News – Page 2

In Memoriam – Michael Vester

Jun 222017

Sadly, a founding member of the SEA (member 001!), our friend, Michael Vester passed away on Sunday, June 18th. Michael was instrumental in starting the group, getting it incorporated as a non-profit, was the very first SEA President, and was the driving force behind our first few years marching and having a booth at the Edmonton Pride Parade. In 2010 he was voted in as the first lifetime member due to this involvement in creating the group and he was always a strong supporter of the group both financially and with his time.

If you were new to the group, when you met Michael you were sure to hear the story of how he was raised an atheist but was taken to Sunday School as a child (the nuns ensured he was thoroughly turned away from religion) and that he was a ”third generation atheist”.

Secular Refugee Sponsorship

News, Philanthropy, Secularism No Responses »

Jun 042017

Ibrahim is an atheist blogger and activist in Bangladesh who has received repeated death threats because wrote about atheism, LGBTQ freedoms & Islamization. He not only expressed his beliefs, but stands up courageously to uphold the principle of basic human rights. The penalty for doing so is death, often carried out by vigilante groups; the violence generally condoned by local governments.

Talking and writing about a humanist way of living is not tolerated in many parts of the world. Many of Ibrahim’s friends have been murdered by AL-Queda in Bangladesh, others have fled to escape brutal murder; he is one of those seeking safety for his family.

We won’t let them journey alone! Now you can help bring them to Canada.

Saskatchewan Judge says no funding for Non-Catholics in Catholic Schools

News, Religions, Secularism 1 Response »

Apr 222017

A Court of Queen’s bench judgement out of Saskatchewan on April 20^th regarding non-Catholics attending Catholic schools raised more questions for me than answers, so I phoned up Luke Fevin, one of our board directors but also founder of the secular rights education group APUPIL, to go over some things with me so I could understand it better.

AGM update 2017

News No Responses »

Apr 112017

Our Annual General Meeting was this month and we had a relatively good turn out this year. Thank you to all that made it out, your input helps shape the direction of the Society. General meetings are a requirement for us to remain a non-profit group so we appreciate your commitment to the group!

Our financial statements were reviewed and we had our biggest year yet for money raised via membership. We discussed some volunteer ideas, including donating towards the back to school campaigns that happen each September. Highway Clean-up, Habitat for Humanity, Pride Parade and other events were all on the list of discussion, as well as a suggestion for donations to the SEA with the idea of a ”Tenth of a Tithe”.

Anyone who wasn’t able to attend, but has bought a new membership recently, you can watch for your membership card in the mail this week.

BOARD ELECTIONS

The executive are on two year terms, so will be voted on next year. We did have a vacancy on the executive that was filled for the remainder of the term, as well as 4 director positions (which are one year terms) were filled. Your board for 2017 – 2018 is as follows:

Congratulations to our new board, looking forward to some new ideas and growth in the upcoming year.

Karen Lumley Kerr
President, Society of Edmonton Atheists

ACSTA opinion piece falls short on facts

News, Religions, Secularism No Responses »

Apr 112017

In response to the growing public pressure to examine the real cost & benefit of the duplicate Separate Catholic school system in Alberta, the President of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association recently wrote & widely distributed an opinion piece entitled “Catholic Education: Confronting Fiction with Facts.” – a delicious title given the subject matter at hand.

It transpires, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the “Fact versus Fiction” format wasn’t ACSTA’s core competency and ultimately the Coles Notes / tl;dr version is that what ACSTA is actually separate from is “reality”, and what they *should* be separate from is the millions and millions of public dollars that they take.

Annual General Meeting 2017

News, SEA Events No Responses »

Mar 122017

TUESDAY, April 4, 2017 will be this year’s SEA Annual General Meeting (AGM), formally starting at 7:00 pm, Edmonton Clinic Health Academy at the U of A, Room ECHA L1-430 (basement). We will be there from 6:30pm onwards for anyone that requires a membership or needs to renew.

Anyone interested is invited to attend; however, only paying members will be permitted to vote in the general election or on any other business.

