Platinum- $1000 (a $1,000,380 value)

• You and up to 3 of your friends receive an all expense paid dinner with the Speaker of your choice (alcohol not included). ($1,000,000.00 value)
• 2 free Reasonfest T-shirts ($30 value)
• Info and/or Sales Table
• Logo on Screen
• Logo in Program
• 30 sec. mention about organization
• Name in Program and back of shirt

 Gold – $300 ($350 value)

• Info and/or Sales Table
• Logo on Screen
• Logo in Program
• 30 sec. mention about org
• Name in Program and back of shirt

Silver – $250 ($300 value)

• Info/Sales Table
• Logo on Screen
• 30 sec. mention about organization
• ½ price logo in Program
• Name in Program and back of shirt

 Bronze – $200 ($250 value)

• Info and/or Sales Table
• Logo on Screen
• Name in program and back of shirt

 A La Carte Options

• Info Table – $150
• Logo in Program – $50
• Logo on shirts -$75
• Name in Program and back of shirt – $25 (included for ALL Packages)
• Logo on Screen -$25
• Sales Table – $200
• 30 Second Mention on Stage – $50

Only 18 tables are available this year so sign up quickly before you miss your chance to have a place at Reasonfest 3.  To sign up for your sponsorship table please contact Amanda Brown at 913-710-5665 or email her at reasonfest@gmail.com or kusoma@gmail.com

 DEADLINE FOR GRAPHICS IS APRIL 1st @ 5pm!

There will be no line item refunds for organizations who purchase a sponsorship package. If you miss the deadline your logo will not be included on the T-shirt or in the programs.  So don’t take to long to decide whether or not you are going to take advantage of the amazing offers above!

Choose your sponsorship package or a la carte option and pay ONLINE!

Need Childcare?  Don’t worry we will have that covered.  Camp Quest KC will be providing day camp on Saturday, 9:00am- 11:00pm & Sunday, 9:00am-7:00pm.  Please make sure to email us at reasonfest@gmail.com to register for childcare.  Remember meals are not included.

SOMA was so proud to host the second annual ReasonFest conference last February, and we’re very excited to announce the official date of ReasonFest 3! Our 3rd annual ReasonFest will be held on April 19-21, 2013! Keep an eye out for announcements regarding our speaker list and our schedule. Once again ReasonFest will be held at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS. You can stay updated by following us on twitter: @Reasonfest. We can’t wait to see you in April!

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With great enthusiasm the officers announced the first annual Reasonfest would take place May 5th & 6th 2011. That enthusiasm was shared by group members, shortly after that announcement an internal fundraiser raised more than $350. Officers created a list of fun and soul-destroyingly embarrassing tasks they were willing to do for the sake of the group. Members then bid at this “Soul Auction” to decide which things they would have to do. Through a combination of generosity and light-hearted schadenfreude every officer was bid to the maximum which resulted in two on stage hair cuts (long haired woodsmen were made horrifically respectable and respectable philosophers were made in to Gregorian monks!), the college human trick trifecta (milk, cinnamon, saltines), an April Fool’s reconversion by prominent youtuber Evid3nc3 that received over 20,000 views (http://www.youtube.com/evid3nc3#p/u/2/pk8qkyguBXk ), and my personal favorite a death metal cover of Justin Beiber’s “Baby” among others (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2nqYiOrGLs )

While we were in the process of speaker selection a decision we made the previous semester to contact all the religious groups on campus to offer to debate or work together paid off when the law school Catholic group St. Thomas More Society contacted us with hopes to sponsor a debate on God with local thelogeon and author Dr. John Mark Miravalle. We contacted the Freedom From Religion Foundation where Dan Barker agreed to represent the decidedly ‘con’ side of “Does God Exist?” for day one. Not only did we work fantastically together but thanks to our combined efforts we filled the entire auditorium.

