1) The Iowa Secularists Board of Directors met yesterday, Saturday, April 19th.
a) Creation of chapters: We have created provisional chapters. Chapters shall have at least 5 members of any status but at least 1 must be a contributing member. Provisional chapters are authorized to raise and expend no more than $500 annually for projects under the supervision of the board until such chapters become permanent chapters. Members will have a chance to suggest details regarding the chapters at the annual meeting. The board will also continue to work on the details of the permanent chapters to be presented at the annual meeting. Permanent chapters will then form after the annual meeting.
b) Expansion of board: The IS board of directors shall be expanded from five to seven. The director positions shall be staggered 3 yrs terms of office with the first terms of the new positions determined by lot for one one year term and one two year term at the first board meeting following election for the purpose of maintaining an even board turnover rate. The two new positions shall be elected at the annual conference by special election immediately following the general election of the board positions currently up for election
c) Composition of board: Because IS is a statewide organization and the organization is best served by having a geographically representative board, the membership on the board of directors has been restricted to no more than three members from any single chapter. An IS member may join a geographically distant chapter, however, such an action shall not be solely for the purpose of running for the Board. The Board reserves the right to disqualify any candidate for Board Director under such circumstances. This will ensure that the entire state is best represented on the board
d) Lifetime membership: We have also created a lifetime membership. This is a single $1000 registration. The tshirt and newsletter will be available each year to lifetime members as they are to contributing members but the lifetime member must request these items each year. I am happy to announce that our first lifetime member is Niles Ross.
2) The National Day of Reason is Thursday, May 1. We will have events in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. The Des Moines event will be at the Des Moines Botanical Center Oak Room and will begin at 7pm. The Cedar Rapids event will be at Beams Auditorium at the Cedar Rapids Public Library and will being at 6:30pm. Both events will show the movie The God Who Wasn’t There followed by a discussion. Both events are free and open to the public and were organized by the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids groups.
3) Also on the National Day of Reason, Thursday, May 1, we would like to encourage everyone to donate blood. Other groups have done blood drives to counter the ‘National Day of Prayer.’ Because we are so close to the date, we will not be organizing a state-wide blood drive this year but hope to do so next year. Please let me know if you would be interested in working to organize this. I would also love to hear from you if you donate blood this year and/or are interested in donating next year.
4) Iowa Secularists River Run on Saturday, May 10. We will be canoeing on the Maquoketa River in eastern Iowa. To see the current details for this event and to RSVP, check here. We plan on getting started in the morning and I am happy to organize car pools if that would be helpful. Please RSVP as soon as possible with at least a maybe so that we can give the outfitters a deposit and an estimate of the number of people to expect. I also have a list of things to bring that I will send out to you if you are planning to attend. We will update the website and the Meetup site with more information when we have an idea of how many will be attending. Thanks so much to Sally and Mike for making these arrangements!
5) Memorial Day Potluck in Cedar Rapids, Sunday, May 25, 4:00 PM at the home of Niles and Carol Ross. All are welcome. Please RSVP through the Meetup site by May 22. This will be a great chance to mingle and get to know your fellow Iowa Secularists! Niles and Carol will provide chicken breasts, and you bring what you like to share. Bring your own soft drinks, hard drinks, whatever drinks. Arrive approximately 4 PM, and we will have dinner approximately 5 PM. This is a “no shoe house” so be prepared to remove your shoes on entrance. We will have movies set up for the kids. Learn more here
6) In addition to the various events of the Corridor branch of Iowa Secularists, we are going to have ten FAMILY social events per year, each month - excluding July and December - that will be held the first Friday of each month. Bring friends and guests. All events begin at 7 PM and start in June. For more information, for the locations, and for the details of the events, please visit the Meetup site
here.
7) We have officially booked the Iowa State Center for the 3rd Annual Iowa Secularists Conference. I previously posted that the conference would be held in Des Moines, but it will actually be in Ames. Thanks so much to Kyle for working on all the details and making the arrangements! Our keynote speaker will be Lori Lipman Brown from the Secular Coalition for America. We will very shortly have registration available online. For now, please make sure to mark your calendars for July 12th in Ames!
8) We have also reserved a block of rooms at the Gateway Hotel in Ames. Again, thanks so Kyle for getting this arranged! The rooms are available for Saturday, July 12th and the hotel is just down the street from the Iowa State Center. Call 515-292-8600 to make a reservation. Room Rates are as follows: Superior Double or King $102, executive king $112, executive jr. suite $132. These rates do not include hotel tax and sales tax. This is just the closest hotel to the conference – you can stay anywhere else that you like as well. *Update* I have posted an additional list of hotels in the Ames area in the forum under Action Items and Events.
9) The Iowa Secularists Lobby Day was a great success! Brian, Bob, and Craig were able to meet with their legislators and I heard from a few others who were not able to attend but did contact and heard back from their legislators. Brian was also able to make some progress with a legislator potentially interested in sponsoring our group to lead a secular opening to the session in place of the daily prayer. Brian also made an appearance in Senator Joe Bolkam’s weekly email in the visitors these week section! If anyone else has heard from their legislators, we would love to hear the response!
10) The North Central group which meets every Saturday at the Mason City Airport Café now has a Meetup site at http://atheists.meetup.com/668/
11) Julia Sweeney will be performing her one-woman show “Letting Go of God” in Iowa City on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at the Englert Theater! The Englert does not yet have ticket information available but I will send out more information when it is available. Visit Julia’s website here
12) For those of you who missed Massimo Pigliucci at his reading for Live from Prairie Lights during Iowa City Darwin Day, you can listen to the recording at this link
