This is the end, beautiful friend...
...of 2020, so, yeah, maybe that's not a bad thing?
See you all soon (I hope!)
Friday, December 11, 2020
Monday, June 22, 2020
June Updates
Hi everyone,
I hope you are all well; I hear that the socially distant gathering at Brian and Pearl's was successful. There will be another on the 28th. I'm leaving the RSVP up for the virtual meeting as well, so that we can either listen in via a web app or meet online. Just as a reminder, I know that you're all capable, rational adults, but because of maintaining social distancing, etc. space at this event will be at a premium. Please, keep you RSVP current so that someone else can take your spot if you can't make it.
Also, the state of NC has filed our incorporation paperwork, so now we can move on our 501c3 papers. We are corporeal... er incarnate... er incorporated! Yay! I will keep you posted whenever anything develops.
There will be a virtual book club meeting on Saturday, June 27th, for Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.
Drinking Skeptically will still be meeting online for the time being - don't feel pressured to RSVP, I'll just be logged into Discord on the date in question. This week, it will be on Friday, the 19th at 5:30. I am posting an event to make people aware of it who aren't on this e-mail list.
Lastly but not at all leastly, there are a few events in the area that (Lyn and Bob - sorry for the short notice! - told me about and) I think deserve some publicity here. Remember to wear masks, maintain social distancing, stay home/get tested if you're worried about symptoms/exposure, and stay safe! Flatten that curve!!!
One of them is today!!! - Wednesday June 17 at 6:30 p.m. EDT for SPEAKING TO THIS MOMENT.
And, there's more:
#blacklivesmatter
Much love to you all!
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
International Women's Day and Some March Updates
Hi everyone!
I hope this e-mail finds you well. I'll get right to it.
Recent Events:
Movie night at Lyn's was "Iron Jawed Angels" and told the story of Alice Paul and some of the triumphs and tribulations of the suffragette movement in the United States. I may be showing this to my Classic Film club at SGHS if I can convince them to see a movie that they haven't already seen (weird, right?)
Upcoming events:
March 28th - Book Club - Small Gods by Terry Pratchett This will be at John Perry's house. Please, e-mail Molly for details.
March 30th - Trivia at Scuppernong - 7 pm!
April - Mad Hatter Tea Party - Drinking Skeptically and Trivia - Tea, Madness, England, and Nonsense TBD
April - Highway Clean Up
---
Group Announcements
The election outcome was relatively one-sided. Only three of us were nominated and accepted said nominations:
President: Sean Bienert
Treasurer: Adrienne McKinney
Secretary: Ann Hodgin Brady
We will be hosting another election in February of next year. This one will be as scheduled in the bylaws!
For the time being, we will be meeting at Deep Roots. Please, RSVP for the Secular Sundays as space is somewhat tight, and it's good to know how many people are coming. Also, there will be a survey to decide where we will finally meet for a permanent location - please, let me know if you have any more ideas as far as that goes. I know I haven't been able to be as inquisitive as I have meant to be with everyone about the spaces that have been offered, but I would like to make sure that we do get the best space - forgive me if I've overlooked any spots. We want a spot to meet where we can stay for as long as possible. Changing locations can be a pain. In that survey, I will probably include an alternate weekly meeting with an alternate location so that more people can make it on different days in different locations. (I don't know how often I'll be able to make it to said meetings.)
This week, in the spirit of International Women's Day, we talked about the mistreatment of women by various entrenched power structures, including religion. There were a number of opinions why this happens, what might be done about it, and personal experiences that people have had in contemporary society that... well... make it feel not quite so much like a contemporary society. The discussion moved into the mindset of women who join the side of their own oppressors, and why that might be the case - why, for instance, has it become a truism of (Norman Rockwell-esque) American family structure (a stereotype?) that the mother figure is the one who pushes the children and husband to go to church? Is that always, or even usually, the case? We also talked about differing definitions of power and strength, and examples of places that aren't quite so... *ahem* primeval as far as gender equality, and why that might be.
I hope to see you all at Earth Fare next week. I will be in touch with some surveys soon (some of them may be very important and have effects on the structure and bylaws of the group as our 501c3 stuff is filed - I got all the information to Mack!) - please, let me know if you'd like to host an event! We're still looking for people to do that!
LASTLY
I would be remiss not to mention something I'm sure that you've all heard about and are hopefully well clear of/can remain away from: coronavirus. I just want to make sure that everyone is staying safe out there, but I thought our group could maybe help each other out with a thing or two pursuant to this. There are some members of SCOTT who might be in at risk groups, and this could be potentially very dangerous for some of us. So, in addition *ahem* leaving this right here... I wanted to call on you to try to stay in touch with each other via messages, e-mails, phones calls, etc. This is one of the reasons we have a group - we are a community for each other, and I hope that we all feel comfortable helping and being helped by other members of SCOTT. (And, if you feel even SLIGHTLY ill, PLEASE, err on the side of caution. I would hate for the first big news story about our group to revolve around how we managed to bring the number of exposed persons up by any measurable percentage. :( )
We may end up having to cancel in-person events in the somewhat near future; if that happens, we can maybe get on Zoom or another large scale virtual meeting platform. (Secular Sunday in my underwear!)
