Minutes of the April meeting of the Niagara Secular Humanists


Date: April 14, 2010

Time: 7:00 PM

Location: North China Buffet, St Catharines

Attending: 8 members and 14 non-members


  1. President Horst Klaus brought the meeting to order. He mentioned that some new people were attending this evenings meeting and especially thanked Justin Trottier for coming.

  2. Vice president John Berry thanked representatives from the Greater Toronto Humanist Associaton for coming.

  3. Treasurer Roy Blake reported that at the last meeting $92.00 in dues had been collected, $10.00 in sales and $36.00 for the quiz. $18.00 had been given to the winnerof the quiz John Berry $23.05 had been spent on photocopying with a total balance of $564.64.

  4. John Berry read a letter that he had sent to Lilita Stripnicks, the CEO of the St Catharines Public Library, expressing his concerns over an overtly religious display in the foyer of the main branch of the library. His concerns were based on his experience of a few years ago when the Niagara Secular Humanists were declined display space because the library did not endorse any religious displays. He read a 2nd letter from Justin Trottier supporting John's 1st letter. He then read Ms Stripnicks reply wherein she stated that the library's policy had not changed regarding displying any religious material and that becuase of this oversite by a library employee, disply space would be made available for the NSH. John wished to create some display in conjunction with CFI to promote what CFI was doing.

  5. Horst Klaus introduced Professor John Novak who spoke about two famous freethinkers, Bertrand Russell and John Dewey, in talk entitled Russell's Doing Dewey Wrong: Humanizing Faith, Hope, and Clarity. He ended his talk by saying that it was important for modern humanists to understand humanists philosophers.

  6. Horst Klaus introduced Justin Trottier and congratulated him on his work in making the Center For Inquiry the leading humanist organization in Canada.

  7. Justin trottier spoke briefly about hoping to work more closely with NSH in the future and closed by saying that CFI had about 400 members nationwide.

  8. The meeting ended at 9:00 PM.