T̶h̶e̶ ̶G̶o̶l̶d̶e̶n̶ ̶J̶e̶t̶!̶ How Should SCOTT Spend Your Donations?

To the People Who Actually Make Me Look Forward to an Eternity of Damnation,

Before I write anything else, I wanted to tell you all just how psyched I am about everything that's going on with our group these days: meeting new members, reuniting with older members, hosting/seeing new events, feeling a lot of interest, and, as always, having great Secular Sunday discussions. If no one has told you this today, I am now: if you're on this list, you're a freaking awesome person. Keep it up! Hit me with suggestions for events, ideas about topics, etc. Here are links to our website, discussion topic list, and book catalogue. (The website link is at the bottom of all of these e-mails, and the discussion and book catalogue links are on the website.)

Pls! Halp!

We are looking for anyone in the group who 1) has any graphic design experience (as our current meetup site thumbnail, if printed and/or sold on t-shirts or whatever, will surely violate some copyright laws.) 2) is interested in volunteering at our table for Greensboro Pride on September 15th. There will be a chance to RSVP on the meetup site (if there isn't already - I've been writing this e-mail over the course of some days), and we can volunteer for times there. 3) would like to host some events! This doesn't have to be at your house or anything, we just need people to organize some activities. There is currently no Drinking Skeptically for August. If anyone wanted to pick a bar, and Be There, I'd say not much else is required... 

The Survey!

So, at this point, thanks to the very generous and very awesome people in our group, we're at $441. Almost to the point where we don't even need to choose between shelves and 501c3 status, as the shelves should cost roughly $330, and the application fee is $275 (for a total of $605.) But, we’re still a long way off from my being able to afford a golden jet. That having been said, I want to get the ball rolling on these items, but I am absolutely, positively not going to touch our funding without a vote from the group (but, you know, atheists are bad.) So, which one do we want to do first?

Just for background, and a bit of a repeat (for some): 

 - We want 501c3 status for a number of reasons: 1) transparency - I really don't want the funds for this organization tied to anyone's personal bank account. I don't think anyone does. 2) Having a group bank account will give us the ability to take checks and other forms of donation so that we can fund raise for a variety of charitable causes. 3) Legitimacy - we're growing as a group. (Shout out to all the bots on our meetup site! Kidding!) As we get bigger, there are going to be chances for us to help move the "good without god" conversation forward, and as a registered non-profit, it lends a bit more credibility to our capacity for causing positive change in the community without having to praise any specific sky wizards for having done so. The main reason to vote for this, in my opinion, is that we're almost at the $605 necessary for both items - if we get this started, we can probably have the funding raised for both and the shelves installed without too much grief. 

 - We want to put the shelves in before it gets cold. When the IRC starts having White Flag nights, it will be inundated with people who have very little but need a place to put their things. That's still a good bit of the way off, but we'll need to re-raise funding for the lumber and start later at putting them together. I also am not sure how many people will volunteer (though I have a feeling it will be quite a few, as many have expressed interest). So, if we have a light turn out for shelf building, it could take us a while to assemble everything. Also, the $330 is a basic cost. If we naff up, (because our hands were not being guided by Jeebus) we might need to adjust that. The main reason, I would say, to get the ball rolling on this is that it is time sensitive, 501c3 status is not.

There are great reasons to vote for either option, but please, think about it and click here to cast your vote!

I will shut down the survey and post the results next Monday!

Meeting Notes from 8/11

Secular Sunday
8/12/2019
Attendees:
- Ann Brady - Richard - Sean Bienert - Lisa - Andy - Tara - Rachel - Sheryl - Molly
- Pearl - Brian - Miles - Will - Chris - Tracy - Joe - Bob - Stephanie - Pam - Stephanie H. - Beth

