Category for all Forum posts.
July 19, 2015
Gail Nyhan and Dr. Meghan Fraley, activists with the Raise the Wage Coalition and Politically Inspired Action, will discuss the progress and next steps of raising the wage here in the heart of innovation and wealth — Silicon Valley.
Humanist Community Forum (2015-07-19): The Raise the Wage Movement in Silicon Valley from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.
July 12, 2015
InStove (www.instove.org) implements safe, clean, and highly efficient institutional cookstoves and allied technologies in an integrated approach to serving the world’s poorest communities. InStove technologies are now in service in 27 countries, including 17 in sub-Saharan Africa where they mitigate environmental harm, protect and feed women, children and displaced people, and help communities to be self-sustaining and economically independent. Fred Colgan, co-founder of InStove, will discuss InStove’s progress and current projects in this update to his April 21, 2013 Forum presentation.
Humanist Community Forum (2015-07-12): InStove Update – Cookstoves for the World’s Poorest Communities (Fred Colgan) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.
July 5, 2015
Humanist Community in Silicon Valley members who attended the 2015 AHA Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado in May will share their memories, thoughts, and impressions of the 2015 Conference. There will then be an open discussion (including audience members) of Humanism, and its relationship to “freedom” and “independence” (in honor of the Fourth of July). For example, to what extent should people be free from governmental requirements (e.g., paying taxes and wearing a seat belt) and governmental prohibitions (e.g., against polluting or exceeding a political contribution limit)? Why are, or are not, these kinds of limits on “freedom” acceptable from a Humanistic point of view?
June 28, 2015
The “B” Economy has continued to spread since John Montgomery’s last presentation to the Humanist Community on June 1, 2014. 27 US jurisdictions (26 states and DC) have adopted benefit corporation legislation with 14 others currently considering it. A benefit corporation is a for profit corporation that must balance the interests of stockholders, society and the environment. A California benefit corporation, for example, must provide a material positive impact on society and the environment.
Since the first benefit corporation law was passed in Maryland in 2010, over 2000 benefit corporations have been formed in the US. In addition, there are now more than 1,300 Certified B Corporations, businesses that have passed B Lab’s Certified B Corporation assessment, in about 40 countries. And there are now two publicly listed Certified B Corporations, Rally Software and Etsy, both of which must convert into Delaware benefit corporations by 2017 in order to maintain their Certified B Corporation certification. It’s just a matter of time before we have our first publicly traded benefit corporation in the US.
Soon, we will have a clear choice between doing business with and in corporations that are legally committed to doing the right thing by stockholders, society and the environment and those that are legally committed to maximizing profit for stockholders and externalizing as many of the negative costs of corporate behavior on society and the environment as possible. Please join us for an update on recent developments in the rapidly emerging B Economy.
Humanist Community Forum (2015-06-28): The Benefit Corporation Revisited (John Montgomery) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.
June 21, 2015
Attorney Leah Nutting will discuss the constitutional and cultural issues currently before the U.S. Supreme Court in the same-sex marriage equality cases, as well as other issues on the legal front affecting the LGBT community, including employment discrimination, “religious freedom” laws, and issues impacting transgender persons. The discussion will touch upon her recent Amicus work on the Board of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF), the nation’s oldest and largest LGBT bar association. Over the past year, BALIF filed amicus briefs challenging same-sex marriage bans around the country, culminating in their amicus brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2015.
In order to view the video of this Forum, please enter the password:
the2015621Forum
immediately below. This has been set up this way (at the speaker’s request) so that this video is only viewable from this webpage.
Humanist Community Forum (2015-06-21): Marriage Equality and Beyond (Leah Nutting) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.