The Amaz!ng Meeting 8 kicks off on July 8th, and we’ve been busily working out the details of our workshop on Grassroots Skeptical Organizing.

The workshop starts at 2 pm on Sunday, July 11. We’ve got two hour-long sessions planned, featuring a fantastic lineup of local skeptical organizers and activists. They’ll share short presentations, and answer audience questions, in order to arm you with plenty of practical advice for starting a local skeptics group, attracting new members, and planning great events.

The first session will focus on founding and growing a local skeptics group. The presenters are:
Travis Roy, co-founder and president of Granite State Skeptics
Chip Denman, co-founder of National Capital Area Skeptics
Michael Feldman, co-founder of New York City Skeptics
Robynn “Swoopy” McCarthy, co-host of Skepticality and co-director of Skeptrack at Dragon*Con

This session will be moderated by Michael Blanford, Director of Education at the James Randi Educational Foundation.

Session two is all about planning and running events for local groups. The presenters are:
Maria Walters, member and event organizer for Atlanta Skeptics
Maggie McFee, tech wizard for the Boston Skeptics
Naomi Baker, founder of the Houston Skeptic Society
Reed Esau, creator of the SkeptiCamp open conference model

This session will be moderated by Desiree Schell, host of the Skeptically Speaking radio show and podcast.

We’re really excited about this event, and we hope to see you there. You can register for TAM and get more scheduling info at the JREF’s website, randi.org.