In case you were wondering why you received a 12-page issue last month, instead of our normal eight pages, well, we forgot to mention that it was our Special Fourth Anniversary Issue! We're already working on a variety of things for REALL's fifth anniversary, but I'm not yet at liberty to divulge them.
And for our Special Fourth Anniversary Meeting, I'd like to thank Bruce Walstad for drawing another standing room only crowd. I saw a lot of new faces there, including Sangamon County Sheriff Neil Williamson, who also brought along members of his crime prevention unit! Since getting information to the public is one of the missions of REALL, I must say that I was very happy to see such a large public turnout. If you missed this meeting, you missed a great one!
On that note, make sure you don't miss our next meeting! As the first in a series of presentations dealing with the media, Doug Pokorski will be speaking on Tuesday, April Fool's Day, at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Library (no, it's not a joke, I promise). Doug is an author and journalist for the State Journal-Register. He will be discussing critical thinking and skepticism in the media as it relates to the paranormal and other sorts of news. He will also talk about why the print media covers stories the way they do. I think this will be a very interesting presentation and should stimulate some good discussion as well. Like I said, you don't want to miss this one!
And we're already hard at work on the May meeting, which will probably feature Skeptics Society founder and director, Michael Shermer, who will be in the area on a book tour for his soon-to-be-released Why People Believe Weird Things. This meeting will likely be on Friday, May 9, or Saturday, May 10, rather than our regular first Tuesday date, in order to accommodate his schedule. Also, our June meeting will be off our regular schedule as the Lincoln Library needs the room for their annual book sale. More on both of these as we get things settled!
As I noted last month, just a reminder that many of us have memberships that expire(d) in the February/March timeframe, so please check your mailing label. I hope we continue to get your support!
