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HOH is a proudly
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HOH DARWIN DAY
HOH has a long history of putting on Darwin Day celebrations in the month of February (Charles Darwin's birthday is Feb 12). These events are often in public places and designed to highlight the importance of the Theory of Evolution in science, and the importance of awareness about evolution.
Houston
Freethought Alliance HOH has provided two representatives to serve on a multi-group Darwin Day committee, that has already begun plans for a joint Darwin Day event in February of 2008. This event will be a collaborative effort between all five organizations of the Houston Freethought Alliance. Alex Gorischek, co-chair of the Darwin Day Committee, has recently reported on the committee's progress. He writes: *** 1) Venue. The first and probably most important update is that we now have a venue reserved! For those of you who went to Ask an Atheist last year, we have that room reserved again, as well as another smaller lecture hall nearby. The lecture hall worked out great for Ask an Atheist, and I suspect it will serve us just as well for Darwin Day. The event will be held on Saturday, February 9th from 2:00 until around 5:30. Does this time sound good to everybody? 2) Presentation Topics. We currently have four confirmed presenters. There is a fifth (Dr. Daily) who has offered to give a talk, but we have not heard back from him yet. I am waiting to hear back from two of my other professors for the sixth presentation. If neither are able to present, I think Tom Brucia has something he would like to present.
3) Video Showing. Jim Ashmore suggested (quite a while ago) that we make the event "multimedia". That is, it would probably be boring to have nothing but lectures, so we should also incorporate some video in there. I love this idea, and I think it would be best to end with the video. Does anybody have suggestions for good video to show? We ideally want it to focus on the evolutionary aspects of biology, but we don't want it to be just an intro to evolution, because there's already a talk on that. Does anyone have ideas for a video to show? 4) Schedule. It was pointed out that 45 minutes would probably be too long for the presentations. Thus, we have adjusted the schedule to give each presenter 30 minutes. The current schedule of Darwin Day should look something like this:
5) Parking. As Tom Brucia pointed out, the parking nearest to the event is NOT free. There IS free parking on the Rice campus, but it's farther from the rooms where the event will be. Furthermore, the Rice parking system uses credit card for payment, as opposed the traditional one dollar bills and quarters. Tom Brucia has expressed concern that having to pay for parking with a credit card would decrease turnout. It seems to me that just about everyone I know has a credit card, so I don't see this as being a problem. However, I want another opinion. Do you all think this will be a problem? 6) Food. I'm not sure if any real decisions have been made here. Do we want food? I suggest that we put snack foods outside in the picnic area before the presentation to give people a place to socialize while others are still arriving. If you all agree that we should have some snack food, I would like to distribute this job to someone else. For various reasons (ie, I'm a vegan, lol), I am NOT a good person to have pick out food. So, would some one please step up and take the job of choosing and obtaining foods? I'm not sure what our budgets look like, but I can tell you right now that SSR has nothing, haha. Will food be a problem? Who would like to take this job? 7) Advertising. I will take care of making flyers. Just as I did for Ask an Atheist, I will also provide a detailed map to make sure people don't get lost. Once we have the presentations solidified, I will type up an email to be sent to the HFA. What I will need help with will be putting up flyers around local establishments. Places like Starbucks and Jamba Juice often (but not always) have community bulletin boards where you can put stuff up. I'll take care of the opportunities to advertise in my area, but I need all of you to help out with your areas. Does this sound reasonable? *** *** Hello all!
Every year, we celebrate the birthday of Charles Darwin to honor his
brilliant contributions to science. This year's celebration is under two
weeks away! We have a ton of great presentations lined up, and you'll get
to choose which ones to attend. *** If you would like to be a part of this planning committee, please contact us!
Although HOH is currently playing a role in developing a Darwin Day event for 2008, along with the other Houston Freethought Alliance groups, it has also just become part of a massive Darwin Day project to take place in 2009, marking Darwin's 100th birthday. This program will include participation from the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Houston Zoo, several surrounding public library systems, and many others. To visit this project's website, please go to www.darwin2009houston.org. You can also visit HOH's Darwin Day page at www.HumanistsOfHouston.org/darwinday.htm.
HOH celebrated Darwin's birthday February 17th, 2007 by hosting a public event at the Kirby Borders Books & Music. Many thanks to all those who assisted, participated, and attended. Many of our friends in the other Houston Freethought Alliance groups also attended - thanks to them as well! Last but not least, thanks very much to Borders for having us. The first presentation was a video featuring an interview with James Watson & E.O. Wilson. Following that was Dr. Hector Miranda on "The History of Evolutionary Thinking" with questions and answers afterward. Then we had a video of Carl Sagan speaking about evolution. We wrapped up with Dr. Robert Finch's presentation, "A Trip to Darwin's House". In addition to these fine speakers and videos, we had many materials available at a side table, including HOH brochures, Houston Freethought Alliance fliers, information on Darwin and evolution, and more.
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