Equal Parenting Alliance News – July 2006
© 2006 The Equal Parenting Alliance
THE BACK PAGE
Page 4
Membership Fees
We have decided to slash the cost of becoming a member of the Equal Parenting Alliance.
Membership will now be just five pounds a year.
We’ve decided to do this as membership is less than we hoped, and – quite simply – we think it’s better for us to have more members than to have more money. Our influence can only grow as people get involved.
We realise it would be only natural for existing members (who were asked to pay twenty pounds) to feel they have over-paid, so in compensation we will automatically extend their membership for another year.
We hope this change will mean more people join, certainly a lot of people have told us they would
join if it cost less. If this is truly the barrier stopping people joining, we hope this will eliminate it.
Of course, we hope any increase in membership will, in time, bring in the same amount of money in the long run.
In any case, though a healthy bank balance gives us more options, we will not start to need big-bucks until we mount campaigns for by-elections, which we expect to cost a minimum of £2000 per campaign.
We’d also like to remind you we have a policy of open-ness in the organisation. Any member may request a copy of the accounts, to see where the money is going, at any time.
Family Law Surveys
Our first Family Law Survey will be released in the next few weeks. We’re actually planning three surveys:
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1
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Aimed at people involved as applicant or respondent in family law cases. This will allow us to answer questions such as “What percentage of applicants say that false allegations of abuse were made against them by the respondent?”.This information just isn’t collected or available anywhere else.
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2
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Aimed at adults whose parents were arguing in the family courts over their custody or contact. We think it’s vitally important to hear what they think. Do they think that family court decisions were in their best interests? Who better to ask? Of course family courts currently do no follow up studies whatsoever.
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3
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Aimed at the families of parents involved in a family law case. We want to hear what they think too. This will mostly be grandparents, siblings or new partners.
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So what do we expect to gain from all these surveys?
Well, we see many possible benefits, but no real disadvantages (apart from our time, but then we’re all volunteers anyway), in running them.
Firstly, of course, we will get statistical information from the survey results, allowing us to present information that no-one (as far as we know) has tried to collect before.
Secondly, it’s very good advertising for us; both when we release the survey and when we make the results (or interim results) available. This will not only increase awareness of the EPA and our existence, but may encourage people to join us too.
Thirdly, we see it as a very good campaigning tool. For example, it may well send the willies up the legal industry when they realise we are collecting user satisfaction information on individual named Judges!
Added to all this, we are committed to making the results publicly available providing a useful source of information for other groups, and (we hope) maybe bringing all the Movement a bit closer together.
Definitely not Equal Parenting Alliance Approach!
Homer J Simpson to Bart - “Son, if something seems hard when you first try it, then it’s not worth doing”.
WANTED : CELEBRITY – young, attractive political party WLTM well known person with an interest in protecting children from damaging effects of family law. No campaign experience necessary, GSOH required to deal with government spin and family law. Any ideas of who we might approach? Please send suggestions to: enquiries@EqualParentingAlliance.com