FAQ

NAFA stands for North Alabama Freethought Association.

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NAFA has a lot of opportunities to meet fellow members and like-minded individuals. Every Saturday NAFA has a Coffee Social from 9 a.m. until noon (usually followed by lunch) and every Sunday NAFA has a Bagel Social from 10 a.m. until noon. The second Friday of each month is Movie Night at 6:30 p.m. The third Friday of each month is NAFAs' monthly dinner beginning at 7 p.m. The last Sunday of each month is our monthly picnic beginnign at noon from March until October. NAFA has a camping trip each Spring and Fall. NAFA takes special trips now and then to science-related locations and invites guest speakers to address the group. In addition, is the annual Halloween Party, July 4th Party, Freethoughtoberfest, and much more. NAFA members are always hanging out in between events. To find out when the next event is coming up, check out the calendar.

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NAFA is a Freethought group. Freethought is an umbrella term for individuals who are non-religious. Many "labels" fall under the Freethought umbrella, including: Agnostic, Atheist, Bright, Freethinker, Humanist, Materialist, Naturalist, Rationalist, Secular Humanist, Secularist, Skeptic, and others. In addition, some non-mainstream theists, such as Deists and Pantheists have felt comfortable in the group. It should be noted that NAFA is a group OF Freethinkers FOR Freethinkers. While this does not preclude theists from joining, it does mean that NAFA was founded for Freethinkers to talk with like-minded individuals without fear of repercussion. Fundamentalists and other religious adherents would not feel comfortable in the group and may cause NAFA members to feel uncomfortable. This means proselytizing is NOT allowed in NAFA.

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There is no special joining process. Just come to an event and introduce yourself. You will not be asked for any personal information. As you become comfortable with the group, most members choose to share phone numbers and other information, but it is not required. If you join our Forum, you'll be asked for minimal information to keep track of your account, and help us screen out spammers. Your email address will be used only for your forum membership and announcements about NAFA activities. Your information will never be deliberately sold nor given to third parties, and will be removed from our distribution list anytime you request. Some members join just for the forum discussions, some do not use the forum at all. We also maintain a presence on Facebook and Meetup.com that you may join. In short, you will know you're an official member only when you consider NAFA as a group of your friends.

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Our weekly coffee or bagel socials, and our monthly diner meetings are typically unstructured social get-togethers. There is no leader, and no designated topic for discussion. People simply get together for friendly conversation. Typically, members talk about current events, politics, religion, philosophy, etc. There is also plenty of conversation about people's jobs, families, travels, and hobbies. Sometimes, someone will bring in a newspaper or magazine article, book, or internet story to kick off discussion. Often, smaller groups will split off, so, if you find yourself in an uninteresting conversation, you can easily slide over to another one, or start your own.

On movie night, we generally vote on a movie to watch in advance, and discussion naturally focuses on that movie. For camping and picnic events, obvious outdoor activities are avaliable. Occasionally, a special get-together might be arranged to hear a guest (or member) lecture on a topic of interest.

Often, NAFA members will offer to host an event in their home. This could be a pool party, board games, karaoke party, or holiday (St. Patrick's day, Halloween, etc.). In these cases, the host sets the tone of the get-together, and the host's rules regarding alcohol, children, smoking, etc. are respected. Pot-luck is common. At events such as this, the host might invite some of their non-NAFA friends.

Sometimes, a NAFA member may suggest an outing to see a movie, have dinner, attend a lecture or concert, go on a hike, or other such event. These outings are generally arranged informally through the Forum, Facebook, or just word-of-mouth.

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Currently, NAFA does not have membership dues. NAFA relies on the generous donations of its members to help pay for the Web Page, signs, and other activities that come up. If you would like to donate to NAFA, please click on the PayPal logo on the home page or you can give a check/cash donation to the Organizer or Assistant Organizers.

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NAFA welcomes all ages. NAFA members are as young as 3 and as old as 91. NAFA also has a Teen Forum for our teenage members. Parents are reminded that conversations at NAFA events are sometimes adult-orientated and sometimes may be inappropriate for younger children. As long as the parent of the child is comfortable with the child there, then NAFA is as well. NAFA should also note that we do not label children "atheist," "agnostic," "deist," or even theistic labels such as "Christian," "Muslim," etc. NAFA adheres to the view that children do not know what they are and cannot be labeled in religious terms any more than they can be labeled in political or social terms. Children attending NAFA events are free to engage in conversation and ask questions. They are equally free to label themselves, but adults will not label them. NAFA often has "family friendly" events where children are encouraged to attend, such as the NAFA Picnic, pool parties, and field trips. If an event is not appropriate for children it will be annotated in the event listing (like the Halloween Party or Freethoughtoberfest).

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NAFA was originally conceived in the winter of 2002. In March of 2003 NAFA held its first official meeting at a pool hall on Governor's Drive in Huntsville. NAFA considers March 2003 to be its official start-up date. NAFA is six years old and still going, still growing, and still supporting the non-religious community in north Alabama.

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Because NAFA does not require official membership, NAFA can only track participants. The NAFA Forum has approximately 200 users, the Meetup extension has an addtional 100 users (duplicates not included) and the mailing list has approximately 50 subscribers (duplicates not included), which brings total "membership" to approximately 350. Like all groups, NAFA can expect an agerage of 15% of its "membership" to be active and participate in functions. An average of 30 members attend the monthly dinner and our largest attendance to date was 57 at the Darwin 200th Birthday Dinner. NAFA started out with two members attending. Those numbers slowly grew as Huntsville residents found out about NAFA. Currently, people can find NAFA via Meetup.Com, MySpace, Facebook, Atheist Nexus, the Huntsville Times, and other locations. NAFA is constantly growing and getting new members. NAFA is proud to call Huntsville and north Alabama home and to support the non-religious community through friendship, conversation, social and educational activities, and activism.

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For general inquiries and information, please send an email to nafa @ thenafa . org. If you have a specific question for the Organizer or Assistant Organizers, please go to the NAFA Contact Page and click on the appropriate individual. For press inquiries, please contact Blair Scott at alabamaatheist @ gmail . com.

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