Center for Inquiry

“Catholic Education Week 2012 — More equal than others since 1841″

This message, in honour of Catholic Education Week 2012, was posted on the OneSchoolSystem.org blog and on CFI’s Facebook page:

Happy Catholic Education Week 2012 (May 6-11)! God bless you premier McGuinty, Tim Hudak, and Andrea Horwath for upholding the Catholic faith above all others before and under Ontario law. You uphold Catholic school funding in the face of fiscal austerity in health care and education. You uphold this funding in the face of wage freezes for public sector employees.

Ontarians can wait a little longer for essential medical services, go without them altogether, or pay for them themselves — if they have the means. Hospital expansions and renovations can wait. Communities with both a half empty public and a half empty Catholic school can close one or the other and ship half their kids elsewhere to go to school, rather than combining the two student bodies into the best of the two buildings. School maintenance backlogs, already on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars in some school boards, can grow for a few more years yet before the schools actually start to fall down. Doctors, nurses, teachers, and other public sector employees can handle a few years of wage freezes or sub-inflation increases. Our cities can learn to do more with less.

The important thing here — the really important thing — is that all Ontario taxpayers continue to fund the promulgation of Catholic religious beliefs to the 80-90% of Catholic families who use Catholic schools but do not go to Church. God bless all of our Members of Provincial Parliament for setting proper priorities and for ignoring the majority wish to move to a single public school system for each official language. That takes a truly breathtaking combination of callousness, insensitivity, and political cowardice. In Ontario, we are fortunate to have politicians with all of these qualities in spades.

 

CFI enters the fray

Looks like CFI has gotten involved with the Solo incident in Saskatoon. The article has some interesting quotes from people commenting on the issue of the Mayor’s use of prayer as part of his duties.

“I would encourage councillor Donauer and his worship the mayor to let Mr. Solo take his concerns to Human Rights if he wishes. Christians have rights, too.”

“Soon we will have to hide in caves or have 666 printed on our foreheads,”

“Religion is a very personal matter, best left between the individual and their God.”

“His belief in an imaginary friend is his choice, but he must be respectful and represent all of Saskatoon’s people fairly,”

Doing the good works.

Wanted: Social Media Volunteer

CFI Toronto is looking for a self-motivated, dedicated individual to volunteer three days a week for approximately 4 hours per day as a Social Media/Event Management Intern.

This is a detail-oriented job for an individual who is passionate about secular issues and can demonstrate the following skills:

  • Knowledge of social networking group/event/messaging/ posting concepts and etiquette.
  • Ability to complete fastidious, error-free, copy-paste site postings on multiple sites and check work thoroughly.
  • Keeps up to date with atheist issues in the news and online.
  • Can source content such as articles, videos and news items which are relevant to CFI’s mandate.
  • Familiarity with Google Documents (spreadsheets and tables) and Google Analytics.
  •  Intermediate to advanced Facebook and Twitter skills (does not require training to produce and edit pages, create updates etc).
  •  Familiar with website construction and maintenance.
  •  Fastidious attention to detail re event places, times, dates and other key details are critical; many people rely on this information to attend our events.
  •  Ability to multitask and take responsibility for small to medium-sized events.

Please email Jaimy Warner at jwarner@cficanada.ca with a brief introductory paragraph and your resume.

CFI is on the mend…

I’m sure this won’t satisfy the Justin-haters, but it does appear the new board is looking seriously at other candidates for a permanent National Director.

The CFI Canada Board of Directors is pleased to inform our members that it has undertaken these initiatives following our recent first meeting:

1) We have engaged a new National Communications Director. After successfully volunteering in a similar role for the past three months, Justin Trottier has accepted a three-month contract. Working with our Branch leaders, he will be responsible for the overall planning, organization, and direction of our communication strategies. He will also be contacting donors and members, in collaboration with the National Executive Director, to solicit donations and ensure membership renewals.

2) We have formed a special committee within the Board to recommend applicants for the position of National Executive Director. The committee will be processing applications and then conducting interviews with a select number of candidates. We will announce our decision on or before April 15, 2012.

3) We have begun to budget for and start building a new CFI Canada website. This will allow all our Branches to be represented under one coherent platform. We will be calling on Branch leaders and members for suggestions in order to build a site we can all be proud of. In the meantime, we have requested that our new National Communications Director update our current site.

The Board believes these initiatives will further our goal of making CFI Canada our nation’s premier voice for reason, secularism and skepticism.

CFI Canada Board of Directors

CFI has a new board

Got this from CFI Canada, in case anyone missed it…

The Centre for Inquiry Canada held its annual general meeting (AGM) on
Sunday March 11 in Toronto. A new board comprising three members from the last board and six new directors was elected by the Associate Members of the Centre with the aid of an impartial returning officer, volunteer Kirk Stevens.

The departing board members who did not stand for re-election were Richard Thain, Ron Lindsay and Tom Flynn. We are deeply grateful for their dedication to CFI Canada and are pleased that they will all remain Associate Members. We would like to thank Dr. Christopher DiCarlo for his candidacy and continued commitment to CFI.

The 2012–2013 Board of Directors:

Gary Bauslaugh
Carley Centen (Secretary)
William Cranor
Bryan Eelhart (Treasurer)
Behzad Elahi
Gary Fitzgibbon (Vice-Chair)
Pat O’Brien
Kevin Smith (Chair)
Lorne Trottier

Our new members bring to their duties a diverse range of talents and experience in business, law, media, marketing, charity, and academia.

