STUDENT ADVOCATE GUIDE

OF THE
HUMANITY+ STUDENT NETWORK

An outreach program of
Humanity+ International Non-profit Educational Organization

Version 2.0
Dated March 2011
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Top Three Priorities .................................................................................................................. 1

II. Transhumanism’s Relevance................................................................................................... 2

III. Academic Working Groups ..................................................................................................... 4

A. Scheduling ................................................................................................................ 5
B. Meeting Presentations .............................................................................................. 5
C. Established Meeting Groups ..................................................................................... 6
(1) DIY Bio Groups Hackerspaces Group............................................................ 6
(2) OpenManufacturing Group............................................................................. 6
(3) H+ Lab: Human Enhancement Group. ........................................................... 6

IV. Incorporating a Campus Group .............................................................................................. 7

A. Defining and Working Documents............................................................................. 7
B. Advisors .................................................................................................................... 8
C. Recruiting Initial Leadership & Membership.............................................................. 9
D. Cultivating New Leaders ......................................................................................... 11

V. Running Your Group.............................................................................................................. 12

A. Discussion Meetings (Keeping the Group Active) ................................................... 12
B. Group Meeting Protocol .......................................................................................... 17
C. Planning Meetings................................................................................................... 17
D. Presentations .......................................................................................................... 18
E. Projects ................................................................................................................... 18
(1) S.M.A.R.T. Goals ......................................................................................... 18
(2) S.P.A.R.K.! ................................................................................................... 18
(3) Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.............................................. 18

VI. Creating Campus Events...................................................................................................... 20

A. Speeches ................................................................................................................ 20
B. Panel Discussions................................................................................................... 21
C. Debates................................................................................................................... 21
D. Summits and Conferences...................................................................................... 22

VII. Advertising and Publicity ..................................................................................................... 23

A. Flyers ...................................................................................................................... 23
B. Chalk ....................................................................................................................... 23
C. Posters .................................................................................................................... 24
D. Press Releases ....................................................................................................... 24

VIII. Growing and Sustaining Your Group.................................................................................. 25

A. Online Presence and Technology Tools ................................................................. 25
B. Publications and Media ........................................................................................... 25
C. Letters to the Editor and Columns........................................................................... 26
D. Interviews ................................................................................................................ 26
E. Information Tables .................................................................................................. 27
F. Fundraising ............................................................................................................. 28
G. Networking .............................................................................................................. 29

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 H. Miscellaneous Activities .......................................................................................... 30
(1) Activism and Demonstrations ....................................................................... 30
(2) Socials.......................................................................................................... 31
(3) Road Trips.................................................................................................... 32
(4) Service ......................................................................................................... 32
(5) Obtaining Support from the Broader Movement........................................... 32

IX. Organizational Strategies (Further Reading)........................................................................ 34

A. Internships............................................................................................................... 34
B. Annual JBS Haldane Award for Best Undergraduate Transhumanist Paper .......... 34
C. Places for Graduate Students to Pursue Graduate Studies in Bioethics ................ 34
D. H+SN Recognition of Humanity+ Policy.................................................................. 37
E. Transhumanist Declaration ..................................................................................... 38
F. The Mission and Vision of H+SN ............................................................................ 39
G. Coordination of H+SN ............................................................................................. 39

Attachment: A Student Club Constitution (Template of Last Resort)

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 I. TOP THREE PRIORITIES
This document contains plenty of information to help you organize a transhumanist campus group
and bring transhumanist speakers to your campus. In the interests of saving you time, the content
of this version is streamlined. Still, it is easy to get confused about what is most important to keep
in mind, so we suggest some top considerations here.

1) The single most important thing you can do as a student advocate is to bring
transhumanist speakers to your campus through events. Speaker events (including
conferences) spread awareness of, and build support for, our ideas. Colleges are
institutions where we are most likely to find open-minded, intelligent audiences. In addition,
usually you can secure an honorarium (a payment) for your speaker via your college, which
covers your speaker’s travel expenses and supplements his or her income. However, often
you cannot get an honorarium or even permission to reserve a room for your speaker
without a campus club. Campus events also are the best recruiting tool for campus clubs.

2) The next most important thing you can do as a student advocate (which often is a
prerequisite for doing the most important thing) is to create a H+SN affiliated campus
club focused on transhumanism or some aspect of it, e.g. life extension (especially useful
is a “working group” devoted to research and analysis). In addition to enabling you to
organize speaker events, a club creates a local community of like-minded people for weekly
discussions and as well as for help promoting and staffing speaker events. Most people will
only show up for discussions but you will need to persuade at least one or two members to
become club officers to be recognized as a student club at most colleges. The way to find
people is first recruit your friends and then do a lot of free campus advertising of your
group’s regular meeting time and location – and have topics ready to discuss! The whole
process will give you great organizing and leadership experience, and that can be added to
a resume. If you can pass the torch to a new leader before you leave campus, that’s terrific,
but realize that most groups fold after the founder leaves, so squeeze in those speaker
events while you have the opportunity.

3) The third most important thing you can do as a student advocate is to cultivate your own
ability to advocate. This obviously includes lots of practice writing and speaking (including
interviewing), locally and in larger arenas. It also includes working toward a career in which
you can contribute significantly to public dialog or research and development in areas that
are the focus of transhumanist advocacy. Note that serving the first two priorities also
facilitates this one, enabling you to meet influential transhumanists and develop useful skill
sets.

Now you know the most important things to bear in mind while reading this document. Go forth to
educate, agitate, and organize!

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 II. TRANSHUMANISM’S RELEVANCE
The need for a network of active transhumanist students and clubs has never been greater.
Transhumanist students – no matter what specific variant they describe themselves as or what
areas capture their attention – live in a world in which a great many people are still not ready to
accept them or their goals and concerns because of ignorance of the issues and possibilities,
myopic visions, and out-dated dogmas. A few examples:

 Global terrorism: a continued threat of use of technology to threatened people, cultures,

and societies throughout the world.

 Bio-conservatives and others argue that tampering with human genome, stem cell cloning,
and genetic engineering will change what it means to be human. These groups lack
credible scientific and technological knowledge and scope of progress, ethics, and
humanness that drives the philosophy of transhumanism. Therefore, these groups lack
adequate information to grasp that is time for our species to do all we can to fight disease
and help to provide health lives and well-being for all humanity.

 Between 1978-1996 neo-luddite terrorist Theodore Kaczynski, a.k.a. “The Unabomber”

targeted people and institutions associated with the development of advanced
technologies, killing 3, injuring and maiming 23, and failing to crash a Boeing 747.

 A more nuanced and nonviolent challenge to tech development was the 1998 Wingspread
Statement, issued by a diverse group articulating the “precautionary principle” (popularly
coined in 1988). The position can roughly be divided into a strong and weak application
(Betterhumans.com), the first overriding any other considerations and shutting down dialog
(bioluddism) while the second includes public debate over whether and how the principle
applies to any given controversy. In February 2004 the Extropy Institute “Vital Progress
Summit” defined a “Proactionary principle” to consider the harms of undo restrictions and
evaluating degree, likelihood, and proximity of risk when considering whether restrictions
are at all warranted (e.g. lives lost due to stagnation of a technology).

 In 2000 Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, publishes “Why the future doesn’t need
us” in Wired Magazine, arguing for a neo-luddite position to relinquish robotics, genetic
engineering and nanotechnology because of their potential threat to the human species.

 In 2002, conservative political economist Francis Fukayama argues in his book Our
Posthuman Future that it is wrong to change the “natural” state of humankind.

 On July 12th 2002, the U.S. President’s Council on Bioethics, headed by Leon Kass, author
of yuck-factor essay, “The Wisdom of Repugnance,” recommended a ban on reproductive
cloning and a 4-year moratorium on therapeutic cloning. Two panel members in
disagreement on the stem cell research moratorium are later removed by Kass. In October
2003, the council releases its report “Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of
Happiness.”

 In the July, 2003 TransVision debate held at Yale, George Annas faced Gregory Stock on
the question, "Should Humans Accept or Reject the Genetic Path to the Post-Human?" In
the debate, Annas (rejecting) argued on behalf of his proposal for a U.N. outlawing germline

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 alterations to the genome and banning human augmentation. He even suggested that
perhaps someday transhumanists could augment themselves on another planet but never
return to earth. Aside from the false dichotomy between therapy and augmentation, it will be
difficult to treat people suffering from inherited genetic diseases without also affecting their
gametes. Should we refuse these people treatment? Concern for equality and opportunity is
warranted, but can be addressed best without bans that create unregulated black markets
available only to the wealthy and unscrupulous.

 The September, 2004 “TechnoSapians” conference sounds the alarm for the Christian
Right on Transhumanism. Former Left-winger turned Right-wing bioconservative Wesley J.
Smith helps provoke this fear through his book, Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World.
Smith tries to make the case that all Christians should be morally opposed to the
Transhumanism. Many religious transhumanists and their antecedents back to Quaker
Statesman Benjamin Franklin (cryonics) and visionary Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (humanity
approaching godliness) would object to his stance.

 While several nations took steps toward recognizing full citizenship of the LGBT community,
the November 2004 U.S., elections saw a wave of bigoted anti-gay marriage amendments
passed at state level.

 In February 2005, the Vatican responds to the emergence of the Italian Transhumanist
Association by condemning the “religion of health.” How many life/health-extending
operations did Pope John Paul II have using the latest medical technology? This came in
the wake of recent condemnations of contraceptives, homosexuality, feminism, fertility
treatment and stem-cell research.

 A global U.N cloning ban failed on 11/19/04, but 3/10/05 a divided General Assembly
approved a nonbinding statement against all forms of human cloning, both therapeutic and
reproductive. While Britain opposed the statement, the U.S. strongly endorsed it, despite a
10/19/04 Gallup poll that showed majorities in both countries consider therapeutic cloning
morally acceptable.

The Transhumanist Student Network would like to change that reactionary trend. The underlying
purpose of the H+SN is to bring about a society in which is open and responsive to the dramatic
changes that emerging technologies bring, which respects morphological freedom, and in which
ethics based on the interests of persons flourish. Whereas other organizations already exist to
spread these values to adult populations, the H+SN focuses on fostering these values among
college students.

The Transhumanist Student Network is a student-led effort dedicated to promoting freedom

through knowledge, organized under Humanity+, a democratic, international, membership
organization. Our mission is to organize, unite, educate and serve students and student groups
that promote the ideals of open responsiveness, freedom, and person-based ethics. We do this by:

 Providing logistical advice and assistance to campus groups

 Opening lines of communication between student group leaders and advocates throughout
the world via online resources, discussion lists, and annual TransVision conferences
 Educating students about the rest of the movement and their own opportunities

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 III. ACADEMIC WORKING GROUPS
Some campus groups, like the Stanford Transhumanist Association, choose to operate as a
working group. The aim of the working group is to spread awareness of transhumanist ideas
while researching and analyzing the topics in an academic format.

 STA founder and President Michael Yin Jin, who with co-leader Yonah Berwaldt
brought the second SIAI Singularity Summit to Stanford University (2006):

“I have two, not mutually exclusive, suggestions for organizing one:

1) The first and more structured way is to plan a class. At Stanford for instance, there is a
student-initiated course option.

2) The second way is to directly organize public lectures on transhumanist topics. Here
there is not much of a sense of who are club members unless the lectures have a returning
audience (even if it tends to be a small group). [See the section on information tables.]

In the second case, a working group should build as large a returning audience as
possible. It should also maintain a smaller planning committee, which should become a
sort of group within a group. This planning group will have the really dedicated members,
usually transhumanists. In addition to the planning committee, there should be a group of
geographically distributed volunteers for handling flyering for instance.

Some ideas I have for working group activities are:

1) Panel discussions - Easiest thing here would be to get local professors. This is a
good way to get in a lot of audience participation.

2) Big name speakers - Piggybacking is very effective and cuts costs. If the speaker is
already in the area for another conference, they probably would speak for a student group
at low prices. If the speaker is a transhumanist, he or she might do it for free!

[*Of course, you should always try to collect an honorarium (a payment) for your speaker–
through either departments, the student activities office, or other sources.]

3) Authors - Coordinating with the campus bookstore can help.

4) Debates - When done well they are very effective. It takes some skill to find the right
pairings and getting the speakers to clash effectively. Probably for more experienced event
planners.

