GREATER MANCHESTER HUMANISTS
Annual Report of the Committee to the AGM
for the period 01/04/2015 to 31/03/2016
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Introduction
Section One Numbers
Section TwoThe GMH Committee
Section Three Communications
Section Four Meetings and Groups
Section Five Education
Section Six Promotion and Campaigning
Section Seven Pastoral Work
Section Eight Inter-belief and Other Activities
AnnexAccounts for 2015-2016
Introduction
The Committee is pleased to submit this Report to the members of Greater Manchester Humanists(GMH) at the 2016 AGM.
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This has been a successful year in which Humanism has advanced in Greater Manchester, but there are still areas where we need to make progress.
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We have a good number of active humanists who join in a community advancing Humanism in our area (and even beyond it), but we are ambitious. So much needs to be done and we call upon our supporters to get involved and promote this important cause.
Richard Dawkins pictured with Christine Simons and David Milne with our new banner
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Highlights
- Richard Dawkins Book Launches at The Lowry on 14th September and 26th October
- Holyoake Lecture on 2nd November
- Darwin Day event on 12th February
Stockport Group
This report focuses on GMH’s rather than Stockport’s activities, given that Stockport has its own AGM, finances and reporting system, although technically part of GMH.
Partnership with the BHA
We are pleased to remain partners with the British Humanist Association. We support the BHA’s work and we encourage all our members and supporters to become members of the BHA and support its work directly (as well as through GMH).
Future Plans
Members are very welcome to offer ideas and plans to promote Humanism by spearheading and expanding our activities, and offers of assistance are received with gratitude.
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GMH seeks help with such jobs as:
- representing Humanism on local SACREs,
- improving and maintaining our website,
- starting and running new groups,
- leading amble rambles,
- improving our presence in the media,
- developing humanist work in local hospitals and universities,
- representing us at more local Remembrance ceremonies,
- participating in interfaith/belief dialogue,
- strengthening the Choir
and
- starting and running a book club.
Humanism Needs You!
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The Committee has discussed moving to start (1) a new humanist group in the Altrincham area (an analysis of Meetup suggests there is a concentration of supporters in thegeneral Altrincham area) and (2) a humanist book club. We are also aware that we have not yet been able to encourage the formation of a students’ Humanist Society atany of our local universities.
All offers of help with these needs, ideas and projects will be gratefullyreceived.
Guy Otten
GMH Secretaryfor the GMH Committee
2nd April 2016
Section One Numbers
Finance
The accounts prepared by our Treasurer are annexed. The group’s finances remain strong and healthy.
Subscriptions for the year were unchanged at £15 – waged; £10 – unwaged. For members at 31 March 2012, subscriptions continue to be due on 1 April. For members who joined after that date, subscriptions are due on the anniversary of joining (modified for some members paying by standing order, see below).
We encourage members to take out standing orders for their subscriptions; new members who do so are entitled to eighteen months membership for their initial subscription.
Membership and Supporters
We are enjoying steady growth in support in most of the ways you measure it. Much of this growth is no doubt generated by the zeitgeist of the times we live in, in which the terrorism of Islamofascists is prompting people to reject all religion like never before.
The paid-up GMH membership on 31st March2016 stood at 81.Looking back, this compares with earlier years as follows:
31/3/2015 / 31/3/2014 / 31/3/2009 / 31/3/2008 / 31/3/200777 / 64 / 52 / 33 / 18
Paid-up GMH members enable us, by the support of their subscriptions, to mount bigger meetings and more activities than we would otherwise be able to put on.
Please consider taking out full GMH membership if you are not a member already.
But our reach extends much further than just our paid membership. There is a wider community who self-identify as humanist, represented especially by those who take our newsletter. There were 695email addresses of members and supporters on this list on 31st March 2016. The figures have increased as follows:
31/3/2015 / 31/3/2014 / 31/3/2013 / 31/3/2012 / 31/3/2009467 / 431 / 359 / 266 / 201
In addition two members receive the newsletter by post.
The numbers on our mailing list were expanded considerably following two successful GMH stalls we ran at the Dawkins book launches at The Lowry in September and November. These stalls were organised by David Milne and were well supported by active members. Further names have also been added this year as a result of other activities, eg our regular meetings, stalls, enquiries, the Holyoake Lecture and the Darwin Day event.
Meetup
We have 269members in our Meetup group ( The Meetup group has developed as follows since its formation on 3/11/2010:
31/3/2015 / 31/3/2014 / 31/3/2013 / 31/3/2012223 / 179 / 133 / 79
Please sign into this if you are not already on it!
In addition, on 31st March 2016 there were 94humanist singers in the GMH Choir Meetup group.
We have 535members in our Facebook group (448 on 31/03/2015), and we have had 223‘likes’ on our GMH Facebook page. This suggests we are not using our Facebook page as much as we could.
Please ‘like it’ and invite your friends to do so too. Please also use the page to invite your friends to our meetings by opening an event and clicking on the Invite button and choosing friends to invite!
There are also 792 members of the Northwest Humanists and Skeptics Facebook group (started by a humanist in Warrington).
