Break it down, oh oh oh oh oh oh

Its nice to know that you work with a group of smart, intelligent people who obviously have waaay too much time on their hands.

Suggestions revolved around group perfomances - including tin whistles and doing the hammerdance on demand. I suspect more funds will be raised by encouraging me to stop rather than continue ...

Who knows, Grantham St could look like this around noon on December 3:

not helpful

I mentioned this idea last night to Maura. Over the course of the evening, she proposed a number of suggestions, none of which were helpful. Oh, she said, you could sit for 24 hours. Or stand for 24 hours. Or not touch any buttons. Or not talk about football. Or sit in a bathful of beans. Or stand at the corner of Grantham St and Camden St and sing Oklahoma.

de committee

The first member of the select committee is Jim Howe. Jim generated significant comment last year when he abstained from speaking for 24 hours, raising serious sponsorship income [income which could have been increased by a factor of 5 if Jim agreed to continue to not talk, but there ya go]. Jim works for Concern's in house direct dialogue team.

Committee member 2 is Maura Corry. Maura is critical to the success of this little enterprise as she probably knows better than most what I am, and more importantly, amn't capable of doing for 24 hours. Her CV includes executive recruitment, public service staff training, university lecturing, nannying, primary school teaching and yacht sail making. I am her current husband.

Michael Doorly is, according to LinkedIn, an arts and crafts professional in Sydney, Australia, which might explain why he looks tired in the morning. Hell of a commute. During the day, he runs Concern's active citizenship team, which makes him responsible for the organisation's secondary school debates competition, public campaigning and general radicalness.

The final committee member is John Fleming. John is CEO of Sightsavers in Ireland and the brother of the weatherman who winks at you. What more reason does one need?

Democracy in action

Right. We can all fast for 24 hours. Some of us can even stopping talking for a day (extreme respect, Jim). What I'd like to do for this year's Concern Fast is to make the whole thing a tad more democratic ...

If you reading this, its because you know me in some way (or know someone who knows me) and I'd like you to suggest something that I should stop doing for 24 hours.

I've appointed a hi-level committee of four individuals - see the next post - who've agreed to review any suggestions made and prepare a short list (suggestions by November 13; shortlist by November 20). People can then vote on what they want me to give up, and I pledge to honour this decision.

You may think this is dangerous and, frankly, I admit to being a little nervous.

Be warned that this is a fundraising event and I intend to aggressively pursue all funding avenues (unless, of course, you decide that I should stop fundraising for 24 hours).

Feel free to send this on to anyone you feel would be interested ...