Rationalists of East Tennessee

Next Meeting: "Who Owns Our Children?"

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Book Club

Roundtable

Philosophy Sunday

Other

Driving Directions

The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
Aug. 10, 2008

Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning
Sept. 14, 2008

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
Oct. 12, 2008


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RET Skeptic Book Club Operation Rules

1 Scope. The RET Skeptic Book Club (SBC) is an activity open to all RET members and interested others who would like to discuss in depth issues related to science and its impact on society as well as a variety of related topics, in the spirit of free inquiry.

2 Titles. Preference will be given to new books (published in the last 2-3 years), although older titles will be considered if deemed interesting by enough members (see point 8). The range of topics is the one that falls under the broad headings of skepticism and free inquiry, mostly as reflected by articles published in magazines such as Skeptic, Skeptical Inquirer, Free Inquiry, Scientific American, or New Scientist.

3 Level of difficulty. The SBC is aimed at people with a general college education or equivalent. The books should not be either too general or too scientifically sophisticated. Titles regularly reviewed in the magazines listed at point (2) are most appropriate.

4 Location and time. The SBC currently meets at Barnes & Noble Booksellers (8029 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN) on the second Sunday of each month from 4-6 pm. Both time and location can be altered by majority vote of the people regularly attending the discussions, conditional on clearance from the RET Board.

5 Chair. The SBC is chaired by one RET member who is appointed by the RET Board in consultation with regular attendees to the discussions.

6 Discussions. The SBC generally discusses one book each month.

7 Book suggestions. Titles can be suggested by anybody at any time. Suggestions should be forwarded to the Chair, with exact author and title of the book in question.

8 Selections. These are made by the Chair, who will have to do so in consultation with the discussion members following a standard procedure:

A Each book suggested will be looked up in Amazon.com or other similar online services.

B An email will be sent to the RET membership with the title/author/publication date of the suggested book, a brief synopsis, and at least two reviews from recognized sources (usually online bookstores provide all of this for most books).

C Any book will be selected if it gets a minimum of three endorsements from the membership (including the SBC Chair but excluding the person who suggested the book) within a reasonable amount of time after the initial email.

D When several books are proposed and several reach the minimum endorsement, the Chair will rank books in order of endorsements and will put them on the calendar in that order.

E It is possible that the list of approved books may become too long, with the possibility that some books will be too old or superceded by newer and more interesting selections by the time the group gets around to discuss them. To balance this against the necessity of planning far enough ahead, the Chair will publish a six-month calendar of selections. Additional entries will be put on a waiting list and might have to compete again against new suggestions.

9 Interactions with the authors. The Chair is encouraged to try to arrange, from time to time and when feasible, online chats with the authors of some of the books discussed. The transcripts of such sessions will appear on the RET web page. Whenever possible, the Chair shall organize actual book signing and discussion events with the authors.

10 Web presence. The Chair will have to update the RET Webmaster with titles, reviews, links, chat transcripts, and any other material pertinent to the book club.

11 Revenues. The SBC shall continue to be a way for RET to do fundraising by linking the books to Amazon.com. Members should repeatedly be encouraged by the Chair and by the RET Board to purchase their copies through Amazon.com.

12 Advertising. The SBC shall be advertised in the available free outlets (weekly newspaper, email lists, etc.) on a regular basis. Occasionally, the Chair and the RET Board can coordinate to get a paid advertisement in the appropriate media outlets.

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