The History of the Alliance

In 1999 the nontheistic freethought scene in Houston consisted of the Humanists of Houston (HOH), the Humanist Association of Montgomery County (HAMC - now HAMCIAC), and the Houstonians for Secular Humanism (HSH). With these three organizations operating in such close proximity, and having cross attendance, it became important to ensure that a rivalry wouldn't develop and that cooperation persisted for the benefit of all members.

Meeting at the 59 Diner on I-10 in Houston, then HOH President Jimmy Dunne, HAMC President Ross Henry, and HSH Director Daniel Strain decided to form the "Houston Humanist Alliance". The original version of the 'thinking man' logo was approved, and more importantly, four foundations of the Alliance were agreed upon...

1) Coordinate Schedules: There would be an agreement of all member-organizations to coordinate their scheduled events within the events of the other groups to avoid conflicts, and share announcements of each group's events to the members of our own groups.

2) Occasional Joint-Events: There would be an effort to conduct joint-events from time to time.

3) Quarterly Meetings: At least one representative from each group would meet quarterly to hold an Alliance meeting for coordination and communication purposes.

4) Unified Newsletter: Each member-group would cease production of their own newsletters, and instead a single Alliance newsletter would be published, which would feature content from each of the member-organizations.

It was also agreed that there would be no officers or 'leadership' of the Alliance itself. Each group would maintain its own independence, leadership, purposes, missions, activities, and agendas. Decisions to be made regarding the Alliance would be made by a simple majority vote (not equal to, but greater than 1/2) from among one representative from each member-group.

At that point, HSH was producing its own newsletter edited by Mike Wen, and HOH was producing its newsletter edited by Frank Prahl. Frank had been expressing a desire to stop editing the HOH newsletter and HOH was in search of a solution, so this worked out well for them.

The Alliance Newsletter, as it has appeared at various times.
January 2000	January 2001	December 2006

The new Houston Humanist Alliance newsletter was created and its first issue published on July of 1999, edited by Mike Wen. In 2000 editorship was handed over to Julie Strain (then Julie Ahrens) for issues 7-18. Sasha Albertini was editor of the Alliance newsletter until issue #21 in 2001. Then Ron Titus edited the newsletter for issues 22-54 (2001-2004) until it was taken over smoothly at issue #55 by Jim Knierien in May of 2004 to the present. Throughout each editor's service, the original founding principles of the Alliance have been presented on the back page of each issue (see homepage), titled as "Houston Humanist Alliance" until the changing of the Alliance's name (see below) - at which point the newsletter title was changed accordingly for the first time on issue #75.

Over the years, other local groups have come and gone, having been members of the Alliance. The University of Houston group called "Freethinker's Union" (FU) was the first to be added to the Alliance after its founding, until that group folded. At another point, the Houston Atheist Society (HAS) was also a member until that group disbanded. In 2000, original member-group HSH disbanded and merged in with HOH. 

Eventually the Houston Church of Freethought (HCOF), much to its credit, decided to join the Alliance, despite its name having a Humanist form (whereas HCOF is aimed at freethinkers in general). In January of 2006, the name of the Alliance was changed to the "Houston Freethought Alliance" in order to better indicate the Alliance's inclusiveness of freethought, atheist, and other groups. Soon after, HCOF Director Arthur Fay created an Alliance Yahoo Email List for the leadership of each member-group, which greatly increased their ability to communicate and interact quickly and efficiently. 

In 2007, the Atheist Meetup Group joined the Alliance and later that year another group, the Secular Students of Rice University (SSR) was added. Today the Alliance consists of five organizations: HOH, HAMCIAC, HCOF, the Atheist Meetup, and SSR.

Over the eight years (and going) of its existence, the Alliance has been instrumental in helping the members of each group stay informed of all the freethought activities in the Houston area. It has also been a productive force in arranging several joint-activities between the groups such as celebrations, Darwin Days, and more. Some activities, once the sole function of a single group, have been broadened into 'Alliance events' such as the annual Winter Solstice celebration (which began as an HOH event).

Click HERE to return to the Alliance Home Page.