Ambassador Corps
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13 July 2010
AAI AMBASSADOR CORPS
The AAI Ambassador Corps are the affiliate field representatives for the AAI. AAI Ambassadors regularly visit AAI's affiliates to facilitate communication and to provide assistance and guidance in fulfilling affiliate needs and requests.
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Ambassador Reports from Our Affiliates (Link)
From AAI Ambassador Director Noelle George
{mosimage} I am very excited to be a part of the Atheist Alliance International community, both as the Texas Ambassador and as the Ambassadorial Director and am looking forward to growing the worldwide Atheist movement with AAI's other Ambassadors and our alliance member organizations.
I have been an Atheist for over 10 years and enjoy being actively involved in the secular community (or as I like to call it, the community of people free of supernatural beliefs). I grew up without religion but then attended a Methodist Church through middle and high school. I was baptized and confirmed and appreciated the community and friendships that were easily accessible through religion. However, as I thought about and explored my beliefs more, I realized that I did not believe in the Christian god - I just enjoyed being a part of a close-knit community.
I realized that I wanted to be more involved in the atheist community after reading Richard Dawkins' book 'The God Delusion'. I founded and currently serve as President of the SECULAR Center, a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to bringing secular volunteer programs to the wider community in Houston, TX.
The job of the AAI Ambassadors is to assist in creating and growing the atheist / secular community through its affiliates, perhaps one of the most important missions that AAI has. My job as AAI Ambassador Director is to ensure that AAI's Affiliates are growing and thriving and to ensure that they get the assistance they need to make that happen.
I love to hear from our Affiliates as well as AAI Individual Members interested in joining our Ambassador program. We provide training and materials to make the Ambassador's job as fulfilling as possible. Please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Ambassador Corps Mission Statement
To support and fulfill AAI's mission in providing programs, training and support to our affiliates to create a secular society based on democracy, reason and science.
- To personally visit and meet with the leadership of all of AAI's full affiliates in the US and Canada at least once.
- To assess the strengths and limitations of each AAI affiliate.
- To encourage and advise on the development of a mission statement and one-year goals for each AAI affiliate.
- To identify the goals and targets that each AAI affiliate expects AAI to help them achieve over the next 12 months.
| {mosimage} | Noelle George
Noelle is based in Houston, Texas and serves the southwest US, including New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, for AAI. She also serves as the Corps Director. |
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David Driscoll David is based in Atlanta, Georgia and serves the US South, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississipii, Florida and Tennessee. He splits his responsibilities with Richard Haynes. |
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Pat O'Brien Pat is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and serves the western Canada region, including British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba. |
| {mosimage} | Patty Guzikowski
Patty is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and serves the Great Lakes area, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. She also serves as AAI's vice-president. |
| {mosimage} | Sean Curley
Sean is based in Denver, Colorado and serves the central US midwest, including Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. |
| {mosimage} | Todd Barton
Todd is based in Indianapolis, Indiana and serves the north central and north eastern US. |
Become an AAI Ambassador!
The AAI Ambassador Corps is not just one of the most important services that AAI provides to its affiliates; it's also one of the most challenging and fulfilling personal growth experiences that one can undertake.
AAI Ambassadors are given immense responsibility. Their charges include regularly meeting and talking with AAI affiliate leaders and offering assessments and creative solutions on how affiliates can get past problems of membership building and retention, funding, program and leadership development. In short, AAI Ambassadors are expected to become experts in organizational planning and development.
As part of that effort, Ambassadors are also called upon to be motivational speakers and experts on the freethought community for our affilate groups and the media. They are called upon to write articles, to design presentations, and to manage organizational conflict in ways and situations that few individuals will normally encounter.
The Ambassador Corps is a community unto itself. Besides AAI providing a training curricula and support network for the Corps, corpsmemebers themselves use each other as mentors and share and brainstorm problems, issues, etc. that they need to solve among our affiliates. They also share success stories that other Ambassadors can pass on to their affiliates and to include in AAI's promotional material.
While AAI covers the travel and material expenses of being an AAI Ambassador, all of AAI's Ambassadors are volunteers that have signed up for a one-year commitment. Most of our volunteers work with the AAI affiliates in their local area a few hours per month; but depending on the coverage and the Ambassador's skillbase, some are asked to spend more time and travel further to help affiliates solve pressing problems.
The AAI Ambassador Corps also serves as a Speaker's Bureau. We provide training and assistance in public speaking and encourage our Ambassadors to develop presentations that they can provide for our affiliates. Those presentations are listed on-line at the AAI Ambassador webpage so AAI affiliates have a resource for their own program development.
To apply, or to find out more, contact Corps Director Noelle George at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
