About Us


Our Goals


  • Provision of a forum for an informed and free exchange of ideas on critical and controversial problems and policies

  • Provision for open discussion of the philosophical and moral basis of our society and encouraging ethical practices within our community and our country

  • Provision of humanistic education in regard to issues that affect the human condition

  • Advocating, defending and practicing the principles of democracy, free speech, civil rights, and the separation of church and state, as expressed in the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Supreme Court decisions

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    Policies & Procedures

    1. Notice of dues shall be sent in December by Treasurer.

    2. Priority will be given to topics for the lecture series that are relevant to humanism. When speakers for those are not available, other subjects of probable interest may be scheduled.

    3. Attendance in HUSBAY special interest groups will be restricted to members of HUSBAY unless the leader of the SIG approves attendance by guests who are restricted to one visit.

    4. The membership list shall remain confidential and only distributed to Board members and other leaders of events and activities. HUSBAY mailing and email lists are restricted to HUSBAY business.

    5. Speakers will be offered an honorarium of $100 with the exception of member speakers. (Passed at the Annual Meeting, April, 2016.) Out of town speakers will have travel reimbursed. Dinner will also be offered to speakers at HUSBAY expense and attended by Board members at their expense and can include spouse, partner, or friend.

    6. The Board via meetings will express condolences, concerns and remembrances to members but only after consulting with the member(s).

    The President will send emails of concern, condolences and get well wishes on behalf of the Board. No broadcast to the membership shall be made without the consent of the member(s) affected.

    7. The Board will maintain communication regularly via email and other media about lectures, weekly news about luncheons and topics, and other news of interest to our members.

    8. HUSBAY shall maintain a website to disseminate information about HUSBAY’s activities, events and members. The webmaster shall be appointed by the President and approved by the Board. The Board will periodically review the website and make recommendations as necessary.

    The webmaster will make a report to the members at the annual meeting.

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Hats Off to HUSBAY

Karen Koenig: When we moved here from Boston, knowing no one, Husbay saved the day. It gave us a strong sense of community with like-minded people who enjoy intellectual stimulation as well as having fun. We’d be lost without Husbay.

Barry Zack: My wife Joanne and I were members of a Humanist group in New Jersey. We were quite pleased to learn that a group expressing similar values would be here for us to join. And are we glad we did.

ByLaws

Click here to read the bylaws that were approved by our board in April 2016. Please note: The bylaws are currently being reviewed by the Board and any suggested revisions will be presented to the membership at the Annual Meeting of members.

Our Board of Directors

(Effective: August 2022)

President Emeritus: Noel Smith (now deceased - see below)
President: David Helgager
Treasurer: Holly Downing
VP and Webmaster: Barry Zack
Newsletter: Robert Lasalle
Secretary: Sandra Zellick

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Other Board Members


Paul Jacques
Donna Gannon

2023 Annual Membership Meeting (Monday, Jan. 23)


This was a live meeting, beginning at 2:00pm,
held at the Center for Arts and Humanity
(1226 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota 34236)

Agenda:

1. Call to order

2. Secretary’s Report

3. Treasurer's Report

4. BUDGET FOR 2023

5. MEMBERSHIP REPORT

6. GENERAL REPORTS (luncheons, newsletter, website, film group, Darwin Day)

7. Old Business—Scholarship

8. New Business—Fund raisers

9. Election of Board Members (David Helgager, Robert LaSalle,
Barry Zack, and Sandra Zellick are up for three year terms.)


 

2022 Annual Membership Meeting (Monday, Jan. 31)

This year's meeting was a virtual session on Zoom.
Meeting begins at 2:00pm.
Look for the invitation and link in your inboxes.

Agenda:

1. Call To Order

2. Secretary's Report

3. Treasurer’s Report And Proposed Budget 2022

4. Membership Report

5. General Reports (SIGs, Website, Newsletter, Film Group, Darwin Day)

6. Old Business (Scholarship)

7. New Business

8. Election of New Board Member

9. Adjournment

2020 Annual Membership Meeting

When: Wednesday, April 20th (1:30pm.) *Note the date change

Where: In front of your computer or your smart device.

