Newsletter April 07

Dear All,

Many years ago, John and I arranged to meet Marcus for a swift half in the Nottingham Student Union bar. He had something to tell us, something so mind-blowingly inspirational that he couldn’t quite get it out properly. Instead, John and I were treated to a delightful half-hour of Marcus twitching in his seat and occasionally farting out the words: “Exponential potential! Exponential potential, man!”

Little did we know it, but he was in fact referring to a scheme called the One Percent which, he guaranteed us between nervous bleats and excited yelps, would unavoidably take on the likes of a snowball effect.

And, lo and behold, it bloody well has. For all of us, I think, the weight and force of the One Percent Scheme in the year 2007 is enough to make any member proud, and any outsider awestruck. With a current annual intake of £4,480, this means that, at the beginning of April, we were able to donate £280 to each of our causes – this being no less than a 54% increase on our last donations at the end of 2006.  Exponential potential, indeed.

Our causes:

Seeds of Hope news Apr 07 (report by Anna Ray)

Our first instalment will be going towards our cause’s general budget, with a priority on food for the children. At the moment, the overall budget is approximately £275 a month for food, electricity, water, internet, and teachers’ salaries. The largest outgoing being food at £120 a month…greedy little monsters! They have budgeted about £320 for ‘school items’; this year.  I think it’s important to stress that this is the hardest newsletter to write…there really isn’t very much information to give, but this will definitely improve as our relationship develops! Nevertheless, there are many projects which we could (and hopefully will) go on to support.

One particular recent project was a trip for the children to a football stadium...(To read the rest of this story click on the title above)

Headway news Apr 07 (report by Marcus Fairhurst)
Things at Headway continue to run smoothly. Being unemployed and seemingly unemployable as I am, I have had the chance to do some volunteering there on Fridays. Getting a proper in-depth picture of what goes on there fills me with even more admiration for staff and attendees alike. Some of their stories are truly heart-wrenching, people going about their daily lives as we all do, only to be struck down by some piece of
terrible misfortune: wrong time, wrong place. Having endured months, if not years, in hospital, I was all the more amazed to see how this has only served to strengthen the resolve and ambition of these people to regain as much as they can of their normal lives and to achieve all the goals they had before.

The story behind ex-stunt man Ben Bellman ...(to read the rest of this story click on the title above)

Salaam Baalak Trust news Apr 07 (report by Marcus Fairhurst)
Lots of excellent news heading our way from Delhi…
The new contact centre for street kids living around Old Delhi railway station is up and running! As we’re donating to this project on a six monthly basis (saving on bank costs), keep an eye out for some more detailed news on this project in the second newsletter in July!  SBT has also opened another smaller centre...(to read the rest of this story click on the title above)

Coalition to stop the use of Child Soldiers news Apr 07 (report by Marcus Fairhurst and James Etchells)
Soon after the election results rolled in, I met with people from the Coalition at their office over in Angel. I was rather taken aback to be met by three Coalition staff members, complete with business cards, annual reports, photos and a plate of the finest chocolate chip cookies imaginable. Caught rather by surprise by this entourage, I felt a little under-dressed, having just cycled over from my regular meeting with those cool cats over at Hackney Job Center. Sharp suits and briefcase for all future OPS meetings – I promise...

News Bunions (from Dave of Hartley)

A bit of lateral thinking … oh, we’re so clever …
Following some lengthy discussions with various charity sector luminaries, we have set about creating a blueprint for OPS expansion … and we’re all trouser-tinglingly excited about the whole thing. We believe that rather than constantly incorporating new members into our own OPS, the best way to expand is to enable enthusiastic individuals to set up there own schemes. Thus making sure our OPS, and each OPS that is set up, stays as it was always intended – a group of friends with a real sense of involvement giving money to causes they know are worthy.
Therefore, we are currently writing a Guiding Document on how to go about setting up your very own OPS. Yes! In the safe hands of Sir Arnold Johnson, we are embracing DIY to the OPS bosom. Be it in Delhi or Dagenham, Chechnya or Chipping Sodbury, we aim to have an OPS set up on every street corner by 2010 (that’s an M. Fairhurst projection). But it’s you, our trusted members, who we need to spread the word and drum up some potential candidates for starting their own OPS. If you know someone who might be interested in starting a scheme or you’ve just got a question on what the hell I was going on about, please email: john@onepercentscheme.org.

We are cycling round the world on tandems …
Actually we’re not, that was just to get your attention. But we are planning the first big OPS Sponsored Tandem Cycle Ride (OPSSTCR). Yes! We will be giving ourselves a thorough thigh-and-calf workout, all in the name of raising a bit of cash for OPS. So keep the August bank holiday (25-27) free if you fancy joining us, when we will attempt, in tandem and on tandems, to cycle as far as possible over the course of a couple of days (route to be confirmed). An initial reccy has costed it up at about £15 a day for a bike which is, quite frankly, a bargain just to get the chance to see John in his spandex cycling shorts. Email john@onepercentscheme.org if you are interested.

New Members
Yes! The word is out! OPS is so fucking incredibly wondrous that people are literally killing each other to join our venerable scheme. New members this quarter are: Matthew Ray, Rebecca Morris, Andrew Knight, John Thompson, Jo Downes and Luke Wagstaff – joint winner of the all England late night Chilli and Pavlova eating contest (our very own Joe Clements was also a gold medallist).

Gift Aid
With the new financial year blossoming ahead of us it is time to start thinking about claiming back all of your hard-earned tax money from the main man Gordon Brown and giving it to someone who really gives a shit. Us. So if you haven’t signed and sent us a gift aid form, download from the Finances page, sign it, and send it to us at: Trustees, 18 Ramsgate Street, Dalston, London, E8 2NA. Once we have everyone’s forms in we will be able to claim back since August 2006 giving our charities an extra 28p for every pound we donated. Nice. 

The sound of me telling my GCSE students to include a conclusion! is about as regular as Dave’s pig-felching habit. So here’s one.

I think we can all agree that, though it may not be particularly orange, the future is very bright for the OPS. And it is, of course, all thanks to you. All of you. Every single one. Each. For, without you, Marcus would never be able to justify why he’s shunned employment for so long. Perhaps more importantly, it is becoming abundantly clear just how many people we have helped over what feels like such a short time. From the orphans of Casa St Nicholas in Romania, to AIDS-awareness programs in Africa, to disabled survivors of the Rwandan genocide, to the homeless of London, to the inhabitants of a tiny village in impoverished Togo, to all of the causes we have taken on this year, it has been your One Percent which has made a tangible, and unarguably positive, difference. So cheers. You’re all very, very nice people.
Bravo, onwards, etc.

Ross for the One Percent Scheme