A new homepage

My name is Brett Newton. I've been a resident of the Coachella Valley on and off since 1988.   I've been meeting with this group since November 2010, but the group was founded by Angela Gallacher long before that.  I'm pretty new to Blogger sites, but not to blogging, so bear with me while I figure this out and make it look decent.

I plan on using this site as a way of getting people to the group from search engines in order to replace what I found out from our fearless leader Angie to be a far too expensive Meetup membership ($120/year!) with a free version.  This way, people can find us, get the dates/times/places of future meetings and be directed to our Palm Springs Atheists Facebook page for discussions, link-sharing and anything else you can think of.  If you don't have a Facebook account, make one!  Even if it's just for that.

In the past, all of our meetings have been at Angie Gallacher's house.  Since she likes to take a break during the summer, the group has also gone on a break.  I'd like to change that.  Many of us are still here and would love to meet up for some lively and intelligent discussion, which I've encountered at every single meeting.  The turnout for the May meeting at Mimi's Cafe was the best I've seen yet and I am very encouraged.  Some members have offered their houses for meeting spots and also suggested others sites, including restaurants and pubs.  Any of your suggestions for days, times and places are very welcome.

I have also encountered (and am in favor of) becoming more active in the community as a group.  The Atheist Society of Austin (who run The Atheist Experience show every Sunday afternoon) is a great template.  They often coordinate events such as blood drives and highway cleanups to help engender good will.  Suggestions for things like this are also welcome as they will not only get the word out about our group, but help people understand that non-belief does not automatically equal evil, heathen behavior (and often equals the opposite in my experience).

I'm looking forward to further interaction with all of you.  Cheers!