Elsa Roberts Press Releases

Two Presidencies in One: Welcoming our New Co-presidents

As we move deeper into the new year, Secular Woman is excited to announce some changes to our board. Our president and co-founder, Kim Rippere, has stepped down as president and will remain on the board, taking on the role of bookkeeper. In her stead Monette Richards and Elsa Roberts, formerly Vice President, are assuming the presidency together. This move toward co-presidency is part of an effort to make our work and organization less hierarchical and to better share the burden of work that presiding over a volunteer board brings.

“Founding and leading SW has been a joy and an honor.” says Kim Rippere. “So many have supported SW and its mission to promote feminist, secular, progressive ideals throughout the atheist/secular community and the broader community. These ideals continue to be challenged, even as progress is made. For the betterment of SW, now is the time for a change in leadership. I am so proud that Elsa Roberts and Monette Richards are the Co-Presidents and are working to sustain and develop SW for the future.”

Both Elsa and Monette are excited for the challenge and appreciative of Kim breaking the path before them. “We are so grateful for Kim’s leadership and foresight in founding this organization” says Elsa Roberts, “without her we would not exist. Monette and I look forward to continuing her legacy and forging our own, endeavoring to direct Secular Woman in of support secular women, by giving voice to them and their concerns.”

We are launching two projects that we hope will do just that, one we announced at the end of last year, our indexing and wiki project. Our indexing project aims to be a central repository for movement history, including indexing movement publications, court cases individuals and organizations were involved in, etc. The Wiki project ties in with this because it is documenting women in the movement, both past and present, so that their contributions won’t be forgotten. We are also happy to announce that we are starting a listserv that is dedicated to increasing the networking, exposure, and support between women involved in the secular movement.

Secular Woman Article

We’ve Got News!

June 2014 was an incredible month for Secular Woman!

 

Three milestone events happened, only one of which has been made public to date. The first event is the two year anniversary of the launch of Secular Woman. We’ve accomplished so much that I thought surely it must be our third year anniversary. I remained under that misapprehension until I began receiving congratulatory notices on our SECOND year anniversary!

 

Over these past two years what has become abundantly clear is that Secular Woman is needed for so many women in the United States and across the globe. There are so many areas that need to be improved: our secular/atheist/humanist community, our feminist community, our right to bodily autonomy and to make health care decisions without governmental intervention (see @AbortTheocracy), our right to be safe online and offline, and our right to not be stoned, murdered, or have acid thrown on us. For all these reasons and so many more Secular Woman brings a fresh perspective to secularism.

 

The first announcement I am excited to make is about a long standing project that started almost the first day we launched. We were approached by someone who wanted to help us obtain our intellectual property rights, including trademarking. This June, the trademark for Secular Woman was approved!

 

And now for our biggest news. Almost a year sooner than anticipated the IRS has approved our 501c3 application! I was thrilled and surprised that it was approved so rapidly because the application process changed as we were applying, making the undertaking more time-consuming and difficult. We could not have done without the effort, time, and expertise of the people who volunteered to assist in its completion.

 

There are several people I would like to personally thank for their work on this and dedication to getting it filed: Mary Ellen Sikes, Renee Perry, Monette Richards, and our Treasurer. Without these four people, and their unparalleled attention to detail, Secular Woman might have just begun the question and answer period with the IRS; instead we have been APPROVED. Thank you simply does not fully encompass the personal or organization gratitude they have for all time.

 

In our last two years I’ve seen incredible growth both within Secular Woman and in our communities; in these next two year’s we’ll be striving for more change and progress in the form of progressive secular feminist action!

 

Sincerely,

Kim Rippere

President, Secular Woman