My goal for individual presentations was a mix of topics that were informative, balanced, and challenging. Thanks to the generous support and enthusiastic cooperation of multiple national organizations we were able to have each on of our speakers be nationally respected and influential leaders in their field. Before even having contacted Dan Barker to debate for us, I was looking forward to having the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor use her experience with the National Day of Prayer to present the keynote address, America Doesn’t Have a Prayer, an overview of the recent legal battle on the National Day of Prayer and the facts which should persuade every American, religious or not, that the government has no right to be in the business of prayer. (Due to a death in the family Annie Laurie was unable to join us, nor able to give her workshop on women in the freethought tradition based on her book, No God’s No Masters. We agreed and insisted that she should stay there with her family, and were lucky thad Dan Barker could step in at the last minute and present the keynote for us).

The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry provided James Underdown, Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry Los Angeles, and an experienced debunker, talk about How Modern Paranormal Investigations Refute Biblical Miracles. Many people are happy to accept or reject biblical miracles as either dogma or patently ridiculous, but paranormal investigators look at such claims in the modern world all the time and can go even further to tell us what evidence and explanations apply to such miraculous claims.

We were lucky enough to have star clinical psychologist and researcher Darrel Ray in our own back yard having just completed the nations largest secular sex survey with SOMA member and now Director of Member Recruitment, Amanda Brown. The largest ever survey of secular persons’ sexual experiences in and out of religion (12,000+ people responded to 69 questions, which was indeed a coincidence) and reported the unsurprising result that your sex life gets better when you leave behind religion. Not because you can be a hedonistic pervert, but because religious and non-religious people both share the human sexual experience but many religions try to convince people to be ashamed of it. (http://www.atheismresource.com/2011/sex-and-secularism-a-fascinating-study-from-darrel-ray-and-amanda-brown )

Recent SSA board of director’s chair and prominent Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta joined us to discuss what secular students across the country are doing right. His talk was an engaging and exciting looks at the amazing things secular groups are doing all around the country and why they are so important in a society that often demonizes secular citizens.

Philosopher, and Center for Naturalism founder Tom Clark discussed and challenged the audience with the implications of worldview naturalism and a lack of contra-casual free will. Surprisingly to some, it means a more just and empathetic society with all the freedoms, joys, challenges, and surprises we hold so dear.

We marketed aggressively, reaching out to fellow student groups, writing op-eds, placing ads on campus radio and newspapers, posting large color and b&w fliers on campus and off, tabling, canvasing, and chalking. We also worked with professors on campus to announce the event and offer credit for attending relevant discussions. Thanks to SSA’s project grant we were even able to hang a huge banner on the front of one of the university’s most trafficked building for the entire week leading up to Resonfest, inviting people to discuss the idea of whether God exists.

In addition to the academic content of event, we also wanted to highlight two things that our community finds so valuable: doing good and having fun. We combined both in events buffeting the festival on either side. The infamous Westboro Baptist Church found out that atheists were questioning the unquestionable in their own neighborhood and announced they would be protesting us in a press release denouncing such a blasphemous concept (they are not a fan of Catholics either). There have been many rumors about how they found out about the event, but most people it may have had something to do with the personal invitation Reasonfest coordinator Conrad Hudson gave to Shelly Phelps by handing her a flier. When I asked myself for a quote about it, he said, “I thought it would be a question she would appreciate an answer to.” This rabbit grew up in the briar patch of the Phelps Clan, so I saw nothing but positive in this. Soon after we discovered their intention to protest the event one SOMA member made a comment that would become SOMA’s official sound byte regarding their presence: “I’m glad they are here, it means they aren’t somewhere else hurting a grieving family with their hatred.”

Another upside to the attention they provoke is the opportunity to use it to do some good. Last year a campus activist arranged a huge counter-protest that involved dozens and dozens of hilarious light hearted and irreverent signs, to show support for Queers and Allies Brown Bag Drag that raised hundreds of dollars for Planed Parenthood. We partnered with that activist to again bring out signs and supporters to raise money for a worthy charity. More than $600 was raised and the crowd enjoyed the heartfelt sermon we arranged to urge them to “choose the greater evil” and worship not the vengeful & capricious god of Calvinist theology but rather bow to a truly fearful and destructive deity, Cthululu. After a reading of the Necrinomicon, a sign was called for and those who felt his unholy spirit felt compelled to embrace same sex partners in public displays of affection. It was fun, it raised money for a good cause, and broke down prejudices of LGBTQ couples. Westboro sure does know how to do some good in the world!

