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 .