In general, I think collaboration really helps, especially for new groups. Reach out to
humanist groups, student think tanks (like Roosevelt Institution), and science magazines
especially.”

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Remember, if you want your group to last, be sure to effectively advertise your group!

Similar considerations apply in establishing a working group as in founding a club, so be sure to

read the sections on organizing a general club.

Some differences you might encounter in working groups:

 More academic orientation (which, depending on your temperament, may not be

unwelcome). A good working group is intellectually challenging. While this beats a truly
lame general meeting any day, realize that it also demands extra preparation time and
leader discipline.
 Expect a more disciplined schedule with more adviser influence to ensure quality
presentation content.
 Possibly a smaller active member size. Ten people plus an adviser is very healthy, but
remember you need to find and bring in “newbies” to compensate for the students who are
graduating.
 A working group may be a long-term commitment for several professors and
researchers, so it will be a greater commitment than a club, but hopefully compensated by
a greater return in focused, serious discussion. If the topics are of interest to the professors,
they may be more excited about the opportunity to engage in serious exploration with
committed students and interested colleagues.

A. SCHEDULING
Meeting every two weeks makes sense for a working group – it gives people time to read
materials and prepare PowerPoint slides for the next topic. Remember, the student organizers
(and to a lesser extent the adviser) have to come up with reading materials.

Find the best time for the advisers and officers and stick to it the whole year (make adjustments
only if absolutely necessary). Have your first meeting within the first or second week of the autumn
quarter – after having an info-sign up table present at the new student activities day [with a list
requesting names and E-mails – see information tables].

In a single academic period, you will only meet four times, maybe even three. When taking on a
large topic, like “fundamentals of evolutionary psychology,” you may need two meetings to cover
what you want to discuss.

B. MEETING PRESENTATIONS
Every meeting should cover a certain subject and someone should give a presentation (typically
PowerPoint presentations – which can be posted on your website) on that subject before open
discussion. Try to give everyone who wants the opportunity to give a presentation, but insist they
prepare far in advance and ask the person to be ready or nearly so by the meeting two weeks
before – you really don’t want a meeting to fall apart on you (members may lose interest in your
group).

You can choose the length of the presentations and discussions, but it is suggested the
presentations not last much longer than 10 minutes – 20 at the absolute maximum. Official

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discussion and debate can ensue for the next 40-50 minutes. If people want to carry on
conversations over a meal, or on your web list, they have that option, but you can usually only
reserve a room space for a limited time.

Lastly, do try to make meetings fun in addition to being informative and thought provoking.

We encourage you to make use of the materials compiled by the STA (with attribution):
http://www.stanford.edu/group/transhumanism/materials.htm

C. ESTABLISHED MEETING GROUPS

(1) DIY BIO HACKERSPACES GROUPS.

You can join the discussion on the SoCal DIYBIO Google Groups. Website is located at
http://www.diybio.meetup.com. This group was inspired by the DIY science and the Hackerspace
movement.

(2) OPENMANUFACTURING GROUPS.

You can join the Open Manufacturing group at Google Groups at

http://www.openmanufacturing@googlegroups.com.

(3) H+ LAB: HUMAN ENHANCEMENT GROUP.

H+ Lab discussed human enhancement technology of new media art, design and science as
methods for expanding human capabilities. Technologies discussed are Nanomedicine,
Biotechnology, AGI, and neuroscience. Practice areas include DIYBio hackers. You can join
Hplus-human-enhancement-lab at http://groups.google.com/

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 IV. INCORPORATING A CAMPUS GROUP
A. DEFINING AND WORKING DOCUMENTS
To be officially incorporated as a club on most campuses a group needs to have one or two
documents specifying (1) what the group defines itself as representing and (2) how it will conduct
its (mostly internal) business (elections, officer responsibilities, etc.). When these are separated
documents they are sometimes called “defining documents” (e.g. a constitution) and “working
documents” (e.g. bylaws). Think of them as your group’s tickets to reserve rooms for the campus
events you want to host.

As a club founder, you probably will need to adapt or create such documents to serve your group
and keep the campus bureaucracy happy (either the student activities department or the student
government).

Our advice: first, ask your student activities department or student government for an electronic
template for the defining and working documents that they accept. If they only have a printed copy,
then try to write your documents such that they conform to the model in all non-specific aspects. If
they don’t have any model, ask them what aspects (e.g. campus policies, format, non-negotiable
officer positions) are essential to getting your documents accepted by the powers that be on
campus. Then ask the group most similar to the one you want to create if you can use their
documents as a template. Make your documents conform to the campus model as much as
possible to ensure your efforts won’t be stalled over petty squabbles over minutia. Someone in
authority might not like what they think your group represents – unusual but plausible, especially in
a student government on a campus with a socially conservative streak – so leave no excuses to
deny your group approval.

To provide you with extra assistance, we have added a model constitution from a group that
existed at Northwestern University (see the last pages of this document). However, again, we
strongly recommend you create your documents to conform as closely as possible to your
campus’s approved model, so adapt those documents rather than ours.

The second most important consideration in creating your documents is the group name. You
want a name that clearly identifies what your group represents so people can recognize it yet is not
going to turn people off. Of course, you can use the word “Transhumanist(s)” in your name and just
socialize people to it. Or you can take a more public relations-tailored approach and call yourself
“Humanity+ at _Institution Name_.” You also could focus on a specific aspect of transhumanism,
such as “Life Extension,” but might want to mention related ideas (e.g. transhumanism) in your
defining document to keep the club open to networking with institutions focused on related ideas.
“Futurist Club” is a bit vague, but obvious and related. “Sci-fi/Fantasy Club” might be fun but is a
little unrepresentative of real emerging tech. A related “Humanist” club also could do transhumanist
events, but you may find it hard to keep the group’s focus on transhumanist-related topics, or even
include them at all. H+SN and Humanity+ reserve the right to deny affiliation with clubs that identify
with or promote unacceptable things, e.g. racism.

Third in importance are the officer positions you create. Start with the non-negotiable positions at
your campus (e.g. President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer) and include additional useful
positions that you can fill as you gain willing contributors among your group membership.

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B. ADVISORS
It is important to try to find and persuade the best possible candidates to serve as your advisor(s).
If you can find someone who will serve in a more active capacity than in name to sign official forms,
consider yourself very fortunate. If not, take whoever you can find with gratitude, as he or she is at
least lending you his or her name and support.

To find the best advisors or at least ones who will accept you, look in departments related to
significant emerging technologies and thought about such technologies, especially in the sciences
and humanities. Some of the disciplines likeliest to have a faculty member who would sponsor a
transhumanist-themed club include philosophy, economics, sociology, art, business,
biotechnology, biology, any of the subjects covered by interdisciplinary cognitive science
(psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, philosophy of mind, anthropology, linguistics,
education and learning sciences), information technology, computer science, nanotechnology,
physics, any science professors and any liberal arts professors in committees on social theory or
other relevant topics including history. The U.S. Government funds research at the convergence of
nanotech-biotech-info tech-cog science (the NBIC convergence initiative – dealing with
“converging technologies to improve human performance”), so try to contact anyone on your
campus who may be receiving such funding as they will probably not shy away from associating
themselves with a transhumanist club. Be sure to ask your prospective advisors if they would be
interested in creating an academic-focused working group that might host events through their
department, as long as you would be interested in leading such a group. That might appeal to them
more than a general club even though it might require a bit more intellectual work. On some
campuses staff members can serve as advisors as well as faculty, so keep them in mind as well if
you can’t find willing faculty members. It is ideal to have more than one advisor as a back-up
sponsor.

The best way to go about asking faculty to be your advisor is to start with professors you or your
initial officers know who might support your group’s theme. Ask them in person. Next, do a
keyword search on Google with your college’s name and transhumanist-related words to see if any
faculty member’s names pop up (also try your college’s website). Ask those people in person.
Then, write a brief, informative, friendly E-mail to the faculty of one of the above-mentioned
departments describing the basic theme of your group in ways they can readily understand and
asking if any of them would be willing to serve as an advisor to your club. Mention that you have
minimal workload expectations. Also, suggest the idea of creating an academic working group if
that is of interest to an advisor, as long as you would be willing to do the extra work of leading one
(that might attract someone who wouldn’t be interested in a traditional student club). Change the E-
mail title and heading for each department you ask (use the member’s individual public E-mail
addresses). If you have asked members of every department and no one sent a positive response,
ask classified staff. If no one on your campus is willing to sponsor your group, save yourself the
aggravation of being unable to effectively advertise your group and host events and instead join a
related club or organization with your friends and use it to deliver transhumanist presentations,
serve in a leadership position (which is good experience and good for your resume) and possibly
even bring a transhumanist-related speaker to your campus.

However active your advisor(s) is, remember that the student leaders of the club (especially the
President) bear ultimate responsibility for practically everything related to it and ought to shoulder
as most of the load of the work related to the club. Keep your advisor happy and show your
appreciation for everything they do.

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C. RECRUITING INITIAL LEADERSHIP & MEMBERSHIP
The first place to look for initial officers for your group is among your friends on campus. Some
advantages of adding friends to your officer roster is that you already get along with them, they
probably agree with you on the general purpose and form of the club you want to create, and
although most work will fall on the Founder and President, they usually can be expected to pull
their own weight (unless they agree “in name only,” which is better than nothing and a bare
minimum necessity).

A disadvantage to including only friends among the officers is that without conscious effort to
overcome it your collective leadership may be a little insular and have trouble making others feel
included, especially people earlier in their college experience who might carry on the club
existence after you graduate. Try to be open to including people from among your initial recruits in
leadership positions, as you should try to give everyone willing some formal officer role to empower
them and create a stronger sense of belonging in your group than in other groups. Another
disadvantage of only including close friends in officer positions is that if you think alike in many
ways, you may share the same “blind spots” and be unaware of important problems, as well as
possibly lack as diverse an array of capabilities to effectively solve some problems your group
faces. Whenever you have the luxury of time, try to gather the perspectives and ideas of others in
your group, non-leaders included, before deciding on a course of action.

Once you have officers, or in the process of collecting officers, you will need to do initial "outreach"
to attract members to your group. Building your membership is hardest early on but that also is the
most critical time to build it.

First, create a website and E-mail list. This will allow people to access information about your group
24/7 online and enable you to target all your club announcements to the most receptive audience
first (descriptions of public events and weekly discussion topics). On your website main page
create a brief description of the who, what, why, and how (who and what your group represents, its
purpose and how it aims to accomplish it), when and where (regular meeting place and time), and
“so what?” (why people should join). You should summarize what your group represents in a brief
introductory sentence or phrase (e.g. “Humanity+ at College Name is a club that explores the
potential of emerging technologies to expand the capabilities of human beings.”).

In the past Yahoo! Groups has worked very well as an organizing list with a "search-able" URL and
brief group description field. You might want to set one up initially even if you only use it
temporarily before switching to a school listserve and more professional website (assuming those
are not readily available). You will need to set up a Yahoo! profile to be an effective group owner
and moderator.

Again, immediately ask all your friends, and ask them to ask friends in their network, if any of them
would like to be members of your group, even if they aren't interested in serving as an officer. Try
to collect as many names and E-mail addresses as possible as early as possible for your group list.
A crowd helps attract a crowd but five or fewer members on a Yahoo! group list (where your group
number is visible) will tend to look “lonely.” Pass around several paper "information sign-up sheets"
you and your officers carry with you everywhere that have a column for names and a column for E-
mails. At the top add your name and E-mail so people can contact you. You then can add the E-
mails you collect to your announcement list (separate from any campus discussion list you may set
up) so that those receptive people will always have access to meeting and event information. They

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can tell you if and when they want to be removed from the list (in which case it always is good to E-
mail something like "Sorry to see you go, please let me know if there is anything about the group
we could improve" to gather potentially useful information). Get your website and its linked
announcement list to become linked from the campus website (usually in the "student activities" /
"clubs and organizations" section) as soon as possible so that you collect new members online. At
least get your group's contact information posted there.

