Youtube Night

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 | | No Comments

Leeds University, Baines Wing 1.14
7.00pm
Tuesday 8th May

Movie night with a twist! Submit your favourite clips from YouTube, TED, FORA, IQ2 or other places and share them with fellow atheists & humanists on the night!

Be inventive, we’re an open minded group with a range of interests not just in religion but also evolution, neuroscience, psychology, politics, philosophy – anything interesting, funny, touching, moving or inspiring!

5-10 minute clips, if your video is longer than that then please specify a segment of it (i.e. youtube.com/43535 – play from 2.05 to 4.10). The best clips will receive a PRIZE!

Just a few suggestions, highlights from Dawkins/Dennett/Hitchens/Harris debates, funny creationist propaganda, inspiring TED talks (www.ted.com), classic clips from movies such as Life of Brian or TV series -this is a community-powered night so we’re relying on some fantastic submissions to make it work!

Drinks & refreshments available :) Have a break from exam revision and come down

SUBMIT VIDEOS TO LEEDS@ATHEISTSOC.ORG
Invite your friends, non-members & new faces more than welcome

http://www.facebook.com/events/320545551349613/

End of the Line

Friday, April 27th, 2012 | | No Comments

This will be my final post on here. On Tuesday we had our AGM and after 104 weeks of being on the atheist society committee I’m stepping down.

I’m really proud of what my committee achieved this year. A year ago the society was in a precarious position, I’m really pleased that we’ve turned it around and that the society is going in the right direction again.  I’ve learned an awful lot from being president and it has been hard work as well, but it’s rewarding to have had some success to go along with that.

I’m excited to see what direction the society will take in 2012-13 year.  I wish my successor, James Gupta, and his committee all the best and look forward to see what fresh ideas they bring to the society.  I’ll be taking a step back from the society but I do plan to make a few appearances when time allows.

Going forward for me I’ll be mostly focusing on my PhD for he next year.  I’ll still be involved with Leeds Skeptics and I’ve also got a new talk in the planning stages which I’ll hopefully debut sometime before the end of the year.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who I have worked alongside at the society for the last two years and everyone who’s came to our events.   It has been quite an experience!

Committee Profile: Treasurer

Sunday, March 18th, 2012 | | No Comments

Name: Elettra Rastelli

Position: Treasurer

What are you responsible for?
My main duties are to keep track of our finances, collecting money at events and then transfer it into our accounts with the Student Union.
In addition to my job as treasurer I am also responsible for Meet & Greet and I am the society photographer.

What has been the highlight of this year for you?
The overall success of the society. Even now, apart from all the new members who joined in September, we still have new people turning up to events and wanting to join. It really shows that our work throughout the year has not been in vain and that we proved ourselves to be a constantly living society.
More specifically, it was wonderful to see that some of our events which were slightly different compared to previous years were very well received. For example our first GIAG: Speed Debating.

What has been the hardest part of the job?
Nothing specific, really. There have been some temporary obstacles but we were able to overcome them pretty easily.
Sometimes it is hard work in general; but seeing how people enjoy their time in the society is very rewarding and it makes you feel that it really is worth it.

What skills do you think you have learned/developed?
Organisational, leadership and responsibility skills. Having to deal with financial matters is perhaps the least visible duty, from the point of view of the members, but it has to run smoothly for the society to continue. Aside from that, simply being part of the committee means you have to manage events as they are taking place and making sure people are having a good time.

What advice would you give to your successor?
Relax and don’t procrastinate. The fact that you will have to deal with money can be scary, but if you do one thing at a time and pay a minimum of care everything will work easily. Just remember to keep personal notes and not to leave everything to the last minute and everything will work out fine. Also, have fun with it! The committee should enjoy their time in the society as well, not just members.

Committee Profile: Secretary

Sunday, March 11th, 2012 | | No Comments

Name: Will  Noble

Position:  Secretary
What are you responsible for?
I’m responsible for ensuring the day-to-day administration of the society. This includes keeping our membership database up to date, taking minutes of committee meetings, and ensuring that we have a place to meet for every event. I also take care of publicity, courses, and liasons with other societies.
What has been the highlight of this year for you?
I’m very pleased with the way our membership numbers have increased. I think this reflects the work put in to make sure that people have a good time with the society. I’m also pleased with the way the new Impure course has turned out, seeing the effort put into ensuring a lively discussion result in a lot of new faces who would have never looked twice at us before.
What has been the hardest part of the job?
The hardest part has been coordinating interesting events for our growing membership, and making sure that our members know about them. It’s all been worth it to see our society as successful as it is!
What skills do you think you have learned/developed?
Between coordinating with our members, other societies, and the Union, my skills in interpersonal communication have improved vastly in the past year, much more than I would’ve ever thought possible.
What advice would you give to your successor?
Have a really good relationship with the rest of the committee. I think the success over the past year has been due to the good rapport the committee has developed, as well as the use of certain tools to take advantage of that good working relationship.

