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 Post subject: Time for a Guilt Trip?
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 22:30 
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Hi,

Many of you will know that I look after memberships for SafeSpeed. I thought it was time to bit of recruiting...

SafeSpeed, including this site, exists only due to donations and membership subscriptions, the only income is from the members and donations. I can tell you it's a LONG way from an affluent organisation.

There are quite a lot of running expenses, the website, forum, email systems, press releases etc, yes even Pauls old camper van.

Most of the site is free and open to all - and there's no intention of changing that, but to the many people that use the forum regularly - isn't it time to join up - or donate? Like everything else in this world, these facilities cost money.

Membership is from as little as £4 a month - less than a gallon of petrol and every penny goes to the campaign.

Isn't it time to join? Or donate?

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/join.html

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:13 
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Graeme wrote:
Isn't it time to join? Or donate?
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/join.html


Obviously not - 78 views & not one penny :?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:40 
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Already done, would have gone straight to gold but thought that would be a bit pretentious.

Come on the rest of you why not support what you believe in. It is only the price of a tank of petrol! :idea:

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 13:08 
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Frankly I don't know why I bother. Clearly the British public does not deserve all this effort.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 14:17 
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SafeSpeed wrote:
Frankly I don't know why I bother. Clearly the British public does not deserve all this effort.


This unfortunately is what it will come to.

Many people want you to continue to fight on their behalf, they want you to provide these forums both to exchange ideas and to provide a place to "vent". But they're also happy to let others pay the cost, and everything in life has a cost.

Then one day when they log on and find the site isn't here, they'll wonder why.

I'd like people to sit back and decide if they want you to continue fighting OUR battles for us - if so, then put something back please!

Just contribute the cost of ONE speeding ticket for example...

I very much believe contributions should be voluntary, but if it's a choice of shutting down the campaign or becoming more membership driven then there are some hard choices to be made.

Perhaps it's time to consider restricting more of the site to members only?

Maybe we need to put an upper limit on posting for non-members?

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 14:37 
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Graeme wrote:
Graeme wrote:
Isn't it time to join? Or donate?
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/join.html


Obviously not - 78 views & not one penny :?


How many of those views were from existing members (like myself) who saw the thread title and wondered what it was referring to... I thought it was going to be something about guilt-tripping the authorities in some way, not something about getting more members. Also, perhaps this wasn't the best place to put such a sticky? I've just done a quick scan of the first 10 threads in this forum, and the majority of the people responding in those threads are already members.

Perhaps there ought to be a new forum specifically for this kind of thread/announcement placed right at the top of the main forum list, to try and atttract the attention of "drive-by" forum viewers who might not regard General Chat as somewhere worth visiting? Or at least, put threads like this in those forums in which non-members seem to be more active (e.g. Speed, Safety, Driving and The Law).

On that point, is there any relatively easy way given the available site logs to profile forum activity by member/non-member?

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 14:55 
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Twister wrote:
Graeme wrote:
Graeme wrote:
Isn't it time to join? Or donate?
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/join.html


Obviously not - 78 views & not one penny :?


How many of those views were from existing members (like myself) who saw the thread title and wondered what it was referring to... I thought it was going to be something about guilt-tripping the authorities in some way, not something about getting more members. Also, perhaps this wasn't the best place to put such a sticky? I've just done a quick scan of the first 10 threads in this forum, and the majority of the people responding in those threads are already members.

Perhaps there ought to be a new forum specifically for this kind of thread/announcement placed right at the top of the main forum list, to try and atttract the attention of "drive-by" forum viewers who might not regard General Chat as somewhere worth visiting? Or at least, put threads like this in those forums in which non-members seem to be more active (e.g. Speed, Safety, Driving and The Law).


Good thought - I'll try moving the thread

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On that point, is there any relatively easy way given the available site logs to profile forum activity by member/non-member?


Yes this is relatively easy, I guess the next move is personal "invites" to high posters.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 13:14 
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I donated £40 a while back so don't feel too bad. I do genuinely support the Safespeed cause but am hardly ever use the forum. Hopefully I can donate some more dosh soon after uni!

Andrew

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:52 
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More work for someone I suppose but would it be worthwhile having a chart of total users broken down into members and non members? I'd like to see the percentage.

It could act as a target to increase the % members month by month. (and collectively name and shame??)

It took me ages to join, apathy I suppose.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:06 
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civil engineer wrote:
More work for someone I suppose but would it be worthwhile having a chart of total users broken down into members and non members? I'd like to see the percentage.