At this point you and your officers should reach agreement on a (discussion/planning) meeting day
and time that you all can attend which should be convenient for most people on campus. If it isn't
an academic working group, that generally means it will take place on a weekday in the late
afternoon or evening after most classes are out (at commuter campuses the best time may be at
lunch or in the early afternoon). Once you have found a good time, try to stick with it all year, at
least for general discussion meetings. Start with the best location you can find but be open to
moving to a better one once you become officially recognized by your college and can reserve a
room. Read the sections of this guide on running meetings before you host your first meeting.

Now advertise your group, its website, and its meeting time/day/location like crazy. If your campus
allows you to post fliers with that information (and an attractive, eye-catching picture) before you
have official approval as a recognized club, do so. If not, you might be able to get around the
limitation initially by writing out that information in chalk in several heavily trafficked areas, if your
campus allows "chalking" (be considerate and do it where the rain will wash it away). Posters also
would be nice, but are most likely to require approval.

If you have a faculty adviser - or any faculty members who seemed receptive to your group
proposal - ask them if they would be willing to make an announcement about your group's
existence, website and meeting day/time/place at the end of their classes. If you are lucky, some
faculty members may announce your group to their classes once every academic term. An
alternative way of doing this is for you to be invited to speak to one or more class for a minute
(usually at the end of the class), like a candidate for a student political office. It has the advantage
of introducing you in person (with your info sign-up sheets!) but of course you can't personally
attend many classes.

Also ask leaders of related clubs and organizations on campus if you can deliver a brief
announcement of the formation of your club and its meeting time and place. You won’t get new
leaders from other clubs, generally, but you may get new members or at least people on your
announcement list who may attend your events, as well as mention the group to people in their
friend networks.

As soon as you have the opportunity (usually after getting official recognition as a campus group)
start staffing information tables with your information sign-up sheets (always), materials printed out
from relevant websites, and a list of possible discussion and event topics. If you have relevant
books or materials sent by Humanity+ and related organizations, include those on your information
table for people to look at or take with them (especially any fliers, pamphlets, buttons, stickers, or
pens). Try to have at least two people staffing the information table at all times to avoid looking
lonely. Information tables are especially important at student activities fairs at the start of the year
(and sometimes the start of each academic period) as well as at the events you hold.

Finally, after all the above efforts are underway, and either before or after your group becomes
officially recognized, you might consider writing an editorial to the campus newspaper announcing
the creation of your group and commenting intelligently on any relevant activities or events on your

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campus (e.g. things favorably related to what your group represents; or if you are very careful,
some things opposed to what your group represents - but try to stay positive to attract people). If
and when you feel prepared for the challenge, you also could appear on a transhumanist-friendly
college radio program (which may reach a receptive audience), but unless the program theme
dovetails well with the focus of your group you may not attract many members through it. You also
may want to wait until your group is better established to appear on live radio in order to be able to
reference more things you (as a leader) have done and your group has done.

D. CULTIVATING NEW LEADERS

Notice all active members who will be on campus at least the following year and try to give them
officer responsibilities before another campus group recruits them into its officer core. Start new
leaders on non-critical tasks and gradually work up to critical ones that train them to run the group.
Try to persuade at least a president and ideally people for the other critical officer positions to take
over the year before you and the other officers graduate so that you are available to counsel (not
direct) the new leaders. Retaining the same advisor(s) can be very helpful in this process if they
take an active role. Usually groups fall apart after the founder graduates but if you manage to pull
off a successful transition your group can continue bringing events to your campus and holding
discussion meetings that attract a core network after you have moved on to your career or to
another campus. Balance support and helpful advice with space for new leaders to make
(hopefully non-critical) mistakes they can learn from, always praise them publically for good work,
and never embarrass or chastise them in front of other members. The goal should be to help them
feel empowered and develop a strong sense of ownership of the group – which applies to all active
members but especially new leaders.

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 V. RUNNING YOUR GROUP
A. DISCUSSION MEETINGS
(KEEPING THE GROUP ACTIVE)
Regular meetings for discussion of ideas are the social glue that holds most groups together, even
when the group is primarily focused on something other than intellectual dialog, like political
activism. Group discussions give members the chance to share their own perspectives on ideas
and events with a receptive audience. They also generate intellectual bonds between members, in
addition to any other bonding activities a group may facilitate (e.g. nights out, parties, road trips,
retreats). Discussion meetings are vital to attracting and retaining new members and persuading
some to take on officer roles, whether you are just starting your club or annually regenerating your
membership and appealing to uncommitted freshmen to participate in your club more than others.
Good discussion meetings help you maintain an active group and get people to assist in promoting
and staffing events. For most groups, one discussion meeting per week is optimal to maintaining
an active membership and discouraging active members from devoting their scarce time resources
to serving as officers for other clubs instead of yours (most people can only hold at most two officer
positions at a time in separate clubs or organizations, and one gets more of their attention than the
other). If the school year is nine months long, minus breaks and finals weeks, that should result in
around thirty weekly one-hour discussion meetings per year (unless you are running an “academic
working group” that meets monthly or bi-weekly – see the earlier section under that title).

To repeat critical paragraph from the group formation section, at the start of each year or at the
formation of your club, you and your officers should reach agreement on a discussion meeting day
and time that you all can attend which should be convenient for most people on campus. If it isn't
an academic working group, that generally means it will take place on a weekday in the late
afternoon or evening after most classes are out (at commuter campuses the best time may be at
lunch or in the early afternoon). Once you have found a good time, try to stick with it all year, at
least for general discussion meetings. Start with the best location you can find but be open to
moving to a better one once you become officially recognized by your college and can reserve a
room.

If your group is not an academic working group you don’t need to worry much about rigorous
preparation for every discussion, just do a little research to have information pertinent to some of
your open-ended discussion questions. However, you should try to make every discussion focused
on a specific topic with some relevant questions for the group to explore. Try to make the topics
reasonable thin slices of the broad transhumanist theme, or specific topics in a particular area of
transhumanism, so that you have plenty of material to last throughout the year. Few things kill a
campus group capable of hosting events faster than having a few completely unstructured
discussions where all attendees briefly talk about everything of greatest interest to them on the
general theme of the club and then run out of topics they want to discuss. Budget your group
members’ topics of greatest interest over the course of whole year and address each topic in
depth. That doesn’t mean people aren’t allowed to touch on their topics of greatest interest in
meetings devoted to a different topic, but it should be understood that most dialog should be on the
topic reserved for that particular discussion meeting, at least until all the group questions have
been addressed and everyone feels satisfied that they have expressed their thoughts on the
matter. If discussion veers far off track you (as a leader) should gently remind everyone of the topic
of the meeting and ask them to wrap up their comments on the tangent and get back to it.

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The best way to determine topics is for the group leader(s) (it should be assumed that the club
President will do the work even, or rather especially, when no one else does) to start the group or
start the school term with several specific discussion topics and associated questions to ponder to
last a number of meetings (eight or more narrowly defined topics is a healthy start). The meeting
topic and discussion questions should be posted on the group list at the start of each week to
attract anyone who is interested in the topic. To find sources from which you can generate
questions, just do a Google search on the topic terms (or base the discussion on an article). At the
first meeting, gather specific proposals for future meetings from the attendees. Ask whether any of
the proposers would be willing to develop open-ended questions for their favored discussion topic
and what their preferred date for the discussion would be (one they can commit to attending). Try
to involve everyone who shows interest, especially freshmen and officers. If you think a topic may
be unappealing or offensive take a vote at the meeting on whether or not to accept it, maybe with
modification. There are no “sacred cows” – idols off-limits to questioning and critique – so take
advantage of the opportunity to examine biases and justifications from all sides of an issue or
debate and see whether the topic might be helpfully reframed or reinterpreted. The President or VP
usually moderates the discussion regardless of who develops the questions for the sake of quality
control (just try to give everyone a fair chance to speak without monopolizing the discussion).
Since you will obtain the topic questions by the beginning of the week of a discussion, you should
be able to stick to the discussion you advertise on your list even if the person who proposed it can’t
attend. Of course, you always have the discussion topics you created to fall back on (having a
spare presentation ready also wouldn’t be a bad idea in an academic working group, if that can be
managed). Sharing the discussion stage with all active members creates a sense of ownership of
the group, which translates into deeper investment in its success and willingness to help with the
workload. Last, save a list of all your discussion topics with your questions and sources. The
following year you or the next leader can use some of them if there is interest in covering them
again (maybe with different questions) or borrow sources for a different set of talks. After a couple
years it should be much easier to generate discussion meeting topics.

Here some examples of discussion topics and questions to begin creating before the start of the
semester (a long versions, your ones can be shorter):

Morphological Freedom
Morphological freedom means "the ability to alter bodily form at will through technologies such as
surgery, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, uploading". (Max More 1993)

 Does anyone disagree that humans, transhumans, posthumans and newly developed
persons ought to have the right to modify his/her body, cognition, perceptions and senses
through the beneficial and ethical use of technology?
 Does anyone disagree with Anders Sandberg’s flow chart of the sources of justification for
morphological freedom? How might you change it?
 Does morphological freedom threaten diversity or will it enhance it? Are More’s and
Sandberg’s unique arguments that cultural diversity and widespread availability will
overcome threats to diversity?
 Is morphological freedom as a negative right (generally, others can’t prevent it but they
don’t need to support it) also an effective protection against coercive biomedical policies?
 Are the freedom to transform one’s morphology and bodily self-ownership supra-political
“natural rights” or historically contingent conventions that may be undermined by a new
convention of morphological freedom as a natural right? Would viewing it as a natural right
privilege some constituencies over others and if so how?

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  Does mere emphasis on medical intervention threaten acceptance of diversity (e.g. bias
powers that be to pressure consent to remedial or augmentative therapies)? Is the
separation of a baseline health standard for everyone and privatized augmented health
standards for those with means a fair, or fair enough, system?
 What kinds of consent are under duress? What is insufficient information? What conditions
make for full consent? How plausible is it that under-informed consent under duress would
“underwrite authoritarian moralists with unprecedented technological powers at their
disposal who would impose their parochial perspectives on a planetary scale” and why?
Sources:
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_freedom
(See cognitive, physical, and psychological transformation sections)
Max More: Technological Self-Transformation: Expanding Personal Extropy
http://www.maxmore.com/selftrns.htm
Anders Sandburg: Morphological Freedom: Why We not just Want it, but Need it
http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/Texts/MorphologicalFreedom.htm

Abolitionism – “an ethical ideology based upon a perceived obligation to use technology to
eliminate involuntary suffering in all sentient life” [1]
 Thoughts on this description? “Abolitionists promote a rational/scientific approach towards
minimizing suffering and maximizing happiness as the ethical directive for humanity.
Abolitionists believe that biotechnology can and should be used to eradicate suffering and
make us better humans. We believe life and suffering are not inseparable - instead, we see
suffering as an undesirable quirk of organisms evolved by natural selection. The
neurological pathways of suffering have evolved because they served the inclusive fitness
of our genes in the ancestral environment. Although, at present, suffering can be useful to
us, as well as to our genes, we do not think this will always need to be the case.”
 There currently is functional value to suffering, e.g. physical harm prevention or harm
minimization, social cohesion via shame or shared emotions in grief over a loss, arguably
even benefits from very cognitive suffering like boredom that redirects attention in
potentially more productive ways. Try to add more examples to that list and then try to
imagine how the functions might be fulfilled without the experience of suffering, recognizing
the utility of having physiological, emotional (apparently necessary for motivation based on
research), and cognitive features of a mind.
 Buddhists claim that suffering is at root caused by desire, and by snuffing out the flame of
desire one can cease suffering. That is a cognitive-emotional approach without
technological intervention to change pain-related physiology (and create different automatic
physical harm avoidance mechanisms). Will we never be free of suffering as long as we
have desires, up to and including the desire to continue living indefinitely? Can we imagine
a functioning world without desire, or at least many kinds of desire? Would the total
absence of desire potentially result in absence of perceived value, in nihilism? Can we
accomplish worthwhile things if we have no perceived basis for worth? What about
transhumanist projects? Or have we gotten on the wrong track in this discussion, and why?
Maybe the philosopher David Pierce is right when he said on Facebook, “IMO we should
aim to maximize the cosmic abundance of subjectively valuable states. Heaven really is
more valuable than Hell.”
 What empirical research and current or near-horizon technologies does anyone know of
related to abolitionism?
 Is there any intrinsic value to suffering? If so, what might it be and how do we make the
distinction between valuable forms and forms that are not valuable? If not, why not, and
why do many people think otherwise (and how does their thinking err)?