We have 589 followers on our Twitter account (@GMHumanists).In addition, the GMH Choir has 369 followers on Twitter(@GMHumanistChoir).
British Humanist Association
We encourage our members and supporters to become members of our national partner the British Humanist Association. At the 9th March 2016 meeting it was noted that the great majority attending were BHA members.
Section Two The GMH Committee
The 2015 AGM
The 2015 AGM was quorate, with sixteen members present. The Committee Report and the Treasurer’s Report were adopted nem con, as was the proposal submitted by the Committee that annual subscriptions falling due during the year to 31st March 2016 should be the same as for the previous year (£15 waged; £10 unwaged), with the renewal date (a) 1st April for members on 31st March 2012 and (b) the anniversary of the date they joined for other members, except that those taking out a standing order for renewal subscriptions are entitled to 18 months membership from their initial subscription, so that their first renewal subscription is due 18 months after the date they joined, with subsequent subscriptions due annually thereafter.
The resolutions submitted by the Committee were adopted nem com. Accordingly, the Committee is authorized to affiliate GMH to the IHEU and EHF (although it has not yet done so).
As there were no contested positions, those nominated for the Committee were declared elected, namely: Graham Connell – Chair; Robin Grinter – Vice-chair; Guy Otten – Vice-chair; Steven Lindsay – Treasurer; David Milne, Christine Simons, Lindsey Foots, Nigel Macartney and Douglas Burke – Committee Members.
Committee and Officers
At the AGM in May 2015, after many years of sterling service, John Coss stood down as Secretary of GMH (although happily he continues to help in a number of ways). His contribution to the health and growth of GMH over the years is hard to measure; it has been very great. No one person could possibly replace him and so his various jobs were divided across several new posts.
In the absence of a nomination for Secretary, Guy Otten,a Vice-Chair, stood in as (general) Secretary (and also the keeper of the GMH projector), but other roles performed by John were distributed as follows: David Milne became Events Organiser (also looking after the GMH literature stock and banner, and booking and paying for the FMH), Lindsey Foots took on the Public Relations portfolio and Mike Battman took over as Membership Secretary. Graham Connell had already taken over the role of Newsletter Editor and was succeeded in this role in March 2016 by Cathryn McGarvey.
Happily,John has retained some valuable roles: (1) he is still planning a website revision, (2) he remains secretary of NWHumanists, (3) he continues providing some administrative support for Rob and Anna for the production of documents for the Introduction to Humanism Course, (4) see below under Facebook and (5) he convenes the monthly Discussion Group at the Waterhouse pub – see below. He remains an assistant Meetup organiser.
The Committee has met about every two months, and until September had the benefit of being able to meet very comfortably at the offices of Treasurer Stephen Lindsay’s firm of accountants firm free of charge. Sadly this is now no longer possible as Steven has moved from that firm. We are now meeting at the Friends Meeting House (where we have to pay a fee).
During the year, sadly, Douglas Burke (one of our trained school speakers) stepped down from the Committee for personal reasons. We thank him for his contribution.
In January 2016 the Committee held an ‘Open Committee’ which attracted the attendance of six ordinary members with three offering to help in specific ways: Alice Searle as Chair elect (but she has sadly had to withdraw since), Cathryn McGarvey as Newsletter Editor and Nick Burns as Minute Secretary. In addition Carolyn Bishop and Trevor Wongsam were co-opted onto the Committee (subject to election at the AGM). We thank these members for stepping forward in this way.
At our March 2016 meeting Peter Gaskin was co-opted (as Chair elect) and Nigel Macartney indicated he wished to stand down as a Committee member at the AGM.
So we now are fortunate to have a strong Committee as follows:
- Chair Graham Connell (He is standing down at this AGM)
- We have a nomination for Chair: Peter Gaskin
The following are also up for election or re-election and have been nominated:
- Vice-Chair (Education): Robin Grinter
- Treasurer: Steven Lindsay
- Secretary: Guy Otten
The following Committee Members with portfolios:
- Events Organiser: David Milne
- PR Secretary: Lindsay Foots
- Newsletter Editor: Cathryn McGarvey
- Minute Secretary: Nick Burns
- Data Protection and Internal Communications: Carolyn Bishop
and Committee Members without Portfolio: Alice Searle, Trevor Wongsam, and Kevin Malone.
In addition Christine Simons is a member doubling as Stockport Rep.
As the Committee now consists of more than 6 members apart from the Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Vice-Chair, we ask members for a Constitutional Amendment to enlarge the Committee. A motion is proposed to that effect.
Please note that other valuable roles are also undertaken by non GMH committee members. These include John Coss, Anna Whitehead(on the Introductory course), Aisha Ahmed and Andy Bowers (as Facebook page administrators), Martin Knowles and Sue Sharpe (in the Bolton group), Larry Bode, (Chair of the Choir, and volunteer hospital chaplain), Mark Andy (the initiator of the Oldham group) and all the members of the Stockport Committee: Christine Simons, Alice Thompson, Derek McComiskey, Brian Stanyer, Andy Millington, Chris Neilsen, Andy Bowers and Aisha Ahmed.