Agenda:

1. Call To Order

2. President’s Comments And Thanks To Volunteers

3. Treasurer’s Report And Proposed Budget 20-21 (Via Email)

4. Secretary’s Report (Via Email)

5. Scholarship Update

6. Election Of Board Members

7. HUSBAY During The Coronavirus—Covid-19

8. Further Comments From Members

9. Adjournment

 

 

2019 Annual Membership Meeting

Roscamp Center Map Icon

When: Monday, April 1st - Gathering at 6:30pm. Meeting began at 7:00pm.

Where: Center for Arts and Humanity (same location as the lectures) 1226 N. Tamiami Trail.

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Agenda

1. Call to order, President's Comments and Thanks to Volunteers

2. Secretary's Report

3. Treasurer's Report & Budget 2019-2020

4. Presentation of revisions to bylaws, discussion and vote
    (Revisions proposed to follow)

5. Election of Board Members

6. Comments and Suggestions from Members

7. Adjournment

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Our 2018 Meeting

Among the many items on the agenda was the award presented to HUSBAY's founder, Noel Smith. This included free life-time membership. It was the least we could do for all the work Noel has done for HUSBAY. The meeting minutes can be read here.

Noel accepting award
Noel Accepting the award from HUSBAY President, Dave Helgagger

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Our 2017 Meeting

Board members elected at the annual meeting: Dave Helgager, President and Don Slate and Gale Midwood, at large members. We had no secretary at the time of the election. Later Sandie Zellick agreed to serve again and was approved by the Board for another term. Your Board for 2017-18 is Dave Helgager, President, Barry Zack, VP, Chuck Smith Treasurer, Sandie Zellick, Secretary, Don Slate and Gale Midwood, at large members. Zack, Smith and Barb Kavanaugh are completing their two year terms and were not up for election.


HUSBAY Board 2017
Missing from the photo is our newest board member,
Gale Midwood. - Someone had to take the picture.

Barb Kavanaugh was unable to attend.

Minutes to be posted.

Our 2016 Meeting

Board members present:

Chuck Smith, Baerbel Kavanaugh, Don Slate, David Callahan,
Sandra Zellick, plus 35 members and one guest.

To read the minutes for the 2016 annual membership meeting, please click on this link.

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The Previous Board Lunches
with Humanists of Florida Leader

Husbay Scholarship Program

HUSBAY annually awards the Klein Foundation Scholarship, for $2000, to a deserving student, who follows the tenets of secular Humanism and is enrolled in an institution of higher learning. The initial selections are made by the Secular Student Alliance who then sends them to the HUSBAY Board for selection. The scholarship program and its process has been approved by the membership at an annual meeting.

Our most recent award went to Neil Dervis, whose bio appears below:


November 10, 2020

Special Board and Membership meeting to present Neil Dervis his award winning scholarship certificate and cash. Present were Neil's mother Jocelyn Williamson, Ingrid Cardozo, Betty Comora, Dan Dana, Holly Downing, Barry Zack, Bob LaSalle, Sandie Zellick.

Bud and Judy Klein attended and generously donated the $3000.00 scholarship award.

Attending members were invited to talk about their pre-retirement careers.

Neil Dervis attended the Zoom meeting and thanked HUSBAY for the scholarship and certificate. He described his future plans to attend college followed by graduate school in medicine specializing in psychiatry. His goal is to serve human needs and solve problems.

Neil has been active in the Central Florida Freethought community.

Neil intends to use the award money to help with room and board when he attends college.

Respectfully submitted, Sandra Z. Zellick, Secretary

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Below is a photo, of board members and the preivious recipient, taken at the award luncheon:


Pictured (L-R): Bob La Salle, Barry Zack, Gale Midwood, Emily Cutler,
Bud and Judy Klein, Dave Helgager and Sandra Zellick.

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HUSBAY Board Luncheon with Teresa MacBain

Mouse over any face in this picture to identify it.

HUSBAY and FHA Luncheon

Teresa MacBain, former Executive Director of Humanists of Florida, recently met with the Board during a luncheon held in late June. Teresa updated the Board on the progress HFA is making in improving its membership and also the status of the annual conference slated for 2014. She also discussed the many issues affecting humanism in Florida.

