We have a new leader and a new direction, and it’s your turn to say what you like/ dislike about the organization. Let Frank and the Board know what you think! We want to know!Ready? Go!
We have a new leader and a new direction, and it’s your turn to say what you like/ dislike about the organization. Let Frank and the Board know what you think! We want to know!Ready? Go!
Since 1963, AMERICAN ATHEISTS has been the premier organization laboring for the civil liberties of Atheists, and the total, absolute separation of government and religion.
Copyright 2012. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of American Atheists.
Alatham
I always enjoy reading your posts and for good reason – your clarity of thought.
What,
Thank you. I enjoy reading yours as well, but not when they’re more inflaming than enlightening.
Alatham
We simply disagree on how to handle Seeker’s posts.
Seeker
If you can’t stand the heat don’t walk into the kitchen and with a flame thrower (your ten commandments).
Ernesto
I hope you accept my apologies. I obviously mistook you for another poster.
As far as the site not being updated often, it looks like this organization has the same problem a lot of organizations have… not enough time in the day and it’s not easy enough to update the site.
For what it’s worth, I’d suggest you look at an Expression Engine/Wordpress/Joomla or Drupal content management system. There’s a number of things that can automate dynamic content, especially to the home page, which should act as a portal. Imagine on the home page where it picks up on the most recent topics on this blog and draws users to it from the home page of the atheist site. You may also consider RSS readers to dynamically display related content.
If you were to designate one page for a person in your organization to update and have that content dynamically drawn to the home page and other pages and you have 4 or 5 people doing that, then you get a lot of dynamic content that is simple for people to keep up to date. We’ve found that if you give a person with not a lot of time just one page to update… their page… it actually happens.
You should also consider community building for the site. You could do profiles of every day atheists and the great things they’re doing. I know that DVan has some great artwork. Others of you have talents and interesting ideas that could be highlighted. The goal is to show that atheists are doing wonderful and positive things. You could also highlight and help organize other atheist organizations throughout the country. Are there atheist charities? If there are, they should certainly be on the site and highlighted in some way.
Just my 2 cents. Sorry, I eat, drink and breath this stuff all day.
Now that all our laundery has been aired out, I think it is time we thank Ellen for what she has done, get behind Frank to guide our future and cease this internal bickering ( it only feeds fuel for our brethen theists ).
and damn those heathen theist…..especially phreedm ;\….
Thank You Ellen
I guess I have one more thing before I call it quits.
The participants on this blog are only a very tiny portion of the AA membership. If the AA Board Of Directors really wants some direction from its members, it should survey the entire membership by mail. They could do a separate mailing or as an insert in the next edition of the magazine.
I think this would be well worth the expense.
I suppose the board has already thought of this, but you never know.
Noel
But the laundry has not been aired. We still do not know the boards reasons for giving Ellen the axe and we have not heard from Ellen. In fact we don’t know much more now than we did when this “transition” was announced.
I have been a member for three years. The lack of any information regarding the internal finances and workings of the organization bothered me. Last December, I donated several hundred dollars on-line and didn’t receive a receipt on-line that indicated that I had donated. I didn’t receive a letter from the organization as required by the IRS to prove I had donated, much less a thank you letter. I won’t donate again until I know how my money is being used and until I can get a proper receipt.
I appreciate Ms Johnson’s efforts. Running any non-profit is hard work and sometimes thankless. However, I didn’t feel she did a particularly good job representing atheist viewpoints on TV the few times that I saw her. I agree with previous comments that the website and magazine could be improved.
Personally, I would like to see a more proactive organization that reaches out more and lets people know their doubts about god are justified and offers them support. I would also like the organization to organize public service events to show the world that atheists aren’t just negative, uncaring people. How about requesting some “faith based initiative” public funding for this?
Seeker is the most interesting poster in the entire blogosphere.
Seeker
Are your “10 commandments” part of what you call your “objective realism” or part of your Stockholm Syndrome?
reason
I think you are confusing some terminology which makes it difficult to understand precisely what you are saying. We already have a national Public Health Service. So you must be talking about something else.
Please clarify.
character |?karikt?r| noun
the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual -
fifth column | is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group to which it is expected to be loyal -
To: American Atheists Board of Directors
Through your collective lack of character, in the handling of your firing of Ellen Johnson, you?ve managed to make me ashamed of having been a member of American Atheists.
Through your collective lack of character, in this matter, you?ve gained a reputation for being unworthy of trust.
Through your collective lack of character, in this matter, you?ve done more to substantiate the claim of the religious that Atheists lack moral character than any of the faithful have ever been able to accomplish.
Which leads me to wonder if you are not, collectively a Fifth Column.
Good bye
atheistud@lycos.com
I am Gil Gaudia. My wife Jeanne and I have been editorial assistants for the past two years at American Atheists. In doing so, we have worked closely with Ellen Johnson whom we respect and admire greatly. We have also had telephone and email contact with a few of the board members, especially with regard to editing their manuscripts. We were not impressed with their interpersonal skills. I have also contributed several articles to the magazine. We have just concluded an hour long telephone conversation with Ellen.
We are extremely biased in her favor, because we found her to be hard-working, honest, courageous, competent and caring of us and appreciative of our volunteer contributions.
This board?s action, in our opinion, will almost certainly result in the end of the organization and publication as we know it. We say this because, from first-hand experience we are aware of the number of hours, the amount of coordination and the knowledge of the operation that are all required to successfully produce a monthly publication, and we have no evidence that any of the board members are willing and able to invest that degree of commitment. Indeed, we have some reason to believe that the opposite is true. To those members who propose hiring Dawkins, Hitchins, Harris and others for the presidency, first see if they?ll agree to work for 38K, or thereabouts, in addition to doing latrine duty in their spare time.
