(Day 62) Can I borrow you?

Wednesday 2^nd May (Day 62)

Spare 35 minutes?

After the demonstrations we started fundraising at Marten Place where we started the working day.  Despite our hard work I don’t think any of us got any sign ups that afternoon.  Marten Place is full of business people who are too “professional” to stop and sign up to a charity on the street.  I just couldn’t stop anyone.  Towards the end of the day I started to experiment with different opening lines.

For example when I usually try and stop someone I say something typical like “hi, can I borrow you for 2 minutes?”  But after saying that to like the 800^th person I thought I would say a random and unrealistic time rather than the standard 2 minutes. 

I approached one woman and said “hi, can I borrow you for 35 minutes?”  She said, “what, 35 minutes?!” with a bemused look on her face whilst she walked past.  It didn’t stop her but it was funny.  Asking for unrealistic amounts of time did actually make quite a few people laugh and it got their attention, but they still didn’t stop...

On reflection going up to a random woman and asking if I could borrow her for 35 minutes might seem a bit dodgy, but it really wasn’t like that.

My plan was I would ask for some random and unrealistic time like “hi, can I borrow you for 27 minutes?”

The person would be bemused and reply “no, sorry I haven’t got time”

I would then reply “ok, how about just 2 minutes then?” 

They would then feel compelled to stop because I have greatly reduced the amount of time I was asking for, I would then proceed to deliver an amazing pitch and sign them up on the spot.

This was my plan anyway...but it didn’t work.

The daily grind

Anyway that was yesterday and today was a new day.  Today there were no anti-mining rallies or games involving eating doughnuts off a piece of string, just solid fundraising from 10 till 6.

But today I wasn’t having much luck.  Yesterday I couldn’t stop anyone and it just felt like I was treading water all afternoon and the problem was today pretty much felt the same.

Both these days were a stark contrast from Monday when I got 2 sign ups and felt like I was on fire, and I am not doing anything differently since Monday.  If anything I am feeling more confident and outgoing.  I should be stopping more people than I did on Monday but it just wasn’t happening.

By the afternoon I was still on zero.  Alexis told me to keep going and it would happen but nothing did happen.  Actually something did happen, I got fired.  Laugh out loud.

Enough now

I wasn’t expecting this to happen so quickly.  I knew fundraising was very cut throat but it is only my 3^rd day and I got 2 (or 1) sign ups on my first day.  But by 5 o’clock that evening I was on my way home.

Alexis was very nice about it, he said I was a very hard worker and I was good...but I didn’t have enough sign ups to stay.  He asked me what we should do and to be honest if I defended my position I probably could have been kept on for an extra day.

But I was done with fundraising.  It had gone from being fun and exciting to just feeling like a job.  I felt like I had taken everything I wanted from street fundraising.  Improved confidence in public speaking and other stuff.

I always knew this was going to be a temporary job, maybe a bit more temporary than I planned but still... it was fun whilst it lasted.  Now I look forward to my next job!

(Day 61) Trouble in paradise

Tuesday 1^st May (Day 61)

Trouble in paradise

Don't forget to check out my Youtube video on the bottom of the post

Tuesday games

Tuesday is the day where we have the group meeting at the fundraising office.  I haven’t been looking forward to this day because I was going to see all the people I used to work with.  I was worried that I was going to walk into the office and get lots of funny looks like “what is he doing here?” “Didn’t he get fired?”  But since I got 2 (or 1) signups yesterday I was feeling a bit more confident.

As with every Tuesday we had some random team game to play and this week’s game was eating doughnuts off a piece of string.  There were 2 teams, one member from each had to lie down on the ground and eat a doughnut being dangled just above their head.  After that person has finished and swallowed the doughnut the next person lies down and eats a doughnut etc until everybody in that team has eaten a doughnut.

Trying to swallow a doughnut as fast as possible whilst lying down was a bit of a choking hazard and I am sure this game wouldn’t be allowed back in England because of our overzealous health and safety laws.

We lost this game because we had more people in our team (something we only realized after the game had ended), not like it really mattered, we all got to eat a free doughnut.

After losing this game we headed out to work, but today started a little differently...

Crowds at Marten Place

There was a protest in the streets today and it started off in Marten Place which is just near the fundraising office.  It was an environmental protest against the proposal of CSG mining on some land called the Liverpool plains which are about 300km north of Sydney.

Marten Place was filled with protesters who I assumed were mainly from the Liverpool area and had travelled down to Sydney for the rally.  Many of the protesters were carrying large signs that had some kind of anti-mining message on it.  There was some media coverage at the rally with TV crews and photographers getting in amongst the crowd.

There was even a mascot at Marten Place.  The mascot is called Dirtgirl and her purpose is to encourage children to get involve with the environment.  I guess they chose the name “Dirtgirl” over “Dirtygirl” because Dirtygirl would have been considered inappropriate.  I personally think Dirtgirl looks really freaky and when Alexis (my boss) went to talk to her I stayed well away.  You can google Dirtgirl and have a look at her freakishly deformed face yourself.

