that we are well represented by our members in the public and well equipped to deal with the media should something unfortunate happen. To do more events to get more members takes more people, out in the public, talking to other people, risking our reputation. It’s an unavoidable risk if we want to grow and we’ll just have to deal with it. That brings me to the third area where I’d like to improve SA:

3. Clearly document SA’s position on various important topics and FAQs. If SA is going to be an organization that stands for something, it needs to say what that something is and isn’t in clear language and post it publicly. If we don’t say what SA stands for we invite speculation; we do not present a strong image which in turn places us at a greater risk for misunderstandings and misrepresentation. Of course if we do say what our position is we might offend some people but I feel that if we do not identify what our stance is and stand up for ourselves, we run a much higher risk of offending even more people who will then quietly decline to be involved (or not so quietly such as the case with Michel Aristidou who I thank for bringing this to the forefront of my attention so many months ago and recently did a brilliant lecture on logic and philosophy for us).

Crafting stances that do a good job of representing the views of the majority of atheists will be challenging. Wording them compassionately and fairly without compromising our integrity in a way that won’t offend sensible theists, whose support for atheists’ rights and secular society we need to ensure freedom for everyone, will be even harder. We might even offend some atheists in the process, but if any of you have been active in the SA forums you’ll know that’s not very hard to do. It will be hard and it will be risky, but SA is a now a well established and a fairly well known organization and can handle it and there is so much to gain from it! We can send our members out into the public to represent us and they’ll know what to say and what not to say. If they should say or do something the organization doesn’t condone, we can easily disown the statement as our position on the subject will be clear. Even if our position is that we have no position it would be clearly laid out in advance as a safety net. In pursuing this task we can engage ourselves in assessing what our common values really are instead of this tired rhetoric about how “Atheists have nothing in common but a negative” and that’s why they can’t stand for anything or do anything as a group. SA has over 100 members and we have over 1000 more standing in the wings through the Seattle Atheists Meetup Group and the Northwest Freethought Coalition. We are a group and we do stand for something. We’re all human. We all live in Seattle. And we all support equal rights atheists. We have so much in common and if we took the time to discover and discuss what it was we could unify around it not only with other atheists but with the whole community. SA is a tolerant organization that accepts freethinkers from all walks of life and seeks to work cooperatively with the community through education to ensure liberty for all. SA should have official positions that support that sentiment. I would like to see a cautious but firm shift from half-heartedly trying to represent, without offending anyone, 110% of all atheists, agnostics, ignostics, apatheists, freethinkers, materialists, realists, naturalists, secularists, the irreligious, non-theists, their sympathizers and etc. that ever existed or may exist to doing a fantastic of representing 90% of the people who simply don’t believe in god who are caring and enthusiastic people who want to be a functional part of society for the betterment of everyone and they are tired of being treated like second-class citizens with second-class values while religious bigotry and ignorance is given a free pass.

For a lot of people “atheist” is a bad word and I’d like to change that. I’d like people to be able to be proud to say “I’m an Atheist and I contribute to society”.

My name is Lex. I am currently a Member at Large on the Seattle Atheists board of directors and I am a candidate for President in the upcoming election on Sunday, September 21st 2008, 1:00 pm at the Greenwood Branch Library. If you aren’t already a member you can join for as little as $15 online ( http://seattleatheists.org/become_a_member.shtml ) or in person at the meeting to support me and the rights of nonbelievers in Seattle and the world.

Over the past few years, I’ve become an increasingly active member with this fantastic organization. During the past term, I was both a Member at Large and your friendly librarian, and I enjoyed being a more integral part of the group. I’ve put a lot of time and love into this organization, and I would like to continue that role in the following year as Member at Large. I’ve set up and participated in all of the outreach and educational events that we’ve hosted, and I can’t wait to get involved with future events.

Atheists are finally becoming more visible in our society, and I want to encourage more positive and productive dialogue. I think it’s important to reach out to the community through volunteer and educational activities. I want to reclaim the word “atheist” and dispel the common myths that exist about those who do not subscribe to religious belief. I’ve always been enthusiastic about this organization’s goals, and I want to do everything in my power to stimulate Seattle Atheists’ growth and visibility. I’m reliable and dedicated to our cause, and I would greatly appreciate your vote in the coming election!

Election time! Get ready! Are you interested in playing an integral role in Seattle Atheists direction? Do you have a talent for stating the cause? Are you itching to use that vote that your membership dues get you?

This year we will be electing nine Board of Directors positions, and we need you to give your input. It’s your organization, and this is how to make sure your voice is heard.

Click here to view statements from the candidates.

How it works:
There are 4 Officer positions (President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer), which last for a 2 year term.

There are also 5 Member-at-Large positions, that are each 1 year terms.

We will begin accepting nominations (yes you can nominate yourself), beginning at the August 3rd meeting. As we get them, we will be posting names and a short candidate statement on the website: http://www.seattleatheists.org/elections2008

How the voting works:
During the meeting, we will still be accepting nominations (although we encourage you to submit yours early along with a statement). We start with the Presidents position, and move down through there, so that anyone who does not win the position they are hoping for, may run again for a lower position.

The 5 Member-at-Large positions are all voted on at once, after the Officers have been elected.

Then the new Board will close out the rest of the meeting.

See you there!
Kyle Hepworth