Announcements:
Money survey coming up. We need to pay for 501c3 certification, shelving for IRC, Meetup site.
Sunday, Aug. 25 th , after lunch we will be going to the Cat Café to love on some cats.
Book club is Aug 24 th 5-6:30 Job: A Comedy of Justice. Also book club survey is out now.
Pride Day is coming up. We will have a table.
Movie night is Aug 30 th .
Discussion Notes:
Shame is today’s topic. Democratization of shame – nothing ever goes away on the internet.
Miles – stigma vs shame. Shame has many cultural connotations and uses. Guilt is an internal control.
Sean – we don’t trust people so that may be why we have no shame.
Lots of people don’t seem to feel any shame for anything.
Shame is something that children are taught over things that they have no control over. The word
shame can hit different people in different ways. We use shame to teach children but we often cause
damage.
Religion – the whole basis is shame.
Don’t discuss atheism in school because of the potential repercussions. Those of us who work in the
schools mostly agree. Rachel is more open.
Saying I’ll pray for you is a way of shaming people. It’s very passive aggressive.
Shame is a control mechanism. It can get out of hand because now we have to live with our mistakes
forever because of social media.

Some things that happened in the past cannot be refuted because of the time that has passed. So is
permanent shame ok in those cases.
Why have we lost a sense of common shame in this country? Why have we accepted the demonization
of the “other”?
The two things we are told not to discuss in polite company are religion and politics. Is that because we
acknowledge that sometimes we espouse some ugly things because of our religion or politics.
It is easy to convert shame or guilt into something else as a defense mechanism. Turn it into anger or
apathy.
How do you cut off the past and start anew? How do you start over in this world of social media? Are we
not worthy of second chances?
There are web services now that will bury your bad press and social media. Could be a great service for
people who just had a momentary dumb attack or said something that was totally misunderstood. But it
is very expensive so that mostly only the very wealthy who can afford it.
The idea that we are grooming a society that interacts through social media, sound bites and memes is
frightening.
Social media is power and money. We give one or two companies tremendous power over our lives.
If you look at a physical map and electrical impulses in our brains, social media clicks and likes reinforce
certain pathways in our brain. We get a serotonin hit.
You can flatten a person’s personality by constant shaming. You can remove their shame. Abused
children sometimes become sociopathic criminals with no shame.
Shame and guilt are not the same. You can have shame without guilt and guilt without shame. You can
internalize shame, especially if you are taught this as a child.
Shame is focused on the self. Guilt is related to empathy.
Fundraising – does anyone have any graphic design skills so that we can develop things to sell online?
Topics? Add to the list.

Shelving Dimensions, Cost Breakdown, and Picture

Framing Lumber - 

2 x 4 x 144" x 4 = $24 - for 6' vertical columns

2 x 2 x 96" x 8 = $32 - for 8' horizontal support beams

Plywood
4 x 8 x 2 = $34 - for the shelves themselves

Screws and finish (or paint)

150 screws $11

$10-$20 paint

---

So that's about $110 per shelf x 3 - $330.

All righty, I think that's it. As always, much love to you all and have a great rest of your week! I hope to see you Sunday or sooner!

Email from Last Week!

TOPICSSo, I've included the topic list. Let me know if you cannot access it. 

As was suggested at the last meeting, I'd like to do a couple of announced and possibly lightly curated topics (I'll come in prepared with questions if and only if the discussion doesn't move as well as it might.) I'll call for suggestions at the end of each meeting, if I can remember (you can help! I love you all!)

Because I just finished the incredible fascinating, So, You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson, I thought that Shame would be a great topic. Religions use it, lawyers use it, society uses it. What do you think? Also, because I cannot say the word without thinking of this, I'mma justa gonna leava this here:

So, please, don't feel ashamed! Add some topics to the list! Discuss what you'd like to discuss at the meeting this week!

New Meetups!

On the 24th, we have a Book Club (click the link for more info and to RSVP) coming up. On the 25th, after Secular Sunday (and probably lunch), we'll be paying a visit to the Crooked Tail cat cafe. Next up, there has been a call on the page for more meetups! Tara often has information about actions through Indivisible - I think it would be great to put together a few meetups for that. Also, we'd love to do another movie night, and, as we get closer to school starting the odds of my doing another Drinking Skeptically are decreasing. So, if anyone would like to be the point person for that, it'd be awesome. In the past, we've done board game nights and even a trip or two. I've never been to the Greensboro History Museum - would anyone like to try that out?

And Greensboro Pride Day is September 15th... As in previous years, we're going to have a table. We'll need your help to staff it. I will set up an event in the very near future, so you'll be able to RSVP there.

