Meeting Summary 9/27/07

2:30- Meeting Opens
-Topic decided upon is Free Will.
The different views of free will are brought up and explained.
3:00- Business Interlude
3:05- Return to Free Will
3:30- Dispersion

Meeting Summary 9/19/07

2:30-Meeting Begins
2:35-Meeting Moves to Library
2:50-Chess matches begin to decide the leader of chess board.
Matt Vs. Robert- Victor:Robert
Robert Vs. Vincent - Victor: Tie.
3:30- Meeting ends. Next week will be a full meeting on the normal day.
-Jonathan Knapp

[To other officers: Edit was not disabled; Andy had bad permissions. Don't worry about it. --Patrick :-]

Simmons' Queue 9/13/07

Current Topics of Discussion as of 9/13/07

Last Meeting's Topic: Free Will
Next Week's Topic: Free Will, Cont'd

Discussion Queue by Priority:

1. Strong Sentient AI
   
2. The Mind and the Brain
   
3. The Limits of Free Speech
   
4. Meaning in Narratives
   
5. Communism
6. Education
   
7. Wal-Mart
8. Wikipedia
9. Infinity [added by Patrick as per Andy's request--9/17/07]
   

Meeting Summary 9/13/07

2:30- To Business: Chess Game discussed, team created.
2:33- List of new topics. Topics Added to list:Mind and Brain, Freewill.
2:43- Free Will is Established as new topic.
-Simpson opens with definition and varieties of belief: Determinism, Libertarianism, Compatabilism, and Fatalism.
-Robert Meadows talks about his belief of determinism and how he came to it.
-Chris disagrees and sites Wave Equation and how all things must have some aspect of randomness.
-Defining of Random.
-32 BttF references
3:08:32- Minh Le enters, discussion on whether or not he could have chosen to come.
3:20- God and Free Will
3:25- Closing Statements
3:30- Meeting ends with poll
Determinists:2 Fatalists:2 Libertarians: 1 and Compatibilists: 6

Six people joined the club today and we thank them for attending.
-Jonathan Knapp

Constitution

For the benefit of members and school administrators, the club constitution is viewable online as follows, or available in a printable (PDF) format here.

Free Thinkers' Club Constitution

Article I - Name
The name of this club is the Ironwood Free Thinkers' Club.

Article II - Statement of purpose
The purpose of this club is to foster a healthy, friendly, productive discussion on philosophy, spirituality, society, politics, and other necessary and proper subjects that would otherwise be unavailable at the school.

Article III - Statement of message
The medium of discussion in the pursuit of truth is the only message.

Article IV - Qualifications for membership
Any student at Ironwood High School may be a member so long as they are interested in basic questions of truth and meaning, willing to employ basic notions of kindness and sense, and abide by the principles laid out below.

Article V - Principles
This group's operation is predicated on several core beliefs:

• Section 1 - On all issues not relating to the club itself, the club as an entity must always take a neutral point of view, allowing for views to be represented fairly, proportionately, and without favor.
• Section 2 - Everyone is expected to act with civility. Incivility, for the club's purposes, is defined as personally targeted behavior that causes an atmosphere of greater conflict and stress. Civility, for this club's purposes, is avoiding that.
• Section 3 - Unless there is strong evidence to the contrary, everyone is expected to assume that people who work with the club are acting in good faith trying to help it, not hurt it. If there is strong evidence to the contrary, the actions of the person rather than their motives will be scrutinized.
• Section 4 - Everyone is expected to act in good faith: to try to help the club, not hurt it.
• Section 5 - If a rule prevents anyone from working with others to improve or maintain the club, it is to be ignored.
• Section 6 - The club is fundamentally dedicated to searching for truth and mutual understanding. Nothing that seriously conflicts with or detracts from this should be allowed.

Article VI - Activities
The Free Thinkers' Club will hold regular, scheduled meetings at least twice a month to discuss topics, hear proposals for new topics, hear from guest speakers on topics, and hold more formal debates on topics. The strict order and frequency of these activities is left to the club.

Article VII - Leadership
The leadership will only hold the powers necessary to ensure order, direction, and the maintenance of the above enumerated principles.

• Section 1 - Club Sponsor- The club sponsor oversees the club and provides a place for meetings.
• Section 2 - Benevolent Dictator for Life- The Benevolent Dictator for Life organizes, represents, directs and watches over the club. He is the author of the constitution, or a person appointed by the author of the constitution, or in his absence, a person appointed by the Executive Council. The Benevolent Dictator for Life will appoint the four general officers, one of whom will fill in for the Benevolent Dictator in their absence and be called the Supreme Chancellor. Should it become necessary, the Benevolent Dictator for Life may also be called the President.
• Section 3 - General Officers- The Benevolent Dictator for Life appoints four other officers, who help the Dictator and administer the club.
• Section 4 - Executive Council- The four officers and Dictator together constitute an executive council, which will manage any monies, maintain any records, and otherwise manipulate paper as is necessary. The council may convene so long as at least three of its five positions are filled, but all sitting members of the council must be present for a meeting.

Article VIII - Self-reference
This constitution is the last word on the ground rules of the club. A few things should be made clear about it, though:

• Section 1 - Terms of Use- Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. Modifications of this document outside of the formal amendment process enumerated below will not, however, have any force in the operation of the club.
• Section 2 - Inspiration- Wikipedia's inspiration of the neutral point of view, good faith, civility, and ignore-all-rules sections of Article V is acknowledged. For further clarification of those ideas, the following web pages are recommended:
• -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Assume_Good_Faith
• -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Civility
• -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view
• -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ignore_all_rules
• Section 3 - Amendment- The Executive Council may, by unanimous consent, amend this constitution.

