A 'howdy' from Kabul, Afghanistan, where I have lived and worked for the past three years. Stumbled across the RRS from a link from RichardDawkins.net while browsing on a rare day off.

I have been active in the skeptical/atheist community for a number of years. I am heartened to see the success of the RSS in reaching a young, intelligent group of people, growing in membership size in a tremendously short period of time. I'm also active over at the JRef (James Randi Educational Foundation) - which is not specifically an atheistic group (although I'd estimate that atheists outnumber deists / theists by a significant majority) and have witnessed first hand the struggle to maintain relevancy and to attract new members.

One aspect I'd like to explore is the ability to work closer together. Clearly, the RRS and their affiliated sites realize the importance of leveraging community and communication to share a common message. One of the reasons the (specifically Fundamentalist Christian) theistic community is experiencing such growth and wields such political power is their ability to organize its membership.

What I see happening in the freethought / atheistic / skeptical community is a number of well-intentioned small (or not so small) grassroots groups, most with terrific ideas and sincere people taking the lead, but no real push to try and bring the community together. Some larger organizations (American Atheist for example) are struggling to maintain relevance and attract new membership. So, I would welcome an opportunity to discuss how best to organize and mobilize like-minded thinkers so that we can form a group with real influence and an ability to shape policy in an effort to move Western governments away from this gradual de-secularization of state we're seeing in the US and to a lesser degree, in Canada.