Neo-Socratics Meetings/2006-10-31

Date: 31 October 2006

Location: Port Elizabeth St. George’s Club, Bird Street

Present: C. Vanderlinden, N. Allen, R. Bosch, E. Taggart, N. O’Brien

Apologies: M. Heiligers, A. Steyn, R. Wakefield

MINUTES OF MEETING
1. Minutes of the previous meeting
 * 1) The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted

2. New members
 * 1) Two new members were introduced: Emma Taggart and Neil O’Brien
 * 2) Three new members who could not attend were introduced: Jahn Roux, Nico Oosthuysen and Eric Marais

3. Matters arising
 * 1) It was proposed and accepted that C. Vanderlinden write up some ground rules for the society
 * 2) It was proposed and accepted that a possible change of name from Neo-Socratic to Cogito be proposed and voted on at the next meeting
 * 3) It was proposed that the meeting on 2 January 2007 be moved to 9 January 2007 to allow people to recover sufficiently from the New Year

4. Next meeting
 * 1) The next meeting will be held at the Maritime Club at 19:00 on Tuesday 5 December 2006

5. Newsworthy items
 * 1) There was an article in the EP Herald stating the South African wine was being rejected by the EU due to its inclusion of genetically modified yeasts
 * 2) A Watchtower pamphlet called “The end of False Religion” is being distributed
 * 3) There is a Young Earth Creationist group, called “His People” evangelizing at the NMMU

6. Existing Projects
 * 1) C. Vanderlinden will handle the building up of an atheist and secular library and called for donations of books
 * 2) The Neo-Socratic website is being developed by R. Sumner, and all content is to be forwarded to him

7. New Projects
 * 1) It is proposed that N. Allen should contact W. Thompson to create a secular/skeptical version of the Watchtower pamphlet for publishing and distribution
 * 2) It is proposed that C. Vanderlinden contact James “The Amazing” Randi as an honorary member of the Neo-Socratics
 * 3) It is proposed that a falsifiable test for the hypothesis that Astrology is a valid basis for personality be put together, inviting local astrologers to give their input and subject themselves to the test

8. Talk
 * 1) A talk on the scientific method, by R. Bosch was delivered