The Big Atheism+ Thing [old thread]

[Grimalkin]

The Atheism+ Emergency Support Project option has won. See this new thread.


See the "Proposed Projects" section for descriptions. The poll is set to allow voting for two projects.
Voting is open until midnight (CST) on October 15th. EDIT: Changed to the end of october 19th

I've been thinking for a while that Atheism+ needs some big project to work on. Something that everyone Atheism+ can contribute to, that a lot of people would contribute to, and then when it was finished, we could all look at together and say "Yep, we did that."

I tossed this idea around privately with a few others, and I got a pretty good consensus that this would be a good thing. So, now, I'm making the idea public.

The Plan:
I'm going to leave this thread open for suggestions until the end of Friday, October 12th (Going by CST- and tentatively. If needed I'll extend this time). During that time, if you have any ideas for a big Atheism+ project, post them here. Any ideas, whatsoever.

If you don't have any ideas of your own, but you like the ideas already proposed, post supporting them. And if you have any general suggestions for projects in general, post those too!

After the suggestion period, I'll set up a poll in this thread with the ten suggestions that have the most support. I'll leave voting up until Monday, October 15th.

Then it will just be a matter of putting whatever project gets chosen into motion!

The Kinds of Projects I'm Looking For:
As I said at the beginning, I want this to be something that everyone can contribute to. Whether people have money, goods, creativity, or time to contribute- and even if they have very little of any of that. As such, it should be something that has a lot of different ways for people to contribute to it.

Ideally, it should also be something that reaches out of our community and into the world. Something bigger than ourselves that will make a difference outside of our groups.

And of course, it should be in line with Atheism+.

How You Can Help:
Along with suggesting projects and voting on them, there are a lot of ways that this could use some help! Most importantly, I want this to reach out to all of Atheism+ for support. Not just those who visit the Organization subforum, or just for those who are members of this site, or even just those who are actively members of the group!

If you participate in the Subreddit and could ask for support, ideas, or votes on projects from the people there, that would be fantastic. If you have a blog, big or small, and could post about this there, that would also be a great help. Any way that you know of that we could get this project a platform and some attention would be awesome.

It would also be great to see what people would be willing to take a leading role in organizing this endeavor, because it will probably take a lot of organizing. So if you have time and ability to help get this going, either in this planning/deciding stage or once we have a project decided upon, that would be fantastic. If I have to, I'll take upon a leadership role in this to make sure that it succeeds, but I'd love to have others willing to do the same!

...Oh, and as much as I don't want to be presumptuous, if a mod or admin would be willing to sticky this- perhaps even globally across the boards? That would be incredibly appreciated (If a mod/admin feels that this is worthy of that, anyways). As a project that could hopefully involve everyone, it would be nice to be able to, well, shove it in people's faces NO LONGER NEEDED HAIL MODS/ADMINS.

Proposed Projects:
(All projects proposed within this thread will be edited into here as they're proposed)

Charity Drive: We collect goods and money and donate them to a charity or shelter (which we would decide upon). This was talked about a little in this thread. I'm also of the opinion that this could work similar to how the SSA blogathon worked on Freethought Blogs, where people who don't have much to give on their own (or perhaps do, but want to give more) could find ways of raising donations from other people.

Atheism+ Emergency Support Project: A freecycle-esque project to give support to those who need it. We would do things like give information to people who are in emergency situations- for example, connecting someone in an abusive situation with information on a local shelter- or connecting people in need of goods with others who have things to spare.

Protest Twoofus.org: Protesting a US government funded, anti-LGBT, heteronormative marriage site. More information in Antdevamp's post here. Rickymooston also proposed that we support/set up a pro-LGBT marriage site in contrast.

Woman & PoC Conference Scholarships: A scholarship fund for ethnic minorities and women to attend conferences with harassment policies.

Support OWS: Details would still need to be figured out, but something to support the Occupy Wallstreet movement.Removed, because OWS has a huge number of issues with Feminism

Secular Social Justice Awards: Giving awards to people in secularism for their contributions to social justice, from Pwrong's post

Social Justice Debating Resources: Collecting studies and factual resources to use in debates on social justice. Elaborated on in Pwrong's post.

