This Week

Speakers Bureau Advance Funding

If you've ever hosted a Speakers Bureau event, you know the SSA will help pay for it. In the past, it's all been on a reimbursement basis. We are now giving away Speakers Bureau funding before events happen!

This will help groups who don't have large bank accounts already to bring speakers to their campus. There are some guidelines your group must reach to qualify, so take a look and see if this will help your group get a speaker this semester!

Lobby Day 2013

Interested in getting your group more active at a more national level? The Secular Coalition for America is hosting another Lobby Day in our nation's capital in order to help get secularists a chance to talk to their representatives in Congress. Lobby Day will be on April 25th, 2013, in conjunction with the SCA's Secular Summit.

The day includes training on how to lobby effectively, information on current topics that affect secularists, lunch, and an appointment with your state representative's office. If you register before February 15th, you can get the early bird rate of $50.

If your group wants to take a road trip to do this, you can apply for a grant from us to offset costs.

Jobs and Opportunities

• Texas Regional Campus Organizer–Secular Student Alliance
• Regional Campus Organizers— Secular Student Alliance
• Summer Internships–Secular Student Alliance
• Year-long Humanism service project–Pathfinders Project
• Video Editor Apprentice–Atheism TV
• Check out other opportunities!

Group Photo of the Week

The University of Cincinnati Secular Student Alliance members buy students' souls for cookies!
Send us your photos!

Darwin Day!

Darwin Day is coming up sooner than you might think (February 12th), and you don't want to miss the opportunity to celebrate the birthday of the biologist who reshaped our understanding of the origins of life.

Darwin Day is about celebrating how science and reason make our lives better. Why not have a party in honor of the person who made such a great contribution to our understanding of life and its development?

The events your group can hold for Darwin Day are virtually limitless. Moreover, you can combine multiple events into a day-long celebration, or even a Darwin Week! We have lots of ideas in our Darwin Day Activity Packet. If you do anything cool, or need any help planning, be sure to let us know!

Buying Shirts

Many of our affiliates like having shirts that everyone in the group can purchase. They help provide a sense of unity within the group, and can also be free advertising and a good conversation starter when you wear them around. However, they can also be very expensive and difficult to design.

That's where we come in! We arenow offering awesome SSA shirts for just five dollars! We offer a variety of sizes, in both men's and women's styles. You can learn more about ordering shirts here, or you can go directly to the store (you do need to be logged in to the website in order to do that. If you need help, click here).

Media Relations

Want to get your group more attention? Not sure if you're using social media effectively? Not sure how to send out a press release? We've got your back!

We just revamped our Media Relations page, which has tons of info on how to use social media, write a press release, send letters to the editor, and crafting talking points. There are videos from previous conferences from people who are great at using media effectively available on the page. Check it out if you're interested in getting more attention for your group!

Group Photo of the Week

Texas Secular Humanists bought Christmas gifts to donate to the Austin Children's Shelter as part of their Secular Santa event.

Send us your photos!

Humanist Service Corps

If you're interested in travel, service, Humanist leadership, and community building, consider applying to the Pathfinders Project. It is a yearlong international service trip with clean water, education, sustainability, and advocacy projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The trip is sponsored by Foundation Beyond Belief, a non-profit organization that focuses, encourages, and demonstrates the generosity and compassion of secular humanists.

The major aims of the project are to provide humanitarian service and address specific regional needs in the respective countries visited, foster dialogue across religious, cultural, and ethnic boundaries, and to evaluate and compare countries and partner organizations for consideration as the launch site of the Humanist Service Corps as an ongoing program of Foundation Beyond Belief.

The deadline for applicants is February 1st, 2013, so be sure to check it out soon if you're interested!

Light the Night Fundraising

The total fundraising for The Leukemia & Lymphoma society by all the collective atheist groups recently topped $400,000, and as of this morning we are only $18,000 from being the most successful new team in LTN history!

The Stiefel family matching will continue until the end of January when the LTN pages reset. This means that you still have a few more weeks to continue fundraising for this important cause added before the 2013 LTN season begins in February.

If you want to host an event like Stone-a-Heathen or a Soul Auction (or any of our other exciting fundraising ideas), you still have some time to help support this great cause.
 

Shelley Segal Tour

Our favorite up-and-coming Australian  singer/songwriter is going on a tour of the U.S. again, and she wants to stop at your campus! You can find out more info about her tour here, and if you fill out the speaker request form linked on the page, we'll try to get her to your campus!

If you aren't familiar with her work, check out her performance at the Reason Rally from last year.

Group Photo of the Week

  SSA at SUNY Cortland Fallfest. They did a faux palm reading event where they would go into elaborate explanations and at the end they would say 'by the way, palm reading isn't real, neither is religion'. It went over really well, they had a lot of fun, and they got a lot of the materials from SSA distributed to more of the community than ever before.
Send us your photos!

Darwin Day is Coming!

Darwin Day is coming up sooner than you might think (February 12th), and you don't want to miss the opportunity to celebrate the birthday of the biologist who reshaped our understanding of the origins of life.

Darwin Day is about celebrating how science and reason make our lives better. Why not have a party in honor of the person who made such a great contribution to our understanding of life and its development?

The events your group can hold for Darwin Day are virtually limitless. Moreover, you can combine multiple events into a day-long celebration, or even a Darwin Week! We have lots of ideas in our Darwin Day Activity Packet. If you do anything cool, or need any help planning, be sure to let us know!

Fundraising

Fundraising is one of the most important activities that your group can engage in. It is also one of the most overlooked activities by many groups. Fundraising can often seem challenging, but rest assured that it can also be very simple and fun. Oftentimes, there is funding available that your group might not even be aware of; you might just need to ask for it!

Many SSA affiliates have pulled of very creative and fun events to raise money for their group. If your student group has some money in the bank, it makes it much easier to pull off bigger, more fun, and more creative events. We have a page set up with advice on fundraisers (including videos from expert fundraisers and activity packets to get you started!).

Fundraising is a great way to start out the semester, and you can even combine fun activities (like Darwin Day) with a way to help raise money for you group, to help you plan activities, or possibly help pay for group members to attend our annual conference.

Apply to Speak at the Conference

Have you done something really awesome this year? Did your group have something go terribly, awfully wrong, so you want to warn groups on how to do it better? Do you just like the sound of your own voice?

You're in luck! We are still accepting student speakers for BOTH of our summer conferences this year! We still need volunteers, so don't be afraid that you "aren't good enough"-- we still want to hear from you! Apply today and who knows, you might just become the next big voice of atheism.
 

Group Photo of the Week

George Washington Secular Society posed for a picture for us!
Send us your photos!