There are three types of people in the world of e-petition leaflets:
- those who haven’t asked for leaflets
- those who have asked for leaflets and got them
- those who have asked for leaflets and not got them
This post is mostly of relevance to the third category of people, but is also of some relevance to the first two categories.
Demand has greatly outstripped supply, so some people are clamouring for leaflets but haven’t received any yet. However, more than 50,000 leaflets are now in circulation. As you may have read, I delivered over 5000 leaflets on Thursday to people who will distribute them (many of which have already been delivered – thank you so much!) and another 5500 or so were dispatched from the back of my car at Rainham Marshes on Saturday (thank you all too!).
The next big leaflet distribution will be at the Bird Fair on Friday 19 August, Saturday 20 August and Sunday 21 August. There will be leaflets to hand out to people at the Bird Fair and there will be packs of leaflets to take away to deliver to addresses near where you live. I won’t be sending out any more leaflets before then.
After the Bird Fair, I will evaluate the value and need for producing a lot more leaflets for a big push in September – perhaps we will be getting close to our 100,000 signature target. Perhaps the leaflets will say ‘We are very close to 100,000 signatures and securing a debate in parliament – we need your signature now!‘
We’ll see.
We’ll also learn more about how well leaflets are working. The information I have so far, definitely shows that they bring in more signatures, but they seem to work better in some places than others – the folk in the Forest of Bowland seem to be doing a fantastic job (thank you!). I’d like to wait and gather more data before committing your money to a lot more leaflets.
Ah, yes, money. We have raised, solely from individual gifts, around £4000 for publicising our campaign – thank you so much for that support. Around £600 is still in the kitty and that can be used to fund leaflet production for the Bird Fair. The rest has been spent on; travel and subsistence for a film crew and others to make the Packham videos (most of which are still to be seen by you); leaflet production and distribution; boosting posts on Facebook to get to wider audiences. These activities have been partly responsible for the fantastic progress we have made in July and early August. Did you realise we have added 31,000 signatures in the last 39 days? There are 43 days left…
So, this is how you can help deliver our leaflet strategy up to the end of August:
- if you have a stand at the Bird Fair, would you be willing to have a pile of leaflets on your stand?
- if you are attending the Bird Fair would you be willing to deliver leaflets to stands and hand out a few to friends and acquaintances you meet on your travels around the marquees?
- if you are attending the Bird Fair would you be able to take away one or more packs of 250 leaflets and deliver them where you live/work/play?
- if you are not attending the Bird Fair, but would like leaflets to deliver, can you find someone else who is attending and ask them to pick up leaflets for you?
- if you are not attending the Bird Fair and don’t want any leaflets but have a yearning to help our campaign then could you donate a few quid to fund leaflet production and distribution please – just a few hundred quid, from the contributions of a few dozen donors, would give me a bit more confidence that we can do a good job and be in a very strong position at the end of August.
Please let me know if you have leaflet needs and/or can help by emailing me at [email protected]
If you are able to make a small donation – £5s from lots of different people would be great – then please donate here;
[registration_form]
As mentioned previously Mark, happy to have leaflets on our stand at the Birdfair. Marquee 1. Stand 30. I hope this might be helpful.
Peter – many thanks! You will get them and it will be great to see you too.
Good places to hand out leaflets include walkers car parks eg in or near National parks and also on trains…where you have a captive audience and can sit and chat to folk who seem usually willing to listen. This method was used on the train to and from Edale HHD on Sunday and on the platform while waiting for the train to arrive. It’s surprising what lovely conversations can develop.
Nick
That’s my intention Nick …… walkers car parks….. It works extremely well for my doglost enquiries …….
I don’t know anyone attending the Birdfair ……. Would it be possible to pay postage to have some sent? I’ve already donated a couple of times to the cause 🙂
Some quite amusing comments in the Guardian about Botham and the petition gets a link
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/08/how-much-britain-pay-protect-wildlife-stone-curlew-farmers-eu-funding-threat
Looks like we are in a race to 300, Anand; Sheffield Central – 276, Argyll and Bute – 268. You definitely have the edge on % of constituents though; 0.31 versus 0.23.
Mark, is there anyway the petition could reach more on social media say Facebook? I’m sharing it on Facebook and on Twitter but not all my friends have signed it. I’ve seen other petitions where It let you send it as a message or email to each person on your Facebook friends list. You might be able to do this but I haven’t worked it out? Or it might cost! If it can be done it might have an impact? if say have over 100 friends and blanket message with the petition could be sent to them as an individual it might prompt those who haven’t signed to sign?
You could try Messenger – easier to send messages to groups of FB friends I think and they’ll still receive the message via Facebook even if they don’t have Messenger themselves.
Could also mention friends by name in a comment when sharing, that way it appears in their FB notifications.
Hope this helps??
Animal Aid are running a :-
“Week of Action Against Grouse Shooting
Can you help distribute leaflets as part of our Week of Action Against Grouse Shooting (5-12 August), in order to raise awareness of the harm to wildlife and the environment caused by the grouse shooting industry?
As part of the week of action, we’ll also be visiting and leafleting in the following locations: Sheffield (8 August), Huddersfield (9 August), Harrogate (10 August) and Scarborough (11 August). If you live in – or nearby – any of these areas, and would like to join us, please get in touch.
Both of these initiatives follow the launch of our new hard-hitting 2016 film, which reveals the destructive and cruel nature of grouse shooting, ahead of the so-called Glorious Twelfth.”
Cheers ND; I was wondering where the particularly big jump in Sheffield signatures yesterday had come from – good effort Animal Aid!
There is also a “Moorland Picnic” and demonstration against driven grouse shooting – meeting 9.00am in St.George’s Square, Hebden Bridge on the Inglorious 12th August. Walk sets off from there at 9.30 am. All welcome (except Richard Bannister!).
Hebden Bridge suffered devastating flooding partly as a result of increased run off from the notorious Walshaw Moor. The constituency has by far the largest number of signatures on the petition.
Aw wish I could make it ND but I think I’ll be off encouraging (not that they need it!) some of the good folks of southern Scotland this weekend.
Richard E and Alan P are busy leafletting a purple heron twitch at RSPB Otmoor today.
Richard E and Alan P are busy leafletting a purple heron twitch at RSPB Otmoor this afternoon and getting a good response from the people they have spoken to.
I can help leaflet on birdfair friday for a while – I tend to use the day to catch up with folk I know and intend to go to a few talks. let me know if I can be of use on the day. Maybe I should bring some back to the new David Attenborough building in Cambridge if no-one else has offered to drop any there.
Louise
Mark, just got another round in at the bar for Chris & yourself. Cheers.
Will definitely get some off you at Bird Fair if you have some left.North Lincolnshire needs to understand what is happening to our Hen Harriers and to start signing the petition.
A very interesting exercise handing out petition cards today. Many already signed up but others, keen birders with all the gear and mostly Facebook users, hadn’t heard of petition or of this blog. All promised to sign and pass cards on to friends!
Would county bird clubs and local birdwatching societies with Facebook pages be interested?