A brief account of Mumbai meetup.

[United_Floyd]

The main highlights were:

1. All members discussed about how they became atheists and how they discovered that there is “nothing” (beyond the physical, natural world).
2. We also discussed how we came out of closet with our stance on religion.
3. We discussed about how is religion and politics a vicious combination.
4. Interestingly, we had a brief discussion about philanthropy and atheism. Are they related or not? Most of the members differed on this issue.
5. Members also discussed about well acclaimed documentaries/movies like The Zeitgeist (I know it has been debunked by a few but still interesting enough), The God Who Wasn’t There, Religulous, and Contact (Based upon a novel by Carl Sagan).
6. Another thing which all the members agreed and insisted upon is setting up an concrete organisation or body which will bring better co-ordination and better efficiency to the group. It can be something like IA chapter of Mumbai.

To sum up, it was quite a successful meet and would like to have another one with bigger numbers in future.

[siddharth]

Hey! Glad to know that it went well.
However, I would like to know how could the organisation be improved for the next meet? What do you suggest?

[United_Floyd]

Definitely. There is a lot of room for improvement. I would like to propose that a location should be set for once and for all. So the problem doesn't arise again. All the members should be noted atleast a week in advance so it would not create any kind of confusion. If required a provisional location can also be decided by poll. A proper agenda in place would help but not a must for this kind of meet. An informal meet does also help a lot. I would also like to suggest inviting all the members of IA page on Facebook who are based in Mumbai for better results.

[siddharth]

Great. All of the above can be taken care of from now.
1. The next meeting can be held at a location that you decide, and in that meeting, all those who come can fix one place on a simple vote. That place will be made a permanent fixture. The last time was problematic because no admin of the group was from Mumbai. From the next time on you and a few others can help us plan it out easily. By the way, will Colaba be a good location? I heard all train lines lead there.
2. We will post events at least 3 weeks in advance from now on.
3. There is no way to invite only the Mumbai members of IA as facebook does not provide that option. We have no choice but to invite everyone and sees how it goes.

[United_Floyd]

(03-Jan-2011, 11:04 PM)siddharth Wrote: Great. All of the above can be taken care of from now.
1. The next meeting can be held at a location that you decide, and in that meeting, all those who come can fix one place on a simple vote. That place will be made a permanent fixture. The last time was problematic because no admin of the group was from Mumbai. From the next time on you and a few others can help us plan it out easily. By the way, will Colaba be a good location? I heard all train lines lead there.
2. We will post events at least 3 weeks in advance from now on.
3. There is no way to invite only the Mumbai members of IA as facebook does not provide that option. We have no choice but to invite everyone and sees how it goes.

1.Colaba is good. Dadar and Powai are better. We can have a poll for once and for all.
2. 3 weeks is good enough.
3. You can invite via status update on that page.

[siddharth]

Great! Whenever you feel the time is right to host the second meet in Mumbai, please inform one of the admins and we will create the event and make you event admin on IA.