Well then what a hoot that was! The Twitter raffle raised £125 for The White Ribbon Alliance. Prizes were donated from followers on Twitter and I drew the tickets 'live' on my Twitter feed. People seem happy with what they won and now I just have to post them off. I'm sure no one minds me sending them all second class!
Following the fun and frolics, someone asked me how easy it was to set up and what regulations they needed to be aware of. Of course in my excitment I forgot all about the Gaming regs in the UK! So I think technically I was breaking the law by not registering the raffle. Well when I say raffle I should really say lottery as people paid for the priviledge of taking part and the winning was completely random. I didn't have any 'raffle' tickets printed up just names printed on paper which were then popped into a basket and 'him on the sofa' had the task of the being the impartial paper picker.
In terms of the legalities the law is so bloody complex I'm surprised anyone would want to comply with it! So for the purposes of my raffle/lottery, call it what you will, I am suggesting it was a private lottery. A private lottery is a lottery that can take place within a workplace or other organisation. So I think that Twitter can be classed as another organisation. The tickets were sold only to people who were on Twitter or FB and all the takings from the lottery went to the charity fundraising. I couldn't see any guidance on the Gambling Commissions website about running a raffle via social networking sites so I just did it.
If anyone reading this is a police officer, a local authority licensing officer or a bod from the Gambling Commission and tell me I've broken the law then I'll hold up my hands and you can slap the handcuffs on me! Now that might be even more fun! hahaha
Well this is the year of the trek finally! The 17th March will whizz around really quickly and I'll be up them there mountains with my twitter friends as soon as you can say 'lace up yer hiking boots missus.'
The fundraising is gaining momentum at last and I am now at 61% of the target. I actually have to be at 80% in the next couple weeks so I'll be nagging, cajoling, throwing myself at people's feet and generally making a bloody nuisance of myself trying to get people to sponsor me. After all it's a great cause and if we can help to reduce the deaths of women in childbirth and pregnancy then I don't care how I prosititute myself to get my sponsorship!
If you are reading this and give a damn about maternal health then there are two ways you can help.
Firstly buy a raffle ticket (or two or more) for the online raffle that has some brill prizes donated through Twitter or donate to my JustGiving page . Either way you'll be doing your bit to help raise awareness of the need for governments to put maternal health higher up the agenda.
I thank you so much for reading this and if you have done so, for donating too.
Please watch this video which explains so much more eloquently than I can why your help is needed...