~*~

Alright, without further ado, I'm going to declare this thread open to suggestions! Now get to suggesting things

[hyperdeath]

Does anyone have the experience to set up an Atheism Plus bank account? Basically a way of storing money, so that it belongs to the atheism plus forum (or movement), or some derivative thereof.

[Flewellyn]

I think setting up a nonprofit would be the way to go, for that.

[Stephen T]

Just posted this on the Atheism+ reddit

Edited - it's up, with Grimalkin's Avatar And already with an upvote...

[LifeLongAtheist]

I think setting up a nonprofit would be the way to go, for that.

I was thinking the same thing. It would be very complicated though.

Where would it be "incorporated"? USA, UK... etc
Would need a board of governors, treasurer, president, board meetings and annual meetings to vote on things.
A mission statement would be needed to outline the goals and objectives of Atheism+.

[Flewellyn]

This is something that goes beyond this forum. We should maybe talk to some of the FTB folks about it.

[julian]

This is something that goes beyond this forum. We should maybe talk to some of the FTB folks about it.

Ah, so true colors come out! hmmmm?

You're independent, you say? hmmmmm?

You're not worshiping at the alter of PZ, you say? hmmmmm?

Then why run back to FtB whenever something happens? hmmmmmm?

hmmmmmmm?

hmmmmmmm?

Seriously though, that's a wonderful idea. I'm sure someone like Stephanie Zvan or Crommunist could point us in the right direction.

[LifeLongAtheist]

This is something that goes beyond this forum. We should maybe talk to some of the FTB folks about it.

It just occurred to me that setting up a nonprofit could be seen as "taking ownership" of atheism+.

[hyperdeath]

This is something that goes beyond this forum. We should maybe talk to some of the FTB folks about it.

And elsewhere. We want this as decentralized as possible.

[Flewellyn]

Yep. That's why we go to Reddit as well. And Facebook? Do we know if the A+ Facebook page is doing much of anything?

[julian]

Before any commitment is made to publicity we need the logistics worked out. Right now this is about deciding what "The Big F@#$ing Thing" will be. Until we know that we'll just be saddle with ideas and input that won't actually lead us to a decision.

Asking for general advise on starting a non profit, accepting donation and the like, on the other hand, is something that could really help point us in the right direction.

[maiforpeace]

Does anyone have the experience to set up an Atheism Plus bank account? Basically a way of storing money, so that it belongs to the atheism plus forum (or movement), or some derivative thereof.

I do.

As a board member of the Ethical Culture Society of Silicon Valley, have some basic understanding of finances in doing board business, and I've been the Treasurer of another non-profit, my local Redwood Ramblers Toastmaster's club! All with references even!

Right now, what I might suggest, is using this forum, initially as a starting point. Somebody owns the site, (don't think I didn't notice those asked that you glossed it over when I offered funds, but you will have reveal yourself eventually but my guess is it's Sillidar or Hyperdeath) hopefully they are in the US and they could make me a co-owner in name, and I would be willing to do the legwork setting up the A+forum bank account. To make it above board, we nominate a board of directors for oversight, and report to the membership for transparency. The bank account name, Atheism+Forum.

[LifeLongAtheist]

Before any commitment is made to publicity we need the logistics worked out. Right now this is about deciding what "The Big F@#$ing Thing" will be. Until we know that we'll just be saddle with ideas and input that won't actually lead us to a decision.

Asking for general advise on starting a non profit, accepting donation and the like, on the other hand, is something that could really help point us in the right direction.

Here is a link, http://nonprofit.about.com/od/gettingst ... tartup.htm

[Amok]

Maybe members could share the charities/initiatives in which they personally participate? From that, if others agree, the community could decide on a short-list.

And perhaps instead of organizing a pool, when making a contribution people could make a declaration that it's from Person X, Atheism+.

[Grimalkin]

*Wakes up from sleepynappy time*

*opens thread*

*blinks*

Well so I am super happy with how far this thread has gotten in the four hours since I posted it!

Just posted this on the Atheism+ reddit

Edited - it's up, with Grimalkin's Avatar And already with an upvote...