As for the shelving situation, thank you all so much for your comments and suggestions. As for pre-made shelving, that would be super convenient, but 1) I haven't seen any that doesn't make me worry about the durability, size, or cost 2) because this is going to be temporary storage for a lot of people's stuff on White Flag Nights (temperature gets dangerously cold for the homeless) it really ought to have compartments. If you can find anything like that, please, let me know. More on all of that later.*

Our Website!

So, if you've been to www.jovialitybeforemortality.org recently, you'll notice that it's still basically running the same stuff... in other words: these e-mails, essentially. Also, the store still goes to the FAACT page. The Activism and Content links almost haven't been updated since the page's inception. (I have a plan for this.) So, I wanted to put a call out for anyone who might be interested in designing some swag for our Zazzle.com store - so, you know, we can... have one. Though I think we should float it to the group first, I'm feeling proceeds for shirts and such could feed our need for funding for 1) 501c3 fee 2) shelving materials 3) meetup fees 4) my golden jet 5) other charitable work (there's plenty of it around here... but, you know, golden jet first.) - and more on that later**

The Poll

I want to put out a poll soon on where our money should go. As of last Sunday, we have $391 in the coffers. That having been said, $150 (Lyn - check me on that, is that correct?) will be due for registering for the Pride Day event so that we can have a table. It would basically be - should we file for 501c3 status before buying material for the shelving, or should we go for the shelving first. Remember, the shelving is for the late fall at the very earliest, so we can probably afford to put it off for a little while. And, 501c3 status could help us with raising money because we can open an organization bank account instead of keeping things in coffee can at the northeastern corner 1 Governmental Plaza in Greensboro. (I keed! I keed!) However, 330ish dollars is a lot of money, and I worry about how long it might take us to raise that if we go for 501c3 status sooner. So, before I put the poll together, I wanted to ask you - our beloved group - for input on how the money should be spent.* I feel really bad about having assumed that we would do a Pride Day table without having consulted the whole group. If a lot of people e-mail me about this, I'll consider trying something else (emergency fund raising? Knocking on doors? Selling those chalky oversized candy bars to my students?) so that we don't have to go into the groups funds for it. That having been said, I only gave a nod to this because I figured that this is exactly the kind of thing that the funding is for - keep in mind, it hasn't been spent or anything yet. I would never do that without the group's approval.**

Much love to you all, and I hope to hear some feed back soon! (...from you... you know, not like, uh, microphone feedback. That's, uh, that's terrible.)

Le Notes

Secular Sunday
8/8/2019
Attendees:
 Ann Brady, Kia, Sean Bienert, Lyn, Charles, Pearl, Brian, Judy, Adrienne, Pam, Molly, Bob, Tara, Francie, Ronnie, Carol,oe


Announcements:
No Drinking Skeptically planned for August (Yet?)
8/24 Next bookclub meeting. The book is Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein.
We have $311 in our account. The fee for filing as a 501(c) is $275. Shelving for the IRC will be $330.
Pride table is $150. Donations are appreciated.
The Indivisible Candidate forum is in HP on Sunday at 4 pm.
Swing Left is doing postcards and Get Out the Vote for 9 th district candidate McCready
In the Sunday Greensboro N & R there is an article about Liberty University and the culture of fear there.
Discussion Notes:
How do you cope with all the bad news.
 Disconnect from social media and the news
 Exercise
 Do the right thing
Even if humanity survives and doesn’t go extinct, we currently have a higher standard of living than we
can expect to have in the future.
Complacency, denial, despair are all problems. People become frozen
Self-care is very important, as is a sense of community – feeling that there are others who share your
values.
If we are going to fix our problems, we have to come together.
The Onion is a good release for these times, but we need to draw a line between satire and new.
Before Trump we didn’t have the problems with vitriol and nastiness.
Money in politics is easier to notice now, if not control.

You don’t get anywhere by not prioritizing your issues.
Education has been intentionally dumbed down.
Person who won the Nobel Prize for Economics last year did it on the theory that people don’t act
rationally.
Group insanity. Some people think it’s actually a thing. Some (Mencken) say you don’t get it all the time
because people are afraid to show who they are.
Hate speech on the internet gives you a certain amount of anonymity, but the internet is forever. It will
come back to haunt you.
Curate what comes into your life.
Pride is September 15 th .