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Source:
[1] The Abolitionist Society (archived from the original site 2006-11-04, Wikipedia)
The Abolitionist Society: Toward the abolition of suffering through science
http://web.archive.org/web/20061104055800/http://www.abolitionist-society.com/abolitionism.htm

Article: “True Transhumanism” by Max More

Any thoughts on the following comments More wrote? “Critics’ misconceptions are legion, but here
I will focus on those found in Ihde’s paper. I declare that:
 Transhumanism is about continual improvement, not perfection or paradise.
 Transhumanism is about improving nature’s mindless “design”, not guaranteeing perfect
technological solutions.
 Transhumanism is about morphological freedom, not mechanizing the body.
 Transhumanism is about trying to shape fundamentally better futures, not predicting
specific futures.
 Transhumanism is about critical rationalism, not omniscient reason.
 Can you think of any prospective technologies discussed in futurist circles that seem like
they may forever remain fantasy? What are they and why (e.g. perhaps some hard-takeoff
perspectives on the singularity)? What technologies are considered fantasy by most people
but seem to contradict no physical laws (e.g. cryonics)? What would be the obstacles to
overcome in order to make them work and when would you guess such obstacles might be
surmounted?
 How would you conceive “extropias” of continual improvement to differ from “utopias” of
static perfection in format and implementation? How might order be maintained in the
former case, as capacities are radically enhanced and older forms of control may become
ineffective and perhaps less desirable because they are less needed (but why and how)?
 “Technology-in-use can differ drastically from technology-as-designed.” The example given
is the start of the Internet as a tool for particle physicists at the start of the 1990s. How
might we improve our abilities to foresee negative outcomes of technological development
as well as positive ones, as More mentions? What seems feasible with general forecasting
as opposed to pinpoint prediction?
 Can someone research and explain the methods More discusses toward the end of the
paper for analyzing the future with different levels of uncertainty? Let me know if you will.
(E.g., net present value; scenario planning, game theory, decision-tree real-options
valuation; system dynamics models; and at the highest level of uncertainly, analogies and
reference cases along with resilient strategies and designs)
Source:
Max More: True Transhumanism (Global Spiral – February, 2009)
http://www.metanexus.net/magazine/tabid/68/id/10685/Default.aspx

Article: “Bringing Arts/Science and Design into the discussion of Transhumanism” by

Natasha Vita-More
 Why would designers be compelled to enhance human physiology? Is there potential for
human enhancement projects in gaming, virtual reality, biological art and wearable
technologies?
 How could human enhancement influence and/or impact traditional notions of the classical
human form?
 Are ancient myths responsible for the narratives, which foster interest in immortality in the
films and literature?

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  Katherine N. Hayles wrote about posthumans as disembodied humans. Is she right or
wrong? How does her view differ from the transhumanist perspective on the posthuman as
an upload or whole brain emulation?
 How does the transhuman differ from the cyborg? Donna Haraway’s vision of the cyborg is
far from Manfred Clynes vision of the cyborg. Is there a correlation between Clynes vision
and the transhumanist vision of the future human?
 Design is the “process of taking something from its existing state and moving it to a
preferred state.” By this definition, how is design important to transhumanism?
 Personal identity and continuity (Parfit) are issues of prolonging personhood. How will
human identity continue over time in an enhanced body or non-body?
 How are Computer-generated works, including robotics, AI, and virtuality, as well as
biological arts in altering cell structures, signifying the developing artistic field of human
enhancement?
Source;
Natasha Vita-More: Bringing Arts/Sciences and Design into the Discussion of Transhumanism
(Global Spiral – February 2009).
Natasha Vita-More: Bringing Arts/Sciences and Design into the Discussion of Transhumanism (H+
Transhumanism and Its Critics. (Eds.) William Grassie and Gregory Hansell. Metanexus
Publishing. 2010). http://www.grassie.net/articles/2010_Transhumanism.html

Article: “Problems of Transhumanism: Liberal Democracy vs. Technocratic Absolutism” by

James Hughes
 Can the transhumanist movement accomplish more toward achieving its aims by winning
over powerful elites rather than winning popular support? Clearly that would depend on
what aims one’s (legitimate) version of transhumanism happened to be and how well those
might be served or undermined by routes that bypassed winning popular support – which
even if it is central arguably would be a very long, expensive, time- and effort-consuming
process. But do we risk losing much more by neglecting the struggle to win popular support
for transhumanist aims? Is not an all-or-nothing question? What general values and
heuristics (or even methods of ethical calculus) come into play when judging the relative
merits of an elite vs. a popular approach to realizing much of the transhumanist agenda?
 Is the designation of “libertarian transhumanist” (as contrasted with “democratic
transhumanist”) a fair one? Self-identifications may differ from that, so a different emphasis
could be “market-primacy” and “political-primacy” transhumanists. Both libertarian and
democratic transhumanists (and most transhumanists) would be considered “civil
libertarians” and they favor the market of ideas over legislation when it comes to social
values. Of course, a singleton of one sort or another might not respect civil liberties and
primacy of a market of ideas.
 Could there ever be a compelling justification for a non-democratic order (e.g. Coherent
Extrapolated Volition if the likely alternative is species extermination by “unfriendly”
superintelligent artificial general intelligence). What do you think about the SIAI CEV
proposal? What about a singleton world government? What if it was a representative
democracy? Might there ever be a viable post-scarcity anarchist model sustained by
distributed manufacturing and mutualist currencies?
 Are the premises for arguments on behalf of liberal democracy for the foreseeable future
that Hughes mentions compelling ones relative to the arguments for various kinds of
technocracy or absence of representative democracy? What is your perspective about the
relevance of technoprogressivism in relation to the radical technological changes being
considered? Could it become obsolete, and if so how? Or are arguments to that effect
merely expressions of already present conservative (or totalitarian, or market-

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 fundamentalist) politics that make use of technological change (often unconsciously) as a
convenient excuse to crush political freedoms and fair representation of people’s perceived
needs and wants?
Source:
James Hughes: Problems of Transhumanism: Liberal Democracy vs. Technocratic Absolutism
(Ethical Technology – January 23, 2010)
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20100123

“Transhumanist Roadmap” (Discussion 1 of a Series) by Bryan Bishop

 Enter “technical” discussion.
Source:
http://acceleratingfuture.com/hplusroadmapwiki/Roadmap

B. GROUP MEETING PROTOCOL

Pre-meeting discussion questions are a starting point for dialog, something that prepares the
minds of some of your participants before the meeting, something that you can turn to in lulls the
conversation, and something that helps your discussion cover much of the topic instead of fixating
on a specific component (or the views of one or two participants, yourself included). Try to see that
everyone gets a chance to comment and welcome new questions in the midst of the discussion.
The pre-meeting questions list should be very helpful to your group but there is no law that you
must cover all of the questions in the available time of approximately an hour or slightly longer or
that all participants must have looked at the source articles. Leave people wanting more, or let
them follow up on a group discussion list (separate from your announcement list). The most
important thing is to try to see that everyone enjoys the discussion because if it isn’t fun most
people won’t want to do it.

Holding occasional joint discussions with another group are a way to advertise your group to
members of a related club or attract outside attention (e.g. campus media) if the club you share a
discussion with advocates a very different position on some important topic. A good format for a
compatible group is to just form one large group moderated by the Presidents for the discussion of
that day’s topic to suggest co-identification among members. Shared identification can be useful if
your club wants to build a small coalition behind specific political advocacy, e.g. for rights of the
deceased in your state to cryogenically preserve their bodies, and your club should touch on all
major points of agreement with its potential coalition partner. In the case of a joint discussion with a
group advocating things that diverge from those your group advocates, the best format is to have
two well-spoken advocates from each club engage in a brief formal presentation and debate
(giving each speaker equal time) then open up the discussion to audience questions and
comments. In either case, your group is educating people outside of it about its positions and
justifications but while the first type is a bonding exercise the second is mostly for (hopefully good-
natured and respectful) intellectual entertainment. See the section on debates if you are holding
one.

C. PLANNING MEETINGS
The easiest and best way to organize most planning meetings is to (very briefly) summarize topics
that need to be addressed at the start of the discussion meeting and then return to those topics at
the close of the formal discussion (after about an hour –leaving people wanting more). The

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advantage of taking care of most club business this way is that it is transparent to the active
membership and it is easier to recruit active members to contribute to their own club’s promotional
and event-related needs.

If you think that more business needs to be handled than can be added on to the discussion
meeting, e.g. planning detailed preparations for a big event, bias toward holding a task-focused
“special committee meeting” of officers and willing active members at a time mutually convenient
for all or at least most (the President or VP always should be in attendance) instead of splitting off
the officers alone, as you will get more people involved in leadership of the club that way, and
thereby more assistance (especially by potential officers). Buying food like a pizza and soda for the
group to consume during a planning meeting can make the activity more enjoyable and increase
the committee’s stamina, if necessary (but if it’s not made fun, no one will want to do it).

D. PRESENTATIONS
In regular meetings a presentation is a more labor-intensive variation on the usual club discussion.
Alternatively, you might give a presentation at a one-day summit or weekend conference. We don’t
have advice to impart on the topic at this time, but search for and make use of online tutorials on
the subject of “speech tips” and “power point tips.”

E. PROJECTS
Beyond holding meetings and public events, your club can have a positive impact on campus or in
the surrounding community through group projects. There are a wide array of projects a student
group can take on, and some projects are ambitious enough to be turned into ongoing programs or
even things like physical labs. For any really ambitious or long-term project it is wise to attempt to
try to find leaders among long-term residents of the campus (e.g. advisors) and among residents of
the surrounding community. Project management can become very complex and highly adaptive to
feedback, but what follows are a few simple heuristics to help guide any project, especially for
people who never have organized a project before.

(1) S.M.A.R.T. Goals. There are a number of words employed to fill this acronym (see
the Wikipedia article), but some of the most useful are Specific, Measurable, Attainable (Action-
oriented), Relevant (Realistic), and Time-bound (Timely). After generating ideas without criticism,
ask whether the goal served by any possible project, and the goals of subcomponents of a chosen
project, meet the criteria of SMART goals. If they don't, you can try to salvage them by modifying
your goals and project, e.g. narrow its scope or create measurable standards of success, or you
can drop the goal or project in favor of a more actionable one.

(2) S.P.A.R.K.!. It is helpful in starting any project to take account of the project's
necessary Size, Procedures, Accountability, Resources, and Knowledge. What scale is needed
and what can you support? What procedures do you need to establish to see the project through –
possibly under different leadership over time? Who is accountable for what? What resources do
you have and what resources do you need to have to see the project through (including how you
will get the required resources)? Finally, what knowledge is needed for the project to be completed
and where can you find it or who possesses it?

(3) Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. Finally, general stages of

development of projects, programs, and organizations can be summed up as “forming, storming,

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norming, and performing.” The forming stage requires creating the organizing structures and
networks from which the project or organization will emerge, including initial plans or defining and
operating documents, itineraries of resources needed and plans to acquire them (or get the money
to acquire them), and the group of project collaborators or organization co-founders committed to
realizing their vision. The storming stage possibly is the most labor-intensive stage in which
organization founders aggressively promote their group and start conducting group business and
project leaders acquire resources for their projects and do the work of actualizing their ideas. The
norming stage is when group business (and promotion) becomes routinized and projects turn into
ongoing programs if they don't end upon the attainment of a given set of objectives. The goal
should be to create an organization or program that can be run by successors to the founders
(keeping records for institutional memory is a good practice to assist new leaders and team
members). The performing stage is the long-term progress and fluctuating performance of an
organization or program in which cycles of forming, storming, and norming take place. The last
stage is concerned with maintaining and improving relevant programs and organizations.

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VI. CREATING CAMPUS EVENTS
In addition to informing people about perspectives associated with your group’s themes, speeches
and similar events are a campus group’s primary means of outreach – attracting people from
outside the group to it. You should try to create at least one significant event on your campus per
academic term (at least two per year if at all possible).

