From August E. Brunsman IV, Executive Director 

I recently recieved an email from a leader of the Secular Humanists on Campus at East Carolina University asking about how he could take his six-member fledging group and get it fired up.  He'd just returned from a poorly attended movie showing.

I wrote him back with some ideas and I figure that there's no reason not to share them with everyone who's trying to build momentum for their group, so here you are:

That sucks that only seven people showed up to your last meeting.

I will say that in my experience movies tend not to be especially well attended.  Media is so ubiquitous these days, it's hard to get people out for a movie. So I wouldn't take that as a sign that there's no potential on your campus.  On a campus of over 20,000, there's potential.

You need to engage people for them to show up... that can mean getting them excited about a topic they don't usually talk about or participating in some kind of work to make your campus or community a better place (i.e. policy change or public service).

Here are some specific event ideas that could get people excited.  They will all take more work than putting together a movie night, but the results and momentum should be well worth the work.  I would pick the two you think your group is in the best position to do, and save the rest for the fall.

I'm going to list them in order of what I think will be the simplest to the most labor intensive.  They are all well within the capabilities of a handful of dedicated student volunteers to pull off well.

Btw, ideas #1, #4, and #5 will require a LOT of advertising to succeed.  This means tons of flyers all over campus, lots of chalking, setting up a Facebook event, searching Facebook for people with "atheist" or the like in their profiles (http://www.secularstudents.org/node/1613) and letting them know about the events, and so on. 

#1
Panel: Ask an Atheist

I know I mentioned this in an earlier email, but I've seen these be quite successful.  You get a panel of three to five atheists (or agnostics, or whatever label people want to use) and invite the public to ask them questions.  It's really important to advertise these events very heavily to undergrads.  Flyers in dorms are good--chalkings right outside of dorms are good too.  It's also really important for someone to moderate the questions and for that person to make one thing VERY clear at the beginning of the event.  This is not going to be a chance for people in the audience to convert the people on the panel, and the panel members aren't here to convert the audience.  This is an opportunity for us to learn about each other.

For more background on doing an Ask an Atheist event check out: http://www.secularstudents.org/node/1237 & http://www.secularstudents.org/node/240.

#2
OUT Campaign Tabling

This could actually dovetail quite well with the Ask An Atheist event.  Basically, we set you up with a bunch of OUT Campaign literature, stickers, pins, etc. and your group sets up a table in your student union or out on some large green space.  You let people know about the OUT Campaign and also let them know about your group.  This is a good way to advertise a meeting you have coming up.  I know that the Dawkins people are charging only their cost for pins and T-shirts.  I'm fairly certain that we could at least fund a small grant to get them to send some pins your way.  I know we could send you lots of stickers for free.

#3
Service Project

Most student organization offices on campuses your size have a person that's responsible for setting up service opportunities for campus groups.  Of course, you can also likely come up with an idea on your own and just do that.  I've seen groups do Blood drives (http://www.secularstudents.org/node/775 & http://www.secularstudents.org/node/671), participate in Dance-a-thons (http://www.secularstudents.org/node/1901), participate in local AIDS walks, and raise money for Doctors Without Borders.  I think you're somewhat better off starting off by participating as a group in a larger service project that is being organized by a larger group.  Service projects are great opportunities for the members you have in your group to invite a friend or two along to help.

I don't think it would be a good idea for your group to duplicate the Freedthought Books For Prisoners project created by our affiliate at Reed, you might want to come up with your own signature freethought service project or connect with the folks at Reed to see if you could collaborate.

#4
Debate/Panel Discussion: Is America a Christian Nation?

With "In God We Trust" on our money, "under God" in our pledge, the Federal Faith Based initiative funding, attempts to teach creationism in public schools, and attempt to post the Ten Commandments in court houses, it's often argued that America is a Christian nation.  A review of the founding documents and history of the United States revelers that our government is certainly not a Christian government.  Also, while it's questionable if any of the founding fathers were atheists, it's fairly well established that many of them were not Christian.  A debate or panel discussion on this topic is likely to draw a big crowd and really get people excited. 

You can try to use local talent or we can help get some national people involved.  Obvious choices include Herb Silverman (http://www.secularstudents.org/node/222) and Rob Boston (http://www.secularstudents.org/node/212).  They are both excellent speakers and are both fairly close to you in D.C.  Herb actually usually lives in Charleston, SC--but he's doing a year of research at George Mason.  Another possibility would be Dan Barker (http://www.secularstudents.org/node/211).  He's not local, but he loves to travel.

If this is going to be a debate, you need some folks who are willing to argue that the U.S. is a Christian nation.  Usually you don't need to look any further than your local chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ (or the like) to get someone who's interested in having a public dialog about this.  We have found lately that Christians tend to be more gun shy about open debates lately and much more eager to get involved in panel discussions.  Whatever you call it, we have certainly found that having multiple points of view greatly increases the appeal of the event. 

It may also be the case that there are history professors or law professors at your school that would be good folks to discuss the secular nature of U.S. government and history.  You want to be a little careful with this as doing well in these sorts of events requires both being knowledgeable AND being good at extemporaneous public speaking.

Other debate/discussion topics you might want to take on include: Does God Exist (a classic), Stem Cell Research, and Domestic Surveillance.

#5
Policy Change

Does ECU have any policies which you think violate the establishment clause?  Prayer at graduation is the most obvious and common problem at many public universities.  Organizing the secularists on campus to get this policy changed will upset a lot of people, but it may also bring some other people out of the wood work to join with you.  There may be other local church/state issues that you can take on... you would know more about your local situation than I would.  The acitivites around this can include: informational meetings, flyers on the topic, contacting the administration, writing an op-ed in the East Carolinian, handing out flyers at graduation, and tabling.