Feb. 9th Meeting – Darwin Week events!

By Secretary Drew

Greetings secular homefries. So last night we started the meeting with a scary/hilarious TV add by NOM (National Organization for Marriage) followed by a parody of it by Stephen Colbert (also hilarious).

Everyone introduced themselves by stating their name, major, favorite article of clothing, and position. Then we split up into two groups and read some nifty articles. One was an excerpt from “On the Origin of Species” by our buddy Charlie D (His birthday is this Saturday–don’t forget!). The other was an article written by good ol’ Richard Dawkins titled “Why Darwin Matters.” Then we got back together and read an interview with Bill Nye (Nerds are awesome!). Also someone suggested reading “The Relucant Mr. Darwin” by David Quammen so I thought I’d throw that up here.

After all the fun stuff we did a little serious business and voted on what movie to watch at Charlie’s (Charles Darwin’s) birthday party. Creation won against The Genius of Darwin and Intelligent Design on Trial and will be shown in Carol Hall on Saturday at 7pm. We will be watching Intelligent Design on Trial tomorrow at 5pm. The location for that is still up in the air.

Meeting Minutes

Here are the meeting minutes for the SSA Meeting on August 31st and the SSA Meeting on September 7

A Fantastic Start, Now On To Creativity…

By Sarah Maddox

Tabling at Mainstreet

The first two weeks of the semester have been a huge boon to our group. In between our first two meetings, we had a wildly successful day at Mainstreet, the Student Organization Fair at SCSU. We had a friendly, visible presence, and talked to many interested students who filled up an entire sign-up sheet! Our second meeting was as a result even bigger than the first – lots of new and returning faces.

We brainstormed about our plans for future events (such as Pirate Day and Family Weekend) and laughed over some pretty great button designs. Our next meet-up will be mostly dedicated to button-making, as well as display preparation for upcoming events. So, come ready to get creative! As usual, we’ll be meeting in the Atwood Granite Room at 6 PM, Tuesday September 14th. We hope to see you there!

SSA section waiting for the show to start!

We also had our first planned event of the year: a trip to the IMAX theater to see Hubble 3D! We had seven members attend from our group, in addition to 3 members from the CASH group at U of M. We were also joined by August Berkshire from Minnesota Atheists, who performed excellently in our debate last semester. The show was truly awe-inspiring, and sparked plenty of nerdy discussion. We hope to have similarly satisfying and well-attended events in the future, especially in cooperation and camaraderie with the folks from CASH.

….

IMAX intermission

First Meet-up of Fall 2010!

By Sarah Maddox

Next Tuesday, August 31st, will be the first weekly meet-up of the Secular Student Alliance at SCSU for the 2010-11 school year!

Please RSVP here.
Time: 6 PM, every Tuesday this semester
Place: Granite Room in Atwood

All new and returning students are welcome to stop by for a fun laid-back meet-up where we can get introduced and start the year off on a positive note. We’ll be busting out the Apples-2-Apples game later on as well.

Our weekly meet-ups this year will be aimed at both entertainment and socializing, as well as sparking interesting discussion and planning secular-style events. All are welcome, and we encourage any level of involvement you feel comfortable with.

We also offer other ways to get involved for those who can’t make it to Tuesday night meet-ups. We have a weekly tabling schedule in Atwood (TBA), and will be planning social and educational events throughout the semester. Please check back for a weekly update here on our wordpress blog, and on our facebook page for details about tabling and other events as we announce them. We hope to see you whenever you’re free, no matter how infrequently.

As you begin a new academic year, we hope you consider yourself a welcome member of our supportive secular community.

Have a Great Summer!

SSA Vice President

By Luke Pickman

Hey all fellow SSA members and prospective members!

In all of the rush of end of school activities and finals I didn’t get a chance to post to the WordPress site. At the last meeting we mostly just wrapped up the year and played Apples to Apples.