Much love to you all. As always, if you have any questions, please ask!
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Upcoming Events and Sort of Election!
Soooooooooooo,
We already sort of had an election... I thought about putting a survey together that would have an Orwellian voting system where you could only vote for the people who were nominated and who had accepted... but since only three members were nominated and then accepted the nomination, it seemed a bit officious.
Here we go:
President:
Sean Bienert
Treasurer:
Adrienne McKinney
Secretary:
Ann Brady
Per the bylaws, I am hoping to keep the same people on as (co?)organizers - Brian, Joe, Molly, Lisa, Scott, Judy. If you don't want to be involved, please, let me know.
Next year, we'll be putting together this on the second weekend of February... also, per the bylaws.
This weekend, we will be meeting at Deep Root's for Secular Sunday. Would anyone like to tell me if people came up with a topic last week?
(Sorry for the double up! That is on me! :( )
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Earth Fare Is Closing Down and Meeting Notes
Hi everyone,
Last I'd heard from Earth Fare, they still aren't certain as to when they are going to be closing the doors and locking them. I've just e-mailed the Griffin Community Center in Jamestown (thank you Rachel Moore for the suggestion), the only rec center in Greensboro that has advertised Sunday hours (we'd have to back things up to 1pm). I plan on checking in with some of the other places we'd looked in the past: McKay's and the local libraries (both would, I believe, make us back things up as well.) This Sunday, we'll be meeting to come up with a game plan for where and when to meet in the future - same time - 11 am:
475 Windflower lane
Ashebore, NC 27205
Obviously, nothing will be decided until later, and if you cannot make it to this but have ideas, please let me know. I want as much input here as possible. I don't think that there's exactly a huge number of places where we can hold Secular Sunday, but we really ought to chase down any available leads. That brings me to a big THANK YOU to everyone who has already e-mailed me with suggestions. And, keep them coming. If you have an idea, but you haven't sent it to me yet, it may be the one that gets a place to meet.
Without further ado, here are the notes from February 2nd:
Announcements
Lisa's potluck was a success, and it will be a reoccurring event! Huzzah!
While we're on the subject of how great Lisa is, she deserves a great many hats off for having organized Dave Warnock's talk/ Q&A, which was awesome. As of this e-mail, I still cannot find the Greensboro video on his website, so I will be posting my broken up thirty minutes of it soon. (I'll be a bit busy in the next few days ... see above!)
The Book Club will be meeting to discuss A Freethinker's Gospel - location is TBD, and Molly will be sending a survey out this Saturday to poll about a new location. You can still RSVP on the link there.
The Craft(y) meetup was another success, and Jessica was mentioning that she might host those on the last Friday of every month - check the Meetup site for more!
Indivisible is hosting a Power Hour - check the link for details.
Democratic Women of Guilford County will be having a Meet and Greet with Candidates this month - according to the site, the date is TBD.
If you want access to the SCOTT facebook group, message me,
Meeting
For some reason that has eluded my notes, we began today talking about entertaining videos and websites on the internet (MOST are at least tangentially connected to good-natured jabs at religion). Included are the ones I remembered:
(A LOT OF THESE ARE NOT SAFE FOR WORK)
Noah's Ark (by Ricky Gervais)
Noah's Ark (by Eddie Izzard)
Mr. Pickles (Anything beyond this video is Not Even Close to Safe for Work)
Amazon's "The Boys" Chiristian nationalist/evangelist commentary (can't find a video of it... It's good!)
We talked about generational marketing, Hitchhiker's Guide, queuing, Stonehenge (where, apparently, the ticket booths and queue have no real meaning). We got into faith, nationalism, sacraments, and the use of scripture to reinforce injustice - particularly slavery. Herd mentality and scriptural interpretations came up. We talked about cultural identity and the rooting of religion within those identities. Roger talked about Dave Warnock's response to why there appear to be so few black members of atheist communities. Dave's response was basically, "I've noticed that, but I'm not black, so I wouldn't venture to say..." From there, the conversation turned to the use of term "African American," and its inherent problems. (Apparently, someone - not in our group - called Idris Elba "African American" - He's Welsh, dammit!) Toward the end of the discussion, we got into the possibility that Roger may not ever again be joining us - if a recent acquaintance is correct about having prayed for him and The Thing That Can Give Him Faith occurs... whatever that is...
Roger... are you out there? Did it happen?
If I missed anything, I'm sorry! I love and value you all! Please, check your e-mail as time goes by. Survey results will be published soon, we're still doing t-shirt stuff, and WE HAVE TO FIND A NEW PLACE TO MEET! AUGH!