Committee Profile: President

Monday, March 5th, 2012 | | No Comments

Name:James Murray
Position:President
What are you responsible for?
The president is responsible for over-seeing the running of the society, chairing committee meetings, and being the public face of the society.
At the moment I’m pulling the Festival of Reason plans together.
What has been the highlight of this year for you?
My favourite statistic of the year is definitely our membership figures: we’ve almost tripled our membership this year.  We now have almost eighty members; most societies would be pleased with that!
I’ve enjoyed seeing some of my ideas come to fruition.   Our debate followed by discussion events in semester 2 have worked well and one such event ‘Is Islam a Religion of Peace’ received a positive review in Leeds Students “Soc of the Week” column.  Also our GIAG event in semester one “Speed Debating” was something that started as an idea and was transformed into a successful event.
What has been the hardest part of the job?
The atheist society is a group where most people already agree on big questions like the nature of morality or whether they believe a god/god(s) exist so thinking up events that are fresh and interesting is quite a challenge!
What skills do you think you have learned/developed?
I expected my communication skills to improve over the year but I was surprised by how much!  You get a lot of opportunities to develop these skills. For example I spoke at a community leadership conference in September, I did an interview on BBC radio about faith schools, and I was invited to go on channel 4’s “4thought” (sadly nothing came of this).  The atheist society is quite unique in this regard especially when secularism is in the news; all kinds of people will contact you for an opinion!
What advice would you give to your successor?
Don’t be afraid to do your own thing.  Over the last year we’ve constructed a database with various guides and resources that cover the basics and bureaucracy of running an LUU society. The idea being that an incoming committee can get that stuff out of the way with a minimum of fuss and get on with planning their own events and developing their own ideas about the direction the society should take.

Annual General Meeting: 24th April 2012

Monday, March 5th, 2012 | | No Comments

  Our AGM will be coming early in term 3 and it’s time for the old committee to stand down, and the society elect a new one.  The atheist society is a great society run because you can be almost any sort of society you want to be. This year we have been a social and discussion group, if that sounds like too much of a talking shop for you then the society can focus more on secular campaigning or get involved with interfaith dialogue. To qualify to run for a position you need to be a student at the University of Leeds for the academic year 2012-13, and a society member.
To give you a flavour of what’s involved we will be releasing committee profiles over the next few weeks , starting with the president.

Weekend Away 2012

Monday, January 16th, 2012 | | No Comments

Registration is now open for the weekend away.  It will be Friday 16th -Sunday 18th March which is the first weekend immediately after the end of the Spring term.

Tickets for the weekend will include trains to and from London, two nights accommodation in a hostel, and a ticket to the AHS convention speakers event.  We will be staying in a nice hostel near Kings Cross and booking a room out for the society so we won’t be sharing with randoms.

Although there will be an itinerary for the weekend, people are free to do there own thing and explore London while taking advantage of discounted travel and accommodation. The itinerary will include, amongst other things, a night out in Camden, the AHS convention, museum trips, and a trip to speakers corner.

You may remember back in September  that we offered a £10 discount on our weekend away  for those people who paid their membership before the end of September: listed below are the ticket prices for the weekend.

Early Bird: £80 (85 W/O Railcard)

Standard: £90 (£95 W/O Railcard)

Spaces are limited, to confirm a place all you need to do is give your name and a £10 deposit to a committee member.  You can do this at any meeting.

The weekend away is always a highlight of the year so I hope many of you will join us this year.

Semester Two Timetable

Thursday, January 5th, 2012 | | No Comments

Hello everyone, I hope you’ve all had a pleasant holiday.  Here at Leeds Atheist Society we have been hard at work putting together the semester two timetable.

The program starts this Tuesday (10th January) where we will be showing Jerry Spring the Opera in Meeting Room 2 in the Union building.  The main events start after the exam period. The first event will be a tribute to Christopher Hitchins who died in December.  We have some really exciting debates we plan to show, as well as hosting some interesting talks.  On Fridays we will be running, for the first time, the revamped ‘Impure’ course and also ‘Answers’.

Our Weekend Away will be in London at the end of the spring term where we will be going to the AHS Convention and exploring London. Registration will open very soon.  The Festival of Reason (formerly Reason Week) will be held in the first week of term 3, more news on this coming soon.

Full event listings can be found on our calender page

Got Something to Say?

Friday, December 30th, 2011 | | No Comments

In semester two we would like to hear some talks from our members, so we’ll be hosting an evening devoted to presentations from you guys.  The event will be in our usual Tuesday slot on February 21st.

The presentations can be about anything to do with atheism or secularism, if you think it would be of interest to the society then we want to hear it! The presentations should not be longer than 20 minutes (with an additional 5 minutes for questions).  They can be either totally verbal or have a powerpoint presentation as well. If you would like any more guidance on the content or structure of the presentation then don’t hesitate to get in touch.

To submit a presentation email your name and an abstract to the society’s email address (leeds@atheistsoc.org) the talks will be decided on a first-come first-served basis. Please note that you must be a full (paid) member to submit a talk.

I look forward to see what you will come up with!

Non-Prophet Week – Volunteers Needed!

Friday, October 14th, 2011 | | No Comments

Leeds Atheist society are excited to announce that this Non-Prophet Week we will be raising money for Médecins Sans Frontières.  They are a really great charity that provides medical aid where it is most needed, regardless of race, religion, politics or gender.

During Non-Prophet Week Leeds Atheist Society will be hosting a quiz and games night on the 8th November with all the proceeds going to MSF. We will also have some good old fashioned bucket shaking going on throughout the week.

Following on from the talk on Tuesday about getting involved with your society: Non-Prophet is an excellent opportunity to do just that! We are looking for members to do some individual fundraising, this could be absolutely anything such as a sponsored event (such as a sponsored silence) or running a bake sale on campus.  If you want to help us raise money for this great cause then drop as an email (leeds@atheistsoc.org) or speak to a committee member at a meeting. If you need some ideas, have a look at what other societies did for NPW last year here.

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