Positive Money is a campaign, we are not just a debating society,
we´re not just a research organisation, we actually want to change something.
And we want to change it fast, and that´s quite a scary prospect, but that´s what we are going to focus on for the rest of today,
actually how we can bring that about.
Our aim is to achieve legislative change, this is why we are being quite specific about what we want,
the time of the last great recession, there were people talking about very similar things to what we are talking about now,
and mainstream economists were behind that, and then it all got derailed and watered down.
And if we look at what happened after the 2008 crisis, everyone said;
"Big banks must never be allowed to fail again, we have got to split them up, cut them into pieces",
and what´s happening now is so watered down, it will be very easy for what we are asking for, to be watered down,
unless we are very clear about what it is we are asking for.
And we are up against enormous vested interest, I don´t really need to say any more about that.
So how do we achieve legislative change?
In this era of small majorities, or even minority governments,
it´s very important that we get cross party support and discussion on this.
This sort of major legislative change tends to amount to a constitutional change in some ways,
it gives back the state the power to create money.
That´s not going to be done unless all of the parties are on board for it.
This means that the way we present ourselves as Positive Money, we have to make sure
that we are not seen as being particular political in one way or another.
So Positive Money is an apolitical organisation, we as staff and volunteers for Positive Money
have our own particular political views, but the point of what we are saying,
is actually for anybody´s political views, or for any party, to be able to operate in a democratic way
and do what they want to do, you need to change the money system, you need to take the power back, away from the banks.
We will need respected and established experts to back up our arguments,
and that´s something that Ben and Andrew have been doing over the last couple of years,
it has really been about laying the ground work, getting the facts right,
getting the evidence, getting some experts on board. Getting people to accept that our analysis of the problem is correct.
We need to be careful that there´s nobody in the wings waiting to rubbish what we say,
that we've got an understanding of all the different arguments and that we've got response to those arguments.
And the discussion must also be happening elsewhere, there was a question earlier
whether it could be implemented just in the UK and we believe that the reforms could be,
but it´s very unlikely unless there was at least discussions going on elsewhere,
and there´s very positive things going on around the world as Ben showed earlier.
And this is my big one, well it´s two big ones I have got - there must be a sustained demand
for change from mainstream voters, particularly those voters who swing elections.
The politicians at the time of the next election will listen to the sort of people,
who vote and who tend to change the outcome of elections. So we need to reach those people,
and get them to understand the need for change and to demand that change.
The media will play a big part of that, until the media are using the messages
and it becomes mainstream language, this is going to be a very tall order, but that, I think,
is why I am going to focus so much attention trying getting the messages, and then the vehicles
to get the messages over.
I think the other big audience for us is the business community. No chance that the Exchequer
is going to change anything without the business community demanding change.
We do want help and advice with that, because we think that that is one of our key target audiences
over the next two years.
And again, we must be prepared for people fighting back, because there are people who will loose out,
not that many people, but they happen to be the people with the most power,
so we need to be quite savvy about this, we need to be prepared with our responses.
We need lots and lots of people, we don´t have lots of money, but what we need is lots of people demanding change.
So, just to summarise, who our key audiences are, there are alot of them,
and this is one of the reasons why we need different messages for different audiences,
and also, different levels of understanding and interest.
Funding. We are a very small organisation.
This is how our funding has grown over the last three years. You can see we have doubled in size,
in terms of our income, rather like the money supply has.
{audience laughs}
So that´s fantastic, that is fantastic, and money comes mostly from donations from individuals,
and in fact that has gone up to around 50% now. We also get some grants from some trusts,
it´s the Network for Social Change, the RH Southern Trust and the James Gibb Stuart Trust,
they are very generous to us and they give us regular donations for which we are extremely grateful,
but predominantly it´s individual supporters, giving £5 - £10 a month,
and we are very grateful for that.
What we spend our money on, 57% is spent on wages. We are a very small team
and we don´t pay ourselves very much because we believe we need to have a larger team
rather than pay a couple of people a lot of money. So we are very frugal on what we pay ourselves.
The second largest amount we spend is on our office space, which again is very cheap.
So we are not a big organisation, we are not trying to build a big organisation,
we want to have a campaign, we want to achieve what we want and then go on to get a life really
{Audience laughs}
Or at least Ben does {laughs}
When I first met Ben he was giving this two years, he is now giving us a bit longer I think.
