Funding Appeal: Safe Speed under threat of closure.
Over the last 4 years Safe Speed has achieved a great deal. Gaping flaws in
official road safety policy have been identified and highlighted. According to
the Observer newspaper we are at least in part responsible for the current
official moratorium on new speed camera sites.
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We have fought (and continue to fight) spin, false assumptions and plain greed
with facts, analysis and calm debate in all media types. (TV, web, radio,
newspapers, public presentations and magazines). Safe Speed information is
being used to train ambulance drivers in Australia and as part of road safety
coursework in several American colleges. Learned people have made extremely
favourable comments about the quality, scope and determination behind our
work.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed campaign has invested well over 10,000
unpaid hours and £12,000 in the campaign. He has worked full time on it since
early 2003, and puts in over 80 hours virtually every week.
The transition to full time working was partly prompted by illness. For about
three months in early 2003 it wasn't possible for Paul to carry on with his
previous work as a computer engineer. During that time Safe Speed demands
grew, and a number of key customers had to find alternative engineering
support services.
So in about March 2003 it was decided to leap in at the deep end. We'd already
realised that modern road safety performance was so bad that lives were being
lost far faster than anyone would have predicted based on previous trends. It
wasn't in any sense a 'business' decision to go full time. The objectives are
far higher than any business objectives - we're doing it to save lives by
restoring UK road safety policy to its former position as the best in the
world.
Safe Speed has never been 'properly funded'. It has existed by the good will
and generosity of web visitors and people paying memberships. This income has
been just about sufficient to sustain the operation, but rather less than
sufficient to service some debt that accumulated in the first three months.
Now we're being bitten rather badly by several long term debts, and the entire
operation is under threat. We have to get the debts off our backs and
establish an 'in credit' position. If we don't do this, and do it fast, Safe
Speed will cease to exist.
In order to truly establish proper stability we need to raise £20,000,
although the immediate crisis could be averted with about 1/3rd of that sum.
We appreciate that it sounds like a fair bit of money, with assistance from
enough people it becomes quite achievable. Accordingly we're making the
following offers, invitations and appeals:
* Existing members may upgrade to Safe Speed lifetime membership for £199
(usual price £299, previous special offer £249)
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* New members may join as Life Members for £239 (As recently advertised on the
front page of the main web site.) This offer will expire on 30th September
2005.
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* New members may join as 'Gold' for the reduced fee of £80.
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* Donations of any amount are naturally most welcome, but we must ask you to
be as generous as possible on this occasion because Safe Speed's survival is
at stake.
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* The donation threshold for coveted 'Friend of Safe Speed' status is reduced
to £500.
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* For cheque payments and further information visit:
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/join.html
Thank you, everyone, for your valued support to date. With your help we have
come a long way and with your help we can go all the way to the winning post.
Almost £1,000 has been raised today (Sunday) already via discussions in the
members forum. We'll post regular updates of progress as funds from the
appeal accrue. There will soon be a web page with similar information.
[edited to remove 'sticky' status on 11th Feb 2006]
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and it's clickable which is much better. It should work on any PhPbb forum, so feel free to spread it all over the web 
