by Arthur Jackson

Two years ago I met with Donald Smart and Bob Stephens of the Humanist Community in Silicon Valley, a group which I am also a part of, to discuss the prospect of helping develop a secular student organization at Stanford University.

At that meeting $4,000 was pledged for this project. We later spoke to August Brunsman of the Secular Student Alliance about this idea, and he proposed the following: $20,000 to hire a student intern to encourage student groups not only at Stanford, but at universities and colleges all across Northern California. He thought that with our commitment, other groups would be willing to help as well.

Now, two years later, we can look back and evaluate the results of our efforts. So far, I would have to say, the results are truly amazing.

Below is a report from SSA’s “Activity Summary 2008-2009 School Year” （http://www.secularstudents.org/files/2009.activity.snapshot.3.pdf):

Northern California Campus Organizing: With funding from the Humanist Community in Silicon Valley, the Vital Spark Foundation, and the American Humanist Association, in 2008 the Secular Student Alliance launched a two year project aimed at building up the secular student movement in northern California.

The original goals of the program were to flyer 10 campuses, visit 8 campuses, and grow our affiliate base from 2 to 8 sustainable campus groups in the area. In the course of the program thus far, we have flyered 11 campuses, visited 11 campuses, and reached a total of 10 active affiliate groups in the area. We are also in touch with leaders at three other campuses who are actively working on starting new groups. We organized a speaker tour with Dan Barker in the fall of 2008 and are organizing a similar tour with PZ Myers in January 2010. We are also in the beginning stages of organizing a leadership summit in the region to train student group leaders and encourage regional networking.

Currently there are 15 student groups. Two of these are in high schools (Gilroy High and Los Altos High). Certainly our support did not cause all of these results. The whole thing was a learning experience for SSA, as it was for all of us. And, we had a lot of luck along the way. The original intent was to hire a student intern from Stanford who could travel over Northern California. However, that idea did not work very well. Therefore the SSA decided to utilize a staff member, Lyz Liddell, to work out of the national office, and travel to Northern California as time and money allowed, but do much of the work from the home base.

The funds our pledge helped raise will soon be exhausted. I think it is now time to support an expanded effort to maintain a paid staff, primarily of recent college graduates, to work with students to expand secular support for young people at a critical period in their lives when decisions are being made that will guide them in the years to come.

Most of us are aware of the four year cycle on college campuses. Without outside support an ongoing campus group is almost impossible to maintain. We need to learn from the traditional religious community which commits millions, if not billions, of dollars to ensure that their college student groups have the support they need to maintain their existence.

Now is the time when all the forces are coming together to help freethinkers break out of the box imposed on us by ideas that no longer apply and ensure we do what it takes to finally build a free society where each of us can become all we can, achieving our full positive potential and helping maintain our species in a way worthy of that existence.

Support is needed to allow committed youth to bring their energy to Humanism and the freethought movement in general by earning a living doing this. Such jobs allow youthful energy to be utilized on Humanist/freethought goals. Developing this source is critical if we are going to support the interests that are now growing and expanding in every area of freethought we look at. If this project interests you let me know, and tell me how much you will pledge to support it.

By a name I am Arthur Martin Jackson.  For me humanism comes closest to what is needed to change the world for the better so I have spent the bulk of my life working to improve and advance it. I have been active in the American Humanist Association since 1962. In June 1963 I attended AHA's first training session to provide Humanist officiants for weddings and other ceremonies.  After that (1965-69) worked as assistant director, coordinating AHA’s officiant and chapter programs. Then came to San Jose as the full-time, paid executive director of the local AHA chapter to experiment with developing a model to help chapters become more firmly based. Have actively been involved with the AHA national chapter program and what is now known as Humanist Society ever since. Author, "The Humanist Chapter of the Future and the Future of Humanism" (1982, 1993), and (unpublished) "How To Live the Good Life: A User's Guide for Modern Humans."