Always have an information table at your events and mention it in the introduction to your
speaker(s) (if a speaker has a book, CD, or DVD, you also can mention you are selling it at your
information table; try to coordinate with the campus bookstore to carry a speaker’s book as well).
The critical component of any information table is the information sign-up sheets (see Recruiting
Initial Leadership and Membership), which helps induce people to become group meeting
attendees and potentially group members. Additionally, include printed material from relevant
websites, a list of possible discussion and event topics, and any relevant books or materials sent
by Humanity+ and related information and items to sell or give away (fliers, pamphlets, buttons,
stickers, or pens). Always try to staff an information table with at least two people, which can make
the group look more populous and attractive.

A. SPEECHES
Beyond especially large group discussions, the simplest large-scale events are single speeches. If
your advisor or another professor at your college is willing to deliver a speech relevant to your
group’s themes, that could cut down considerably on the costs associated with travel and lodging
(regardless, always try to secure an honorarium or payment for the speech from your school).
Generally though, unless the professor or local area speaker is famous or well known and loved on
campus, you can expect a small turn-out for such events (a larger turnout might be expected of a
panel discussion involving several campus professors). A speech given by a student can only be
expected to attract an audience the size of a regular discussion meeting or two, unless it is part of
a larger event.

Beyond professors on your campus or capable speakers in the local transhumanist group in your
city, you should consider higher-profile people who can speak to a theme of interest. The best
speech topics are provocative and controversial as those are most likely to attract the attention of
people outside your group including media. Use your preferred topic themes to narrow down your
list of prospective speakers, then contact speakers starting with the one you are most interested in
bringing to your campus. Tell the speaker what theme(s) you would like to hear and ask her what
topics she has prepared or could have prepared by a given date. Hopefully, you can find a mutually
agreeable topic – try to be open to a different one than you originally intended.

Now you need to make arrangements with your speaker and campus bureaucracy (most likely your
student activities department or student government). Ask what the procedure is to bring a speaker
to campus and initiate the process as early as possible; it may take three months to negotiate the
speaker’s honorarium (and possibly flight and accommodations) and any other event-related
grants, get bureaucratic approval for expenses, and reserve the space you want – and then you
need a couple weeks to promote it. Stay in touch with the speaker throughout the process and be
sure to ask her whether she wants anything additional about two weeks prior to the event.
Generally, you will bring a speaker to campus through your club (or as a joint venture with another
club, splitting the expense and workload – especially helpful if the event has out-of-pocket costs)

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but you also may bring a speaker to campus through an academic department, especially if you
run an academic working group. In the latter case, much of the arrangements with campus
bureaucracy may be handled by your faculty advisor.

Some speakers have public relations professionals you will need to work with to host the event.
Allow them to take the lead and try to meet their requests. Also, be sure to thank them by their
company name at the event (you might also include their business cards on the information table),
as that is an opportunity for them to promote their services. Also, it often is cheaper for you to
“piggyback” big-name speakers at your engagement when they already are speaking at a nearby
location. Some transhumanist speakers may even appear for free, but always try to secure an
honorarium regardless of such willingness.

Choose an event location that is on or near campus and has all the features needed, e.g. hopefully
adequate but not excessive seating capacity, which could make it look like there is no audience,
along with required media presentation tools like projection screens. Never hold an event breaks,
finals week, midterms, or campus celebration weeks due to low expected turnout. The evening is
the best time to hold events, starting after people are out of work and school and have eaten but
ending before they need to go to bed (e.g. starting 6:30 to 8:00, ending 7:30 to 9:30). Try to keep
the event free to attendees and get money from other sources.

Have your faculty advisor or your President or Vice President deliver the speaker introduction. Ask
the speaker at least a couple weeks beforehand how they want to be introduced, getting all
relevant credentials, books they have authored, etc.

At the end of the speech announce there will be 10, 15, or 20 minutes for questions and answers.
At the end of that time announce there will be time for a last question and then thank the speaker
for coming to your campus.

B. PANEL DISCUSSIONS
Panel Discussions involve more than two speakers sharing a stage and answering questions from
a moderator, adding additional comments where appropriate. To minimize booking hassles it would
be easiest to persuade campus professors to take part in addressing some controversial,
provocative issue. Try to gather people with distinct sets of views on the topic, as conflicting
(informed) opinions make for a more entertaining event. Pick a professional discussion moderator
who can balance speaking time for the discussants impartially, whether or not she is personally
biased on any of the issues addressed. Consider asking your club advisor to moderate (you might
decide to allow the moderator to express opinions as long as she is fair to those with differing
ones). Panel discussions are a good opportunity to encourage audience participation in asking
questions of the panel and making comments.

C. DEBATES
Debates can be a bit complicated to arrange because in addition to booking two qualified debaters
you need to get mutual agreement on the topic and question(s) as well as the format and rules,
and you need to effectively match the speakers by skill and experience (at least your favored side
should be as capable and prepared as the other, but it is no fun for the audience to watch a straw
man opponent get defeated; typically, local professors are outmatched by professional debaters).
Other campus outreach organizations have whole kits on setting up and managing debates, as

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well as lists of debaters and subjects they are prepared to debate. Maybe we will have that too
someday. For now, don’t jump into a debate format before you have experience coordinating
speeches and take any guidance you can get from experienced debaters on how to set up a
successful event.

D. SUMMITS AND CONFERENCES

A one-day summit or a weekend conference is a significant undertaking, but with support from the
major organization it serves, former conference organizers in such organization’s network, and
locally based organizations or groups, as well as, if it can be arranged, one or more academic
department at your institution (generally, you will need at least one faculty member to coordinate
that), they are feasible to host (and they make an excellent utilization of your academic institution
while you are attending it). You will need at least one and possibly more event spaces, dining and
lodging for attendees, and possibly compensation for big-name speakers (and again, you may
need to work with their public relations professionals). It would be wise to make such an event the
exclusive focus of an academic term, aside from discussion and planning meetings to avoid over-
burdening your group leaders. You should try to make the event free for students who help
organize and staff it, as well as for any early volunteers who do the same. The event also should
be free for any of its speakers. Needless to say, conferences are an excellent opportunity to
network with like-minded individuals and garner major media coverage.

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 VII. ADVERTISING AND PUBLICITY
Advertising events is best undertaken as a group activity, as you can reach more people in less
time that way. While one person (often the President) will create and possibly print the flyers, all
active group members should be encouraged to help distribute the advertising materials. The labor
can be made more fun by working across the campus as a group to hit most of the advertising
locations and then meeting somewhere afterward as a reward for the work.

A. FLYERS
Flyers are the primary format for advertising campus events you host as well as your group’s
website and its regular discussion meeting time and location. Although you can type a flyer in
Word, Microsoft Publisher will make it easier for you to add or create graphics. Print a provocative
title, very concise (1-2 sentence) description that makes a short appeal for why someone should
want to attend, and answer the questions who, what, when, where, how much (emphasize if it is
free), all in a large, bold font that ideally can be read five feet away. Insert one or two graphics to
make your flyer stand out from the rest on bulletin boards or use other tricks (e.g. make part of the
flyer have a black background and white font, if you can afford the ink). It is a good idea to print
your club’s web address, regular meeting time and place, and group contact info in smaller letters
at the bottom of the flyer. Generally, it also is a good idea to print your flyers on brightly colored
paper if you can afford it, as they are going to end up in the trash anyway, but you might opt for
plain white paper if you know you can collect all the flyers to recycle them. Your campus may
require that all flyers display a special stamp of approval marked on an original you submit and
then copy. In such a case your club probably needs to be formally incorporated and recognized by
your school before you can post any flyers. Post flyers about events a month ahead of time and
then repost flyers two weeks to a week ahead of time.

A relatively cheap version of flyers for rapid and widespread dissemination (by hand, taped on the
backs of auditorium chairs, etc.) is “flyerlets” or handbills taking up an area one-fourth of a page.
In Publisher or Word you should create a page with the same content in the same format
appearing in each of the four quadrants of the page. You may not have space to add a graphic and
your text will need to be smaller. To keep costs down you can use plain white paper. Just neatly
cut your pages along the quadrant edges and you will have four times the number of
advertisements relative to the cost of flyers. With permission, you can attach such flyerlets to the
backs of every third chair in the auditorium you will be using so that people who take classes there
will know when the event will be held. From two days before to the day of the event you and other
willing group members should pass out the flyerlets to people on campus in high foot traffic areas
during passing periods or times when the area is heavily populated. Be sure to target areas where
the students you reach will be most likely to be interested, e.g. a science center for a science
lecture, and most likely to participate in student activities, e.g. by the student activities office, and
generally near the venue location, as people there will know how to find it. Other desirable
locations you may have permission for flyer include the cafeterias, part of the library, and academic
department bulletin boards.

B. CHALK
Chalk, white or brightly colored, is a tool you can employ to draw attention to your event name,
speaker, location, time and date (some campuses do not allow chalk, check first). It is much easier

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for you or grounds keeper crews to clean up than flyers taped to the ground. Be sure to use chalk
in areas that will be washed by the rain so that a grounds crew does not need to hose it down. An
advantage of using chalk is that you can make your letters much larger than would fit on a single
flyer. Again, seek out high traffic areas to create your minimalist chalk messages. Chalk your
messages at least two weeks prior to the date of the event, and if it rains re-chalk once the ground
is dry.

C. POSTERS
Posters also allow you to print letters larger than would fit in a flyer but it may be hard for you to
locate an area where you can post your poster. The same general principles apply as applied to
flyers. One place where posters may be deemed appropriate is in dormitory windows, but they may
be hard to read from the street. If your club occupies a designated area of a building, set a poster
up there.

D. PRESS RELEASES
Issuing a press release is a good idea for big, significant events. Send it to various newspapers
and other media outlets, including campus media. Don’t issue press releases for minor events. In
the release, offer concise, relevant information to answer the general questions what, when,
where, why, how, and “so what?” (why should it matter to the public?) regarding the event. Include
your E-mail, phone number, group website address, and a concise description of your group. At
least two weeks before the event try to send an E-mail copy and a “physical copy” of your press
release to the appropriate editor address. Call and E-mail each media outlet close to the event
date to ask if they are covering it. These links offer templates for press releases:
<http://www.press-release-writing.com/press-release-template/> <http://office.microsoft.com/en-
us/templates/CT010143902.aspx>

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 VIII. GROWING AND SUSTAINING
YOUR GROUP
A. ONLINE PRESENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TOOLS
Critical things your club needs are a website to maintain an online presence and an announcement
list people can join from the website (either directly or via a link). A website will offer people access
to your group information any time as well as enable people to add themselves to your
announcement list. If you initially lack the know-how and resources to create a website and
announcement list, create a Yahoo! Group, which is free and user friendly (you will need to create
a Yahoo! account first to own and manage it – save all the initial set-up information including your
first secret question and answer in case your E-mail account gets hacked and your password
changed and you want your account back). In that case, try to get at least five members (and as
many as possible) when you set it up as the group number is visible to non-members and a very
low number will turn people off. Another benefit of Yahoo! Groups is that you can create a brief,
searchable URL.

On your website main page (or in your Yahoo! Group description field) create a brief description of
the who, what, why, and how (who and what your group represents, its purpose and how it aims to
accomplish it), when and where (regular meeting place and time), and “so what?” (why people
should join). Summarize most of this in a concise introductory sentence (e.g. “Humanity+ at
College Name is a club that explores the potential of emerging technologies to expand the
capabilities of human beings.”). As soon as you are able, get your website linked from the student
clubs and organizations section of your school’s website so that students can stumble across it
when looking for clubs to join. At least get your group’s contact information and description posted
there if your school’s website does not post links to student group websites.

Creating a membership discussion list is optional, but make sure that your main discussions take
place at the live discussion meetings or your formally incorporated club may devolve into a chat list
as no one has anything they want to discuss at meetings. One thing a membership list is good for
(especially the format of a Yahoo! Group members list) is serving as an aide to active member
tracking.

Include a feature that allows list members to quietly leave the list (i.e. without announcing it to
everyone) that informs the moderator when they leave (this is built into the Yahoo! Groups system).
It is a good practice to send all leaving members a brief, standard E-mail message saying “Sorry to
see you go. Please let us know if there is something our group could do to improve.” That practice
can collect valuable information on what may be making some members dissatisfied with your
group.

B. PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA

Contributions to publications and other media are an excellent way to spread awareness and
improve understanding of transhumanism. However, generally, the most effective and sustainable
way to engage in such activity is on an individual basis rather than as a club.

