Over the past year, Seattle Atheists has been undergoing a phenomenal amount of growth. We’ve gained new membership (our membership has increased 100% over last year alone!), garnered tons of positive press, started new programs, revamped the organization, and done lots of charity work in the community. Atheism in Seattle is truly flourishing.

Here’s a recap of what Seattle Atheists has done this year, since Dec. 2008:

• Gained 82 dues-paying members in one year. A year ago, we had 143 members — now we have 225.
• Run two sets of bus ads, which have garnered national and international media attention
• Placed a holiday greeting sign on the state capitol grounds
• Welcomed new Members-at-Large Wendy, Mike, Randy, Sam, and Layton, and our new Secretary, Rebecca, to the Board. They are all doing an absolutely phenomenal job!
• Started new giving programs, including Operation Paperback and the SeasonLESS food drive
• Adopted a new mission and vision, and reorganized our committee structure
• Launched our first-ever fundraiser mailing for a new bus ad campaign
• Hosted free public talks by Dr. Valerie Tarico, Chris Rauch, Jim Corbett, comic Jeremy Whitman, and Matt Griscom
• Raised more than $1,000 for Childrens hospital
• Had our new and improved Flying Spaghetti Monster featured on Venganza.org, and the FSM Wikipedia page
• Begun planning for exciting new events, like the winter gala, a film series, and a cable access show
• Celebrated Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday
• Donated more than 35 pints of blood

All of this is only possible because of you, our members, supporters and volunteers.

It’s been so gratifying to be a part of this organization, to meet all of you, and to take even a small part in making the atheist community in Seattle grow! The board would like to extend its appreciation to everyone who donated their time, money and hard work to our programs, and we hope to see even more of you in the coming year.

Happy solstice, and a very happy, healthy and fulfilling new year to you all!

Sincerely,

Amanda Banerji, Vice President of Seattle Atheists

In this holiday season let us remember that kindness, charity and goodwill transcend belief, creed or religion. Happy Holidays, Seattle Atheists”

I’m also a Navy veteran, having served on a guided-missile frigate homeported in San Diego from 1999-2003. I enjoyed my time in the Navy but found the lifestyle just wasn’t for me and quickly escaped at my soonest opportunity to pursue a higher education.

I was raised in a secular household and religion was rarely, if ever, brought up, and as a result I’ve been pretty much agnostic until my early 20s, when I started to read more books from the Freethinking genre. I’ve become a much more active atheist in recent years, I want to let other, more passive atheists know that they’re not alone.

Why am I running for office? Serving as an elected officer of Seattle Atheists would truly be an honor. When I read about the Seattle Atheist bus ads I was very impressed with amount of coverage and recognition the ads received. I want to contribute to other great ideas that allow atheism to be better understood in the community-at-large.

My name is Sam Mulvey, and I’ve been pleased to serve as a Member-at-Large for the Seattle Atheists Board in the last term. I would love the opportunity to continue on in that position in the next term.

I see myself as a backstage kind of guy. I tend to think in terms of infrastructure (especially network and computer infrastructure), and I feel like I’ve contributed to the board of Seattle Atheists with that thinking in my first term. I’ve been working on a set of tools for SA which began in the last year with the re-launch of the seattleatheists.org website. I think that the next year will bring even greater work than I achieved last year, as I feel that I have a better understanding of how Seattle Atheists works.

Since my larger work occurs behind the scenes, I feel I can bring a higher level of good-natured humor to proceedings when it’s time to present to a wider audience. I’d like to say that I approach public interaction with a wink and a grin, but that conjures associations with Sarah Palin and a pallor of incompetence I’m pretty sure I don’t want to include in my candidate statement. It’s not about being a class clown; it’s about being happy to work at something I enjoy.

I’ve learned that it’s more difficult than I realized to be a group of organized atheists in the wider world around us. I feel that the attitude I bring, as well as the tools I have and will continue to build, will continue to be an asset to the board of Seattle Atheists. And saying all of these things without an offsetting self-deprecating remark is making me a little ill. Still, I would appreciate your vote.

Professionally, I am a facilitator, mediator, coach and motivational speaker helping business groups work more effectively together and helping people improve their relationships. I am the organizer of the Meetup group Seattle Sexplorations which is dedicated to sexually-oriented education and entertainment (so I am familiar with challenging traditional ways of thinking).

