FFRF CENTRAL OHIO CHAPTER
MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 14, 2023
LOCATION Worthington Library, 820 high St. Worthington Ohio
Attendees: 19

The meeting was called to order by Bill Fullarton. He invited attendees to meet and chat with someone they did not know.

Invocation: Dave Krohn read an invocation that Ed Sweeney has prepared for meetings of the Upper Arlington City Council.

Announcements (Les Kleen) We are currently not asking members to pay separate dues to the chapter. The national FFRF will send us $5.00 for each confirmed member. Our application for a $1000 grant has been approved. We have not yet established a bank account. Dave Krohn has agreed to serve as our treasurer. Les would like to be sure he has the email for all paid members and asked if we were getting regular email from the coffrf.org.

Media Report (Dave Krohn). No events are yet in the works.

Program: Bill introduced member Glenn Waring who has had a long career in financial management and organizational dynamics, and is providing us leadership on matters of church and state. He began with a video clip of a recent Meet the Press show in which the host noted that the % of people who have a faith affiliation has fallen from over 70% to 47%. We might form partnerships with like-minded organizations such as ACLU, the American Humanist Association, Secular Students of America and Americans United for Separation of Church and State (www.au.org).

Bill noted that we can get funds from FFRF to feature a billboard in the Columbus area, perhaps posing a question (“Would you be OK if--?”) Other suggestions included having a booth at Comfest and other summer festivals. Small groups were formed to explore positive message about what we stand for. Suggestions included “freedom of conscience”, “freedom = separation of church and state” ( or perhaps “separation of church and state = freedom”.
One suggestion to look up the mission statements of other groups like ours was followed by Bill reading a mission statement he had drafted for us:

“Our mission is to provide local activities for FFRF members in central Ohio, and to further the purposes of the Freedom from Religion Foundation: protection of the separation of church and state, and providing education on non-theism.

In pursuit of this mission we will emphasize the need to build community, and to endeavor to learn from the best practices of FFRF Chapters around the country.”

The next three meetings, all beginning at 7 pm, are scheduled as follows:
March 14 Whetstone Library, Clintonville
April 11 Old Worthington Library
May 9 Whetstone Library

Included in the agenda for our meeting in March will be the Board of Directors, a continuation of Glenn’s charge to create a short phrase (“make it simple”) representing a “positive aspiration” for publication, and maybe an “elevator speech”.

A question was raised about changing the schedule to every other month or alternating with virtual meetings. The consensus was that we have a great deal of organizing work still to be done so will need monthly meetings for the foreseeable future.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

Submitted by Alice Faryna