Posts Tagged ‘Leeds Atheist Soc’

Last week, Atheist Society hit the Cuthbert Brodrick for steak night. Having left in favour of Stick or Twist last year, it was great to spend some time in the always loved Cuthbert, especially given it was the Summer Cider Festival. I was a little disappointed by Addlestones Cloudy, but the Strawby Cider was fantastic.

Last week, we headed over to Nation of Shopkeepers for the Tuesday night Atheist Society social.

In general, I was very disappointed. Given we’re in summer socials, the nights always involve dinner but we couldn’t find any suitable seating that had enough space for us all and still allowed us to conveniently eat.

The food was quite nice, but nothing special and there was distinct lack of drink choices. This was a huge disappointment as usually when you go somewhere trendy that at least have a very well stocked bar to compensate for the high pricing.

It wouldn’t be a bad call on a warm summer night when you could sit outside but for now it didn’t seem worth the trip. If I wanted to hang out in a pretentious bar I would just go downstairs to Call Lane lol.

The recent AHS AGM, which took place in Southampton, was the a personal first for me in that it was the first AGM I haven’t attended (but in my defence – Southampton really is a long drive). Luckily James, Elettra, Nicola and Norm were all down there, so Leeds was well represented.

Tension was rather high going into the weekend with the far too public way that certain members of the outgoing executive choose to air their dirty laundry, as well as several societies quitting and people raising motions against the BHA’s ultimate control over the AHS, but never the less the storms seem to have been weathered.

The AHS now has a brand new committee, composed of Jenny Bartle, Michael Paynter and Dom Blacklock – a group of people which I am sure the AHS will be in safe hands with!

Most of us have seen Jenny’s leadership close up when we headed down to Bristol for the 2010 AGM, and she is clearly someone who has an ability to get things done.

This style should work well alongside Mike, who is almost certainly one of the nicest people you will ever meet. Always pleased to see you, even if he has never met you before, it is always a pleasure to see Mike’s face at an event.

While I’ve only briefly met Dom at the national convention and BHA reception, but he seems like a great guy as well and I’m sure the three of them will oversee a great year for the organisation. Congratulations to all!

Last week we headed up to The Library pub for some old fashioned good times.

Having had some dinner we remembered why we hadn’t been to The Library in a while lol, I also missed out on getting dessert because the kitchen closed early, but at least the staff were nice and friendly and we had plenty of space.

Plus, the important thing is, lots and lots of cider got drunk.

While I naturally dislike Sweden because I’m conjugally obligated to, I have to admit they make very good cider.

Last Tuesday we headed down to The Victoria for the usual A-Soc weekly social. However their otherwise well stocked drinks cabinet was missing the always popular Kopparberg. The surprisingly friendly barmaid recommended Rekorderlig instead, another Swedish cider.

Turns out it’s very similar, instead similar enough that I probably couldn’t tell the difference between it and summer fruits Kopparberg. They also had steak, though it was somewhat more expensive than ‘Spoons and not quite as good. Of course you’re setting unreasonable expectations to compare anything to my love of ‘Spoons but a good effort anyway.

Last Friday saw the Secular Ball 2011. Re-named from the End of Year Ball which has run annually for the past three years, the Ball brought together groups from across Yorkshire for one amazing night.

The evening started with a three course meal at the beautifully furnished Brook Merrion hotel in the city centre, which provided a great setting for the evening. Before dinner, Leo Dragon set about wowing attendees with some great magic.

After much merriment at the hotel, the party moved onto Bar Risa for the after party at which we enjoyed a champagne reception and partied long into the night. A great night, enjoyed by all who attended.

Last week, Atheist Society were taking it easy during the exam period, with a screening of the film Saved. It has an important moral message – that we need to book Michael into Mercy House. He didn’t seem to keen on the idea though.

Afterward, we headed down to Stick or Twist, where I enjoyed a free mixed grill after having filled out all the required stamps on my loyalty card 😀 .

If you’re looking for something to do the first weekend of August, then the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist & Secular Student Society’s Questival is an excellent event to attend.

The annual weekend camping trip allows non-religious students from across the UK to come together for a weekend of fun, drinking, the outdoors and if it is anything like previous years – starting little fires in the middle of wooded, but very soggy, areas at 2am in the morning. Not that that ever happened of course ;).

Their speaker this year is stand up mathematician Matt Parker, who brings together two great passions – maths and stage performance. Now if only they could be combined into musical theatre… Having seen Matt at Uncaged Monkeys, as well as having him booked for Enquiry 2011, he is a fun and entertaining speaker, not to be missed.

The event was first run by the Atheist Society in 2008, but due to unfortunate circumstances, we ended up having to cancel the actual camping part of it and so it was more of a dinner party in the end. It was only in 2009 that we finally made it out into the wild green yonder for what proved to be an exciting weekend of partying including walking half way up Ingleborough – by accident!

We had always designed summer camping to be a national event, inviting fellow non-believers from across the country in both 2008 and 2009, so we were more than pleased when, now up and running, the AHS co-opted the event in 2010, alongside Camp Quest, to truly turn it into a national event.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Links have been removed from this post due to third-party content being removed:

1: http://forums.secularportal.com/showthread.php?t=60&highlight=camping
2: http://forums.secularportal.com/showthread.php?t=238&highlight=camping

At Atheist Society last week, they screened a Dan Dennett lecture given at Conway Hall. During the talk he made some excellent points including a new quote to go on my favourite quotes list: fairies are invisible – so how come everyone knows what they look like?

In the lecture he also answers the question often asked – if religion was just total rubbish, why is it still around? Surely it must be good for something? Dennett’s response was to give an analogy – think of the common cold. What is it good for? It’s good for itself. Similarly, what keeps religion alive is not because it’s good for society, or humanity – it’s just good at keeping itself around.

Earlier this month, the Atheist Society held it’s 2011 AGM. This was an important event, as it marked the end of my involvement with the group. This year has very much been consultative anyway, as fresh blood takes over, and it’s great to see the society is returning to its great shape.

This December will mark five years since the society was founded, though it seems like forever ago that we were first starting things up. As such, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped make the society what it is.

Without a doubt Norm is due the biggest amount of credit, having signed up on day one and being easily the most influential person also to be involved in the society. I would also like to say a big thank you to Matt and Claire for helping the society to get started and Nicola and Paul for their tireless work over the years. And of course, all of those who have served on the committee and helped out at events have all made valuable contributions which I’m grateful for.

The recent elections saw James, Elettra, Will and Michael form the new committee and I’m sure with such excellent leadership, the society will continue to prosper and grow.