Archived news 3
KARMAGEDDON 2002!
The official Karma Army/Join Me Joinee Meet-up is this
Sunday, 15th December, from 2pm in London!
Joinees are asked to meet me at the bottom of Oxford Street
in London, next to Tottenham Court Road tube station, at
2pm. You will recognise me by my large Join Me sign.
We will then move to The Horse And Groom pub, on Great Portland
Street, for 2.30 or so.
If you can only make it later in the afternoon, then that's
cool, but do try and come along right at the start. Ace.
I look forward to seeing you then!
Brand new Karma
Army leaflets encouraging members of the public to a) Join
Me, and b) undertake random acts of kindness for themselves,
have just been printed.
Joinees attending the meet-up on Sunday will be given these,
and they will also be made available to other joinees as
and when... well done to Joinee Glanville for donating his
graphic design skills free of charge... he has been Silvered,
as a result...
The word has spread to Africa!
Well done to Joinee Cooper (standing on
the left), who did a stirling job of recruiting new joinees
to the cause, throughout the length and breadth of Cape
Town.
And
it certainly seemed to spread across Africa. This picture
was taken by Joinee Graham, whose holiday to Africa seems
to have coincided with another joinee's!
"I had to stop the car and take a picture of this!"
he said. "I
ran out of stickers ages ago, but it was nice to know that
other joinees are still doing their best!"
And not just
Namibia. Joinee Saunders of Inverness forwarded me the
following e-mail, from his friend, Andrew:
Dear Gareth
I forgot to tell you one bizarre
thing. I've just come back from two weeks in Ethiopia.
While I was over there, I used a tiny internet cafe with
about eight computers based at the top of a very run-down
office block in Addis Ababa. While I was waiting for something
to download, I had a quick look in
the browser's history bar. And there, about three links
down, was www.join-me.co.uk.
You can tell your anonymous friend that his scheme has spread to East Africa!
Andrew
Meet Joinee Christof, a joinee I recruited while in Zurich this week... he promises to do his best to undertake his random acts of kindness each and every Good Friday... Well done, Joinee Christof!
Word has spread to Paris... I was there a couple of months back, but Joinee Baxter took this one while doing his best to get Parisians interested in signing up. Two did. Well done, Joinee Baxter!
This documentary film crew have been following several joinees around London as they wander about, doing random good deeds in the name of Join Me. Well done them. Apparently, the finished film will be shown at some kind of film festival in December. Should be good.
Well done to The Karma Army... many hundreds of good deeds have been happening all around the world, every week... keep it going! So far I estimate we have done nearly 5,000 good deeds! 5,000 good deeds that would never have happened if it weren’t for you! Keep going! And keep letting me know what you’re up to!
Get Join Me in the paper and win a t-shirt!
Could you get a Join Me story in your local paper? Could
your good deeds make it into the local press? Send me evidence
that you managed it, and I’ll reward you with a top
quality Join Me t-shirt! Do it! They’re great! Even
getting into one of those tatty free papers counts. Go
to it, joinee!
The Raymond Price Fund For Keeping Raymond Price Out Of Trouble
The Raymond Price Fund For Keeping Raymond Price Out Of Trouble has now been set up... thanks to all those joinees who have promised yearly donations of 20p or so, in order to keep this old man on the straight and narrow, and out of jail! More details here.
Join Me Ambassadorships...
I currently have Join Me ambassadors travelling around South Africa, Russia, India and the USA, spreading the word and doing good deeds... could you be a Join Me ambassador? Get in touch!
Thanks to all those joinees who signed a lovely birthday card for myself, The Leader, and special thanks to Silver Joinee Jess, who organised the whole thing after finding out what it was. You’re the best joinees ever.
Card by Joinee Jess
I, The Leader, have been doing a fair bit of travelling of late, meeting quite a few joinees. Thanks to all those who’ve agreed to meet with me so far.
Hey!
Joinee!
Are you free on SUNDAY DECEMBER 15th 2002?
Join Me HQ has decided it's about time we had the first ever
official
Join Me meetup, right here in the nation's capital. That's
London.
Already many joinees have responded to an initial e-mail,
with yes's
from as far afield as Belgium and Aberdeen.
So... can you make it? E-mail me if you're certain you can...
danny@join-me.co.uk
Well done
to the Belgian Collective, several of whom met up recently
at the official Join Me bar in Brussels... here they are
enjoying themselves and discussing their first plan of action...