Alexis told us that we would follow the rally for a bit that morning because the charity we were representing was actively involved with the mining issue and shared the same agenda as the protesters.  I guess you could say this was part of our training; Alexis wanted to make us all ecomentalists.

March of the farmers

The crowds started marching pretty much as soon as we arrived at Marten Place.  Looking around the crowd was predominately made up of middle aged country people with their beige shorts and round brimmed sunhats.  Their complexion would suggest that they spend a fair amount of time outside in the sun (polite way of saying rednecks).

Their destination was some political building (possibly the mayor’s house) which was only about a 10 minute walk away from Marten Place.

A bit of science

Coal seam gas or CSG is where large quantities of natural gas can be found in coal found underground.  With this you can both extract gas and then mine for coal at the same location.

However like with any mining project there are environmental impacts associated with CSG, mainly regarding contamination of the neighbouring ground water which could lead to water pollution.  (This is all from what I have read from Wikipedia by the way).

Lost agenda

After a short walk we arrived at the political building and the crowds lead by some guy with a megaphone started repeating anti-mining chants.  Some of the more memorable chants include:

“Country and city, united we stand, protect our water, protect our land”

“Farming, yes, fragging no, coal seam gas, got to go”

I learnt that the original agenda of the march and protest was to persuade the government to force the mining company to carry out thorough research into the environmental impacts of mining with regards to water contamination.

But looking around this agenda had clearly been forgotten.  People here were against the mines outright.  It seemed that they were not only against mining in the Liverpool plains but against the idea of mining all together.

To them mining was a sinister and evil practice run by greedy corporations.  It is true that mining is a lucrative business in Australia with the mining sector being the best paid job sector in the whole of Australia.  Apparently the average starting salary working in the mining sector exceeds $90K!

Back to work

The chanting continued for a while and after about half an hour we decided to leave and start fundraising.  Trying to listen to some woman holler down a megaphone about the environment was getting boring very quickly.  I was worried I was going to fall asleep standing up.  I couldn’t really make out what she was saying but I am sure if was all very interesting in an environmentally biased way.

Overall I enjoyed spending time amongst the protesters; it is certainly not a typical way to start a day’s work.  I love how untypical this job is.

Media coverage included both amateurs students and professionals 

Alexis talking to some old woman and Dirtgirl, the hideous mascot 

A small part of the crowd

This sums up the general feeling towards mining

On the march

Outside the political building, imagining opening
the front door to see this mob outside your work place

I have made a video to accompany this post,

check it out here on my Youtube channel

(Day 60) Let's smash it!

Monday 30^th April (Day 60)

Let’s smash it

So, everything is in place now.  I have had ample training, probably more than most people.  I have been given more than enough time to learn my script.  And I have a highly motivated boss leading a team of charismatic individuals (and me).

So I was really looking to “smash it” today as my boss Alexis would say.  Although I found out early on in the day that the guy I worked with on Friday Chris had been fired.  Apparently he didn’t make enough sign ups to justify his position in the company.  This is the problem with fundraising, 95% of people don’t make the cut.  I thought Chris was good, how am I going to be kept on if he couldn’t?  This got me worried.

Almost

So I have been practicing the pitch a lot and I almost got my first sign up.  I stopped a young guy on his way to university; he was doing a very similar degree to the one I just finished so we immediately got on well.  I delivered a good pitch and when I got to the end which goes “so let’s get you on board!” he answered, “Ok, sure”.

What?  He actually wants to sign up?!  I have been trying for so long but now some twit has actually said yes to me!  However there were issues with his bank card.  I tried phoning the bank and passing the phone to him but he didn’t know the answer to his security question.  In the end he had to go otherwise he was going to be late for class.  Damn it, so close.

I was a bit down about just missing out but Alexis told me to keep going.  By lunch I was still on zero and I really needed to get some sign ups in the afternoon or the pressure would be on.  But no worries, I got two that afternoon!

Get in!

Yeah, I actually got some sign ups!  Both similar situations; guys on their way to a university class.  What was weird was they said yes straight away after the pitch.  People nearly always say no at first and we have to do something called “concern handling”.  Basically turn that no into a yes with polite persuasive charm.  But no I didn’t have to do any of that.

You could say this was too easy and I was sorted.  But there was an issue with the 2 sign ups I got.  Both people I signed up where under the age of 21.  Apparently 50% of under 21s cancel their donation in a few months and most fundraising companies won’t even touch them.  During my evaluation (first week) I am allowed to sign up one under 21 and the rest don’t count.  So really for my evaluation I only signed up one person today.  Alexis was happy I was signing up but said I needed to start getting some over 21s.

Oh well, it is a start!  Getting my first two sign ups without having to use any concern handling.  I am starting to think I might even make it past my first week this time!