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October 9, 2009

>>>> Monthly Forum <<<<

"Scheduled Topic" Forum

Sunday, October 11, 2009 - 10:30 a.m.

Red Bank Charter School - 58 Oakland St. - Red Bank, NJ 07701

Topic #1:

National Secular Service Day

Sunday, October 18, 2009 marks the first ever National Secular Service

Day. On and around this date, nonreligious organizations all over America

(and beyond) will unite in performing acts of community service.

We'll discuss how RBH can get involved! Read all about it at:

http://secularserviceday.org/

Topic #2:

Will President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

Help The US Sue For Peace?

New, New, New!

New Forum Format

On Sunday we will change our format for the monthly Forum. We make these changes to so that we can give ourselves a break (intermission)

at the half way point to allow people to stand up, move around

and chat with other members. We will also extend the Forum a little

so that we have time to finish interesting topics (which seem to be

getting cut short of late). We plan to wrap up somewhere between

12:15 p.m. and 12:30 p.m.

New RBH Blog

We have experimented with our first RBH Blog and it seems to work well. The goal is to enhance our Forum discussions by providing an opportunity to follow up on the Forum topics. People tell us that on the way home in the car they often think of something else they wanted to say...or, just didn't get a chance to say, or they prefer to just listen while at the Forum. The blog will enable us to dig deeper into our topics.

First we did a test with a few people, then we sent an invitation to all our members to participate. The Board then decided to open it up to everybody on our email list. Look for your email invitation to join the blog. Follow the link and create a free account on google. This way we will know who you are. The only rule is to keep our discussions civil.

Once you sign in, just look for the list of topics at the right. If you have an idea for a topic to post, email Steelman.

RBH Is Affiliate Of New Coalition

RBH will be participating in New Jersey Coalition of Reason. It costs us nothing and exists to help local groups like ours with advertising. The

national group helped us form a New Jersey coalition and set up a website listing all the participating groups. They will be putting up a billboard in the Rutgers area with this message:

"Are you good without God? Millions are."

When people go to look up the website on the billboard they will

see blurbs and website links to all coalition members. We don't expect this to

draw crowds of people down to Red Bank for a Forum, but it's another place

where people will become aware of groups like ours.

Rutgers Humanist Chaplaincy

Welcomes Harvard's Epstein

Greg Epstein, the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, will be

speaking at the October 29th meeting of the Humanist Chaplaincy at

Rutgers University. This is part of Mr. Epstein's national book tour

to promote his new book. Congratulations to Barry Klassel for all

his hard work in setting this up.

(Barry is an RBH member and the Humanist Chaplain at Rutgers!)

HABcore Residents in Need of Toiletries

As you know, RBH supports HABcore in its mission: providing housing

and supportive services in a family-like setting to low income

persons and those who are homeless, disabled or unable to care

for themselves. HABcore helps disenfranchised people develop lives

of dignity and meaning.

They need toiletries for their residents and two of our members, Carol Auer and Lori Katz (a HABcore Board member), thought that if you have any unopened items that you have brought home from hotel stays - or extra toiletries you don't plan on using - please bring them to the Forum on Sunday. Carol and Lori will see that they get delivered to HABcore.

HABcore Website

Humanist Salon Saturday - October 24

Saturday, October 24 - 6:30 p.m.
Woman's Club of Red Bank
164 Broad Street - Red Bank, NJ 07701
(across from R.B. Post Office)

Potluck/BYOB - This time we're going to experiment with

vegetarian dishes. Please do not include meat in the potluck

dishes and let's see how many interesting dishes we can sample.

Of course, you can always bring wine, cheese, & fruit.
(Discussion Topic: TBA)
Admission $5 at the door...to pay for the room.