I know, it's been over a week since the SSA Con and I still haven't posted anything about the good part of the weekend. Everyone's probably already bored with the topic, but if you're not, stay around! Saturday was amazing.
(This is the third part of a short blog series on the
SSA conference; you can read the first two parts
here and
here.)
The Talks
I don't know what I expected from the talks. Obviously, I went to the conference hoping to learn a thing or two, but I suspected it would be pretty hit-or-miss with the speakers. I needn't have worried. Every speaker was an experienced activist leader and knew which topics would be most useful to student group leaders looking to make their group succeed. I'm only going to cover the highlights here, but rest assured that the other presentations had a lot of great information too.
Lyz Liddell, the Director of Campus Organizing at the SSA, talked about Why Groups Die and How You Can Save Yours. As an officer in a very new group, I am concerned about what will happen to the group when I and all the other original officers graduate. Lyz discussed how to create solid infrastructure for a group to make sure it can survive long after the founders have left campus. I picked up a lot of great tips from the talk, and took note of all the cautionary advice. Critics beware: LIFT will be around for a long time if I have anything to say about it.
Jesse Galef, the Communications Director for the SSA, gave a presentation on How to be a Media Pirate. He talked about how to keep pushing your group into the public eye through newspapers, radio, and television. This is one thing my group hasn't done very well. Jesse's right, though, getting your name out there is a very important part of making your group useful and relevant.
Nate Mauger, a student at Ohio State University and a staff member at SSA, talked about how to interact and cooperate with campus religious groups. I liked this talk a lot because it made me realize how useful and educational working with religious groups can be. For one thing, it can be a great way to address misconceptions about atheists. It can also prevent all of us from making hasty and stereotyped conclusions about the other group. I would like to see LIFT get involved with one or more religious groups on campus this next year.
Debbie Goddard, the campus outreach coordinator at CFI, presented on diversity and why it's important to the freethought movement. She and Greta Christina both stressed the importance of reaching out to women and racial minorities in skepticism, before we end up alienating these groups entirely. I'm going to post more on this at a later time, since I have a lot to say about it.
Finally, there was the keynote speech by Greta Christina. I'm actually not going to talk about her speech here, as it deserves a post on its own. Let's just say that Greta brought up a whole slew of interesting ideas, and I want more space to dissect them in depth.
The People
You might have already picked up that I'
m not much of an extrovert. I do fine with one-to-one conversations, but groups of people make me uncomfortable (great quality for a student leader, right?). So I wasn't really expecting to have a great time interacting with the other students at the conference. Again, I was happy to be proven wrong. I spent most of the day hanging out with
Mark and the other Purdue people (Jen and Mike), and met Jeff, Hank, and Robbie from the University of Minnesota (those CASH kids are awesome). There were many other great people, of course; I only wish there had been more time to get to know them better!
The day ended with booze, of course, and much hilarity and debauchery ensued. I think that's all that needs to be said. ;)