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Free Thought Cruise

Pictured are Judy and David Helgager (HUSBAY President) and Hemant Mehta who attended the Freethought Cruise.

Free Thought Cruise

Hemant spoke on the subjects of why young people are leaving religion and what we can learn from it. He is the author of the book I Sold My Soul. Find out more about him on Wikipedia

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HUSBAY Affiliations

American Atheist Association
American Humanist Association
Center for Inquiry
Council for Secular Humanism
Humanists of Florida
Secular Coalition
Tampa Bay Coalition of Reason

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My Word

This entry was submitted by Trudi Pearl

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

"nullifidian" PRONOUNCIATION: (nuhl-uh-FID-ee-uhn)

Loud Speaker<-Hear the pronounciation

MEANING: noun: An atheist: a person who has no religious faith or belief in god(s). adjective: Having no faith or belief. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin nullus (no) + fides (faith). Earliest documented use: 1564. USAGE: “Riding a backlash against centuries of Puritanism and uptight strictures, we’ve turned nullifidian.” James Royson; On Casino Question, Let the People Decide; Toronto Star (Canada); Apr 23, 2013. “This [the Internet] is where like-minded folk of a nullifidian bent come together, as demonstrated by the extraordinary success of a campaign to raise money for Britain’s first atheist advertisements.” Jemima Lewis; Thank Heaven for a British Faith in Bet-Hedging; The Sunday Telegraph (London, UK); Oct 26, 2008.

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Annual Carl Sagan Day Picnic (2023)

Is Now Scheduled for Monday, May 8th (4:00 -7:00pm)
at Sea Turtle Siesta Beach Pavilion.

Located at 948 Beach Rd, Siesta Key, FL (See Map)



Our thanks to Sue Tschesnok and Darwin Soder for their unselfish
work in the picnic's preparation. Carl Sagan would be proud.

Bring a dish to share, chicken and place settings furnished.
It's being held at the Turtle Beach Pavilion
just past the Turtle Beach entrance.
 

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Scenes From our 2019 Picnic:

Hope you were able to attend, but if you did not, here are some photos of our members
enjoying a fine spring day at the Turtle Beach Pavilion. Our thanks to the efforts of Susan and
Darwin for their time and energy putting it all together.
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HUSBAY Welcomes annual picnickers



The photos below are mostly from member Karen O'Malia Zauderer
Thanks, Karen!


BZ Reads Start the show Hungry Crowd
Barry reveals how the
Fifth Thrid Bank was named
Pretending to be interested:
Marge B, Ronnie S,
Holly G, Jack B
Clockwise from left:
Joanne G, Judith C, Jack &
Susan W and Noel S
BZ Reads Fun for All
Clockwise from left:
Phil Z, Judy & Bud K,
Karen O, and Marcia M
From left to right:
Mary and Bob M, Holly G,
Barbara K, Noel S
Fun for All Start the show BZ Reads
Clockwise from left:
Marcia and Ralph M
Judy and Bud K
Darwin (front), Marget and
Paul T in the background
Clockwise from left:
Betty C, Claudia H, Garret C, Robert L, and Sandra Z

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pict1
The Scene Behind the Scenes (photo by Gale Midwood)
Those who ventured to the back of the Turtle Beach picnic area were treated to this.

 

 

 

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America's First Public Monument to AtheismFirst Atheists Monument


June 28, 2013, Bradford County Florida: Following a lawsuit and more than a year of controversy, at noon on Saturday a group called the American Atheists will unveil the United States’ first public monument to atheism in a square outside the County courthouse in Starke, Florida, near Jacksonville. The five-foot-long, grey granite bench and connecting pillar, which were built and engraved by local masons using granite quarried in Georgia, will feature secular quotes from the Founding Fathers as well as a statement from the organization’s founder, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, encapsulating the 50-year-old group’s views: Read more:
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From HUSBAY Caring Committee:

As you know, HUSBAY has a weekly Wednesday lunch group at New Dynasty Restaurant in Sarasota.  After many years of meeting there, we have come to think of staff as friends and sometimes even family.  It is therefore, with sadness, that I must tell you of the death of the manager with the engaging smile, Andrew Tian, usually the first face we see at the entrance.

