tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9124539381685751273.post119718592486329227..comments2023-06-19T04:35:06.263-07:00Comments on Skeptic's Play: Atheist and skeptical student groups are such clusterfucksmillerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05990852054891771988noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9124539381685751273.post-33166117770357906232015-03-16T15:17:39.784-07:002015-03-16T15:17:39.784-07:00Hey there! Your group was/is pretty similar to mos...Hey there! Your group was/is pretty similar to most student groups nationwide. When I worked with the Secular Student Alliance, we knew these were the obstacles everyone had (getting funding, getting meeting ideas, identifying leaders) -- and all current groups get constant reminders of the (financial and other) resources available to them, ideas for meetings, and reminded that they should know next year's president when this year begins. But, despite all of that, you still need at least one leader willing to figure out the school's tricks (because every school is different) and learn how to run the group effectively. The groups that tend to do the most either have very effective leadership or they've just passed down information over the years. More importantly, their biggest events are planned many, many months in advance, sometimes even the previous year. That gives them time to request funding from the school, get the meeting space, publicize the events, etc. On my blog, I tend to highlight the cool things that people send me, but that's obviously a small fraction of the several hundred college atheist groups out there. My hope is that they can see other ideas and get inspired.millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05990852054891771988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9124539381685751273.post-21061800496779230672014-05-15T09:59:06.643-07:002014-05-15T09:59:06.643-07:00Discussion-based meetings were social, basically. ...Discussion-based meetings were social, basically. Certainly no actions came of them, it was just about ideas and friends. There's a designated topic though, that's different from a social.<br /><br /><br />One of the most successful years, in terms of numbers, was when one member decided to host a party in her apartment every week after meetings. The problem is that this requires a very generous benefactor, and it does not scale.millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05990852054891771988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9124539381685751273.post-83635406812558133202014-05-15T03:17:27.905-07:002014-05-15T03:17:27.905-07:00I've experienced all of these frustrations (so...I've experienced all of these frustrations (so much!!) in organising a university LGBT group. I think it's almost inevitable when you've got a whole load of people with no managerial experience doing their first role part-time (often in their final year). I also got the strong impression that the system was deliberately heavily weighted *against* us doing things- our university was shocked and slightly horrified when we actually organised several successful things, and I can imagine it being even worse for American atheist groups.<br /><br />In case it's helpful to anyone reading this, some things that I found worked:<br />-In terms of navigating university bureaucracy, always talk (friendlily) to the person at the desk or the office underling or the lowest person in the hierarchy who can still do the thing you want. If they start throwing things in your way, smoothly extract yourself and then ask the same thing of someone else later on.<br />-Having said that, don't ask the university for any more help than you can possibly get away with. Figure out how to book rooms, but be prepared to do mostly your own fundraising, marketing, etc. if you want anything to happen to any kind of deadline (oh, and big events take a semester to comfortably plan, even with minimum 'help' from the university).<br />-DO. SOMETHING. SOCIAL. I would personally be so unattracted by a group that met up once a week to have earnest discussions, however good the discussions are. We added meeting in the pub (after the discussion) and meeting in a coffee house once a week, which is a less male-skewed activity, and once people turned up and thought 'Hey, I actually *like* these people! I could hang around with them more!' we a) got a much bigger volunteer force and b) got a lot of impetus from people who were genuinely interested in the group as a social circle, even their main social circle. Soon, the group was running weekly film nights, weekly anime nights, regular club nights, regular gaming nights, theatre trips, shopping trips, all organised by different people, some of the organisers not being committee members. Not many people turned up to every different type of event, but a lot of people turned up to most of them, because an enjoyable social circle feeds back into itself in a way that a worthy cause just doesn't.millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05990852054891771988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9124539381685751273.post-66366673176918098922014-04-26T10:05:48.662-07:002014-04-26T10:05:48.662-07:00A facebook friend identifies another major problem...A facebook friend identifies another major problem. Any proposed idea led to endless arguing, which caused leaders to lose confidence, and nothing got done. One particular example were the t-shirts, which were discussed many years in both groups, but only actually produced once. But the same applied to every single event and decision.millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05990852054891771988noreply@blogger.com