Editor News: Dec 2005
So that was 2005!
Joinees saw the year out in fine, traditional fashion, raising over £500 at the annual Karmageddon in London, with Gold Joinee Patzlaff travelling all the way from South Dakota for the event, and Gold Joinee Abad doing the same from Madrid! The day was dedicated to the memory of Gold Joinee Cazz, who sadly lost her fight with leukaemia in Melbourne in November. Joinees everywhere have been signing up to bone-marrow registers, and giving blood in her honour - including many like Joinee Kira in Nevada, who had to face down their phobias of needles in order to donate, despite never having met Cazz face-to-face. Over £650 pounds was raised, to be donated to some of the charities that Cazz supported through her life”
Further money was raised this year by Gold Joinee Smith's Join Me wristbands (£500 for the Demelza House hospice), and Silver Joinee Bing's Join Me pencils, (£300 for the Hoja Project,) and Joinees donated generously to numerous sponsored events, including Double Pink Joinee Stooz running the London Marathon in a pink wig and tutu for Breast Cancer Research, Gold Joinee Mr Jamin who raised lots by jumping out of a plane for Childline, and Silver Joinee Atkinson who sold rubber-ducks and ran a half-marathon dressed as a gorilla for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, among many others!
All of this over and above the weekly Random Act of Kindness that each Joinee has committed to perform every Friday!
Also in 2005, Joinee Rem set up the Join Me Forest through the Carbon Neutral company, where many joinees chose to dedicate trees to Joinee Seph Lawrence, who's murder earlier this year made the national press. Although not as widely known as Cazz, his death was just as affecting, coming out of the blue as it did. Our thoughts will be with both of their families and friends this Christmas, and we'll be raising glasses in their honour over the festive period.
We have also seen the rise of the video-documentary this year, as Silver Joinee Jessie immortalised GGF2, and Silver Joinee Rothwell did the same for the Brighton Pirate Meet over the summer, and The Good Times - a free downloadable newsletter "By Joinees, For Joinees" - was launched by editors Platinum Joinee Rufous and Gold Joinee Bee, in which pages Joinees describe all the larks and larrikins that they've got up to travelling to meets, and performing acts of kindness the length and breadth of the country - and sometimes even further afield.
The Leader has not been idle this year either! The revelation that he is now the proud owner of a "Ministry in a box", combined with the ever-increasing numbers of Joinee couples, might have worried some that he was taking his cues from the Reverend Moon (or should that be Jupiter?). Others may still be hoping. But between releasing a new book, becoming King of his own country, counselling the pre-natal, negotiating film-rights, re-drafting film-scripts, facing down Anne Robinson, putting Richard Hammond in detention and popping in and out of the forum, he still found time to come along to (Good) Good Friday in Nottingham as well as to Karmageddon, and to show his face in the pub from time to time. Not to mention getting a number of us onto BBC2 with him! And how better to see out your 15 minutes of fame than skipping, hand-in-hand, around a bandstand with a hundred or so mates, eh?
Joinee-ship is exhibited in many ways. Some tend to keep it a fairly personal thing. Others restrict themselves to the online community. Many, however, have made deep and lasting friendships. This is perhaps the least intended aspect of the whole thing, however as we come to the end of our fourth year, Joinees have come together to flatshare in London and Guildford, they've been on holiday on camping trips, to Cornwall twice, and to Amsterdam at least three times. There are Joinee romances and couples. Joinee fall-outs and make-ups. Children have been born as a result of people meeting through Join Me, and weddings are being planned. None of these things is individually a Join Me event, however Join Me is the star in whose orbit our lives collide. At the end of 2005, Join Me is as much a community as it is a collective, and it's good to see so many people still joining, joining in and keeping us fresh - in particular the two big intakes around the times that Yes Man! and How To Start Your Own Country were released. To everyone who's joined this year - THANK YOU and WELCOME!
My fellow Joinericans, the state of our collective has never been stronger. And with Platinum Joinee Fowler's fancy new forum and Joinee-radio guest-slots, Gold Joinee Clarke's spangly new mac-friendly chatroom, and Diamond Joinee Whitby continuing to oversee these very pages, we're in good shape for another four cracking years!
Roll on 2006!
Love, Joinee Rufous