To lobby or not to lobby?

Friends of the earth Campaign to lobby government and make changes to food feed policy. I recently heard a women speak at a conference and her point of view was that personal actions are negligible and spending our energy on lobbying was the way forward. I think its not an either or thing and there should just about be time for both.

Oxfam fundraising group

Have got involved in the start up of an Oxfam group in the local area. It was nice to have the odd trip to Manchester to take part in their events but will be even better to be involved in something closer to home. The other ladies (for we are all women so far) seem really nice with a good mix of skills. Hopefully the more strategic organised ones will help keep my creative feet on the ground. We decided to keep the committee to about 5 people to make sure it manageable and at the last meeting there were about 3 places left. We also decided that there may be folks out there who want to get involved but not so intensely. With this in mind we need to make it easy for people to help out at specific events or just keep up to date with what we are up to. Ideas flying around thus far are sports challenges, tea parties, fashion shows, geocaching events etc etc etc, the list goes on and on. So if anybody reading this fancies a challenge to help make the world a better place drop me an e mail bethbarlow@bethbarlow.com

Oxfam Gig

Thanks to Oxfam in Manchester for giving me the chance to try out a few things to do with Starvation diet on Saturday. I wanted to understand how easy it was for people to grasp the concept and how I might get it across in a quick way. Also wanted to see if people would be interested in committing more to the idea through their own lives and diet. I carried in one hand a Mars bar which got stickier as the unseasonally warm day went on. In the other I carried an Oxfam collecting bucket. I asked people if they would like to buy my Mars bar, "its 60p which is about the same amount as 5 people eating for a day in Mexico" I told them. "Or you could resist the mars bar and it just so happens that I am collecting for Oxfam and instead of buying the mars bar you could give the money to people who really need it." Most people said yes to donating, most people gave £1.00 or more. I chatted to most people and told several what I was up to through Starvation diet. I gave several people pledge stickers so that they could choose a day to cut down and donate and three people starvation log sheets because they were interested in changing their lives in line with the idea. My bucket was light at the end of my collecting but it will be interesting to see if it was full of bigger coins. Does engaging people in this way take more time but get bigger results? Does it create less or more informed giving? Is it too much hard sell or are people really giving because they think it makes sense? Good idea for a psychology PHD if anybody out there is into all that. If not would welcome comments below.
P.s. Thanks to George for taking the great photos.

A time to wear my practical action T shirt

This Saturday (27th March 2010) practical action are staging a No Tech Day.
http://www.notechday.org/

I'm going to refrain from turning on my laptop and go do some knitting in Manchester with a friend instead. I may even leave my mobile at home. How might that feel?