I just wanted to take a chance and really thank everyone who was a participant in SSA this past semester and also in the fall semester. I really enjoyed the meetings and all of the people; for those of you that are not coming back to SCSU next semester I wish you all of the best of luck on your future endeavors, may FSM be with you. ; D

I want to also separately thank Sarah Maddox and Jordan Guth  for the amount of effort they put into the Executive Board this past semester. I enjoyed  it greatly and cannot wait to work with them again in the 2010 Fall semester.

If you are an incoming student and want to discuss what this club has to offer and how you can participate in it during fall semester, shoot me an email at pilu0801@stcloudstate.edu. And for all of the latest news regarding the club check this WordPress site or the Facebook group.

Hope to see lots of old and new faces in the fall!

First April Meeting and Next Week’s Announcements

By Sarah Maddox

This week’s meeting was very lively. First, we broke the ice with a humorous discussion of our favorite deities. We heard from Jordan and Luke about their trip to see Hemant Mehta at the U of M CASH event in Minneapolis. To read more about our meeting, click on the minutes.

On Wednesday our group also tabled in the Atwood Lounge, showing off our new SSA banner. A few friendly SCSU professors stopped by to show us their support. We welcome any supporters or inactive members to stop by our booth any time to say “Hi!” We post in the meeting minutes and on the facebook group page when we plan to table.

Next week, we will not have our usual Tuesday meeting. We may meet later in the week, in which case we’ll send out a notice. If you happen to be downtown on Tuesday, you can stop by Mexican Village to say Happy Birthday to yours truly around 6 PM.

This Sunday from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM SSA members are encouraged to join us at the Tri-County Humane Society for a volunteer training. Once we’ve completed the training, we can all set up a regular time to go and volunteer as a group. If you need a ride to the TCHS, please let us know by either sending us an email at ssa@stcloudstate.edu or by posting on our facebook page. Have a great week!

Last Week: Watching NOVA

By Sarah Maddox

Greetings Secular Students! It’s been a long time since your President has posted, so I will try to make it special.

Last week we had a successful meeting in which we passed around some cards to sign: a note of Thanks to our recent guest debater, August Berkshire, and a note of congratulations on a new addition to the secular community.

We also watched the first of three episodes of NOVA: Becoming Human, a fascinating series about Human Evolution, and recent developments in that field of research. We received the DVD of this series free from The Secular Student Alliance. Many Thanks to Lyz Liddell and the SSA for this wonderful gift!

Tomorrow, we’ll have our weekly Tuesday meeting as always, at 6 PM in the Mississippi Room of the Atwood Student Union. Please join us for exciting SSA news and discussion!

You can read more about last week’s meeting in the meeting minutes

Triviaholix Success!

Hey everyone, this is your VP, LP.

We played the popular St. Cloud State University game show “Triviaholix”filmed right here on campus in the Stewart Hall building. The contestants were; Sarah Maddox, Jordan Guth, John Stensing, and myself. It was a pretty interesting experience (some parts were slightly awkward) but nonetheless it was fun. The episode will be airing this week on one of the public access channel number 21.  Also, we will be receiving a DVD and we will likely watch it at one of the next meetings. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 16th. Have a fun Spring Break!

Creation Meeting and Such

By Luke Pickman

Hello everyone! I have relieved Jordan of the duty of updating the blog this week. I was elected the position of Vice President in the Secular Student Alliance. If you would like to learn more about myself or the rest of the Executive Board, click on the link above.

During this week’s meeting we watched “Creation” which details the life of Charles Darwin. To find out more about the movie click here.

As a reminder of the upcoming events next week:

• February 23nd (Tuesday) starting at 6:00. It will be a fairly “low key” meeting, there is a distinct possibility that we will be playing Trivial Pursuit.
• February 24th (Wednesday) from 8:00pm to 10:00pm there will be the “Does God Exist” debate. To find out more, go to the Facebook event.

I did not post meeting minutes for this week but expect them (and game results) next week!

Weekly Meeting and Officer Introductions

By Jordan Guth

Hello everyone! My name is Jordan Guth and this is my first time posting an update on SSA’s WordPress Account. I was elected to the Secretary position at last weeks meeting (as Anne mentioned below) and I am definitely excited to be a contributor to one of SCSU’s newest Student Organizations! If you want to learn more about me, my interests, or if you even want to send me an email, simply check out the “Executive Board” tab at the top of the page.