For the board of directors of the most well-known Atheist group in America to have taken such a suicidal action is incomprehensible, but whatever their reasons, unless the
members protest strongly and demand her reinstatement, (which she may not even want) it will only be a matter of time before we no longer have an organization to uphold the civil rights of Atheists.
As a contributor of many articles to this magazine, and as volunteers in editing other journal articles, spending many hours of our time in assisting Ellen in producing this publication, we are no longer interested in writing, editing or assisting in any way a magazine whose board has acted in such an irresponsible, unfair and self-destructive manner.
Gil and Jeanne R. Gaudia
Spanders,
Thanks, Spanders!
I was shocked to read here that Frank Zindel and his wife were (drum roll) editors of the AA monthly magazine, though I guess I knew it on some level.
The magazine needs help: its articles are generally boring (though the Atheist firefighter story was good), redundant, not timely, and the editing is abysmal. In fact, it was sometimes painful for me, an editor myself, to read the magazine.
So now it appears, if you do a terrible job of editing the magazine, they promote you to president? Right.
I had once composed a letter to the magazine telling them that commas, periods and all punctuation go INSIDE quotes. Like “this.” Not
like “this”. which leaves the period hanging out there unprotected. They did it wrong all the time and it annoyed me. But I never sent the letter because I could never figure out exactly who to send it to. IS THERE ANYONE THERE AT THE CRANFORD NJ HEADQUARTERS WHO KNOWS GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION?
But never mind that, I would settle for some interesting, timely articles even if badly punctuated. Ellen’s editorial was always interesting, so I figured it’s not her balloxing up the works.
So now it appears, we have the inmates running the asylum.
Come on, Board of Directors. Time ‘s up.
It’s been eighteen (18) days since you fired Ellen.
Time to come out of hiding and explain yourselves.
You’ve had plenty of time to concoct a story, or, better yet, tell the (gasp) truth.
atheistud@lycos.com
It’s really difficult to ignore how many republicans hate Atheists ,but I think we should try to focus less on politics,unless its legislation that directly effects us. The occasional christian bashing is fun,I’m sure they bash Atheists on their boards ,but it doesn’t help as much as it should.
For someone who presumptuously and arrogantly calls herself “smartgal,” you sure don’t sound all that smart. You can’t spell Frank Zindler’s name properly and don’t know where to mail a letter. You are also incorrect about your so-called knowledge of editing, because there are occasions when the punctuation does not go inside the quotations marks. Stop sounding so omniscient and think a bit before you shoot off your big mouth.
Gil Gaudia
Bart,
This is from Gil and Jeanne Gaudia.
We want to take you up on your call for everyone to start working together in order to get American Atheists back on track. Therefore we would be willing to resume our volunteer work with Ellen (and any board members we can assist, in any way we can) in order to return to the status quo ante. If Arthur needs help or Rachael, and we can do it via email or telephone, we would be happy to offer this service, without compensation (as it has always been) in an effort to spark a resumption of business as usual.
Sincerely,
Gil and Jeanne
Dear friends,
I have thought long and hard about the decision I made about withdrawing my sponsorship of “The Atheist Viewpoint”.
This has not been an easy decision to make because I am torn between what the board did to Ellen and the fact that the voice of Atheism and rational thought must never be dimmed.
Today I read and heard numerous times of the comments that “reverend” John Haggee made about the catholic church and also that “god sent Adolf Hitler to the jews”…
I am attaching just one of the articles on Hagge and how John McCain has now rejected the Haggee endorsement. Hopefully this will show the nation how ridiculous and frightening fundamentalist religion really is.
After seeing that Haggee will be picking up where the (thankfully) departed delusional Jerry Falwell left off in his outrageous “faith filled” mindless spewing of hate, I have decided while I do not agree with the boards decision to fire Ellen, I must (after really thinking hard about this) yield to the greater good of continuing to give American Atheists a “voice” in the very catholic and evangelical/ protestant populated city of “saint” cloud, MN.
I have decided to continue my membership in American Atheists as well as continue to sponsor “The Atheist Viewpoint ” here on Charter Cable Channel 12 on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 PM Central Time.
Please know that my greatest and most sincere hope is that Ellen and the board can work through all of their difficulties and Ellen will be re-instated as President and Co-Host of “The Atheist Viewpoint”.
I care about Ellen and I care about the future of American Atheists.
I finally had to realize that much, much more was at stake here than we realize…..
The very survival of the human race is in jeopardy if fundamentalist, irrational religious zealots like John Haggee are not challenged with rationality, proof of the lies and errors of the bible and stopped.
I hope that all of you, especially Ellen can understand my position.
I met so many of you wonderful people at the American Atheists convention in Minneapolis and you all made me proud to be counted among you as a fellow secular humanist.
Please. Make me proud again. Let’s all try to work together for a rational world and put our differences aside once and for all for the common good. Our world and the future of our human species is literally at stake here.
Timothy, please continue to mail me Atheist Viewpoint Episodes.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jack Richter An American Atheist…just like YOU!
Frank Zindler ;
“We?re hitting the ground running, folks!”
The six (6) word sum total of what I’ve seen from the BOD under the energetic and masterful direction of Mr. “Z”.
Pathetic, beyond description.
Ellen would have been popping up every day on every cable and TV show except the Cartoon Network, plus video on the AA web site, the weekly, informative, valuable and entertaining cable show “Atheist Viewpoint”, podcasts all over the place, and on, and on like the Energizer Bunny.
It’s long past the time when the whole BOD needs to be taken out for an afternoon of electroshock, just to see if there’s any life left in any of them.