Rationalist Week 2008

[Chris Worfolk]

Just thought I'd say a little about our upcoming flagship event, Rationalist Week. It's basically as it sounds - a week long series of events promoting rational thinking running April 14th - 18th.

We ran it last year with huge success, we managed to talk to literally thousands of people throughout the week. This year's theme is "the positive side of atheism" (as fun as religion bashing is lol).

We're running a society lunch on Sunday then during the week we are running talks at 12 and 2 as well as an evening event at 7 bringing in a number of guest speakers and a series of debates including one with the Christian Union. In between that we'll be talking to people, handing out literature, tea, coffee and generally promoting the idea that we're not all baby eating sinners ;).

[Ellis Pugh]

this sounds awesome, and I'd really like to come along if possible. I'm free from the 12th onwards and would love to be able to come to your talks, if only to hear other opinions on atheism. I could also give a talk if you're looking for speakers- I'm no pro, but I reckon I could give a decent one on why 'atheism isn't a religion' since I've already written and spoken something about it.

I think I saw somewhere about travel subsidies, would I be able to get it? Also would it be possible to stay somewhere on campus, or would I have to book a hotel??

[norman]

Drop me or Chris an email about speaking and travel subsidy - we cannot sort accommodation out for you, but we can help point you in the right direction.

It is an amazing experience and was he highlight for my year last time.

[Chris Worfolk]

Yeah, providing our sponsorship comes through (which Norm is fairly sure it will do) we have a limited travel budget so can pay the travel costs, albeit via National Express. As for accommodation there are halls on campus, I'll have a ask round in terms of getting hold of them (I'm not particularly optimistic though) although depending on how long you want to come for, we have a very comfortable couch lol.

As for talks, they don't have to be anything complex, something for student testimonials ("why I'm an atheist/Humanist" type thing) would be best as we're struggling to fit all the events in as it is lol.

[Chris Worfolk]

Bad news...

Our sponsorship hasn't come through so our budget is completely shot. Therefore we're not going to be able to provide travel subsidies. If people are still interested in coming then that's great and we can put people up for a night but financially wise all our plans have gone down the plughole I'm afraid.