Campaign Updates: August 09

It's been a pretty big month for the campaign, here are some highlights of the things that I know about - there are plenty others which I wasn't involved in so if I left something out then feel free to post it up.

* we printed some marketing materials (~ 4k worth funded with a loan from one of our members)
- a big thanks to all involved, especially Dan, Jamie and Heidi
- 10,000 A5 flyers
- 5000 stickers
- 1000 A3 posters
- 1000 A3 schools posters
- (?) A4 schools info sheets
- (?) A4 info sheets
- 1 set of car stickers

* honda loaned us their hybrid for 6 weeks which we got stickered up and sent around the country on a national tour
- Aaron, Beka, Kolya, Pascalino, Emma, Clare and co.
- we launched by handing out flyers and home made biscuits (350 of them) at the wellington train station
- the tour is nearly finished and the total duration was 20 days
- we visited schools and regional teams around the country distributing marketing materials and talking 350 to anyone who would listen

* Wellington screening of the age of stupid
- Chris and the wellington crew
- the wellington team did a sterling job and managed to raise nearly 2k for the main event on october 24

* Kashi Leuchs launched the 350 riders campaign
- stickers are now available in R & R sports outlets and selected cafes around the country
- the campaign launched with a big cycle ride and photo in Wellington
- this is going to be huge!

* We were mentioned in the press a fair bit
- Joanna, Sarah and Rachel
- I don't have exact numbers (will try to have them for next month) but I guess between 1 and 2 dozen articles and stories about 350 were published in New Zealand in August

* More T-shirts are on their way
- we are finalising details of the next batch of t-shirts and hope to have it all sorted by next week, we have the funds, printing and distribution figured out we just need to get a design

* community site launched
- one problem we face is there are more people who want to help than we can respond to, when someone comes up and says what can I do it actually takes quite a bit of energy and time to match their skills with a rewarding and fun project. Right now there are more people who want to help than the 350 crew can effectively support so we need a better system, hopefully this site can do that.
- we also want to increase the speed with which information circulates throughout the community, we are starting to develop some decent channels for sharing what is happening (press releases, facebook, youtube, twitter, website) but we can't do that unless we can get the stories, images and videos in a timely manner.

some interesting numbers
2000 people visited our website 3500 times during august
When all the debts are paid the national team has around -2k in the bank
956 people are subscribed to our newsletter with ~70 new people joining in the last month
220 people follow us on twitter
410 people are fans of our facebook page
153 members of the community site

*plans for september (note these are just my personal ones, everyone is encouraged to work on whatever they feel like)
- numbers, numbers, numbers - top priority is recruiting as many people as possible to the campaign, we need a few 0s on the end of those numbers (apart from the negative bank balance!!)
- funding, currently our lack of funds is a limitation and we need to sort this out
- business team, I will put more energy into helping this get established and enaging with businesses about 350
- website, everyone seems to be mentioning 350.org in the media so I think we need to sharpen up the .org.nz one so it better meets peoples needs.

happy campaigning everyone, hope your September rocks!
Joshua