It could act as a target to increase the % members month by month. (and collectively name and shame??)

It took me ages to join, apathy I suppose.


Yes I'd like to see this as well, good idea. Not sure about the name and shame, you don't want to frighten people off, we would need to be careful how it's done.

I signed up to the forums within a day of them opening I think, but it must have been a couple of years before I handed over the cash, again apathy I suppose, but also took sometime to convince the purse strings! (She agrees with SS Campaign but thinks that our money is better in our pockets than anyone else's, hard to shift that attitude).

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 15:02 
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I think forum users want to know where the money will go and what their money is going to do. Perhaps a 'your £40 buys 1/Xth of some part of the campaign' preferably something visible which they can relate to. Having some sort of costs /accounts visible to casual users so they can see the costs of the campaign and see isn't all spent on booze, fags and sweets might also help people to cough up as they'll know what they're contributing to :)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 21:05 
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I have made a donation to Safe Speed, but i WOULD like to see some sort of breakdown of donations made and expenditure. After all, you would expect nothing less if you were a member of the local cricket club.

How about it Paul? Its not that I don't trust you, but these things need to be seen to be above board. I must say I find it difficult to believe you could spend it all on wine, women and song where you live !!

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 23:19 
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Yes, I think seeing some sort of accounts would certainly make me more likely to donate.

Also, is SafeSpeed a registered charity so that you can claim back gift aid? And if not, why not?


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 22:05 
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Like CE - but putting things off- anyway - monthly funds on way from me - suddenly woke up to fact i was takng and thought it was time i contributed some cash, if not for myself,then for the future of driving sanity.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 01:50 
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Re accounts,

Since I started this thread (and see the money come in), I'll answer it to the best of my ability.

I don't think it's reasonable to ask Paul to publish details of expenditure in a public forum. Conversley, I've always found Paul very open with the members on the state of funds etc.

Safespeed does not make a profit, there is effectively one full time employee, and I think it's quite obvious from the effort that goes into this site, that he puts a lot of hours into the campaign.

Safespeed exists only through donations and memberships, and as in any campaign, there is always a need for additional funds.

Thanks to those who have joined up recently!! :)

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 14:36 
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Re the chart of % members I didn't mean name and shame individuals....but individuals would certainly know what category they were in and 'if the cap fits'....


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 19:52 
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I'm sorry if the rate of contributions is felt to be disappointing, especially in the light of all the effort that Paul continues to put in on our behalf.

One might have thought that a fair proportion of PistonHeads members would have been fairly willing contributors, but I suspect the contributions even from there may have been a bit thin. This seems odd to me when there are a lot of people with high performance cars on that site, people who, if Paul's efforts fail to bear fruit, might just as well save themselves a lot of money and dispense with such cars.

For my own part I have contributed £50 on each of two or three occasions and been happy to do so, but there has been no word of acknowledgement, which does not exactly encourage me to repeat the process.

I know it must be very hard getting people to contribute, but one might give some thought to improving the prospects.

Best wishes all,
Dave.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 01:36 
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TripleS wrote:
For my own part I have contributed £50 on each of two or three occasions and been happy to do so, but there has been no word of acknowledgement, which does not exactly encourage me to repeat the process.


David, I'm sorry.

I'm religious about sending out thank you notes by email. Right this minute I can't find a record of any donation from you. Sometimes I get cheques in envelopes with no details provided to return thanks. Could it be one of those? There was also a period around August 2005 when Paypal stopped sending notifications of payments, and I missed replying to folk.

Can you please let me have a few more details (dates, method(s) and exact amounts would be perfect) so I can chase it down?

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Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 21:26 
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orange wrote:
is SafeSpeed a registered charity so that you can claim back gift aid?


This is still a question I'm interested to know the answer to. If I make a donation, I want to make sure that Gordon Brown pays his fair share too. :)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 22:51 
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orange wrote:
is SafeSpeed a registered charity so that you can claim back gift aid?


Orange - next time you get a tailgater on your rear - and you see the words of wisdom like -- get some more space in front ---- you see some idiots playing tag in L3 of a motorway and you see the words of wisdom " hang back , if they colide -you also get the fallout "

And the other snippets of road safety advice - isn't that better than gift aid , or any other aid - it helps you and your's to stay safe.
I thought long and hard and decided that i'd benefited from the advice ,so i was morrally bound to contribute - why nit pick - just give --it's only £4 a month


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