The Belgian Collective was formed after a TV appeal by The
Leader on Belgium's biggest chat show, and many more Belgians
have joined since this photo was taken.
Well done, Belgians!
Well done
to Joinee Oli G, who was thrown out of a games convention
recently for parading about the place with this gigantic
Join Me banner, crafted by his own fair hand. "It was
worth it," he tells me.
It certainly was, Joinee Oli. Well done!
Well done to my Karma Army... since the scheme launched, joinees all over the world have been performing Unexpected Acts of Niceness and Random Acts of Kindness each and every Good Friday... please continue, and continue to tell me about your Extreme Benevolence... it will all be worth it in the end.
Well done to Joinees Tanya and Christina of Oslo... they're currently Spreading The Word throughout Norway's capital, using their Join Me stickers and a few flirty smiles. Why not do the same?
Well done to
Joinee Sutton, for initiating a message-in-a-bottle campaign,
in order to Spread The Word.
For too long those who use this nation's canals and waterways
have escaped our message... now, thanks to Joinee Sutton,
those using canalboats and barges in the Surrey area will
have trouble escaping us. Twenty biodegradable bottles carrying
Join Me leaflets were released over the weekend...
Well done to The Bath Collective, who met up for the first time recently to discuss strategies and swap notes. A collective in York is currently forming, in addition to those in Manchester and Oxford.
Joinee Sansom, of the Bath Collective
Well done to
Joinee Owen and friends, who took to the streets of Durham
in fancy dress recently in order to Spread The Word of Join
Me... at least one person got in touch with Join Me HQ as
a result...
Well done indeed
to Joinee (and Reverend) Gareth Saunders who is the latest Silver Joinee
in the Collective... Why? Because he's made Join Me into front page
news!
Readers of the Inverness Courier were greeted with the below
picture of the man himself, wearing his official Join Me t-shirt...
The story ran as follows...
SIGNING UP TO 'KINDNESS' COLLECTIVE
A
CLERGYMAN serving at Inverness Cathedral has been recruited into
a new flock.
Rev Gareth Saunders, a curate at the Cathedral, is now a man with a double mission, spreading the word not only about the Church, but about "Join Me" an informal group which started almost as a joke but is now bringing people together from across the world.
Join Me was created when advertisements appeared in London newspapers asking people to 'join me" by writing back with a passport-sized photograph.
The person whom respondents found they were joining is Danny, who prefers not to give his surname - although he does reveal he used to work for catalogue sales firm Argos."I didn't expect anyone to write back," he says. Then a few days later people started writing in. It spread and now I have got hundreds of followers, as it were, throughout Europe."
Danny describes Join Me as a collective, not a cult, and told the Courier: "One of the dilemmas I had was whether to use my powers for good or evil, and you will be glad to know I decided on good."
He is encouraging his joinees to carry out "random acts of kindness", but insists Join Me is not a religious organisation. "I'm not religious in any way, but funnily enough I've had two vicars join me," he said.
One of Join Me's two vicar followers, Gareth (30) says: "It seemed like a good idea and could lead somewhere positive, so I said 'Yes', although I didn't know much about it then.
"Being a priest in the Church, there's a certain aspect of me that's into putting faith into things I'm not initially sure about."
Heavy-metal fan Gareth, who has been at the cathedral for three years, has been undertaking missionary work on Danny's behalf, not only wearing his Join Me t-shirt, but distributing leaflets about the group.
"Flyers have been going like hot cakes," Gareth commented. "The cathedral is quite a good place because we get so many people.
"Join Me seems a good idea. Something to get people together to do some good work is what the church is supposed to be about."
(Copyright Inverness Courier, 2002)
Joinees
James, Woollven, Smin, Nat, Vallance and Jess,
creating a Join Me display in Covent Garden.
Picture: Joinee Gaz.
Very well done
to Silver Joinee Jess for her latest effort to recruit new members to
The Cause... here's former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell being asked to
Join Me - and I think you can tell by the look on her face it won't
be long before she does.
You will be
pleased to hear that The Manchester Collective had a fruitful meeting
over the weekend. Says Joinee Claire: "Stickers and leaflets were
given out, good deeds done, and fountains run through".
It was also a good weekend for other members of the Collective - joinees
from all over the country met up in Hyde Park on Sunday.
