Recent updates

2 days and then 95 days?

An update for A Green MP for Bristol West

Jan 30 2015

Hi everyone, and welcome to the recent pledgers.

I am incredibly grateful for your generosity, and really pleased to have exceeded our target of £7500. This is now the 2nd biggest Green Party crowd fund ever, only a few thousand pounds behind Caroline Lucas' one for Brighton. To be honest, I fine with that. ;-)

In the last few weeks we have been incredibly busy coping with the huge numbers of new members joining the Green Party. At one stage the national team were receiving dozens of applications per minute. There were 16,000 new members in a 2 week period, and earlier this week, the total went through 50,000. To put this in perspective, the target by the time of the election had been 25,000!

More locally, I have attended my first hustings at Bristol Cathedral Choir School. It was my first experience of dealing with a UKIP representative. I have to say it was a jaw dropping moment but many of the things he said were so outrageous they needed no rebuttal. The audience show of hands at the end confirmed it; UKIP received no votes and I am pleased to say I received over 80% of the rest. It was a young audience of around 250 sixth form students, but around half will be old enough to vote and were registered to do so. If they are in any way representative of how young people are feeling, then it gives me great hope for the future.

I am also pleased that my new website is due to go live very soon. We are currently writing the local content, based upon the draft manifesto, and will adding to it in the coming weeks. In particular, we will be adding the short videos that your pledges will have enabled us to create, along with copies of the leaflets and write up of the events that your funds have supported.

The crowd fund closes in 2 days time, leaving us 95 days to make sure we win. It is am amazing time to be in politics, and I am incredibly privileged to be able to represent you.

Thanks again for your support, and I look forward to keeping in touch.

Best wishes,

Darren

We have proofs

An update for North by Southwest Anthology

Jan 21 2015

So the proofs have arrived and are being pored over by our writers. Once any last remaining niggles, typos and errors are spotted and ruthlessly eliminated we'll be sending it off to the printer. The next update will hopefully be - "we've sent it to the printer" & an estimated delivery date.

If you chose a reward that included the art, and have yet to specify which picture you want & what size, then please drop us an email at Northbristolwriting at gmail dot com.

All the art can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/NBSWanthology hopefully the colour versions will be added soon

Another week, another update

An update for North by Southwest Anthology

Jan 12 2015

Things are moving on, we have almost completed the design stage and will soon have a schedule for when you can expect the books & pictures - more soon!

It's all go - 2015

An update for North by Southwest Anthology

Jan 5 2015

Happy New Year!

We've sent the files to the publisher and are in that back and forwards bit of making sure everything is just right before the design and typesetting is started. As yet we still don't have an ETA but are moving forwards. Once everything is set we'll get a schedule in place and as soon as we know, we'll let you know!

Merry Christmas

An update for North by Southwest Anthology

Dec 24 2014

We'd like to wish all our supporters a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year!

Attention those who have chosen an art reward

An update for North by Southwest Anthology

Dec 23 2014

For all those who have a choice of art in your reward (if you pledged for the "Oscar Wilde" (3 signed prints) or the "Dr Seuss" (1 signed print) then please send us a mail with which print(s) you'd like! If you'd like them in A3 or A4 and if you'd like them B&W (as they appear in the book) or colour

All the art can be seen on our Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/NBSWanthology

If you are not on Facebook let us know & we'll sort something out.

Please mail your choices to Northbristolwriting at gmail.com

Thanks!

Files sent to Publisher

An update for North by Southwest Anthology

Dec 23 2014

Today the reality of this book is one step closer as all the files have been sent to the Publisher!

Bubbling away in the background

An update for North by Southwest Anthology

Dec 18 2014

Hi Folks

We're busy beavering away in the background, finalising the book ready to hand over to the publisher.

Pete'll be blogging updates, so keep abreast of his blog - http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/fundsurfer-funded.html

We hope to have an estimated print date early in the new year so until then - Have a fabulous holiday season!

Hands up. I suck.

An update for Ozuki Tee's

Dec 17 2014

OK! So first of all massive apology to everyone waiting for their tee shirts.

Since we lit the touch paper and launched Fundsurfer it has been one helluva ride but so unbelievably hectic!

Inbetween running Fundsurfer and making movies I've been trying to find the right manufacturer for Ozuki Tees after the first test run from original supplier was so bad!

I want the tees to be as amazing as possible but its also been way too long for everyone to wait so I have made a few compromises but finally have a sample which kicks ass and that I can be happy to put out.

I'll be sending you all packages in early Jan with a little extra something to make up for the wait and thank you all for your patience!

Have a great Christmas and New Year. I'll be in touch to get postal addresses.

A whisker away from £5k

An update for A Green MP for Bristol West

Dec 17 2014

Hi everyone,

As I write, we are only £35 away from hitting the £5000 mark - a fantastic achievement in just over 2 weeks. Obviously, if you are receiving this update it's because you have already done your bit, so thank you. But if you know anyone who might want to join you, please do pass on the link and give yourself a big shout out on social media.

In other news, we are planning a party! The Bristol Green Party is now the BIGGEST local green party in the UK, and sometime in January we will get to 1000 members. This might not sound many, but this time last year it was less than 400. Nationally, the Party is about to reach 30,000, and is growing at a phenominal rate. I will keep you posted.

Some of you were able to join us for a very last minute visit from the Leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett. She was incredibly impressed with the level of support here in Bristol ( and the speed at which we were able to arrange the visit programme!). We took her to visit the new HQ of Kevin McCloud's community development company HAB Housing to talk about housing and planning issues in Bristol. We also arranged an interview with Bristol Business News over lunch at Yurt Lush, chatted to the Bristol £ team and visited the site of a planned new Starbucks near St Nicholas Market. Natalie was extremely supportive of our campaign against the application, particularly voicing her thoughts about large multi-nationals that don't pay their tax! We were also able to squeeze in a meeting with Andrew Garrad, Chair of Bristol 2015 Company. It was a good opportunity to ensure that 2015 supports the green agenda more broadly, and to check on their plans for community engagement. Andrew was candid about the challenges, but welcomed our continuing commitment and support.

Finally, we held a social on the Grain Barge to meet new members and supporters such as yourselves. Again, sorry for the short notice that meant many of you weren't able to make it, but we have booked Natalie for two more visits in March and April next year and will be in touch with more details in the New Year.

If you would like to keep up to date on Facebook, our public page is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Darren-Hall/1504004869867521

and there is also a closed group for people who would like to get more involved: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BristolWestGreenMP/

Best wishes,