Activist Margaret Downey has (once again) proposed the idea of a Unity Convention — one massive convention for atheists that would bring together all the various national organizations.
She has brought this idea up a few times now, each time at an annual meeting of the atheist group leaders. That meeting (the 6th of its kind) is taking place this weekend in Washington, D.C. I’ll be there, representing the Secular Student Alliance.
I think bloggers and Internet dwellers everywhere overwhelmingly support the idea of a Unity Convention.
But here’s what has to happen for this to work.
All organizations involved would have to convince their members that *this* is the convention they should be going to.
Since some members only have enough money to fly out and register for one convention a year, these groups would likely have to give up hosting their own conference that year.
Here’s what ends up happening:
A couple organizations (the SSA included) offer to do just that. We’ll give up our yearly conference in favor of a Unity Convention.
Not enough groups are willing to do this, though. They say it’s tradition to host their yearly convention, or it’s a moneymaker for them so they can’t give it up, and then the idea just dies.
This is at least the third time Margaret is making a plea for these organizations to work together for an amazing future convention. I don’t know if this year will be any different.
But I’ll let you know what happens after this Saturday’s meeting.
In the meantime, if you belong to any national organization, you should let the president(s) know you fully support this idea. Do it this week, before it’s too late.
