Thanks so much for the effort, Michaela

Thanks for the show this week. Brilliant as always. I’ve been thinking about ways that listeners might be able to be involved in doing a little good in the world. I’ve come up with categories and some possible examples of how to do this. My thinking is a bit rushed so I’ll probably think of amendments etc… any where here’s a quick go at it.

1. Financial help: Giving to Charities or asking for donations to charities as gifts.
• Father Bob Maguire Foundation
• Drug ARM WA
• Tear gifts

2. Advocacy: Letter writing and protesting
• Amnesty
• Get up

3. Volunteering time: You may need to be trained
• Drug ARM WA
• Life Line as a telephone Counsellor

4. Volunteering expertise
• Be a Geek who builds and maintains a website for a charity. Drug ARM WA’s website is an example of what happens when this expertise isn’t available (I do the website)

5. Random acts of kindness to strangers
• This can be as small as giving someone a dollar to letting them stay the night at your home. Probably the best way to do this is to be aware of the times when you can’t or don’t help someone and think, how could I do that differently or what information would I need to help that person. Just remember what you do will probably be small, the people will quite likely be less deserving than you hoped and less thankful than you hoped. But it’s still worth it.

6. life style changes
Small
• Buy fair trade food
Big
• Spend less - so you can give more time & or money
• Move house to or regularly visit where people are in need. My guess is that Father Bob probably didn’t set out to help the poor but rather the people that were around him. He would probably be struggling to help the poor if he was living in Vaucluse Sydney.
• Consider re: training. It’s probably harder to make a difference as a Property speculator than a Social Worker
• Work Less
7. Work out a time and money budget. This is something that I found really helpful. It was really an exercise in being conscious about what I’m spending where and what I could give up to give to charity and also what time I am spending where and what I could give up to give time to writing letters for Amnesty or volunteering in another capacity.

8. Finally try not to choose an “issue” instead try choosing a group of people. Whether that’s your neighborhood or the people you see in the inner city – the issues will flow from that.

Well that’s enough from me.

Thanks

Chris

Transmissions are loud and clear. Microphone quality used in this episode is very good. Suggest you increase bass boost a little. Higher frequencies are sharp and precise, lower frequencies levels a little weak.

Congratulations to Eddie on his ordination. Maybe the Martions should land at local pubs instead of airports. I expect that they would be very thirsty. It’s a dry planet, Mars, after all.

You guy’s do far more good than you would ever believe or imagine. You both crack me up. The laughter here sometimes must have the neighbours wondering what I’m on.

Shine on and inspire.

I think this whole geeks reachout is a woftam. Unless the desired outcome is to make geeks feel better about themselves without sending them into the barricades.

In the great scheme of things, it does bugger all for both groups.

I think the problem with podcasts is that they are typically into the wrong hands for revenue. Most podcast listeners are kids and some hip people over 20. Most people with enough cash to spread some to the foundation are in their 40’s plus and have no idea what a podcast is, nor how to listen to it. Maybe us geeks and young’ins need to put our collective minds together and figure out a way to spread a message to the older generations who don’t have a clue how to operate a computer/mp3 player.