Orange County Atheists

Why IHOP again? There are many other options on that same stretch of road that have good menus and decent beer on tap. Gulliver's and El Torito are both great restaurants. Can we PLEASE find a different meeting place?

Gilbert, quoting myself from last week:

"...find one of those restaurants that can consistently host parties of 25-35 in a dedicated, fairly quiet space, and we'll talk. Come for the company and eat beforehand if you don't care for the food - quite a few people do that!"

Neither of those places can host a party our size, consistently, on short notice, and give us a private area.

We've also got a large under-21 contingent, so I don't want to exclude them. I asked around (and emailed) to see if people wanted a social gathering at a different location, and didn't hear back...but feel free to plan one, and I'll advertise it here.

I wouldn't mind a pre-meet too, say 6:30-7:30 for drinks at el torito, then walk next door. IHOP is pretty nice to us every time though, so I do encourage people to eat there when possible.

Travis

Sorry I missed the December meeting, something came up unexpectantly, almost like an act of G.... nevermind. I'm just having a hard time getting to my 1st meeting. mark figas

I will be there with my San Diegan atheist. I also predict a much bigger showing of the UCI crowd this time.

I will, of course, be there.

I'll be there this week =)

Naughtyniko will be there.

Naughtyniko will be there.

I think I'll be able to make this my first atheist gathering!

My first meeting was in December - I liked it! I will be there this time, too!
- KhooooB!!!!

Hope to make this meeting for the first time; coming from work in the IE.

I'm a first time visitor and a new grad student at UCI. I'm going to try to make it with a friend, but maybe just by myself. Look forward to meeting everyone!

I will do what I can to be there for my first meeting come hell or high water...though I doubt it will flood and it's not like Hell exists or anything.

The spammers seem to have found this board. :(

I'll be there.

Spammers dealt with. I get most of the non-spam posts, but sometimes my email filter is so good it deletes my notifications that have spam content too, so I won't always see them. Just shoot me a note if you do see some, and I'll get rid of them.

I may be a little late, but it's worth it to come see Ray Comfort. I hope he really shows up.

Mike,do you have some thoughts on why he feels he needs to meet with us? Did he say anything outright about attempts at conversion for instance, or was this a spontaneous invitation on your part? How did this come about?

Like the meeting before last when those Xtians showed up with their little tracts, it seems we have arrived.

2 newbies for tonights meeting

Yes, tonights guests will be Ray Comfort and Mark Spence, both from Living Waters. Two months ago someone came by the meeting and threw out a bunch of anti-atheist literature which is produced by Living Waters. So after that, I emailed them, calling them on their shenanigans. They said it was wasn't sanctioned by them, which is probably true.

So I also suggested that if they wanted to have a discussion with us then they were welcome to come to a meeting. Surprise surprise, they took me up on that offer :)

I made it clear that it wasn't a speaking engagement, so they'll be there as equals. Hopefully we can learn something from them, and they can learn something from us. We'll be set up at one end of the table, so those who don't want to take part don't have to.

Hopefully we can all keep our cool, and stick to discussion rather than any attacks (from/to both sides).

Travis

Good for the way you set it up, Travis. I'm not interested in engaging them, just want to hear if they have anything new to say. I'll leave it to others to ask questions.

i'll be there

ARRRGH! I wish I could've come down on Tuesday.... how did it go? I'm curious... email me somebody! =)