h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Are there any conversation charities? They say the art of it is dying out.

Ask a silly question...

http://www.janeaustensoci.freeuk.com/pages/constitution.htm

I'd love a quiet word with whomever yikesed Nick's eulogy for Effers post above. Yes it was passionate, yes it was raw, yes it widened even my eyes and even raised my eyebrows. But that was Effers. There are plans to create a memorial wall page around here somewhere (watch community editor lil for more info) but in the meantime there is a eulogy thread on my page where I will happily defend any posting beause there is a case to be made that eulogies scattered here and there are disruptive to other conversations. So please join: http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F59446?thread=8299424 I had actually mean to copy Nick's post and paste it there but the site went down in the middle of the night and it was yikesed by the time I got up today. If the mods won't replace it here then at least paste it into my thread. Please, carry on. Conversation/conservation. ~jwf~

Happy news!

That was just a very poorly timed "Post 1" reply.

The "Formal Objectives" of the Foundation certainly do specifically include:

"3. The relief of those in need, by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, poverty, financial hardship, illiteracy or other disadvantage, by any and all means charitable under the law of England and Wales."

That does seem to fit quite well with MMF's fundraising drive for two disability charities.

"plans to create a memorial page"

I seemed to remember that GB started one, but I may have confused it with her compendium of couples who have met through h2g2. There is A1024895, started by Gnomon.

>> a memorial page <<

I thank you for that link to Gnomon's A1024895


Lil, aka Auntie Giggles, has prepared a memorial page
for Effers which is planned for next Monday's .

But let's not further interrupt the flow of this thread.

~jwf~

*joins the applauding choir*

The Girl Effect ( http://www.girleffect.org/ ) is an organisation that I seriously mean to donate to...

Thing is, we had to amend the objectives for the Charity Commission and they asked for that one to be removed, probably because it is too open. I, um, just haven’t got around to amending that bit of the page yet.

The reasons for choosing literacy/ communications skills are, from the point of view of the h2g2 side of things, largely as Mr603 and Pastey have described. But, hey, that’s just us. Douglas Adams' family, who are represented on the Board by Polly his daughter and James his brother, and who are prepared to put the considerable weight of the Hitchhiker name behind the Foundation, are also firmly behind on this focus. I can carry concerns, suggestions, questions and so on to the Board and we have a say through the h2g2 seat on the Board, but it is in many respects an independent project too. A potentially quite exciting, successful and, most importantly, effective and useful one too.

Why not conservation? Well, Douglas Adams had conservation charities. Save the Rhino, for example. I mean, he didn't start it, but that charity has received much support from his fans, and continuing support from his estate because of his involvement in it before his death. I personally would feel uncomfortable with going into what would essentially be rivalry with those charities directly. It also seems a bit redundant. To me.

Basically, I guess we just decided that we had to choose. You will notice, for example, that even though 'literacy/communication skills' is quite a broad field in itself, it's been narrowed down even further at this stage. This is because it is felt that starting small, building around this kind of easily identifiable core will serve best the Foundation's long term growth into an organisation capable of making a serious dent in some (sadly not all) of the problems of the world.

Anyway. Thanks for the expressions of support everyone! More news as and when. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the clarification, Solnushka.

And I do think literacy and communication skills is a better fit for H2G2 as it is what we do.

For what it's worth, I think the Foundation objectives are wonderful and applaud their efforts.