During this week’s meeting we had a couple things going on:

• First of all, we had a very informative presentation about the Pastafarian Religion by our new Vice President, Luke Pickman. If you wish to see a video of the presentation, it will be made available on our youtube page any day now.

• Secondly, we simply went over future events SSA will be participating in. If you need more information on these events, please join our facebook group, as we use it to tell members about all our upcoming events!

You can read more about our meeting today in the meeting minutes

Congratulations to the New Officers!

By Anne Priest

The new SSA@SCSU officers were elected tonight and include: Sarah Maddox (President/Treasurer), and Luke Pickman (Vice President). Congratulations on your new positions!

Due to the shortened length of the meeting, there are no meeting minutes for this week’s meeting. Just as a reminder, Austin Dacey will be speaking on Monday, February 22nd and we are still working on raising funds for that event. Also, February 24th will be the SSA@SCSU and CRU co-sponsored debate with August Berkshire and Reverend Joe Boot. If you would like to help out with either of these events, please contact Sarah Maddox.

Elections are next week!

By Anne Priest

Here are the minutes from last night’s meeting.We went over upcoming events (Austin Dacey’s speaking tour, the debate, spaghetti social) and learned about the Campus Community Recovery program that provides support for those recovering from alcohol and chemical abuse. The group meets Wednesdays from 4 to 5 p.m. in Hill-Case hall (in the conference room next to the clinic entrance).

Elections will be held next week (and the meeting will be shortened due to caucusing).

Have a great week!

News coverage, hugs, and Pokemon

By Anne Priest

In case you have not picked up the latest University Chronicle, check out the article on SSA at SCSU here. The hard copy of the article includes a photo featuring SSA at SCSU buttons; priced at just a dollar, our buttons are a stylish steal!

You may have seen Sarah and I today in Atwood mall with our hand painted “Hug an Atheist” sign giving out free hugs next to a man preaching loudly. Thanks to everyone who came up and hugged us and also to everyone who may have disagreed with us, but who refrained from being negative.

We hope to see you all at Atwood Sidestreet this Thursday from 11 to 2 p.m. Our table will be located right in front of the multicultural students’ center/stairs.

In case you could not make it to the meeting tonight, here are the first meeting minutes of 2010.

*Virtual hug from an atheist*

The end of the world (er… semester) as we know it!

By Anne Priest

During the meeting today we continued to discuss the resolution in the United Nations to ban the “defamation of religion.” We are strongly opposed to this resolution, as it is a threat to free speech and expression. Nathaniel, an SSA at SCSU member, is working alongside the Center for Inquiry in order to petition against the resolution.

Another important matter we discussed today is the meeting day and time for next semester. Sarah will be sending out a message on facebook to all members of the facebook group; please respond as soon as you know which day/time would work best for you to meet. We know that many interested students could not come to meetings this semester due to scheduling conflicts, but we hope to see many new (and old) faces next semester!

You can read more about the meeting today in the meeting minutes.

Good luck on your finals everyone!

Drag Show Tabling: Success!

By Sarah Maddox

Two Fridays ago, members of the SSA accepted the invitation to table at the SCSU Fall Drag Show. The event was a great success. We reached our $50 goal that night from button sales for our Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers care-package fundraiser, and we talked with lots of friendly folks from SCSU and the greater St. Cloud area who were interested in our organization. Many signed up to receive more info about us.

The full title of the event was SCSU Fall Drag Show: Replay That Music: One Night, One Place, One Hit Wonders. SCSU’s LGBT activist group, OutLoud! puts on two drag shows each school year. No admission is charged, but optional “tips” for the performers raise money for SCSU’s LGBT programs. Not all of our jolly tablers could stay all night, but everyone had fun representing the SSA and showing support for the LGBT community. For more pictures from the event, see our Facebook page.

Many Thanks to the LGBT Resource Center, OutLoud! and Kyle Wilkinson for giving us the opportunity to table at their great event.