Sydney Atheists

There's been a lot of movement in the Sydney Atheists over the past few months and it's been fantastic to be a part of this group as it loses it's baby teeth and becomes a fully fledged organisation. I think that the time has come to let everybody in on the changes, structure and growth of the organisation that have come to be lately.

But first, a bit of background is required. It all started a couple of years ago, when the Sydney Atheists meetup group was created by Ansgar (perhaps he will expand on the process in the comments?). This group would hold regular monthly meetings with the vision to bring likeminded people together and facilitate the free exchange of ideas in an open and comfortable environment. The meetup would host a monthly meeting, which would include a topical talk, as well as plenty of general discussion and opportunities for socialisation. Additionally, there were also monthly social lounge events, which would not have an agenda and were more of a meet-&-greet, get to know you kind of affair. Both of these are still running and now form the basis of the social aspects of the organisation.

At some time in the development of the Sydney Atheists (someone will be able to clarify when), about a year ago, a group of interested people formed a sub group called the 'Sydney Atheist Action Group' which would get together and work on a variety of projects that were outside of the scope of the more socially based meetup group.

This group (unappealingly acronymed to SAAG) toiled with a variety of projects, but it wasn't until 'World Youth Day' that the cogs really began to turn.



[World Youth Day was the misnomer for the week that the Pope visited Sydney, earlier this year]

During WYD, the Sydney Atheists mounted a campaign of reason to stand up against the ridiculous nature under which the Pope's visit was conducted (including a massive overspending and a controversial ban on annoying the pilgrims). During this time, the SAAG group was responsible for organising various campaigns promoting reason and secular values over faith and dogma. (including the now infamous 'Good without god' message, along with 'the pope should pay his own way' and the 'sponsor a lion' messages)



This brought much interest to the SAAG group and following the WYD protests the momentum that the group had picked up was funneled into the formation of the Sydney Atheists Committee, marking the beginning of the 'Next Steps' for the Sydney Atheists

The committee consists of a group of people interested in promoting, developing, organising and maintaining the group. We have a variety of roles (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer) and stream coordinators (Social, Educational, Media, Policy, IT) which focus on the different areas of the organisation.

So far the committee has been working on our charter, becoming incorporated, branding, and various projects such as T-shirts, bumper stickers, fliers, posters, business cards, membership forms etc.
Events that we have organised have been regular topical meetups on the first Sunday of the month (recent talks included joke religions and teaching evolution), regular Atheist Social Lounge meetups on the last Thursday of the month, a blood drive, diabetes charity walk, and the Newtown festival stall.

We also provide information about other events happening in Sydney that members of the organisation might be interested in. Recent examples include a Humanist talk, debates and a lecture on the God Delusion.

We have a website, blog, photos, podcast, newsletter, Meetup site and a Facebook group.

With so much happening, there is bound to be something for everybody in this vibrant and energetic group, so if you haven't done so already, check us out, let us know what you think about what we are doing and think about becoming a part of it. All of our events are open to all atheists and atheist friendly people, we welcome civil discussion with those who have different views to our own and we are more than happy to answer any questions that you may have (see the 'Ask an atheist' form on the website).

There's plenty of opportunities to get involved coming up, including:

• a social night out to watch SA committee member, Dave the Happy Singer, as he performs his unique blend of musical comedy (Nov 16, details here )
• The November Atheist Social Lounge (Nov 27, details here)
• The December topical meetup (Dec 14, details here)
• The next Sydney Atheist Blood Drive (Jan 11th, details to come)
  
• We will also be celebrating Festivus (details to come)

Check us out, get involved have a great time and be Good Without God.

Hope to see you soon!