To wrap up Reasonfest we all met at a local club to socialize and reflect on the event and were pleased to partner with the venue to give a portion of each person’s cover charge to the Douglas County AIDS Project to fight the impact of HIV/AIDS in the community. Again the combination of providing social bonding experiences for community with raising money for issues it faces proved very successful.

The two day attendance was well over 700 people and those involved reported an incredible amount of value from it. Having a large event really energized our membership and volunteers who were absolutely indispensable. They chalked sidewalks, hung fliers, collected donations, directed traffic, wrote articles, collected surveys, designed publicity, and did it all wearing a smile and their Reasonfest 2011 shirts identifying them as “Reasonable Staff.”

Youtube videos of the debate and talks have already received thousands of views at youtube.com/openmindedatheists, with SOMA’s banner proudly displayed in the background. One of the most exciting and unexpected benefits has been to connect with members of the community willing to financially support our efforts, to educate and unite the community with events like these, which are always free to both members and the public. We sold more than $1000 in merchandise and raised a similar amount in donations allowing us to cover the cost of the event, and providing seed money for Reasonfest 2012.

In addition to the members and audience this event was for, I want to thank our sponsors:
Secular Student Alliance
Center for Inquiry on Campus
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
Freedom from Religion Foundation
Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science
And all the support we received from our university for their commitment to free speech and student engagement.

It was an outstanding year, and with more people than ever excited to be involved in the “best god-damned group on campus” I’m confident next year will be even better!

- Conrad Hudson

SOMA Vice President & President Elect

SOMA members pulled together to pack meals for the Lawrence Hunger Project.  We helped to organize, pack, and load meals onto the trucks to be distributed to the Horn of Africa.

As for myself, SOMA became a lifeline for me when I reached the point where I could no longer tolerate being a covert atheist is a Pentecostal church anymore. Like Thomas and Michaelyn, I came to the first meeting with some trepidation, not knowing what to expect.

But Andrew Stangl, the president at the time, made me feel very welcome. Keiv, Emily Stangl, Jon Voisey, and Henry (“The Jew”) also made me feel welcomed and respected.

SOMA provided an outlet for me to connect with other like-minded secular people and share my story. I had many lively debates with Paul Youk on the SOMA listserv about all kinds of philosophical and social issues, which eventually transformed into mutual respect and friendship. I connected with Brenda and Mark Frei in sharing a vision for a kinder, gentler expression of atheism. Bruce S. Springsteen was a constant source of intellectual encouragement and continues to be someone with whom I share respect and admiration.

Along the road, many new SOMA friends came and left. I felt they had varying degrees of positive influence on the direction of the group and helped set the stage for an ambitious, energetic, and outgoing new president, Joey Ralph.

I had served with Joey on the officer board prior to his presidency. Joey, myself, and other new officers had recently participated together in a contentious “SOMA name change” debate. We ultimately conceded to leaving the group’s name the same. But I think the underlying issue was that we wanted a new direction for SOMA. We wanted the group to be more welcoming and to provide more opportunities for participation and input from non-officers and newcomers. As Joey would come to say frequently at meetings “This is YOUR group. SOMA is what YOU make it.”

I was pleasantly surprised to see the new approach and the energy that Joey poured into the group to be a stunning success. Newcomers were rising to Joey’s challenge and indeed making the group their own. More and more energy and investment were being poured into SOMA by new people. New members like Thomas and Conrad took the lead in adding new expansions to the group’s activities. Older members like Paul, Charlie, and I had new people to connect with and new activities to invest our time into. Meetings evolved from the basic format they once had to become more energetic, inclusive, and personal.
Along the way, I had created my YouTube series as an attempt to help foster empathy between religious believers and secularists, as well as provide a resource to secularists still trying to understand their new identity and possibly reconcile it with a former religious background. I was extremely encouraged when Conrad, Thomas, Joey, and other members discovered my series and enthusiastically supported it. I was touched to meet new SOMA members like Jon Nelson who found the series personally meaningful.

SOMA has continued to be a source of incredible friendships and experiences for me. It means so much to me to be able to connect with people through intellectual and empathetic discussion as well as just enjoy their company and have fun. Everything from Java Break to the group meetings to the parties provide a joy in my life that I will always value.