Freethought University Alliance Student Leadership Conference

[owheelj]

If people aren't aware, the Freethought University Alliance, which is supported by the AFA, the 2012 GAC, and other freethinking organisations is holding a student leadership conference on Friday the 13th of April, just prior to the the start of the GAC.

The conference starts at 12pm and goes to 4pm. Lunch and afternoon tea are provided. It is a ticketed event, and tickets are apparently selling out fast. Debbie Goddard, Chris Steadman and Lyz Liddel will all be speaking, as well as I presume Jason Ball, since he's the president of the Freethought University Alliance. There will also be some speakers at the GAC attending, although I'm not sure if they'll speaking or just wandering around letting students speak to them.

http://freethoughtalliance.org.au/20...nference-2012/


This is also probably a good time to mention to any students some of the other Freethought University Alliance initiatives;

We are running a couch surfing program for interstate attendees, where you can register and then hopefully have get free accommodation with a local university student also attending;

http://freethoughtalliance.org.au/20...st-convention/

We are also offering travel grants to university students hoping to attend. These will mainly be smallish grants that probably won't cover the entire cost for flights, but will hopefully make it easier for students to attend. There are some details in this post;

http://freethoughtalliance.org.au/20...st-convention/


The Freethought University Alliance is also providing 10 free tickets to the GAC to student leaders from outside of Victoria to encourage them to attend (thanks to the generosity of the GAC). I believe these have already been distributed.


Any university students interested in the Freethought University Alliance, joining a university freethought group, affiliating a current group with the FUA or starting a group should check out our website and feel free to contact me, or any of the other contacts available. We have excellent experience with organising the most successful freethinking university groups in the country, as well as combining resources to hold joint events and speaking tours.

http://freethoughtalliance.org.au/

[MadScientist]

Hey,
A friend and I have just joined the newly formed Murdoch Atheist and Agnostic Student Society. We both study at Murdoch University. We are very interested in attending your student leadership conference. We are both going to GAC also. How can we apply for your travel grants? I did notice on your page it does not say anything about our uni, so i thought I should ask! The grants would greatly help with our financial situation. Hopefully someone can help.
Cheers!

[owheelj]

Hi Mad Scientist, sorry for the delay in replying.

To apply for the travel grants you should email Scott Sharrad; scottsharrad at freethoughtalliance dot org dot au. You should get onto this asap, because they're about to be handed out!

You're definitely welcome and eligible for both the travel grants and attending the conference. It's great to hear that there is a student group at Murdoch. You should get the president of your society to email Madge Carew-Hopkins, who is the WA convenor of the Freethought Alliance, and we can put it on the website (I'll also mention this tomorrow at our national executive skype meeting) - her email is wa at freethoughtalliance dot org dot au.

You're also welcome to contact me if you have any more questions

[Darwinsbulldog]

Free thought in students is absolutely bad. It leads them to heresies like "Citation rules suck" [perfectly true] and "How stupid is it to have over 600 citation styles" [also profoundly true].

Unfortunately these profound insights lead many students to the path of ruin, because they try to abandon using citations altogether, to their cost, and my distress at their dangerous open-mindedness.