.
Thanks Stephen!

This is something that goes beyond this forum. We should maybe talk to some of the FTB folks about it.

It just occurred to me that setting up a nonprofit could be seen as "taking ownership" of atheism+.

Yeah, this would be one problem with a nonprofit, but so long as it only exists to give us the power to do things and not to say "THIS is Atheism+" I think we'd avoid that. It would be funny 'though- "Look at that Atheist hivemind NOW!! They've started doing CHARITY, the bastards!"

Yep. That's why we go to Reddit as well. And Facebook? Do we know if the A+ Facebook page is doing much of anything?

I haven't seen much about the A+ group there (mostly because I don't have an account and further can't into facebook) but, it's not like it would hurt to have this posted about there, should anyone be in that group. Same if there's a non-troll A+ twitter hashtag (I wanna say there was, but don't remember).

Before any commitment is made to publicity we need the logistics worked out. Right now this is about deciding what "The Big F@#$ing Thing" will be. Until we know that we'll just be saddle with ideas and input that won't actually lead us to a decision.

Asking for general advise on starting a non profit, accepting donation and the like, on the other hand, is something that could really help point us in the right direction.

This is a good point. I'm still in favor of reaching out outside of our forums right now, since that would give us more people to work out the logistics with, but this should definitely be the first step.

Maybe members could share the charities/initiatives in which they personally participate? From that, if others agree, the community could decide on a short-list.

And perhaps instead of organizing a pool, when making a contribution people could make a declaration that it's from Person X, Atheism+.

Am I right in reading this as a way to go about doing a charity drive? Because, yeah, deciding on charities based on the ones that the members here are familiar with would be good, particularly because that would have us donating to more local charities as opposed to big name ones (which would have less issues with publicity).

I think that individual contributions could work alongside an organizing pool. Both methods ("Big collected donation" and "Lots of small donations") have their ups and downs, so they could work together.

Should I add this onto the list as its own suggestion or consider it a part of the charity drive?

[Antdevamp]

I have a project I have been nursing, for your approval.

There is a Bush era hangover laying about, still guzzling dollars from 'Health and Human Services' but basically doing nothing.
The current administration has taken no steps to crush it, when under any ideal light, it is an eyesore.

http://www.twoofus.org

What is this heteronormative horror, you ask? Why do I feel chills arcing down my body looking at their anti-progressive by negation style posture?

I can't put it better than the anonymous researcher on Quora who dug up it's roots.

Let's break this all down:

Operations/Management Chain
Twoofus.org --- run by --> The National Healthy Marriage Resource Center (NHMRC)

NHMRC -- run by --> Public Strategies, Inc.

Public Strategies, Inc. -- run by --> Mary Myrick

Funding Chain
Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 --> provides for "Healthy Marriage Initiative" (HMI) funding overseen by -- > US Dept. Health and Human Services / Administration for Children and Families Distributes (DHHS ACF)

DHHS/ACF -- distributed HMI grant funding to --> Public Strategies, Inc.

Public Strategies Inc was awarded $2,000,000 for the grant period of 9/30/06 – 9/29/11 to use for the NHMRC project (which funds twoofus.org).


The Key Players
1) Mary Myrick - http://www.healthymarriageinfo.o...
Is the lead of this project. She also runs the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (http://www.okmarriage.org/)

Apparently she has been under investigation by the Oklahoma Senate:
Mary Myrick ran Rob Johnson's unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1994.
Myrick's firm, Public Strategies, came under scrutiny when then-State Land Commission director Rob Johnson awarded it a controversial $600,000 advertising contract.
Myrick made headlines when she and a firm employee attempted to prevent Oklahoma City animal control officers from removing Myrick's pet monkey from her office after a biting incident.
She came under fire for her work on the [OK] marriage initiative after it was learned that she was billing the state for frivolous services such as reading books and watching videos.
Questions were raised again when it was revealed that Myrick was also being paid several hundred thousands dollars to stage one-day conferences for Governor Keating's Safe and Drug Free Schools program.
"Without any financial accounting, we don't have any idea where state tax dollars are going. The state has pledged to pay this person up to $1.6 million over the next four years, but we aren't getting any documentation about how she's spending the money. It's a recipe for disaster," said Senator Easley.

