For me, one of the great benefits of this community is the different opportunities I have to spend time with you doing fun and interesting things—hiking, bowling, or talking about books, foreign policy, or philosophy, and more. I know some of you found this community through one of these activities. So I’m using this month’s letter to encourage those of you who might be thinking about ways to get more involved to consider some opportunities.

Try a Special Interest Group activity, or start a new one. You’ll find the SIG activities in the Events Calendar on the website (HumanistsNM.org/events). If there’s something you like to do that you’d like to share with other members, consider starting a new SIG. If you’d like to start something, let me or Paul Babb know, and we’ll get you started. Get involved with one of our committees.

Last year, we formed three committees to help our community to thrive.

The Membership Committee, led by Charlene Baker, is tasked with helping members connect with and support each other, and includes managing events like our 5th Saturday potlucks, and getting volunteers to bring snacks to meetings. If you have ideas for ways we can support each other, or just want to help make people feel welcome here, please let Charlene know.

The Communications Committee, led by Paul Babb, is responsible for the newsletter, the website (HumanistsNM.org), and other online presences (Meetup, Facebook, and YouTube, etc.). They handle communications both internally with members, and with the larger Albuquerque and New Mexico community, with event announcements and press releases. If you have an interest in any of the platforms we use, or in creating and publishing content about us and what we do, please let Paul know.

The Outreach Committee, led by Jayde Donnelly, is charged with helping members find ways to make our communities better by connecting with other groups who share our humanist values, including groups providing support for marginalized people—immigrants, unhoused, LGBTQ+, and so on. If you’re interested in helping our members find ways to reach out to people of Albuquerque and New Mexico, please let Jayde know.

This community is what it is today because of what all of you bring to it. I am proud and happy to be a part of it. I’m looking forward to what we’ll become tomorrow.

Pete Dickinson (pete@HumanistsNM.org)