Simmons' Queue: 9/8/07

Current Topics of Discussion as of 9/8/07

Last Meeting's Topic: World Language
Next Week's Topic: World Language, Cont'd

• Constructed vs Organic Languages
• Process - How should it be implemented, in detail?
  

Discussion Queue by Priority:

1. Strong Sentient AI
2. Limits of Free Speech
3. Meaning in Narratives
4. Communism
5. Education
6. Walmart
7. Wikipedia
   

First Meeting Summary: 8/29/07

[No, that's not a typo. Because the minutes were taken before this blog was put together, this is a little out of order. Here they are, taken from the handwritten notes Jon gave me.]

2:30 - Meeting Begins
2:36 - Strong AI, Walmart, Meaning in Narrative, World Language, Conservation, Wikipedia, Communism [are suggested as topics for the queue.]
2:42 - Setup for Club.
2:44 - Discussing difinition of vid[smudge]/rules [not quite sure...]
2:36 - Approval of topics:
Strong AI: Full approval
Walmart: 5/6
Meaning in Narrative: 6/7
World Language: Full approval
Wikipedia: 5/7
Limits of free speech: 6/7
Communism: Full approval
2:57 - [Queue, in order, as follows]
1.) World Language
2.) Strong AI
3.) Free speech [and limits thereof]
4.) Meaning in narrative [ought or oughtn't a story have a motive or moral?]
5.) Communism
6.) Education
7.) Walmart
8.) Wikipedia
3:08 - [suggestion and establishment of] debate procedure
3:15 - Discussion of advertisements

--Information from Jon, notes by Patrick.

Meeting Summary: 9/6/07

Here are the minutes of this weeks club meeting.
2:30- The meeting begins with an attendance of eleven people. The discussion topic was "A World Language." A consensus is come to as to the permeation of the English language within the world. Simpson points out the use of French as the language of diplomacy which leads to the branch of organic languages. Mrs. Peña attended and lent her language thoughts to the topic. Discussion included which language to choose, how one implements it, and culture effects. It was agreed that a ban would not be placed on other languages and it has not been decided as to which language (native or universal) would be taught as a secondary.
2:56- Thoughts change to the willingness of countries to accept a new language. Sources include the acceptance of the metric system in America.
3:23- Discussion ends with a vote which shows a lean towards the use of a language such as English or French for a world wide language. There were no votes for the use of Esperanto and three votes for the creation of a new language.
3:25- Next weeks topic is is chosen to be a continuation of this weeks with a focus on the advantage of an Organic language. It will be open discussion still and will not move to debate.
-Jonathan Knapp

FAQ

Who are the Free Thinkers of Ironwood?
You are! The Free Thinkers' club is a discussion and debate oriented club where you can share your view on issues that are both interesting and fresh, provided you're willing to allow others to do the same.

Remember--this is not an academic club! We have no membership dues, no rules beyond courtesy, no gavel to bang at you, and we want to hear what everyone has to say. This is a place to share your view, have some fun, and maybe even learn a little from someone else. I dare you to join--get excited, have some fun, and don't be afraid to shout a little.

What are the rules?
The only real rule for this club is that you must respect the views of others, and do your best to be respectful and reasonable. For more information, consult the club constitution (print version here).

When does the club meet?
The club meets every Thursday directly after school in Mr. Dufala's room (ceramics).

Who is Simmons and what is his queue?
Ryan Simmons is a popular culture sex symbol founding member of the Free Thinkers of Ironwood.

The Queue is our (and his) current list of topics up for discussion. The Queue contains information about our last topic, which leads into our current topic, followed by a list of topics in the Queue itself.

How can I add a topic to the queue, and how is it prioritized?
The current Queue is decided at each week's meeting. At the end of each meeting, the Queue is reviewed before all attendees, and new topics can be suggested to be added to the queue.

The attending members then take a vote to indicate interest in each topic, and the priority of each is then decided by general consensus of attending members, then by the officers, and ultimately by our Benevolent Dictator for Life.

History
The Free Thinkers of Ironwood is a high school activity group started in 2006 as a reaction to local religious clubs on campus. During that year, the Free Thinkers served as an open forum for discussion and a unique opportunity for many students to talk about their beliefs in an environment that was previously unavailable.

As the entirety of the officer team graduated that year, the club was left in the hands of its active members in 2007. A new draft of the constitution has since been drawn up, and the club has been redesigned with a greater sense of purpose: To facilitate open and respectful discussion and debate of depth and significance, to give philosophy a place in high school, and to challenge the anti-intellectual attitude prevalent in today's American youth.

But you still didn't answer my question!
This FAQ is a constant work in progress. Please post any complaints or questions as comments on this post.

Genesis

Hey! This is Patrick C. here, getting started with the IHS Free Thinkers' blog. Hopefully I'll have the other officers added soon, and the minutes from our first meeting (today's minutes are waiting on Jon), the current queue and status of the club, and I'll see if we can get someone working on putting together some photos for the blog. Another interesting idea would be a calendar, but I don't know if we really have the organization or size to justify that yet.

In any case, I'll get the ball rolling with the queue and minutes now. Cross your fingers and stay active and this blog just might go somewhere!