On a Sunday evening in July, he chased three men who fled the restaurant without paying and was attacked and beaten. He was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital where he lingered in critical condition until he died on following Friday.  New Dynasty staff as well as customers like us and the community have been grieving his loss.  We have sent cards with member messages to the hospital and to New Dynasty staff.   Many in HUSBAY wanted to memorialize Andrew.  The board had set up a memorial fund, to go towards his son's education. Thanks to those members who have contributed.

Link to the story as covered by mysuncoast news.

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HUSBAY Past President Jacqui Kinnie
Spoke at the Memorial Service

Held at the UCC, 1 Sunday, July 28

In Memory of Andrew Tian
Andrew (Tian)

Andrew, as we knew him, was a kind, generous and caring man with a ready smile and a warm greeting for all.

For many years, he graciously hosted the lunch bunch at HUSBAY with joy and love. He knew each of us by name ... gave many of us hugs, asked about our lives and our children, and was always willing to change the setting for another meeting. We shall always remember him with a smile in our heart.

With apologies to John Donne, the English poet of the 16th century:

No Man is an Island entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main,

Any man’s death diminishes us, because we are involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know

For whom the bell tolls.

It tolls for thee, Andrew ... we shall miss you.

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From HUSBAY Caring Committee:

We are saddened by the passing of member for many years, Jim Chastain. A message from Jim's son, Paul, appears below.

Jim Chastain

To paraphrase Bilbo Baggins –

"Today is my 92nd birthday. Alas, 92 is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable people.

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. But I regret to announce — this is my Final Exit

"I am going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell. Goodbye."

I have had a full, happy life filled with interesting activities and friendly accomplished people. Thank you for the part you have played in making my life so good. HAVE FUN.

Jim died peacefully at home with his family nearby on his 92nd birthday, March 5, 2018.

A private memorial service will be held in Colorado this June.

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HUSBAY 15th Anniversary Celebration

HUSBAY Brochure

 

President at Podium Noel Introduced Dave & Meigs Bob Phillipoff
President Addresses the Crowd
Musical Entertainment
Meigs G. and Dave H.
Original Member, Bob Phillipoff
Dan Speaks to HUSBAY Dave Schmoozing Listening Intently Group Picture
New Member Dan Dana speaks
Dave H. and Judith Collier
Trudy, Ursula
& Noel listen intently
Karin G, Rhea, Jay and Mary C

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Group Shot Group Shot Group Shot Party Cake
Jack O, Penny, Ernie (hiding), Jack K
Joanne, Barry, Meigs, Chuck and Joyce
Mary, Bob and Barbara
A HUSBAY Just Dessert
Group Photo The Coes and Bob P Group Shot
L-R: Penny, Jack O, Ernie, Jack K, Lois and Trudy
Donna, David and Bob P
Barbara, Susan and Dan
Group Shot Group Shot Group Shot
Dave, Judy and Sandie
L-R: Susan, Dan, Chuck, Rhea, Mary, Bob & Barbara
Ellie, Karen & Kieth
Group Shot Group Shot Group Shot
L-R: Rhea, Mary M, Bob M & Barbara
Sandie, Roy & Judy W
Len, Francis, Lou and Ellie

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Group Shot Harbor View Bay View
Judy W, Meigs, Ingrid and Judith C
Harbor View from Marina Jacks
Sittin' on the dock of the bay

Smaller Photos

Dave & Noel Joyce P Ingrid & Judy H Trudy's Pup Bay View
Introducing our
Founder
Joyce P
Ingrid & Judy H
Trudy's dog asks,
"We paid $25 for this?"
View of the Bay

Click here for a brief history of HUSBAY as read by founder Noel Smith at the event.



Open Forum

Next Meeting: To be decided1

Last Meeting: December 8, 2021

This is HUSBAY's newest Special Interest Group (SIG).

The topics are open, and any attendee can propose a sunject and discuss it. The audience can offer comments (or not).

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