-Sean
Monday, January 13, 2020
"Oh, January!" sings Colin Meloy
(Reference from the subject line.)There is a lot of stuff coming up this month!
---
Today, we talked about what we might want from the group for 2020 - what events might interest people, how often said events might happen, etc. We've talked about a number of possible events:
We talked a lot about doing things that could be family oriented. There are a lot of more adult activities that get regular attendees, but more family oriented stuff has always been on the back burner. Today, we talked about doing picnics and trips to bowling alleys/laser tag arenas/arcades. Activities don't necessarily have to be non-alcoholic, but I don't think kids really get much out of going to bars...
The idea of family friendly events spurred a lot of conversation and the potential for a survey that will be created, vetted, and given to the Meetup group so that even people who don't USUALLY come to things can weigh in on what night make them want to.
We talked about doing a second weekly (perhaps staying monthly) discussion Meetup that could be centered around meals, possibly parodying the religious "AWANA" with, "AWANA Eat."
Another point is that SCOTT's final "T" is "Triad," not "Greensboro." We have a lot of members who love outside of Greensboro, and it might be nice if our repertoire of events reflected that.
Though it wasn't mentioned today, we have talked about doing something like an Unbeliever's Day Out with trips to museums, the Science Center, etc. There really are a lot of things in the area to do.
Anyway, there will be a survey soon. I'll send out a draft of it in the next few days to see if anyone has suggestions for questions/events.
Until then... https://me.me/market?
Much Love,
Sean
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Lamb 2020
Per the Subject Line - New Year, New Ewe...?
---
Today, we talked about New Year's Resolutions... or lack thereof... but before saying anything about that, here are some updates:
- The Book Club is reading Oryx and Crake. The meeting will be on January 25th at 5 pm. RSVP and get more information here.
- Adopt-a-Street is meeting on January 11th at 9:30 am. RSVP and get more information here.
- Lyn is hosting a movie night on January 18th at 6 pm. RSVP and get more information here. FOOTLOOSE!!!
- David Warnock will be speaking with our Secular Sunday group on January 26th. RSVP and get more information here.
- Lisa will be hosting a potluck on February 1st. RSVP and get more information here.
- It would appear that we're going to have a crafting meetup within our group! I was thinking that it would be really fun to have a name that somehow related to witchcraft, but I couldn't think of any off the top of my head. (HELP!)
New Year's Resolutions - several of us shared individual resolutions, some of those were kind of personal, so I didn't want to say too much about them here, but I did feel like it was valuable to share some of the strategies that people were using to help meet the goals that they had set:
A few people talked about making resolutions that were concrete, incremental, and achievable, as opposed to nebulous, saltatory, and overly optimistic. We also pointed out that many of our resolutions revolve around cutting things out of our lives or forcing ourselves to do things that we don't want to do. Karen pointed out (and a lot of people liked the idea) that we can add things that make us feel good to our lives. Resolving, for instance, to do something that brings you joy every day, even if it's only for a little while, is a positive thing. Someone else (Tabitha or Jessica? SORRY, I THINK IT CAME FROM THAT DIRECTION!) mentioned that it can be really positive to add something to your life if you're going to take something out. If you're going to say that you shouldn't be on social media as much, force yourself to read a book that you're going to enjoy! I actually saw something where they were encouraging people to drink wine rather than beer - I mean... maybe? I dunno.
We talked about holding ourselves accountable by sharing resolutions with others: "Hey! Ask me how much water I've had when you see me!" There's also a difference between accountability and beating yourself up - which can be exceptionally counterproductive.
Judy shared with us the idea of a "Yes" year - (with restrictions of safety and legality.)
A lot of people had things to say about resolving to be more intentional in terms of interactions with family, friends, and "friends." Many of us have burning, burnt, and... inflammable bridges with people whom we love but are toxic to us as individuals. ...or people with whom we have history or shared genetics, but are toxic all the same. Anyway, we discussed different ways of interacting with them - writing rather than calling (thank you for the idea Tabitha!) because it gives you a chance to put your words together without being interrupted or put on the spot.
We also talked about the difference between fighting fire with fire and simply cutting people out or moderating our interactions to the point where they cannot hurt us. There is a lot to consider in most cases. And, familial interactions seldom ever take place in a proverbial vacuum. But, with some ingenuity and levelheadedness, we can (hopefully) find peace with ourselves and those with whom we interact.
At the end of the discussion, we decided that next time, we'll talk about what we want to try to accomplish within the group. Roger suggested something with feeding the homeless - something we've done in the past, but could definitely do more of and there are easy ways to do it if we don't marry ourselves to the IRC. We also talked about adopting local families. I am going to talk to the guidance at my school and see if there is any way that we can put something together for kids who are in need. I know we have some. Additionally, our group has a lot of contacts within political organizations. I doubt I need to tell anyone what kind of a year 2020 is in terms of that. (Also, one of the reasons we're not getting our tax exempt status as a church.)
Alright! I'll see you all soon, hopefully.
Much love,
Sean
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