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Sign Jen Brea's #MEAction international petition to Congress for $250m research equality for ME/CFS

J

JenB

Senior Member
Messages
269
Hey guys! I'm floored by the enthusiasm. Thank you so much for getting behind this. We are pretty thrilled, too!

Two quick notes:

38 Degrees is actually powered by the same tools we are using for our petitions, events, and local groups. They are designed to help users self-organize and scale, so it's our dream that after a year or two of growth, we could also have 100,000 signatures by 1pm :)

So we encourage everyone thinking of launching new petitions, events, or (coming soon) local groups and crowdfunding campaigns to launch them on MEAction.

Re: all those missing petitions to health organizations around the world, it's up to the community to take the lead. If you have an idea for a petition, go here: http://www.meaction.net/take-action/start-a-petition/ and hit "launch petition"

If you want to brainstorm ideas or find collaborators, check out our action center or member directory: http://www.meaction.net/connect/

Any questions, ideas, or actions hosted elsewhere you would like to promote, go to "submit action" or email info@meaction.net

I really believe this can become as big as we all choose to make it!

Jen
 
S

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
JenB said:
38 Degrees is actually powered by the same tools we are using for our petitions, events, and local groups. They are designed to help users self-organize and scale, so it's our dream that after a year or two of growth, we could also have 100,000 signatures by 1pm :)
Click to expand...

Hi Jen - this is a brilliant initiative! Sooooo exciting! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I was asking whether the US had anything like 38 Degrees because 38 Degrees sends e-petitions on all sorts of topics to all of its members - and the petitions are all of the kind to appeal to the same kind of person (social justice, environmental protection, etc.) so that the campaign for one petition grow the base for all the others.

So if 38 Degrees sent out an ME-related petition, it wouldn't just go to the usual suspects in the ME community but to a big chunk of the UK. If there was a similar multi-issue petition site in the US that operated on a national level, that would be a great tool for ME advocacy - but I'm getting the impression that perhaps there isn't.
 
J

JenB

Senior Member
Messages
269
Yeah, I don't think there is. Everything I know of is issue-specific but I agree that expanding that circle and reaching out beyond the community is so, so important.

My dream for the petition is that people take it offline and go out into their communities and speak about this experience at their churches, schools, universities, community centers, etc, educate others, and bring healthy allies in to sign the petition. That's sort of phase 2 :)

Getting to 50,000 signatures is going to be a process, but I think in many ways the process is more important than the goal (of signatures, not funding!) the process of building capacity, sharing our stories, reaching out to others, organizing online AND offline.

Some of us are mildly affected by this disease and others have healthy people in our lives who love us fiercely and can bear witness on our behalf. My dream is that this petition can be kind if like our Olympic torch - a reason to gather and connect around this huge issue. It will be a months-long campaign.

Ryan and I are also collaborating to connect the grassroots screenings of Forgotten Plague with gathering signatures for the petition - I think the two together will be tremendous.
 
S

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
JenB said:
Ryan and I are also collaborating to connect the grassroots screenings of Forgotten Plague with gathering signatures for the petition - I think the two together will be tremendous.
Click to expand...

That's a great idea - I think it's very important to use those screenings for both a petition like this, and for attracting donations to our research charities (there's a new central hub for ME/CFS research crowdfunding just started here).

I rarely tell strangers that I have ME but for a while I did, when I was fundraising for a particular initiative. When I did, I was amazed how many knew someone well who was severely affected with the disease and yet didn't know that research charities existed to donate to - and these were generally people who looked pretty well-off.

Even among ourselves, there's a huge untapped reservoir of research donors and activism.
 
A

acer2000

Senior Member
Messages
818
How do I see how many people signed it? Its now showing me 172, which is lower than yesterday?
 
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