On September 11, 2005, members of the board of directors for our chapter held a retreat at the home of John and Wanda Young, with their daughter and board member Cindy King as hostess. We held the meeting to discuss ways to improve the chapter. I'm happy with the results. During the session we came up with many good ideas and projects, and we will be working toward making them a reality. At the September board meeting, we began to sort out what we discussed at the retreat.

You might ask "what ideas and projects?" I won't elaborate right now because they are in the early planning stage. However one idea that has already started is our HELP program or mission as Flo Wineriter has worded it:

Humanists of Utah, an incorporated Utah non-profit corporation, has a mission to promote the principles of Humanism, the history of the Enlightenment, the philosophy of Liberalism, and the policies of Progressivism.

Wayne Wilson has made that sentence a footer on our web page, and you can expect to hear more about H.E.L.P. in the next few months. It is our hope that we can restore these words and ideals to common knowledge and understanding. The board of directors is in agreement that the right wing has been good at making these words and concepts negative or pejorative in perception. That needs to change. Being progressive is a good attribute. In deed, the very process that the board is going through is a progressive thing to do. To revitalize, to move forward, make changes, to think. And good discussions and accurate definitions will aid in the mission to promote these concepts.

--Bob Lane