Atheist Ireland Forum

I thought it said it begins at 2 if I read it correctly?

2.00-4.30 AAI members’ meeting
2.30-4.30 AI policy meeting
5.00-5.15 Welcome
Reg is at 2, but unless your an Atheist Ireland or Atheist Alliance International member you won't be interested until 5.

I'm confused. Is the AAI meeting taking place at the same time as the AI meeting?

FRIDAY 3 JUNE

12.30-2.00 AAI Board Lunch

2.00 Registration opens

I never paid much attention to what it said was happening, I just saw something began at half 12.

I arranged to arrive there before half 12, am I able to attend the meeting even though I'm not a member, or will I have to do something else until 5pm?

Yes both meetings are on at the same time. AAI is officially launching itself. AAI is an umbrella organisation so I imagine it has representatives from other atheist groups attending. I’m assuming Conor will represent AI as he’s the vice president of AAI. Details here.
http://www.atheist.ie/page/5/
The AI policy meeting is a continuation of the A.G.M., which was cut short due to Michael’s wife passing away. It’s for AI members only but you can join on the day - I think it’s €25.

If AAI already exists, how is it launching then?

they made a split, one part of the organisation works in the US and the other part for the rest of the world.

So you're saying now there is only an American Atheist organisation and not an International one?

And the international one starts on Friday the third?

No they split in two.

One does North America

One does The rest of the world,

Still working together as far as I understand it, just the efforts can be delegated better this way. That is how I understood it. Maybe we get a better explenation Friday. I am not 100% sure I understood it well.

The correct word would be "relaunch". They are relaunching themselves in a new form, with a new administration style and split geographic organisation. The added relevance of doing it at AAI 2011 is that a member of Atheist Ireland is now the Vice Chair of the main organisation as a whole. It is technically more of a restructuring than anything else, but one that we all hope will benefit everyone as a whole.

Or we ask Nozz to explain it..... thanks.

It's quite simple. Those who adhere to the teachings of AAI America are the heretics and those who follow the teaching of the First Council of Dublin are the Really Truly atheists .

Who wants to open a betting pool on whether one of the speakers at the relaunch makes a "The peoples front of Judea and the judean peoples front" reference joke in a speech.

And what sorts of things are available if you become a member of AAI?

Let me provide some background info on the AAI Launch.
Back last November it was announced that Atheist Alliance International was to rejoin American Atheists
- There was a split way back when, and the then Atheist Alliance started to pick up some international Atheist Affiliates adding the "International" element.

When the merger was announced, all the international affiliates were told to find a new umbrella organisation to affiliate ourselves with. These were Humanist and Freethought groups. Which defeated the purpose of organisations, like ours, who identify as Atheist.

After an Atheist Ireland committee meeting it was decided to veto the motion, and propose a new one where a split between the US and International Affiliates, where AAI would exist for International affiliates, and give such groups an opportunity to network, and share resources.
The AAX (US group) was free to merge with American Atheists and give US affiliates an opportunity to remain with AAI - One such group is the Atheist Community of Austin - for those of you familiar with The Atheist Experience and Non-Prophets radio.
Atheist Ireland was one of the groups who brought this motion to the table, and we also rallied support from non AAI members who identified as an Atheist Organisation such as Ateos desde México

This group is important, any profits gained from the forthcoming convention that go to AAI will go to African Atheist and Humanist Groups where the value of the money will increase 10-fold. I'm a strong believer in leaving nobody behind in advancing secularism on an international scale, and I believe Africa and the Middle East to be most important.
Working together we're stronger/many hands make light work bla bla bla

Aside from Teach Don't Preach .ie, AtheistIreland also registered a .net for the benefit of promoting Secular Education Worldwide and that will be a website to gain much content in the future and hopefully become an international banner for Secular Education - I'm taking a hiatus from ordinary committee to focus on projects such as that, and be reporting back to normal duty in a couple of months.