Chair's review of 2009

..as presented to the AGM on 9/12/09:
Another busy year for all our hardworking members, with the usual big events and a few others. Our biggest annual fundraising events, the book fairs and the One World Fair, were great successes as usual.

The Book Fairs were slightly revamped this year with new signs and a vast selection of high quality books, many of them new; between them the two fairs brought in a really impressive profit of £4,801, £2608.13 to go to Oxfam's education project in Zambia. A really warm thank you to Helen, Rachel and the very dedicated book- pricing and sorting and carrying crew!

Last month the One World Fair welcomed over 1,500 people to the Town Hall and brought in over £1,200 for Oxfam - mainly from the lovely veggie cafe, so a big thank you to the committee and all the hardworking helpers: cooks, dishwashers, carriers, and various on the day helpers, as well as to the Jazz band. The One World Fair is also an opportunity for us to hold our own stall, and this year we were able to get a number of people on board with our climate change campaign.

Still on the fundraising side, some of our members laced up their walking boots and hit the countryside for OOG: there was a walk in Wells, and one in Port Meadow - on a lovely day in May - only a few dedicated members walked that day but they did really well on the sponsorship. So well done all organisers and walkers! Still on the fundraising side, we had our annual carol singing once again this year, helping get us all into the festive spirit, and held a number of street collections - other members also did their own individual fundraising.

But of course we don't just do fundraising, we also try to get the word out on Oxfam's work and major campaigns, and in May we had a speaker event, where we heard Farhana Hafiz, Gender Officer and Change Maker in Bangladesh for Oxfam's We Can campaign, which aims to tackle problems of violence against women in South Asia. Some of the statistics she gave us were staggering, but it was also wonderful to hear how movements like this can grow and grow and engage people of both genders, and start to bring about visible change in local communities.

Other activities, particularly later this year, were linked to Oxfam's crucial climate change campaign in the lead up to the Copenhagen summit now taking place. Our members took place in the Wave, the big climate change demo in London last week; they also lobbied MPs in November, as part of the Stand Up Speak Out event, raising issues around climate change and the funding of the Millenium Development Goals. We also worked with the Bond coalition, campaiging on the same issues.

Join the candlelit climate vigil Friday 11/12/09 at 5.30pm on Cornmarket St

This Friday a vigil will be held on Oxford's Cornmarket Street at 5.30pm on Friday 11 December 2009.
And you are all invited.





All you need to do to be part of it is to:

• Leave work on time (hurrah!)
• Head to Cornmarket St (outside St. Michael's)
• Join a friendly group of people lighting candles, listening to testimonies from around the world, and sending a message to the heart of negotiations (through tck tck tck coalition members, who called for the vigils to take place).
  

Bring a candle or two if you have them, but we'll bring spares. Wear your fave hat /coat /scarf. Should be a nice event and I hope many of you can join us. The event is being organised by a group of volunteers, in support of tck tck tck, mainly from Oxford's Network for Justice Peace and local Greenpeace group.

One World Fair

Sorry to take a while to post this!

This year's One World Fair was, as always, a fantastic collaborative effort from the group, making us a stack of cash for Oxfam (I think about £1,200 but Tim is still counting up!). more importantly, we got about 1,500 people through the doors, to engage with issues of development and climate change, and provided a forum for local groups to be together and set out their wares.

And we got in the Oxford Mail!

Here is a selection of pictures taken by me on the day - if anyone else has some, please do share (as mine are really very poor quality indeed!).

Sign up for the OOG newsletter

OOG members get a monthly(ish) email newsletter, plus emergency emails if we need to organize an event quickly (e.g. fundraising after a disaster). If you'd like to get these emails too, I have made a form on which you can join our mailing list:
http://oxfordoxfamgroup.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ce341a03826575128638de056&id=3ff555e53c

Oxfordshire Big Climate Event

There's a "Big Climate Event" coming up on Saturday 7 November. It aims to bring together groups and organisations from around Oxfordshire to share their experiences, and to give practical help and advice about some of the more innovative projects and cutting edge ways of tackling climate change on the ground.

Details at http://www.cagoxfordshire.org.uk/big-climate-event

One World Fair 2009 is nearly here!

Saturday 21 November, 10am - 4pm, Oxford Town Hall

The One World Fair is one of OOG's most important events, bringing together most of Oxford’s fairtrade, environmental and human rights organisations. Last year over 1,500 people came to the Fair. We will be calling members to ask for help. Please help if you can, by:

• volunteering on the day, such as running the cafe (we will be contacting members anyway)
• making food, including our special soup!
• advertising the Fair - you should recently have been sent a poster.
  