(See: http://www.oksenate.gov/news/pre... | http://www.oksenate.gov/news/pre... | http://www.oksenate.gov/news/pre... | http://www.oksenate.gov/news/pre... | http://www.oksenate.gov/news/pre... )


2) The Healthy Marriage Initiative - http://www.acf.hhs.gov/healthyma...
"Beginning in 2001, the Bush administration began working with congressional leaders on reauthorization of the welfare reform legislation. Over the next five years several versions of a reauthorization bill were introduced that amended the 1996 law in several ways including adding provisions that would encourage states to make greater efforts to promote and strengthen marriage, and, to a lesser extent, responsible fatherhood. The reauthorization bill that eventually became law in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 included the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Act which established a new grant program to fund healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood programs." (from: http://www.healthymarriageinfo.o...)

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 provides funding of $150 million each year that follow certain guidelines: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/healthyma...

Seeing as the federal government -- and especially the Bush Administration -- defines marriage as involving one man and one woman, the programs funded by the program are, of course, hetero-normative.

[On a related note, you may remember hearing about the Healthy Marriage Initiative because Maggie Gallagher (as in, the chair and former president of the flagrantly anti-gay National Organization for Marriage) received tens of thousands of dollars in 2002 and 2003 to help promote Bush's Healthy Marriage Initiative, and later came under fire for not disclosing these payments when she testified before Congress about the benefits of healthy marriage programs.

Similar-in-nature allegations were made about Michael McManus (founder of Marriage Savers), a syndicated columnist , was paid as a HMI subcontractor to provide marriage education services, and later wrote in support of Bush's marriage initiatives without disclosing this payment.]


Not included in the Quora Question, but relevant to the topic of heteronormativity and Twoofus.org:
This blog:
https://talkaboutequality.wordpr...

Gives a rundown of what happened when the writer asked Twoofus.org if they would give advice to a same-sex couple. (Briefly, their answer: No)

Out of curiosity, I did search the NHMRC site for any references to same-sex relationships, and was only able to dig up this obscure paragraph buried in one report:
"These elements may be relevant for same-sex relationships, as well. However, the research base on same-sex couples is quite thin and has numerous methodological problems.31 Our con­ceptualization has been developed based on studies of heterosexual couples and is, we think, appropriate for these couples; but we do not know whether it would be found appropri­ate for same-sex couples."

So I'm flexible. Change.org petition with all of us tweeting with full strength, active campaign with real life protest signs, some combo of the two, trolling their related offices in Health and Human Services, or just an awareness campaign of how awful this little eyesore really is. It's low hanging fruit, but I figure even with our loose current organization, this is nice and smashable, and utterly worthy of our contempt. It states it's exclusion of LGBT families and relationships by propaganda, funded BY OUR GOVERNMENT. I find this an intolerable state of affairs and hope you agree. Granted, there are many more upbeat projects afoot, so choose the one you think speaks best to the PR you want projected for A+. I treasure you all.

[Verity]

Hi gang,

I'm brand new so this may be presumptuous, but I'm an attorney and have some experience with non-profits. I'm not really practicing any more (I've gone corporate) but if you decide to do it, and you decide to do it in the States, I could potentially offer some informal help with setting up a 501(c)(3) corporation. It's a ton of paper, but there's nothing very tricky about it.

Just remember I'm here if you end up going that route and I'd be happy to chit chat about it.

[Grimalkin]

So I'm flexible. Change.org petition with all of us tweeting with full strength, active campaign with real life protest signs, some combo of the two, trolling their related offices in Health and Human Services, or just an awareness campaign of how awful this little eyesore really is. It's low hanging fruit, but I figure even with our loose current organization, this is nice and smashable, and utterly worthy of our contempt. It states it's exclusion of LGBT families and relationships by propaganda, funded BY OUR GOVERNMENT. I find this an intolerable state of affairs and hope you agree. Granted, there are many more upbeat projects afoot, so choose the one you think speaks best to the PR you want projected for A+. I treasure you all.