Pictures from both weekend meet-ups will be posted here very soon.
New localised branches of Join Me have started to spring up all over the country... collectives in Newcastle, Manchester, Bath, and York are preparing to meet up to compare notes, develop strategies, and lark about. Joinees in Oxford, such as Joinee Alia, are meeting this week to discuss what they should next do in the name of Join Me. Any other collectives out there? Why not meet up and compare notes? However, please, please be careful. Join Me is a wonderful world, but the world outside it is sometimes not so wonderful. If you plan to meet up with fellow joinees, make sure it's in groups of three or more, and always, always tell someone where you'll be, what you're doing, and when you'll be back. Okay? Good. Well done.
Joinee Gaz
The stickers are spreading. This punk from Camden is reportedly still wearing his, as he travels around London, being all punky.
Well done to the Newcastle Collective... in an impressive effort to Spread The Word, they stayed up all night to paint a huge Join Me banner, which they then hung off the world famous Tyne Bridge, in Newcastle...
Police and bystanders were unanimously baffled, and the Newcastle media intrigued... calls from The Sunday Sun, The Newcastle Evening Chronicle and BBC Radio Newcastle were all made to Join Me HQ, with reporters eager to help Spread The Word... the talk show host Alan Robson was less impressed, however, when Joinee Koerner tried to impress upon him, live on air, the importance of Joining Up.
The stickers are still spreading... here's the lead singer of up 'n' coming band The Pattern, wearing his at a recent press call... thanks to Joinee Jess for the pic...
Well
done to Joinee Lowe. She recently placed Join Me stickers all over Newcastle.
One of them was spotted by the Newcastle Collective (see above) during
their efforts to Spread The Word... they were surprised and delighted
to see that another joinee was doing their bit in the North East.
Joinee Lowe is now a fully-fledged member of The Newcastle Collective,
as opposed to a rogue, lone vigilante-style joinee. There are now eight
members of the Newcastle Collective, making it the biggest localised
collective yet.
The Leader is currently out of the country. He recently made his first international television appearance, on a foreign, national chat show. It went well.
Joinee Gerstein
Joinee Bennett
Welcome to new joinees such as Joinee Gerstein and Joinee Bennett (pictured). They responded to a 4am call to TalkSport radio, along with other kindhearted joinees like them. Do make them feel at home.
And still the stickers
spread. These two bellydancers from Leeds appear to have decided
to include them in their act. More male joinees are virtually guaranteed,
thanks to this selfless act alone.
This is Joinee Singh.
I owe him a debt of gratitude, after he decided to Join Me and help
me out in a way that will become clear in the fullness of time.
Well done to the following Joinees... they have proved themselves extremely worthy joinees, either in extra efforts made in the name of the cause, or in recruiting new members... I present the first Silver Joinees (who may now refer to themselves as such in the forum).
SILVER JOINEES
Joinee Whitby
Joinee Haman
Joinee Koerner
Joinee Tomlin
Joinee James
Joinee Jess
Joinee Wilkin
Joinee Nicholson
Joinee Craib
Joinee Davison
Well done all. Remember, though: all joinees are equal. Some are just more silvery than others.
Word continues to spread
all over the country... leaflets and stickers like these were recently
made available to a select group of joinees... if you need any in
order to help convince strangers and loved ones in your area to
Join Me, get in touch, and I'll send some out to you...
write to info@join-me.co.uk...
This group of lads from Newcastle are preparing to storm their way through Tyneside in these special t-shirts, for an evening of leafletting, stickering, and recruiting. Well done to each and every one of them, all noble knights of the Join Me collective.
Meet Joinee Gavin, a
man I met in the street in a foreign country very recently. He agreed
to Join Me after reading all about the collective on one of our
leaflets... and the best thing about him? His job. He is a joiner.
A
group of joinees who met in London recently were on the receiving end
of instructions and a package from me... I asked them, in the name of
the collective, to undertake one of our first Commandments: Make An
Old Man
Happy. This they did for most of an afternoon, making no
less than four old men very happy indeed. But then they hit
the motherload, meeting this man (pictured). His name is
Raymond Price. He couldn't
get home from London to Teignmouth in Devon, because his
car had broken down. He was distressed. In his own words,
he was "in the doldrums". But fear not! The joinees
were there to help, and clubbed together to buy him a train
ticket home. "I have never been so happy in my life
as I am now," said Mr Price.