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Unless your club is established for two years with at least fifteen active members, don’t try to start
a publication on your campus, as that takes a lot of work on a frequent basis and a moderate
amount of money if you are producing printed copies. An optimally productive approach would be
to write something specifically for a publication already on campus (see “Columns and Letters to
the Editor”) or a non-local student publication and then also submit it to H+ Magazine, any number
of blogs, and IEET’s Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET).

If you briefly undertake an intensive media project as a group such as a video or radio program –
which would be an especially good idea if you attend an institution that emphasizes the arts or
communications – you might reduce the number of public events you handle to a small one that
term (they are your primary outreach tool and you have to sustain outreach continuously,
especially near the start of the year), but keep hosting discussion meetings and take advantage of
information tabling opportunities.

C. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR AND COLUMNS

Submitting letters to the editor is one of the most effective efforts an activist can make on behalf of
a cause, especially considering that it is a free activity that requires little time.

For advice on this subject, see the article, “Tips On Writing Letters to the Editor (and Getting Them
Published)” by Richard Lake, Senior Editor, DrugSense
(http://www.csdp.org/active/LTEHOWTO.PDF).

If you write well you might consider writing a column for a campus publication such as the main
student newspaper or a student magazine. Although you probably would have to work for the
paper or magazine to get a regular column every week, you can see if they would offer you room in
a guest column for a brief article that you most want to see published (it’s easiest to get your article
selected if it somehow addresses a topic recently discussed in the publication). If you succeed in
getting a column published, submit it to the Humanity + Magazine and IEET’s Ethical Technology
blog for republication.

For advice on column writing see the articles in under the heading “Creating, Selling and
Syndicating a Column” in the “Freelancer’s World” section of Writing-World.com
(http://www.writing-world.com/freelance).You may also want to purchase the book, You Can Write
a Column (You Can Write It!) by Monica McCabe-Cardoza.

If you want to improve your writing skills, the following are some sources you might consult. For
developing your style read William Zinsser’s, On Writing Well and Michael Harvey’s, The Nuts and
Bolts of College Writing. To sharpen your rhetorical skill read, A Rulebook for Arguments by
Anthony Weston. A wonderful guide for effective writing on science topics is, The Chicago Guide to
Communicating Science by
Scott L. Montgomery.

D. INTERVIEWS
In addition to producing your own content, you or one of your club members may be asked to give
an interview. You always can decline to be interviewed and decline to comment but you can’t take
back what you say once you express yourself. Therefore, it is important if you give an interview
that you understand the questions, articulate your thoughts, communicate clearly, and stick close

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to the primary messages and talking points you want to share when possible. You should prepare
your primary messages and talking points before the interview, and see if the interviewer will tell
you what it will cover (or some of what it will cover) so you can better tailor your preparation.

Interviewing by E-mail message or chat generally allows you to compose your thoughts more
carefully and craft your messages to state exactly what you want them to state, no more and no
less. If you are an introvert, you probably will heavily favor this approach, but you should prepare
for and get some practice delivering extemporaneous interviews as well. That is especially
important if you want to take on a professional advocacy role.

Radio interviews often are live and under absolute time constraints that favor succinct speech that
captures your initial reactions. Very long pauses are considered “dead air” and should be avoided,
but if necessary take a moment to collect your thoughts before you speak.

Television has the same time pressures as radio or worse plus you should try to limit the bias that
viewers form against you based on your appearance. Documentary film can be a bit more forgiving
in that there is some flexibility in the editing process and a longer attention span, but you have to
assume that anything being filmed may be used in the final cut.

E. INFORMATION TABLES
Information tables are so important that they already have been discussed twice in this document.
As soon as you have official recognition you should set up an information table at all your events
(arrange for a table to use or invest in and bring your own) and at student activities fairs that
educate students about the groups on campus they can join. Find out when and where the student
activities fairs are held and be sure to register your group for it far ahead of time – there usually will
be at least one at the start of the school year and possibly at the start of each academic term.

 The essential item for any information table is several information sign-up sheets. At the top
of your copies type your group name, group website address and information E-mail list
address, and perhaps your club president’s name and E-mail address. You also might type
“Add your E-mail to our announcement list.” Have a column marked “Names,” a column
marked “E-mails,” and a short column at the right for “Phone Numbers (optional).” (Why not
collect that information? It may come in handy if the person becomes an active member or
networks with you.) Create numbered lines for people to enter their information on to keep
your list neat and as legible as possible (you should have about 25 lines per sheet). Print
out or copy sheets in excess of your immediate needs. You might add the name and E-mail
of one or two officers in pen so that people don’t feel like they are the first to enter their
information. Have your own pens ready for people to use in case they don’t have one on
them. Use the resultant announcement E-mail list to periodically inform people of your
event information and all the topics of your upcoming discussion meetings. Keep it separate
from your E-mail discussion list if you set up one (though you can advertise that list and
how to sign up for it at the bottom of every announcement E-mail). Always add the
addresses to your “bcc” field to protect list-member’s privacy. You and your officers should
carry around an information sign-up sheet in your backpacks in case you chat with
someone you think might be interested in your group.

 In addition to information sign-up sheets, cover your table with materials sent to you by
Humanity+ and other transhumanist-related organizations, including pamphlets, event fliers
(including old ones), and any transhumanist-themed books you happen to possess.

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 Promotional buttons, stickers, or pens can be given away. If you don’t have such materials,
or in addition to them, stock your table with print-outs of transhumanist organization website
main pages and description pages.

 Always try to staff an information table with at least two members at a time. Staffing a table
with one person makes your group look small and “lonely” and if the person needs to go to
the bathroom or leave for any reason you risk leaving your materials unattended or forcing
the person to pack away and unpack all the materials.

 If a speaker has a book, CD, or DVD to sell, you will need a separate table and a closely
monitored cash box from your student activities for student finances office (make
arrangements for the cashbox and the people handling it far ahead of time). Try to staff this
table with two people who are comfortable making change. Be sure to thank everyone who
volunteers at your events and reward them with outings or other social events (see
“Socials” under “Miscellaneous Activities”).

 If you do a baked goods sale (assuming someone in your group can bake), take up half
your table or more with the baked goods, arrange for your cash box, and have some
identifying promotional materials and information sign-up sheets on hand.

F. FUNDRAISING
Your campus group probably will need some money to function, especially if you are bringing
events to your campus, a primary objective of creating a student club. The more money your club
has, the more capability it will have to do interesting things that have a positive impact on your
campus and your movement. While the club President and any members she can persuade to
pitch in can cover very small expenses (especially when a club is forming), it is feasible to eliminate
such needs with good fundraising practices.

First, utilize student activities funds as much as possible. Part of everyone’s tuition goes to fund the
student activities office or the student government. That money is designated for campus clubs to
use in hosting events through the school as well as to support an active, diverse extracurricular
culture that enriches student life by offering various opportunities including gaining practical
leadership experience. Your club has every right to it. What better way to spend it than advancing
the cause you created your club to serve or sharing the ideas your club was formed to explore?
Colleges often will pay honoraria for speakers and group travel costs to conferences and other
events (especially if they are held within your geographical region, however the school defines
that). Ask your student activities liaison or student government representative what expenditures
may be covered and how to go about requesting (and meriting) them. Be sure to highlight all your
club’s accomplishments to the budgeters and explain how it is enriching the campus every year.

Next, take the initiative to make your existence known to all major institutions that might provide
you with support in some form, including outreach materials to advertise the institution that you can
add to your information tables. Especially if you show the institutions how you are advancing their
interests on campus, they may assist you where student activities funds fall short of meeting your
needs. Build your relationship over time and use any help they offer to host events and keep your
club active for as long as possible. Sell people on your group based on its accomplishments or
potential (especially for serving their goals) rather than merely beg for money. Always show your
gratitude in practical ways that advance the institution’s interests on campus as well as with
personal touches like cards.

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The next step down from institutions is to appeal to individual donors for support. That is a
challenging task, especially if you are appealing to more than a few individuals with means who
live near your campus or advocate a cause you represent. It requires strong salesmanship skills,
mature group coordination, careful accounting, and thoughtful follow-up. If you undertake such a
project, be sure you can explain where the money is going (and guarantee that) and keep the
donors regularly apprised of the happenings in your club so that they donate in following years.
Every new President and VP will need to develop their own relationship with the donors, and given
that you can’t guarantee the club will be around in future years it seems well advised to earmark all
such donations for near-term expenses. If your club fold for any reason before that year’s money is
spent on worthy projects, you should try to return everyone’s money or some portion of it, which
again requires careful accounting and coordination of records. Such a show of responsibility will
help you stay in the donor’s good graces, which could be very helpful in the future depending on
what transhumanist projects you undertake. The same consideration applies to organizational
donations, of course. In case your group fails in the future, make preparations to fail gracefully with
minimal confusion about who gets what remaining resources (e.g. you should try to arrange with a
local transhumanist organization, or library, or campus bookstore to accept the collection of
transhumanist-themed books your club accumulates if and when your club dissolves).

Beyond targeted donors you can appeal to a general audience through a can clearly marked
“donations” on your information tables and through small fundraising projects like baked goods
sales or small amounts of paid work on behalf of your club.

Only if your club is large and highly active should you consider a small membership fee, otherwise
that would be a disincentive for people to participate. Even then, you should only create the
membership fee if you need money for little things that no other form of fundraising can cover (a
contingency fee of sorts). Generally, there is little reason to charge a membership fee. A
reasonable charge would be something like $5 per member, per academic term. More than that
easily becomes a disincentive you would need to work against.

Likewise, attendance fees to your events should be eliminated if possible or minimized if they
prove necessary, especially for students. At a speech, more than $5 for student admission seems
unreasonable and even that amount probably would reduce the number of speech attendees. If
you are hosting a single-day summit or a weekend conference, try to bring the cost to students
(and campus faculty and staff) down as low as possible, and offer exemptions for a limited number
of event volunteers as well as all speakers. Be an advocate for the interests of the audiences you
most want to reach through your events.

G. NETWORKING
One advantage of starting or leading a campus club is that it can raise your profile in the
movement, at least among people who are paying attention to campus groups. Those people can
help introduce you to significant figures connected to the movement who aren’t paying attention to
campus groups. Movements and communities need new leadership to remain relevant to future
generations and survive. In addition to attending conferences many speakers will “friend” you on
Facebook or other social networking sites and if they get to know you well enough they may link to
you on LinkedIn. Take the initiative in forming and building relationships that may help you pursue
a productive and rewarding career – who you know is as important as what you know in the
business world and also is important in academia. There are many opportunities for people with
virtually any college degree, including many specifically targeting young people (especially for

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those with well developed advocacy skills, and a science, technology, engineering, or math
[“STEM”] background often puts you further ahead if it isn’t a prerequisite for a role).

In addition to business cards, an updated resume and cover letter, and a LinkedIn profile, you can
set yourself apart with a career field targeted “handbill.” A handbill is a very concise, single-sheet
document that summarizes essential information about you that people can scan quicker than a
resume. On the far left hand side list the following fields and then fill them in: Name, E-mail,
Home/Cell Phone, Salary or wages (e.g. enter “Negotiable”), Location (you might add “I am willing
to relocate”), Recent Positions (include relevant non-profit/volunteer roles), Accomplishments,
Education / Skills. The last three sections will take up the most space on your handbill.

A technique for collecting advice on gaining a position and fulfilling a role similar to the one you are
seeking is to ask one or more person in such a position if they would be willing to chat with you for
ten or fifteen minutes at her convenience about what they do – a brief advising session. Come up
with a set of good questions before you ask so that you can do the advising session right away if
the individual prefers. Prepare as well as you would for an interview. If you impress your adviser as
a capable prospect, she may feel an investment in your success, and might later be willing to write
you a recommendation based on your previous accomplishments and initial impressions of your
potential. At the end of the advising session, thank your adviser for her time and say, “If there ever
is anything I can do for you, let me know” (mean it and back your words with deeds, as long as
you’re not asked to do anything unethical, illegal, or beyond your capabilities).

