Things To Know About SHoWLE

Here is some gen­er­al infor­ma­tion to know about SHoWLE and our activ­i­ties.

Meetings and Events:

We will hold at least one gen­er­al meet­ing a month except dur­ing the sum­mer months of July and August. The gen­er­al meet­ings will be a for­mal struc­ture with a short announcement/introduction peri­od at the start then a pro­gram with a speak­er or dis­cus­sion top­ic. We might also show a film or TV show of inter­est to dis­cuss.

We are still aware that COVID-19 still exists and we abide by an in-person meet­ing pol­i­cy that can be found on our Policies and Resolutions page. It is also pos­si­ble a sched­uled meet­ing will be can­celed either due a pub­lic health issue or a facil­i­ta­tor becomes ill. We will try to noti­fy the pub­lic should a meet­ing be can­celed or moved.

General meet­ings will always be free and open to the pub­lic. However depend­ing on the loca­tion of the meet­ing some mem­bers may need to buy some­thing at the loca­tion — such as a restau­rant — in exchange for us using the loca­tion. You will get ample noti­fi­ca­tion if that will hap­pen. SHoWLE won’t police such pur­chas­es so if you want to attend the meet­ing and don’t have cash just let a Board mem­ber or offi­cer know.

Events are activ­i­ties or meet­ings out­side of a gen­er­al meet­ing. They may be less struc­tured and less for­mal. It might be a group going to the movies, or hav­ing din­ner, or hav­ing a bowl­ing night. These events may cost mon­ey to attend and we will make that known in advance. The fees involved don’t go to SHoWLE. We will try to have events that are either free to attend or a low cost. If the cost of an event is an issue for you please reach out to an offi­cer or a Board mem­ber.

Depending on the meet­ing or event, we may “pass the hat” for dona­tions to off­set the cost of putting on the meet­ing and event. No one will be oblig­at­ed to con­tribute to the hat espe­cial­ly if you paid mon­ey to attend the meet­ing or event. Unlike some reli­gious groups we won’t call you out for not donat­ing and we won’t treat you any dif­fer­ent­ly based on if you donat­ed or how much you donat­ed.

We Are An Inclusive and Welcoming Group That Encourages Diversity

SHoWLE invites all who wish to attend our meet­ings and events includ­ing every­one in the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC com­mu­ni­ties, and all mar­gin­al­ized indi­vid­u­als. Humanism is not lim­it­ed to old rich white men. We want to include peo­ple from all walks of life and even those who con­sid­er them­selves reli­gious believ­ers. We acknowl­edge that the LGBTQ+ and Black com­mu­ni­ties, espe­cial­ly, have been tar­get­ed not only in recent years but his­tor­i­cal­ly and SHoWLE will strive to cre­ate a safe space for Humanists and free­thinkers from all mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties.

Working with oth­er groups:

We give pri­or­i­ty to work­ing with oth­er like mind­ed groups who share a major por­tion of our world view and prin­ci­ples. While we aren’t opposed to work­ing with faith based groups on shared objec­tives, SHoWLE will not “tone down” or hide our beliefs for the sake of the oth­er group’s “com­fort”. It is more impor­tant to accom­plish the shared objec­tive and not be judg­men­tal.

We will not work with groups who don’t sup­port human rights for all peo­ple.

Group Discussion Best Practices:

We intend to fos­ter a mem­ber­ship that is curi­ous about the world and who want to explore human solu­tions to human prob­lems with­out regard to any spe­cif­ic world view or pol­i­tics. We want to cre­ate a space that is open and hon­est about these top­ics and ideas. To that end, here are some gen­er­al best prac­tices to be used dur­ing group dis­cus­sions or “Question & Answer” peri­ods after a speak­er.

1. Discussions will be mod­er­at­ed by an offi­cer or vol­un­teer. Please raise a hand when you want to speak and allow the speak­er to fin­ish what they have to say before ask­ing to speak. The mod­er­a­tor will have the pow­er to stop a speak­er and move to the next speak­er if peo­ple are wait­ing to speak.

2. Please stay on top­ic and be as brief as pos­si­ble in mak­ing your point. Be con­sid­er­ate of oth­ers who might be wait­ing to speak. If you want to pon­tif­i­cate on a top­ic, save it for your blog.

3. Remember – Treat all with basic dig­ni­ty and worth even those you dis­agree with. “Attack” the idea and NOT the per­son. Name call­ing, bul­ly­ing, or harass­ment of any­one will NOT be tol­er­at­ed. Punishment for doing it may include being asked to leave the meet­ing or event and could lead to your removal as a mem­ber of the group.

*Note* Critical exam­i­na­tion of beliefs, includ­ing crit­i­cal com­men­tary on anoth­er per­son­’s views, does not, by itself, con­sti­tute bul­ly­ing or harass­ment.

4. Because we are a non-profit group we will not and can­not endorse can­di­dates for polit­i­cal office. We can advo­cate for issues such as civ­il rights, keep­ing abor­tion legal and safe, and the need for a strong and ratio­nal pub­lic edu­ca­tion sys­tem for exam­ple. Members can wear polit­i­cal shirts and but­tons at meet­ings and events. Members can also ask for peti­tion sig­na­tures but please do that before or after a meet­ing.

5.  Although all top­ics and ideas are open for dis­cus­sion at a meet­ing, there is one top­ic we won’t be dis­cussing. SHoWLE is a human­ist group and many of us are human­ists because we came to a rea­son­able con­clu­sion on the exis­tence of “god” ques­tion. Arguing reli­gious points or apolo­get­ics won’t be wel­come.  Also com­ments that unnec­es­sar­i­ly dis­par­age reli­gion are sim­ply bor­ing to those of us who have moved to sec­u­lar human­ism and won’t be wel­come.

Comments that attempt to den­i­grate whole groups of peo­ple also aren’t wel­come. We are inter­est­ed in solv­ing prob­lems not scape­goat­ing.

6. There will not be a right to speak with­out con­se­quences. Humanists believe all ideas are open to ques­tion includ­ing our own. There is a pos­si­bil­i­ty we are wrong.