What we can achieve is only limited by the numbers offering to create or take on roles.
Section Three Communications
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New GMH Logo and Website
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You will have noticed that we are now using our new GMH logo. We have Lindsey Foots to thank for this. She found Paula Kifertand liaised with her in the development of the logo, which we are very pleased with. We are grateful to Paula for her contribution.
The Committee are aware of the need for a revised and refreshed website which currently John Coss maintains. Lindsey has accepted this area of responsibility, and again Paula is willing to help, but offers of help are sought and will be gratefully received.
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New GMH Banner
David Milne took this initiative to create an attractive and impressive banner we can use at our events, and we have used it successfully since then at every occasion, including at a number of school events.
Communications
Our system of communicating with our members and supporters had already been improved by the newsletter edited by Graham Connell, our Chair. Further improvements have been made during the year by adopting MailChimp, which enables the Chair, Newsletter Editor, Membership Secretary and Secretary to maintain and update our membership and supporter records on one database.
The current newsletter editor is Cathryn McGarvey, on
The Committee are now engaged in an initiative piloted by Carolyn Bishop to improve our internal committee communications using an app called ‘slackbot’.
Media Activity
Press Releases: Lindsey Foots has this year raised our professionalism in this area, but has been hampered by domestic pressures. We need more help here.
Appearances on radio and TV:David Milne, Steven Lindsay and Guy Otten have appeared on the new Manchester TV station ‘That’s Manchester’ mostly on their ‘Daily Rundown’ show (formerly Late Night Live). Guy and David have also appeared on Ummah Channel TV to represent the non-religious corner. Two further Ummah TV appearances were covered for us by Janice Thornton, a humanist celebrant from Bradford. Guy also appeared on Radio Manchester’s Sunday morning programme.We are receiving more such requests than we used to and seek a wider pool of members willing and able to represent Humanism on the media.
Urgent Response Group
We have managed a letter in a newspaper this year written by David Milne and attracting comment, but recognise we need to think of better ways to mount a constant presence in the print media. We do better on TV and Radio (see above) and in the social media – see below.
Social Media Activity
Meetup: We list all our meetings on our Meetup site Stockport, Bolton and Oldham meetings, but not the Choir’s activities as they have their own Meetup).
Facebook:
Our Facebook group is administered by John Coss. This is at Please support the group by getting involved in discussions and campaigns to promote Humanism.
Our Facebook page is administered by member Aisha Ahmed and Andy Bowers. This is at
Please support our Facebook page by inviting your friends to ‘like it’ and by sharing announcements of events.
Twitter:Our Greater Manchester Humanist Account ‘@GMHumanists’is very active. It is updated by Steven Lindsay but you are welcome to participate!
Please support our Facebook and Twitter activity – they are effective additional ways to campaign.
The committee is aware of the importance of promoting Humanism through social media. We are happy to accept guidance and support on this.
This is one of the ways that members have maintained a constant level of campaigning and debate on social media over the year.
Section Four Meetings and Groups
Holyoake Lectures
George Holyoake was prominent in the 19th century Freethinker movement and was one of the pioneers of Cooperation. The Group organized a Holyoake Commemorative Lecture in 1994, which was given by Sir Hermann Bondi, the then President of the BHA.
The Holyoake Lecture is now an annual event organised by the BHA in Manchester, with GMH support. This year’s lecture on Greek Tragedy and Humanism took place on 2nd November at the Manchester Conference Centre attracted 85 humanists. The speaker was Natalie Haynes, comedian, writer, and broadcaster.
New Oldham Group Next meeting 17th April
We were approached by Mark Andy, a Meetup member, whose main interest was to gain a deeper understanding of Humanism. He offered to help set up a discussion group in Oldham. Graham Connell and Guy Otten met him and it was agreed to start such a group. The first meeting was held on Sunday 20th March at 2pm in a café in the Spindles shopping centre in Oldham town centre. Six people attended and a second meeting was agreed for 2.30pm on Sunday 17th April at Costa Coffee in the Spindles shopping centre, with two topics agreed for discussion. (See Meetup for details)
Stockport Group
The Stockport group meets monthly at the Boars Head pub on the third Wednesday of the month.
The group hold their own AGM at which fuller details of their activities are available.
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Humanist Discussion Group
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The group meets at the Waterhouse pub, Princess St, Manchester,at 8.15pm, a time that enables members to park without charge on the streets. Meetings were formerly held on fourth Thursdays but are now held on third or fourth Tuesdays.
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A range of philosophical topics have been discussed including Free Will, A Basic
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Income, Effective Altruism, and Moral and Cultural Relativism.
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Bolton Group Next meeting 7th April
The idea of starting a group in Bolton goes back at least 5 years!
On 25th November 2015 we put on a ‘Humanism Taster’ in Bolton with the specific aim of setting up a Bolton Humanist Group. 22 humanists attended. The Taster session was run by Rob Grinter and Anna Whitehead and was based on their Introduction to Humanism course. The BHA circulated members and contacts within a 10 miles radius of Bolton to assist with this venture.