Perhaps low-hanging fruit, but fruit nonetheless, and it would make for a nice starting point for doing big things, particularly regarding government. I would think this could ideally be all of the methods of protesting you listed- change.org petitions, real life campaigns and protests, and awareness campaigns. I'll add it to the lists

Hi gang,

I'm brand new so this may be presumptuous, but I'm an attorney and have some experience with non-profits. I'm not really practicing any more (I've gone corporate) but if you decide to do it, and you decide to do it in the States, I could potentially offer some informal help with setting up a 501(c)(3) corporation. It's a ton of paper, but there's nothing very tricky about it.

Just remember I'm here if you end up going that route and I'd be happy to chit chat about it.

I don't think anyone here is going to look at more help as presumptuous
Thanks for the offer, It'll probably be a big help to those working on getting a/the nonprofit set up

[Olivier]

MOD EDIT: Hidden for trolling [ Show ]

How about a bus campaign to raise awareness of important issues like Schrodinger's Rapist?

MOD NOTE: Olivier, trolling is not appreciated.

[julian]

So I'm flexible. Change.org petition with all of us tweeting with full strength, active campaign with real life protest signs, some combo of the two, trolling their related offices in Health and Human Services, or just an awareness campaign of how awful this little eyesore really is. It's low hanging fruit, but I figure even with our loose current organization, this is nice and smashable, and utterly worthy of our contempt. It states it's exclusion of LGBT families and relationships by propaganda, funded BY OUR GOVERNMENT. I find this an intolerable state of affairs and hope you agree. Granted, there are many more upbeat projects afoot, so choose the one you think speaks best to the PR you want projected for A+. I treasure you all.

Perhaps low-hanging fruit, but fruit nonetheless, and it would make for a nice starting point for doing big things, particularly regarding government. I would think this could ideally be all of the methods of protesting you listed- change.org petitions, real life campaigns and protests, and awareness campaigns. I'll add it to the lists

Because of the time consuming nature of actually setting up a nonprofit, picking a treasurer and forming a board, this is probably the route to go.

I give my vote to it, anyway.

[LifeLongAtheist]

I'll play the "devils advocate" here,

Is this the right time to be taking on more stress as a community?

The site has only been up for a short time and by your own admission you're still getting your feet under yourselves. I have seen many organizations and businesses implode because they tried to do to much to fast.

My biggest question is, "What is the Mission(Goal) of the Atheist Plus Forum"?

Once that can be decided upon, we will be much more focused on what our direction will be going forward.

[Grimalkin]

Because of the time consuming nature of actually setting up a nonprofit, picking a treasurer and forming a board, this is probably the route to go.

I give my vote to it, anyway.

Yeah, that's a good point. Which goes along with...

I'll play the "devils advocate" here,

Is this the right time to be taking on more stress as a community?

The site has only been up for a short time and by your own admission you're still getting your feet under yourselves. I have seen many organizations and businesses implode because they tried to do to much to fast.

My biggest question is, "What is the Mission(Goal) of the Atheist Plus Forum"?

Once that can be decided upon, we will be much more focused on what our direction will be going forward.

This good point. I personally am of the opinion that a bit of eustress could be the cure for the distress we're faced with now, but we should definitely be wary of biting off too much in case it ends up, well, choking us.

As for a mission of the forums (and I'm assuming, of an A+ nonprofit), I'd have to say something like "Promoting social justice causes from a non-religious standpoint" or similar. Perhaps more elaboration might be needed, though, by those more creative than me. Though it would probably be wise to keep our mission broad.


...side note, I am having the hardest time not saying that we are a non-prophet organization.

[Flewellyn]

...side note, I am having the hardest time not saying that we are a non-prophet organization.

...damn you. I should have thought of that. I HAVE thought it in the past. Why didn't I say it here?

[Grimalkin]

...side note, I am having the hardest time not saying that we are a non-prophet organization.

...damn you. I should have thought of that. I HAVE thought it in the past. Why didn't I say it here?

Because I beat you to it, dammit

[Stephen T]

...side note, I am having the hardest time not saying that we are a non-prophet organization.

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