Agenda: AGM AGENDA 2017
Last year’s AGM minutes: AGM Minutes 2016

If you are at all interested in running for the Board, please take a look at our explanation of the roles and responsibilities for each position, as well as some FAQs about joining the Board. Last year the Executive positions were voted in for two year terms but we will be voting in the four Director positions. Although the Executive positions are not up for election this year, please bear in mind in order to run for President you have to have served on the board for at least one year (throughout the history of the group), so if you intend on running for this position in the future it is worth thinking about joining the board. You can email us to let us know that you’d like to run for a Board position (even if you will not be present at the meeting), ask another member to nominate you at the appropriate point during the meeting, or you may also self-nominate at the meeting.

If you would like to see the current bylaws, they can be found on the website, under “About”. We are planning on updating some of the wording for our bylaws this year, which will have to be voted on to be passed. Please read the changes in red, on pages 3, 4, and 6: 2017 BYLAW change proposal
If you would like to propose changes for consideration at the AGM, they must be sent to the Board for distribution to the rest of the membership in advance of the meeting. Please try to have those into us before March 27th.

We hope to have a large turnout as we will also be discussing the direction of the SEA, what types of events you are interested in and fundraising ideas. As per usual we will head to the pub afterwards for sustenance. See you there!

Karen
President, SEA

Membership Time!

News, People No Responses »

Jan 252017

It’s that time of year again, membership renewals are due. If you bought your membership in the last few months of last year (carries over into 2017) or if you have an automatic 3 year renewal via paypal you will be listed as a current member with us, otherwise your membership needs to be renewed.

2017 membership card

Purchasing or renewing a membership is easy. You can update your membership at any event with one of our board members. Or you can purchase/renew your membership online.

Memberships are $30 for the entire year, and allow you access to VIP members only events, give you discounts to events like the AB Secular Conference, access to our book library and shows your support for our organization. We have just received our new membership cards this week and will be handing them out at events (or mailing them if you can’t regularly attend) so you can be a ”card carrying atheist”!

If you purchase or renew your membership by February 22nd (so that’s four weeks from today) you’ll be entered to win a copy of ‘Flim Flam’ signed by James Randi himself! Any current 2017 members (purchased since the end of 2016/lifetime members/automatically renewing on paypal) will be automatically entered into this draw. If you are unsure if you are up to date with your membership drop us a line at info@edmontonatheists.ca and we’ll check for you.

Thanks for your continued support of the Society of Edmonton Atheists!

Protesting Deepak

News, People, Pseudoscience No Responses »

Jan 252017

As many of you remember we were very concerned when we found out that Deepak Chopra would be a keynote speaker at the Children’s Autism Conference being held in Edmonton today. In spite of media attention calling them out for this poor choice, as well as petitions and letters sent to their director they did not remove him from the scheduling, but instead offered a small justification that he was coming to talk about ”wellness”, which affects everyone.

Regularly we are found demonstrating at these types of pseudoscience events to promote critical thinking. We have information leaflets at the ready for those interested in learning more about our position and it is always peaceful and non-confrontational. We have had many interesting conversations as a result. We have demonstrated in front of events for the Long Island Medium, James Van Praagh and David Avocado Wolfe. At the end of April we intend on demonstrating at the Jon Edwards event in the same way.

Unfortunately, as this particular event is being held at the River Cree Casino, we are unable to demonstrate in front of the building as they also own the parking lot area, which is a large lot. The nearest street is a busy road connecting people to the casino but also to Costco. It has no sidewalk. For these reasons we feel it is unsafe for our members to be demonstrating this event, especially since the possibility of conversation and handing out information is also removed as there will be no one walking into the event from this route.

Instead, we encourage you to send your concerns to the conference organizers, in the hopes that they will not consider inviting any speakers who offer only pseudoscience, and only invite those who offer evidence based information at any of their future events. Their email address is info@childrensautism.ca

Deepak Chopra in Edmonton?

News, Pseudoscience 3 Responses »

Nov 082016

Nearly two weeks ago, it came to our attention that the Children’s Autism Services of Edmonton were having Deepak Chopra come as a special guest during their annual conference. We alerted Timothy Caulfield, Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, who works out of the U of A, regarding Chopra’s appearance. Dr. Caulfield was more than happy to discuss the issue in the media (on twitter and with CBC) raising awareness of concerns that pseudoscience was being included in a conference for families dealing with autism in their lives.

SEA President turns Left At The Valley

News, Secularism No Responses »

Nov 062016

Our friends at Fraser Valley Skeptics were kind enough to have our President, Karen, on their show this week. Listen to the podcast by clicking on the picture!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/kandk/2016/11/06/atheist-activist-with-karen-lumley-kerr

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