Contact me for more details.

Let's brave The Wave!

Most of you have by now heard about The Wave, the big climate change demo in London on December 5th (link goes to Oxfam's Wave pages, or visit the extremely cool SCC Wave website here). It would be great if loads of OOG members could be part of The Wave, and I wonder whether we can arrange to go up to London together as a group? Please reply to this post if you're up for that.

Below is a message from Mim Saxl, volunteer city organiser for Oxford, working with the Stop Climate Chaos coalition. I have her contact details if you want to be added directly to her mailing list. I also thought I'd share this fine piece of video made by Oxfam colleagues in Manchester, promoting The Wave. Please feel free to share it on your social networks.



Dear contact,
This is a quick update concerning Oxford preparation for The Wave on the 5th of December 2009.
Covered in this email:
1) New website
2) Travel update
3) Preparation at Grove House – BOOK NOW
4) Need flyers?
5) IMPORTANT: Numbers


1) New Website: The Wave has an exciting new website: http://the-wave.org.uk/
You and your supporters can really help spread the word about The Wave by uploading your Mexican wave video clips now onto the website.
So, please:
- Link to it in newsletters and e-mails to members
- Host The Wave banner advert on your website's homepage: http://dev.torchbox.com/wes/scc/scc-banner-200x250.html (If you can use the banner ad on your website's homepage, please let our webby Tom know: tom@stopclimatechaos.org, and we'll help you get it onto your website)
- Add the banner ad or web link to your facebook page
- Tweet about it, and retweet our #thewave tweets
- And include the link anywhere else you can think of!


2) Transport: Unfortunately the Megabus deal available from other cities is not available from Oxford, so, this currently leaves 3 transport options:

- The Co-operative has sponsored special buses for the day, which will be leaving from Beaumont Street, opposite the Ashmolean Museum, OX1 2PH, at 08:30am on the day, and returning that evening. Tickets are £5 return, and can be booked from:

http://www.co-operative.coop/ethicsinaction/takeaction/thewave/book-transport-for-The-Wave/#book

To book, you need to be a Co-op member or Oxfam supporter (if you’re not a Co-op member, you can join online for £1). Co-op members can add their membership number and Oxfam supporters can add their Oxfam supporter code (disseminated through their communication channels). 1 member/supporter can book up to 5 other tickets.

- Oxfordshire Climate Alliance / Oxford Stop Climate Chaos has also booked coaches, and tickets for these will be £10/£8 return – still cheaper than the usual buses available. These coaches will leave central Oxford at 10am on the 5th, and return that evening. Tickets and further details are available from the website: http://web.bethere.co.uk/OSCC/ , which is soon to be updated. Note: these coaches will not be arriving in London in time for the 11am service, so please book a place on a Co-op coach if you wish to be there in time for that.

- There third option is that you hop on your bike: There is a team of people cycling, passing by Didcot Power Station on the 3.12.2009. For more info, see http://climatechains.blogspot.com/2009/09/second-wheels-to-wave-route-planned.html


3) Preparation at Grove House – BOOK NOW
Grove House on Iffley Turn is hosting a special banner making day in preparation for The Wave, where you can go and hang out with other Oxford folk and get creative:

‘Join us on Saturday 28th November to make banners & outfits (the theme is blue) and get collectively inspired for the WAVE climate change march in London the following Saturday. If you want to, arrive at 11am for screening of material from the Be the Change symposium. We'll provide hot soup at lunchtime, and tea. Please bring your own banner-making materials and anything else you might like to eat or drink. The Rotunda will be open until about 5pm. To let us know you are coming and help us cover costs, please book a £2 place on the website: www.grovehouse.info


4) Need flyers?
A good number of flyers for The Wave have arrived in Oxford at The Old Music Hall. It would be great if you could email me if you need flyers for any events, and I can pop some in the post or drop them off.


5) IMPORTANT: Numbers
I have been asked by SCC head office to get a good idea of numbers of people coming from Oxford on the day. This is obviously a difficult thing to get right, but for those of you from local groups, I would be hugely grateful if you could let me know a rough estimate of how many people you expect to be coming that you know of from your group. To help, maybe think in terms of 1-10 people; 10-50; 50-100; 100-200 etc, and just drop me a line.
Basically, we’re trying to hit a target of getting 1000 from Oxford along on the day, so this will just help us get an idea of where we are at!


That’s all for now. Grateful if you could send news to me of any up-coming events at which we can publicise The Wave, and as ever, really grateful if you can tell everyone you know about it!
If you are on this email list in error, please drop me a line, and I’ll remove you.

Thanks!
Mim