At the first Board meeting after the AGM, we were encouraged by the evident goodwill and co-operation in our discussions.

The Board intends to help guide CFI Canada forward with fresh initiatives and a strong agenda for our National Director in pursuit of our shared goals.

The Board also wishes to conduct the affairs of the Centre with the openness that our members have been requesting, as well as working to create a supportive community of freethinkers promoting the best interests of CFI Canada. Contact us at directors@cficanada.ca.

I wish them luck… and now, may the mudslinging begin…

CFI Canada Seeks New National Executive Director

I received this email from Michael Payton, today, Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 6:28 PM

Dear Members,

As you are no doubt aware my term as Interim National Executive Director is quickly coming to a close. While it has been an honour and a pleasure to serve in this position, it is also the time to begin seeking my successor. Please distribute this newsletter as widely as possible to all those who would be interested in taking up this position.

Transparently Yours,

Michael Payton

—————————————————————————————————————–

Responsible to:

Board of Directors

Summary of primary job functions

The National Executive Director is responsible for establishing and executing major goals and objectives for the organization. Implements policies established by the board of directors. Provides leadership, direction, and guidance in CFI-Canada’s activities to volunteers and branches. Analyzes and evaluates the effectiveness of all organization operations. Develops and maintains organizational structure and effective personnel. Coordinates major activities through subordinates and appraises assigned personnel. Represents the Organization to regulatory bodies, community and civic organizations, donors, volunteers and supporters, and the general public.

Duties and responsibilities

General

• Executes board-approved policies

• Directs and oversees short and long term strategic plans

• Attends Board Meetings and prepares reports on financial and resource management of the organization

• Provides leadership to organization personnel and volunteers through effective objective setting, delegation, and communication

• Is ultimately responsible for financial performance of the organization

• Oversees hiring of staff. Hiring subject to board approval.

• Conducts branch leader meetings to disseminate pertinent information

• Ensures that appropriate salary and wage structures are maintained

• Delegates authority and responsibility to branch leaders

• Oversees the preparation of office procedure manuals, outlining specific duties and area responsibilities

• Ensures that job descriptions are current

• Conducts performance appraisals as required

• Formulates and implements corrective action as needed

• Develops and implements programs, policies, and goals that further strategic objectives

Administration

• Ensures administrative staff and volunteers remain current to organization business and Board directives/approvals that affect their functions and areas of responsibility

• Works with the Board of Directors on governance policy issues by providing support and by initiating approved recommendations or actions

• Ensures compliance to minimum standards in accordance with all government legislation, regulations and guidelines pertinent to the organization’s role as an employer and non-profit agency

• Recommends to the Board changes to policies and procedures that would improve the organization

• Maintains an effective and cost efficient office environment

• Develops, maintains, and up-dates job descriptions pertinent to the organization

• Determines staff training and/or equipment needs of clerical and administrative employees, taking into account annual budget allocations

• Submits all information, reports and records as requested or required by law to appropriate government officials or the board of directors

• Develops and implements operational plans, policies, and goals that further strategic objectives

Financial

• Maintains full awareness of the complete financial, statistical, and accounting records of the organization

• Ensures that operating results established in the annual budget are achieved and the control of operating expenses within budget

• Ensures the accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of all financial accounting and reporting • Signatory to all checks for the national and local offices

• Ensures the preparation of the annual budget for board approval

•Oversees record keeping and collection of records from branch leaders

• Ensures that branch leaders are aware of and compliant with financial reporting standards

• Prepares financial reports regularly for Board of Directors • In conjunction with the accountant, oversees the annual government filings.

Qualifications

• Experience in non profit administration.

• Familiarity in and experience with the Secular/Skeptical movement.

• Experience in volunteer management.

• Experience in strategic planning, marketing, and financial management in the nonprofit sector

• Basic Microsoft Office Skills including Word, Excel and Powerpoint Experience using and maintaining SQL databases (eg. MySQL) or similar technology

• Knowledge of basic accounting standards and quickbooks

• Knowledge of personnel tracking software such as MS Access

• Knowledge of Volunteer Management and experience in Donor Relations and Fundraising

• Experience in Project Management

• Working Knowledge of Online Marketing, including Youtube, Analytics and Social Media

TO APPLY

Please send all applications (cover letter+resume) to mpayton@cficanada.ca.

Card Carrying Member

On Friday, January 8, 2012, I received confirmation of my membership in CFI Canada. I also received a membership card. The letter lists the names of the members of the board of directors: all are male, all are white.  Justin Trottier, National Outreach Coordinator; Michael Payton, National Executive Director; and the Board of Directors are very optimistic about the future of CFI Canada:

Apocalypse or not, 2012 is going to be the best year yet for the Centre for Inquiry Canada! We can’t offer you a revelation, but we can unveil our vision for the next year, which grows on the amazing accomplishments your funds have been supporting.

 

CFI Canada: New Associate Members

Larry Moran at Sandwalk has posted the letter he received in response to his application for Associate Membership.  Larry’s application was refused.

Larry would like you to

Post a comment [on his blog] if your application was also rejected. That way we might be able to figure out what the Board of Directors is thinking when it comes to appointing new Associate Members. I’ll let the Board know about this posting so they can comment, or at least see your comments.