Some people excel at soft people skills – remembering names and personal information,
expressing themselves diplomatically, actively listening to others to gain deep and accurate
understanding, persuading others to see situations from a different perspective... Those qualities
generally can be reduced to making everyone feel important and valued. Soft people skills are
especially important in people-oriented careers (e.g. many types of entrepreneur, politics, media,
public relations) and in management, especially at or near the top of hierarchies.

H. MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES
(1) Activism and Demonstrations. Be very careful what causes you associate your
group with as supporting an unpopular cause could harm the reputation of your club on campus,
dramatically impairing your club’s ability to influence public opinion in a favorable way. Moreover, if
the cause you advocate is considered “untranshumanist” (e.g. doctrines of racial superiority or
inferiority, coercive eugenics, totalitarianism) by Humanity+ or other organizations, that would be
grounds for disaffiliation and repudiation. As a precautionary measure, H+SN may eventually
develop something like a minimum statement all affiliated clubs need to abide by, including
categories of agendas that are not tolerated among affiliated clubs.

Beyond the agendas you take up, bear in mind that unwise tactics can undermine a broader
strategy. Learn from the strategies (e.g. campaign themes) of activist clubs on campus who handle
activism with success and pull off tactical demonstrations that support their strategies, but focus on
the small minority ones centered on a worldview or ideology rather than something inborn like
gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Often the success of an activist group relates more to the
mainstream (or mainstream subculture) nature of its causes – e.g. renewable energy, human
rights, polices promoting peace – than to any particular strategic framing of an issue or tactics to
change a component of your institution.

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With that in mind, when deciding on an activist agenda to pursue, consider foremost in any activist
undertaking what are core principles of your movement and “mainstream causes” within your
movement. Consider next whether such a cause is within the mainstream sociopolitical or
intellectual discourse – something people outside of your movement can recognize and which
many have formed opinions on, e.g. stem cell research. If the cause is mainstream, and you have
a specific target policy or institution in mind that you would like to see changed (or see such a
target being identified by other campus groups), seek a coalition with the groups that share your
perspective and values. Your club will probably be too small to effect significant changes on
campus on its own short of hiring a civil liberties lawyer. If your cause is not well known in the
broader campus community, for the time being you might want to concentrate on educating the
public about it (up to and including a hosting a summit or conference on the topic) rather than
agitating for changes related to the cause.

Finally, a phrase of caution borrowed from the Overcoming Bias blog: “politics is a mind-killer.”
People make predictable errors in judgment and behave irrationally when thinking about or
engaging in politics or related activity, such as politically oriented activism. Guard against such
biases in your own mind and behavior by learning about them and other features of cognitive
psychology. Take the high road when trying to persuade people of the merits of your positions and
focus primarily on your intellectual arguments, as those will have the most lasting impact and are
most valuable to humanity. Just bear in mind that people will judge you and your agenda (often
unconsciously) based on non-intellectual metrics, so try to avoid giving offense in that realm.

(2) Socials. If your club is kept highly productive, churning out excellent public events
and hosting interesting discussion meetings, your membership – especially your officers – may be
at risk of “burn-out” or fatigue and loss of motivation to work. Occasional social activities to relax
and have fun can help lighten the perceived burden of the extracurricular workload and inspire a
renewed commitment to the club’s success.

Socials are an activity in which, in moderation, you can tap into extra money from non-earmarked
student activities funds and non-earmarked donations as well as money raised through
independent fundraising activities such as bake sales or work done on behalf of the club (if you
don’t have any extra money, pay out of pocket). The money is spent to maintain a healthy balance
of work and play in the club officer’s lives while building group cohesion as well as to persuade
new members to become more actively involved.

Some ideas for socials include:

 “nights out” on your campus town doing anything of interest to the group
 daytrips to events or locations in your campus town or natural areas
 interclub activities, especially with groups in a coalition with yours
 gatherings with the local transhumanist group in the city beyond your campus
 activities with one or more academic department associated with your group

If there will be time after an event before people need to go to sleep, some club members or
advisors are free and can pay for themselves, and you have sufficient money to cover the
speaker’s meal, you should consider inviting the speaker out to eat at a good local restaurant
ahead of time (make reservations). That would be a great opportunity to get to know your speaker
better and add her to your network of personal acquaintances. Who knows, such a connection
could result in a career opportunity down the road.

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 (3) Road Trips. A road trip is a bit like an extended version of a social, done on a
weekend or a break. The same funding considerations apply. You can get the most out of a road
trip when you are traveling to a destination for a specific purpose, especially if the purpose is
attending a transhumanist-themed event. Sometimes student activities offices will finance travel to
events while they will not fund socials. Event organizers sometimes will make student admission
available for free or at reduced rates.

Relevant considerations for a road trip (or travel by bus, train, plane, or boat) include your budget
finances relative to the costs of available means of transportation – considering all costs
associated with each including hotel expenses, the distance to transverse, the kind of
transportation you will need at your destination (some events are spread over locations not within
walking distance in areas that lack public transport), your preferred travel route, and your
ecological footprint (e.g. using public transportation or carpooling to minimize it). Make all travel
arrangements such as hotel reservations far in advance of your trip and seek discounts wherever
they are practical.

(4) Service. While your events and advocacy could be considered a service to your
fellow students and campus community, your club may want to engage in extra work that serves
the public interest. Such work can come in many varieties. The most important feature of service is
that it augments and synergizes with other efforts of your club, chiefly by offering accomplishments
you can highlight in your advocacy.

A traditional version would be to engage in some labor or do some fundraising for what is widely
recognized as a good cause that in turn raises the profile of your group. That kind of effort has the
most pay-off for your group if it is associated with some mainstream cause your group advocates,
such as stem cell research.

A non-traditional version of service that probably won’t help you much with mainstream appeal but
will endear you to one or more organization in your movement is to take on some activity as a club
that assists the organization(s) beyond hosting events. It would be easiest to engage in such
efforts as individual contributors, but if your club is sufficiently well organized and “healthy” enough,
you might be able to produce something useful as a group. Ideas for such efforts include: (a)
helping to reduce existential risks and global catastrophic risks through academic activities
including research, (b) contributing to a blog, magazine, journal – especially in ways that can be
republished on your campus, (c) temporarily helping with coordinative activities of think-tanks or
other organizations (e.g. establishing an internship program or creating a student outreach web
page with relevant resources), (d) working with residents in a nearby city to establish a self-
sustaining DIY biotech lab, (e) temporarily helping to coordinate or conduct research or
development relevant to indefinite life extension, (f) working with transhumanist-themed companies
on projects of interest.

(5) Obtaining Support from the Broader Movement. This topic has been addressed
elsewhere in this document, but the best way to obtain assistance from major organizations in your

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movement is to provide assistance to them in some useful way. Ask their representatives what you
might be able to do to help them, including but not limited to hosting events. Likewise, think about
how organizations can usefully assist your group, especially supplying promotional materials and
possibly earmarked donations.

Some organizations besides Humanity+ that you might contact include listed in alphabetical order:

 Betterhumans
 DIYbio
 Foresight Institute (Nanotechnology)
 Future of Humanity Institute
 H+ Lab
 Humanity + Magazine
 Immortality Institute
 Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
 Less Wrong (a community devoted to the art of human rationality)
 Methuselah Foundation
 SENS Foundation (Strategies for Engineering Negligible Senescence)
 Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
 Singularity University
 Transhumanist Arts — Design Science Culture

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 IX. ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES
(FURTHER READING)
A. INTERNSHIPS
Internships are becoming increasingly important, especially for anyone who plans to work outside
of academia. Regardless of one’s ultimate careers, they provide valuable experience in different
lines of work and their inclusion to one’s resume can open doors.

Keeping your GPA up is also important, but internship experience can be decisive in admittance to
grad programs and your general career options. If you want to keep graduate school open as an
option, you should maintain a 3.5 GPA or better. Otherwise, 3.0 and above is a good GPA (U.S.
standards – others may be different), assuming you are doing internships. We encourage students
to strive for academic achievement and practical experience in career/volunteer paths.

B. ANNUAL JBS HALDANE AWARD FOR BEST

UNDERGRADUATE TRANSHUMANIST PAPER
The Haldane award is given to the student paper that best advances transhumanist thought,
analysis or applications. Ask what the current E-mail address is to submit complete papers and the
deadline of consideration for the Haldane award this year.

Eligibility criteria:

1. authors must be students enrolled at a high school, college or university, who have not
received their baccalaureate degree by January 1, of the current year
2. authors must be members in good standing of Humanity+

The award ceremony is held during the annual Humanity+ conference (date and venue to be
announced). Attendance at the conference is not a criteria for eligibility for the award, but we
encourage those who can attend to submit their papers for consideration as conference
presentations. The awardee will receive $250, and the paper will be considered for publication in
the Journal of Evolution and Technology.

For more information:

http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/more/bioethicsgradstudiesfortranshumanists

C. PLACES FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS TO PURSUE

GRADUATE STUDIES IN BIOETHICS
Occasionally transhumanist students ask us what professors, departments or programs are
interested in or conducive to research on transhumanism.

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Since transhumanism is quite interdisciplinary, the answer is that many people in academe are
interested in or sympathetic to one aspect or another of the transhumanist agenda, if not to
“transhumanism.”

For instance, departments of computer science are very tolerant of investigations of artificial
intelligence and neuroprosthetics, while many departments of biological sciences would be
congenial for research on aging mechanisms or cognitive function. Although scientists are often
anxious not to be perceived as “kooky” or as advocating pseudoscience, there is probably much
less resistance or hostility to someone having transhumanist views in the natural sciences than in
the social sciences and humanities.

Even the transhumanist pursuing a graduate degree in engineering or the information or biological
sciences, however, will eventually want to engage with their school’s bioethicists, philosophers and
health policy scholars. There, the reception to “transhumanism,” or even discussion of “human
enhancement,” can often be dismissive.

Here are some of our initial thoughts about where to find scholars and programs in bioethics and
philosophy that are supportive of transhumanist enquiries, even if they aren’t explicitly
transhumanist. Of course, transhumanists can also learn a lot in programs that are hostile to
transhumanism, so long as the scholars are talking about the issues and willing to support student
work in the topic. There is no school or department I know of in which transhumanists are the
majority. You might as well find the rare scholar(s) with some sympathies for transhumanism to
work with since you will be able to find bioconservative critics without much effort.

IN THE UNITED STATES

Center for Bioethics & Dept of Medical Ethics

University of Pennsylvania
http://www.bioethics.upenn.edu
Arthur Caplan is probably the leading U.S. bioethicist, and is relatively open to human
enhancement for a bioethicist. His large, prominent program at the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia is central to American bioethics.

Interdisciplinary Bioethics Project

Yale University
http://www.yale.edu/bioethics
Yale University has a very active set of bioethics working groups, many of which are of interest to
transhumanists, all of which are tolerant of transhumanists, and one of which is the Ethics and
Technology group, led by transhumanist Bonnie Kaplan and with James Hughes, the WTA
Director, as a participant.

Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society

University of California Los Angeles
http://research.arc2.ucla.edu/pmts
The transhumanist Gregory Stock, author of Redesigning Humans, runs this program at UCLA.
Write to Dr. Stock to find out what kind of research possibilities you might have under its auspices.

Department of Bioethics
Case Western Reserve University

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http://www.cwru.edu/med/bioethics/faculty.htm
This is a large collection of influential bioethicists, among them Maxwell Mehlman, author of a book
on human enhancement; Eric T. Juengst, who has written extensively and relatively
sympathetically about human enhancement; Stuart Youngner, one of the leading scholars of brain
death and personhood; and Dena Davis, a leading scholar of genetic and reproductive technology.

Department of Philosophy
University of Alabama
http://www.uab.edu/philosophy/faculty/pence
Greg Pence is one of the leading transhumanist-inclined bioethicists. He has written in defense of
reproductive cloning and human enhancement.

Department of Philosophy
Brown University
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/brock.html
Dan Brock, at Brown, is a very prestigious bioethicist, and co-author of the very important
transhumanist-leaning text From Chance to Choice.

Department of Population and Int. Health

Harvard School of Public Health
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/facres/pihindx.html
Daniel Wikler and Norman Daniels are very prestigious bioethicists at Harvard, and co-authors of
the very important transhumanist-leaning text From Chance to Choice.

