About Connecticut Valley Atheists Meetup Group

Welcome
Welcome to the Connecticut Valley Atheists (CVA) Meetup. We are a diverse group of people from all over CT and beyond who are drawn together because we do not believe in the supernatural and wish to do our part to help promote a better and more accurate image of who we are.

Mission and Past Events
CVA’s mission is to promote to the public a positive perception of Atheists and Atheism through community activities, charitable works, and sponsorship of educational events. Since our inception, we have put up a secular display in Vernon during the Winter Holidays 2007 (see our website), raised nearly $500 for American Cancer Society with Relay for Life, contributed $350 to a forum member who is in dire need, prepared and served dinner at Catherine’s Place, a women’s shelter. We will also have a table at Hope Out Loud next month (see Meetup for details.)

We are also planning a Food Drive to restock a local food bank. Feel free to drop off nonperishable items at our monthly meetings.

We also get together for social events. Each year, we have a Summer Solstice barbecue party. This year we also had a Spring Barbecue at Wickham Park in Manchester, CT. We hope to have a Winter celebration as well.

Sunday Brunch
Earlier this year we started a Sunday Brunch, meeting each Sunday at noon in Vernon Diner. It is a social meeting and we usually talk until 2 – 3 pm! It’s good food at inexpensive prices and hopefully good dining companions. Please join us.

Listserv
Most of the communication among members happen on our yahoo listserv (http://groups.yahoo.c...) You are most welcome to join in on the discussions, which could range from official CVA business, news events and comments, or just social chatter. However, if you wish to be on the listserv, you need to send me in private your full name and town. This is because sometimes there is personal information on the listserv and I want to do some minimal screening in order to protect all the members.

Forum
We also have a very active Forum at http://www.cvatheists.... The forum is truly international in scope, with 139 registered users from 30 countries. Feel free to join in and debate with everyone there.

T-Shirts
We are going to have T-shirts soon and you can order them for $12 each. This is a high quality cotton shirt with a small CVA logo as seen on our site in the middle.

Other Events
We are looking into renting a theater and showing Bill Maher’s Religulous. You can view the trailer here http://www.apple.com/....

We are also interested in planning other social events, including hiking, movies, dinners, Happy Hours, and day trips to New York or Boston. If any events interest you, or if you wish to help plan and organize, please let me know. The best way to contact me is by e-mail.

Support
Our support comes completely from our most generous members. There is a voluntary $20 membership fee for CVA. At each of our meetings, we provide pizza, soda and dessert and we again ask for voluntary contributions to cover the costs. In addition, members often contribute beyond the basic level and contribute to other events (such as Catherine’s Place) as well. You should feel confident that 100% of your contribution goes directly into CVA operations and events as all our officers and members are volunteers and often give not only time but additional money to help us reach our mission. We hope you can be generous in your contribution.
http://www.cvatheists...

Further Questions
If you are other questions, please contact the ASST Organizer, picco.

August, 15, 2008
“Picco”