But how does this compare with what other people have got, you know 120 grand isn´t much,
Shelter get £40 million, and they are just dealing with the symptoms rather than the cause of the problem.
Then here we have got lobbying by the financial sector, our supporter base,
Ben spoke about this this morning, how our supporter base has gone up, but what we need is
for it rather than to continue at a flat rate is to grow very quickly, and this is why we need those messages
and we need you to be talking to your friends, bringing them to the website, there needs to be
the right information on the website, and we need to have the hooks to get people involved.
So, how do we get to critical mass?
It might seem impossible, now that I have shown you how little we have compared with other people,
yet we do have very committed supporters, I mean it´s amazing that so many people,
and more people wanted to be here, wanted to give up their Saturday to discuss this sort of thing.
Just response to surveys that we send out, lots of people get back to us.
The thing about the issue is that once you get it, it becomes quite obsessive with you.
I should probably know. My husband definitely knows.
And we have technology, as Patric was saying, we can really use technology,
the tools of social media, citizen journalism etcetera. And we also have existing groups,
and one of the things we will be looking at is how we can use existing groups,
right from the Women's Institute to Greenpeace, to actually get them to understand
the effects of debt based money, and how it affects their constituency.
Someone like the Citizens Advice Bureau, a key target audience for us,
to get them to understand how it affects their constituency,
and to start doing some of our work for us.
We have the financial crisis! What more could we want? If we can´t get these messages across now,
when everyone is talking about debt, this is an opportunity for us to do so.
And as Ben started off saying today, the debate is beginning, people are talking about it,
now the media is starting to wake up to these facts.
So what is our strategy for the next phase of the campaign?
First, lay the foundations. We had 'Where Does Money Come From?', the book I showed this morning
Which is about what the system is like at the moment. And we have 'Modernising Money'
and these two books enable us to have a real foundation of what the facts are,
and how they could change. And then we are working on the key messages,
that we were looking at this morning, for our different audiences.
And we will be getting advice from the experts, we have got some pro bono work from Propellernet,
and anybody else who wants to offer some pro bono work, to look at market research,
and getting the messages right for the audiences and reaching them.
And then we need to redesign our website. All our web activities, we have managed to
reach 370.000 people, which would have cost us £4 million offline so our web activities are well worth it,
The 97% owned documentary - 293.000 views. And our website traffic, 200.000 unique visitors.
And 360,000 visits. All of our website, not all videos, but all of our website, has been done by Ben Dyson,
cause he used to be a web designer. Obviously that needs to change, he has got other things to do,
he is very much in demand to go and speak to people about things, so we need to look at getting
more resources in order to fund rebuilding the website.
A picture of a lovely tree. The reason I put this in is because what we need the website to do,
is to have lots of different branches to it, for people with very different interest,
the interest of an environmentalist activist is quite different from the interest of an academic,
from the interest of a school mum who wants to know what the future for her children is like.
So the website we have got to build has got to have individual journeys for different people,
with different interests.
And we do really, and it's an opportunity to say it again, we do really appreciate
all of you who already give to us, and we want to further develop the role of funders over the next year.
And get you more involved in what is going on, and have an annual meeting
and to really make you feel part of this campaign and this movement.
What we really do have is supporters, and what we really need to do is work out how to involve you,
lots of people do stuff already, we have had lots of local meet outs and presentations,
so what we are going to look at is actually how we can better involve you, and really
focus our efforts so the point of the rest of this afternoon is to really look
at how we can utilise this amazing resource we have got in this room,
and also the amazing resource of people who are supporters but couldn´t be here today.
So that we can spread the word, and build this critical mass.
Our aim is that by the time of the next election in 2015, debt based money is on the agenda,
that people are talking about it and people know what the hell it is.
Now that is an incredibly ambitious ambition, but that is what we are aiming to do.
So there is a question from the floor. "Number 7, go and see your constituency MP..."
The reason it is not up at the moment, is that we think we need to lay the foundations,
as Ben says, he is seeing some politicians, and at the moment, it is a closed door,
there are some who are receptive, but until we have got this groundswell of people talking about it,
they won't listen to it. Until the people who vote for them are talking about it, they won´t do it.
So, Positive Money needs you!
{Applause}
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