As a board member I will be a positive influence in board and group discussions helping us stay focused and seek consensus. When opportunities present, I look forward to publicly representing Seattle Atheists and influencing others to join our ranks and stand up for what they believe (or don’t believe, or don’t have enough information to believe… you know what I mean).

I have been on the board for the last few years as an at-large board member or vice President. I would like to continue to be on the board to influence the direction of the organization. Seattle Atheists is now a going concern and we have some projects that I would like be able to direct to larger audiences, such as the Darwin Day planning, bus sign project, and work at street fairs and parades. I would also like to work on expanding our outreach to other areas.

I think we need to participate in as many local events that concern atheists and other freethinkers as we can. Hopefully we can get more member participation through a committee system to help with this. There is only so much that 9 people (the board) can do. I believe that member help and suggestions are necessary to grow into the future.

Thank you.

I’ve twice participated wrapping gifts to raise money Children’s Hospital, I marched with the FSM at the Fremont Fair and have tabled for Seattle Atheists at Seattle Pride and other events. I most recently wrote press releases for the Metro bus ad campaign.

Our organization is growing on a wave of increased visibility, and I want to serve on the board to channel that wave to confront anti-atheist persecution and popular misconceptions about non-believers.

I plan on doing this by working to creating a public access call-in show for the organization with a rotating group of co-hosts. Not only will this help promote Seattle Atheists and all of their activities to a far larger audience, like charity gift-wrapping, the season-less food drive, the FSM at parades, or donations and memberships.

It would also help counter-balance the glut of religionist programming available on TV with a skewed views on non-believers. It would create an opportunity for us to assert our own views rather than have them put in our mouths. And I think the call-in content on public access will make for some good TV and comedic gold. The rotating hosts will help avoid creating any sort of cult of personality and highlight the vast range of opinions in our community. Don’t think we disagree? Christopher Hitchens. Discuss.

I am also willing to be a representative for the group if needed for TV, news, and radio interviews with board approval of the ‘company line’ on certain topics, and I have past experience with this.  It would also be my goal to seek out future talents for the board by proactively meeting with members and prospective members to help them feel comfortable enough to step forward and to get involved in a more active capacity with us.

As a founder and lifetime member of Seattle Atheists it is and always will be very important to me to have a new ideas on the board while still maintaining the integrity of our original mission statement. I possess both a foundational view as well as a progressive one at this time and I would like to work with the board to further develop the many new organization goals that have been proposed and need to be implemented.

Seattle Atheists are proud to present atheist comedian Jeremy Whitman!

Fresh off his troupe’s “Delived from Dogma” comedy tour, a “freethinking” comedy, where there was just about no piece of bad logic that was not challenged, and no source considered beyond examination, Jeremy will be giving a talk about his ’slightly off’ definitions of dogma and faith.

He will also discuss the show’s influences and share his personal stories and history, and give a general look at the thought processes (i.e. circular logic, fractured logic, leap of faith logic) inherent in dogmatic systems of belief. Not intended to be straight standup, that is to say it will be funny, but as more of a lecture than a joke-a-minute performance.

Jeremy Whitman is the son of a preacher, the nephew of two more preachers, and had a great uncle who was a Catholic Priest. Whitman was raised a young earth creationist, and attending multiple private Christian schools; including one that his father served as the principal of. This upbringing has given Jeremy a unique inside-out look at the logical fallacies of hardcore fundamentalist Christianity.

Now an accomplished standup comic and outspoken atheist, Jeremy has, after years two solid years of road work in the deep south and the bible belt, taken it upon himself to put together the Delivered From Dogma Comedy Tour in an effort to bring the ideals of Freethinking to anyone who will listen to him gleefully lampoon the more regrettable aspects of religion, and just about any other topic he finds interesting, distressing, or fun to talk about.

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Afterwards, we will take a break, and have an Town Hall- this month’s topic, “Atheism in the workplace”

The Greenlake Library is served by metro buses 16, 48, and 316. For directions, click here. This event is not sponsored by The Seattle Public Library.

And we’d appreciate it if you’d RSVP at: http://www.meetup.com/seattle-atheists/