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
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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!