Several dozen joinees were on the receiving end of packages sent from Join Me HQ a fortnight ago. I await the results, joinees. There will be more instructions soon.
Well done to all those who
have signed the Join Me guestmap. Space on the
map is running out and so before I upgrade it to a rather more professional
model, might I ask all those who have signed it but not yet sent their
photo
in, to please do so? You ain't a proper Joinee without having done so...
ta!
This is Joinee Fletcher.
He recently helped me achieve something Very Good in the name of
Join Me. I will reveal more soon, but we should all benefit from
it.
Well done to Joinee
Jess. Her sign, saying Join Me, was placed in her local Asda.
World domination is now more or less assured.
The Official Join Me Song, composed by joinees Wayne and Christopher, is now available on-line. Play it at people and watch as they realise the benefits of Joining Me.
This website recently featured
in The Daily Mirror, in a very nice piece
written by Amy Vickers. Several people joined up as a result. You are
all
very welcome. Although I am yet to receive Ms. Vickers' application.
Well
done to Joinee Whitby, who wore his homemade Join Me t-shirt at
a fun run recently. 15,000 people were in the race, although, as
Joinee Whitby himself points out, most of them were in front of
him.
Well done to Joinee Iain
Blair.
Joinee Blair has designed his own Join Me car stickers, which you can
buy from the official Iain Blair website (www.iainblair.com)
for £2.
This old man has found a novel use for official Join Me stickers. He has one plastered over his bald patch every evening before hitting the town. "I find it helps me relax", he told me. Do you have any other novel uses for Join Me stickers?
Well done to Joinee Della, of Manchester, who recently managed to slur her way through a wedding speech and turn the topic of conversation around to why people should join each other... before giving out the URL of this site to the assembled mass of wedding guests. From small acorns...
Well done to Joinee Woollven,
who has created his own Join Me t-shirt, and wears it whenever he can.
Well done to Joinee Lulham -- he's created his own Join Me screensaver, with which to subtly sway colleagues and loved ones into Joining... you can download it here .
Joinee Lulham
Christopher and Wayne
(please note - this song is now available online for you to download!!)
And
the word continues to spread... Joinee Tatem has been infiltrating other
peoples' websites... Joinee Ria has been putting up posters in her sixth
form common room... Joinee Whitby has managed to whet the appetite of
his local radio station... Joinee Chapman has set up another MSN Messenger
Group... oh, and Joinees Whitby and Doig have been busy creating new
and imaginative badge designs to help the cause... why not make your
own?
Thanks to Joinee Jon for doing a great job of spreading the word throughout Amsterdam...
Three Joinees met at a London pub last week to compare notes and develop strategies... Joinees Jess, Gail and Whitby met at the Yorkshire Grey, and were also joined by an unnamed potential joinee who'd turned up out of curiousity after stumbling across this site while looking for car insurance. You will be glad to hear that he later Joined Me. Here are the other three looking extremely happy to be part of The Collective.
Well done to Joinee
Jess! She's created this badge in honour of The Cause.
Why not make your own?
A message for Joinee Jo, from Holland. I plan to take you up
on your offer. It has potential! But your e-mail address bounced back,
so send me another one...!
Hey - here's what one person - Joinee Whitby - got up to in a typical week of Word Spreading...
- He contacted fellow joinees and set up a 10-strong MSN Messenger thing so that Joinees could swap ideas and solve problems as a team.
- He created an unofficial Join Me t-shirt with the slogan "I've Joined. Have you?", and then wore it at every opportunity.
- He stuck a Post-It note in his staff room with a link to this site on it.
- He wrote a poem by way of a tribute to The Cause.
- He created his own unofficial Join Me website, at www.joinee.co.uk
- He e-mailed a local newspaper in an attempt to get Join Me in the papers, while leaving a mysterious envelope at the offices of another. It had nothing but the URL to this site in it. He also attempted to bully a researcher for a local radio station into mentioning it in some form.
- He printed fifty business cards with the, er, unofficial website URL on it.
- He created an unofficial Join Me anthem, in the hope of wooing potential Joinees to The Cause through the medium of music.
Well
done, Joinee Whitby!
More news to follow... in the meantime... do you have Join Me news? What have you been up to? E-mail news@join-me.co.uk