UB:ASH [atheist, secular, humanist]

The big news over the last month has been UB:ASH’s fundraising for Non-prophet Week (NPW).  NPW is a national week of godless giving organised by the AHS.  Kathy and I organised a bake sale for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and our illustrious leader, Ben took on the challenge of veganism in support of WaterAid. Preliminary figures suggest the bake sale has raised in excess of £165 and Ben’s vegan week has (at last count) raised £200! If you haven’t gotten around to sponsoring Ben (or wish to donate further to the bake sale proceeds online) please visit our justgiving pages!  We want to thank everyone who has supported us over the last couple of weeks as well as the AHS for providing us with the impetus.

UB:ASH has attended talks on a wide range of topics from the definition of scepticism, to ghost hunting and the weight of galaxy clusters but we haven’t yet hosted our own talk style event.  An idea we’ve had for a new event (in conjunction with our discussion groups) is ‘Atheist Show and Tell’ where our members present a small talk (from 5-20mins) on a topic of their choice.  Many of you are studying or have jobs in areas ripe for the chatting about for example, I’m a biology student and planning a talk on the origin of life, Kathy who’s a student nurse is thinking of doing a talk in the impact of faith on the health care system.  Everyone’s welcome to contribute so if there’s an applicable area you’re interested in learning more about or, even better, if you have something you want to talk about please get in touch!

In the next month of so we’ll be planning our AGM (more details to come) so if you want to stand for election or want to have your voice heard then come along and let us know what you think.  Remember, that only members can vote on issues and its not too late to join.  Joining involves £3 joining fee (which is the lowest we’re allowed to charge) and a quick form to sign.

Next campaign on the horizon is the BHA’s Census Campaign:

“This Census Campaign is run by the British Humanist Association (BHA). The BHA wants non-religious people to tick “No religion” in the 2011 Census.  We want people to know why the question on religion is flawed and why so many non-religious people didn’t tick “None” in the 2001 Census.  We want people to know that real decisions on resource allocation and policy are based on Census data and if it’s wrong then we all stand to lose out.”

More details to come..

As always, our facebook is the best place to find out about our events and local events we’ll be attending.  Similarly, we have our calendar and news on our website for those who don’t use facebook as well as twitter (@ub_ash).  If you’d like any more info about our events or would like to get in touch, don’t hesitate to me an email anytime :)

As usual we love to see a good turn out so come along and join in – particularly if you haven’t gotten around to it already!

Hopefully see you soon!