Center for Human Values

Princeton University
http://www.princeton.edu/~uchv
Peter Singer
http://www.princeton.edu/~psinger
Peter Singer is one of the most influential philosophers among transhumanists, and he is a
defender of access to human enhancement (among many other controversial views.) He also
teaches half-time in Australia. At Princeton he is part of their Center for Human Values.

UNITED KINGDOM

Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics

Oxford University
http://www.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk
Nick Bostrom, Anders Sandberg and transhumanist-sympathizing bioethicist Julian Savulescu are
in the Uehiro Ethics center at Oxford University. This is the place for transhumanist philosophy, if
you can get there.

Centre for Social Ethics and Policy

University of Manchester
http://www.law.manchester.ac.uk/research/csep.htm
John Harris, a transhumanist-inclined bioethicist who wrote the pioneering pro-enhancement
Superman and Wonderwoman and the more recent defense of reproductive cloning On Cloning,
runs this Centre.

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CANADA

Centre for Bioethics

University of Toronto
http://www.utoronto.ca/jcb
This center has been pursuing great and exciting stuff, from a generally pro-tech point of view,
under director Peter Singer (who is not the Australian/Princeton Peter Singer). They have some
transhumanists among their students and associates.

Department of Philosophy
Dalhousie University
http://philosophy.dal.ca
Jason Scott Robert and Francoise Baylis are transhumanist-inclined bioethicists who teach in the
philosophy program at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
http://bioethics.medicine.dal.ca

AUSTRALIA

Centre for Bioethics

Monash University
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/bioethics
Russell Blackford
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/phil/postgraduate/blackford
Russell Blackford is a transhumanist-sympathizing philosopher, and a Fellow of the IEET, who
lectures in Monash’s bioethics program while he is finishing a doctorate on human enhancement.

D. H+SN RECOGNITION OF HUMANITY + POLICY

In terms of policy, H+SN falls under the positions articulated by Humanity +. H+SN does not have
any minimum statement or codified values above and beyond those articulated by Humanity + in
the Transhumanist Declaration.

http://humanityplus.org/learn/philosophy

http://humanityplus.org/learn/about-us/statements

For greater elaboration on transhumanist issues and ideas, we suggest people refer to the F.A.Q.
section of the Humanity + website: http://humanityplus.org/learn/philosophy/faq

- 37 -
E. TRANSHUMANIST DECLARATION
1. Humanity stands to be profoundly affected by science and technology in the future. We
envision the possibility of broadening human potential by overcoming aging, cognitive
shortcomings, involuntary suffering, and our confinement to planet Earth.

2. We believe that humanity’s potential is still mostly unrealized. There are possible scenarios
that lead to wonderful and exceedingly worthwhile enhanced human conditions.

3. We recognize that humanity faces serious risks, especially from the misuse of new
technologies. There are possible realistic scenarios that lead to the loss of most, or even
all, of what we hold valuable. Some of these scenarios are drastic, others are subtle.
Although all progress is change, not all change is progress.

4. Research effort needs to be invested into understanding these prospects. We need to

carefully deliberate how best to reduce risks and expedite beneficial applications. We also
need forums where people can constructively discuss what should be done, and a social
order where responsible decisions can be implemented.

5. Reduction of existential risks, and development of means for the preservation of life and
health, the alleviations of grave suffering, and the improvement of human foresight and
wisdom should be pursued as urgent priorities, and heavily funded.

6. Policy making ought to be guided by responsible and inclusive moral vision, taking seriously
both opportunities and risks, respecting autonomy and individual rights, and showing
solidarity with and concern for the interests and dignity of all people around the globe. We
must also consider our moral responsibilities towards generations that will exist in the
future.

7. We advocate the well-being of all sentience, including humans, non-human animals, and
any future artificial intellects, modified life forms, or other intelligences to which
technological and scientific advances may give rise.

8. We favor allowing individual’s wide personal choice over how they enable their lives. This
includes use of techniques that may be developed to assist memory, concentration, and
mental energy; life extension therapies; reproductive choice technologies; cryonics
procedures; and many other possible human modification and enhancement technologies.

The Transhumanist Declaration was originally crafted in 1998 by an international group of authors
in alphabetical order by first name:

Alexander Chislenko, Anders Sandberg, Arjen Kamphuis, Bernie Staring,

Bill Fantegrossi, Darren Reynolds, David Pearce, Dean Otter, Doug Bailey,
Eugene Leitl, Gustavo Alves, Holger Wagner, Kathryn Aegis, Keith Elis,
Lee Daniel Crocker, Max More, Mikhail Sverdlov, Natasha Vita-More,
Nick Bostrom, Ralf Fletcher, Shane Spaulding Thom Quinn, Tom Morrow

This Transhumanist Declaration has been modified over the years by several authors and
organizations. The Transhumanist Declaration was adopted by Humanity+.

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F. THE MISSION AND VISION OF H+SN
The Mission of the H+SN is to cultivate the abilities of transhumanist student advocates, assist
them in their efforts, and work to grow the broad-based community that is supportive of
transhumanist positions and perspectives, primarily through the work of campus groups.

The Vision of the H+SN is to facilitate the education of academic communities about opportunities
and perils related to emerging technologies and to help make unprecedented opportunities
available for the benefit of all.

G. COORDINATION OF H+SN
At present, H+SN operates with minimal transnational coordination and representation. This may
change in the future, if and when capable individuals contact Humanity+ inquiring how they might
assist in coordinating and representing the program.

If you are interested in such a role, first gain experience organizing campus events and an officially
recognized group on your campus. While gaining coordinative abilities assisting others in bringing
events to their campus and running discussion meetings on behalf of the movement (and maybe
also IT technical skills), hone your advocacy skills in speaking, interviewing, and writing. Serving as
a H+SN coordination and advocacy leader could position you well for a related career.

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STUDENT ADVOCATE GUIDE

Back Cover

OF THE
HUMANITY+ STUDENT NETWORK

An outreach program of
Humanity+ International Non-profit Educational Organization

Version 2.0
Dated March 2011

- 40 -
 Attachment A
A Student Club Constitution (Template of Last Resort)

The following group was established at N.U. between 2003 and 2005. Ask for an electronic
template of a constitution format that is approved at your college.

New Humanists
Northwestern University

PREAMBLE
We, the members of the New Humanists of Northwestern, hereby establish this constitution to
outline the goals, regulations, details, and by-laws of the New Humanists student organization.
New Humanists shall serve as cultural student organization for Humanists and Transhumanists at
Northwestern University. Be it hereby known that the New Humanists intend to abide by the
established policies of Northwestern University and promote a civil atmosphere.

ARTICLE 1: NAME
The full title of this group is “New Humanists” (abbreviated as “NH”).

We call ourselves “New” because we are dedicated to an open, rational assessment of new ideas
and perspectives, including topics involving the ethical use of emerging technologies for the
betterment of life.

We call ourselves “Humanists” because we are part of the historical tradition of Humanism, which
seeks to apply science, reason and free inquiry in all areas of human endeavor and promote
compassionate treatment toward others.
We identify with the Transhumanist movement in advocating the application of science and
technology to improve human intellectual, emotional, and physical capacities and to overcome
limitations of the human condition including disability, disease, aging, and involuntary death.

ARTICLE 2: MEMBERSHIP
-Section 1
NH does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender
identity, disability, national origin or status as a veteran.

Attachment Page 1
-Section 2
Full membership in NH shall be open to all undergraduate NU students, and all others shall be
associate members. Full members must have attended at least two of the last four meetings prior
to a vote. Only full members are eligible to vote.

-Section 3
Anyone may attend discussions, meetings, activities, events, and members may withdraw their
memberships on a voluntary basis. No dues are required at this time.

ARTICLE 3: OFFICERS and ADVISORS

Officers shall be enrolled full-time as undergraduate students of Northwestern University.

1.) Presidential duties (required):

a. Moderating, scheduling, and ensuring the quality of meetings;
b. Acting as the primary spokesperson;
c. Setting up events w/ VP and Treasurer;
d. Working with the Center for Student Involvement, the ASG, and other supportive
groups and individuals (community outreach);
e. Acting as Secretary in the officer’s absence
f. Acting as Social Chair in the officer’s absence.
g. Informing NH members about area events.

2.) Vice Presidential duties:

a. General planning and coordination for NH events & activities;
b. Perform the duties of the president when necessary or requested;
c. Acting as Treasurer in the officer’s absence; and,
d. Acting as Secretary in the officer’s absence.

3.) Secretary duties:

a. Preparing Meetings and Taking Minutes;
a. Handling membership
b. Building and maintaining Internet sites and message boards;
c. Counting secret ballots with a randomly chosen member.

4.) Treasurer duties (required):

d. Financial affairs of NH, namely account management and fundraising.

5.) Social Chair duties:

a. Promotion (flyers) direction, student outreach.

On any non-amendment-related club decision necessitating a vote, all full members present
at a meeting shall decide by majority vote.

The ADVISORS shall:

1) Be an NU faculty or staff member – until such time as B-status is attained;

2) Sign off on documents as the advisor of NH;
3) Be welcome at meetings, discussions and events of NH;
4) Advise the officers on fulfilling objectives when asked for suggestions.

Attachment Page 2
ELECTIONS

Officers are elected by secret ballot of all official NU student members of NH who are in good
judicial standing and present at the election meeting. Elections are held in November, and terms of
office are for one year starting the day after the elections. There is no re-election limit. Any full
member of the NH is eligible to serve.

 The election begins with a vote for the President and continues through the other positions in
the order in which they are listed above.
 Defeated candidates may continue to run for the subsequent positions.

ARTICLE 4: REMOVAL OF OFFICERS

Officers may be removed if the members feel that the officer is not performing her/his duties at a
level that best upholds the constitution of NH. Complaints must be submitted to the advisors in
writing. Petitioning members must then consult with their advisors and their student activities
liaison to ensure a fair removal process is enacted.

 After hearing a plea of guilt or innocence to the charges by the officer in question, and an
explanation for actions taken, a 2/3rds majority vote of full members of NH present at a meeting
is required to remove an officer.
 If a position is left vacant for any reason, the present NH members should elect a new officer at
the next meeting.
 If necessary, the President may appoint a member of the organization to fill the office until an
election can take place

ARTICLE 5: DISCUSSION and MEETING PROCEDURE

 The President reserves the right to reschedule the time and day of meetings to meet the needs
of most active members.
 A topic of general interest that relates to NH should be discussed at each meeting, which
should nearly weekly during the academic year when classes are in session.
 Everyone’s input and ideas are welcome.
 One person has the floor at a time. Refrain from personal attacks.

The President shall chair brief business meetings following discussions. Roberts Rules of
Order, employed through the informal small board rules unless greater formality is deemed
necessary, shall govern and arbitrate disputes in procedure. Quorum shall be called; minutes of
the last meeting read and amended; officer reports presented; old business covered; new business
addressed; and the meeting shall be called to a close. Quorum shall consist of at least two officers,
and one must either be the President or VP. Full members are included in votes regarding
elections, removal of officers (*see Article 4), and any decisions for which the President or VP
acting in such capacity deems the guidance of full members proper (the majority prevails).

ARTICLE 6: AMENDMENTS

Any official member of the organization may propose amendments to the NH constitution.
Amendments will be read aloud by an officer, and debates may take place in accordance with
Roberts Rules of Order. ANYONE may participate in the debate, but only NU students who are NH

Attachment Page 3
members before the gathering may vote. Amendments are passed by a 2/3rds majority vote of the
NU student members of the NH present at the meeting (including officers). Voting is by secret
ballot.

 All amendments to the constitution must be approved by the ASG Executive Vice President
before they are considered valid.

ARTICLE 7: ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY

First site and message board: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewHumanistsNU

 Officers may affiliate the club with organizations of their choosing, if a motion is passed by a
2/3rds officer vote and the ASG Exec. V.P. (see Article 6: Amendments).

Affiliations:

1.) Transhumanist Student Network (TSN)

and the World Transhumanist Association (WTA) [now Humanity+]
2.) Chicago Transhumanist Chapter (CTC)
3.) CFI-OnCampus of the Center for Inquiry (CFI)
4.) Secular Student Alliance
5.) International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization (IHEYO)
6.) Center for Inquiry-Chicago
7.) Ethical Humanist Society of Greater Chicagoland
8.) Humanists of West Suburban Chicagoland

Attachment Page 4