Supposed Code of conduct for Charity Collectors Employed by Total Fundraising (Chuggers)

I was sent these codes of conduct by the company that manages fundraising on behalf of all the organisations that are out there blocking and impeding your right of way, while using aggressive and unacceptable methods to extract your hard earned cash which they (the company Total fundraising.ie get a hefty slice of.  Collecting on behalf of charities has become a lucrative commercial activity for these companies.  The public need to be informed of this and local authorities are negligent not to have some measure of regulation regarding this kind of sharp practice.  

All complaints for this should be directed both to your local garda station because you are being obstructed on the footpath and also to Dublin City Council (or whatever council you are in) Domains Officer Dermot Johnson dermot.johnson@dublincity.ie

 

You can also send a complaint to the company that runs all these 'Chuggers' or on street charity collectors to:

Grainne Callan, Client Services, 

 

grainnecallan@totalfundraising.ie www.totalfundraising.ie

Any member of staff who breaches these, is subject to a disciplinary. To ensure these standards are being met, we have team leaders and coaches in place. On top of this we, along with our charity partners, frequently carry our mystery shopping activities.

 

Should you ever wish to report any behaviour by our fundraisers outside of these guidelines please do not  hesitate to contact us.

 

If I can assist you any way further please let me know.

 

Thank you,

Gráinne

 

 

Gráinne Callan

Accounts Executive – Client Services

 

IFFDR (Irish Fundraising Forum for Direct Recruitment) Abridged Code of Practice*

This Code of Practice concerns itself specifically with unsolicited personal approaches by charities to members of the public for regular support, that are undertaken as part of a fundraising campaign, whether house-to-house or in places of general public access.

1. We always inform the public about who we are employed by, who we represent and that we are paid (if this is the case). This is regardless as to whether the individual signs up or not, but must happen before any form is filled out.

2. We wear ID badges at all times so that the public can verify our names, who we are working for and on whose behalf we are fundraising.

3. We never ask for or accept cash, cheques or property, (except when permission has been granted by the Gardaí or relevant authority).

4. We always explain the long term, regular nature of the gift, and we always allow time for people to ask questions. We give a copy of the completed mandate form to the donor after they sign up.

5. We ensure that forms with personal details provided by donors are handled in a secure manner at all stages.

6. We ensure that particular caution is exercised when soliciting from vulnerable people.

7. We never mislead the public. We do not say anything, or behave in any way, which might bring our

employer, or any charity into disrepute. We remove all branded clothing/apparel when taking

breaks.

8. We never walk whilst talking with members of the public. We never follow the public to ATM

machines. We take care to ensure excessive forms of pressure/guilt are not used in conversation

with the public, or when trying to attract them.

9. We end the conversation in a polite and courteous manner as soon as we are asked.

10. We never say, do or display anything for which we have not been given permission by the charity.

11. We only intend to sign up people over the age of 18 years

 

12. We have a contact number/address to which supporters and the general public can send complaints

or queries. Complaints can be referred to any or all of the following parties:

 A Team Leader on the site The charity concerned (contact details below)

The Irish Fundraising Forum for Direct Recruitment (contact details below)

 

13. If a complaint is received, it is recorded and the complainant’s name and contact details are taken. We commit to ensure that the complaint is referred immediately to the organiser of the activity and that a response is given to the complainant within two working days.

14. We work in a group with other fundraising organisers to ensure avoidance of clashes and overburdening the public. We take great care to minimise congestion to members of the public and retail traders.

 

15. We do not obstruct ATMs, entrance points to retail premises or other buildings.

 

16. Where possible, we tell the public how the charity will communicate with them after subscribing and

if they are likely to receive a follow-up phone call we inform them of this.

17. We recommend that, where paid, fundraisers are remunerated in such a way as to minimise the

likelihood of undue pressure being placed on the public to donate.

18. We do not fundraise on the doorstep after 9pm.

Street and door-to-door fundraisers receive initial and ongoing training from the charity and from their fundraising organisation (where applicable). The quality and standards of their work is monitored and reviewed. Compliance with this Code of Practice is monitored through supervision and anonymous participation (sometimes called "mystery shopping") by both the charity and the organiser.

 

Free seminars in February 2012 with ienetwork.ie

Here are some of the free talks/seminars organised through the ienetwork.ie organisation.  

All events are FREE to attend.

There are two additions one on the 23rd and the other 28th.

The event I wish to publicise is the Motivational Talk with Sean McGowan, this will be a great talk.

The Tallaght stadium is a large venue and to make this a worthwhile event the network needs to behind events like this.

So if you have not already registered please do so ON-LINE REGISTRATION I look forward to seeing as many of you at this event. This event is open to the public so please spread the word, not only word of this talk but of the IE Network.

 

Wednesday 22nd February

The ABC to Starting in Business – Structures, Registrations, Bank Accounts, Records & Taxes

Facilitated by Paddy Purcell, Chartered Certified Accountant from ABC Accounts Tax & More.

Location: Firhouse Community Centre, Ballycullen Drive, Firhouse, Dublin 24

Registration 10:15 Talk Commences 10:30 Finishes 12:30

Paddy will be covering the choice of formats to run your business, what registrations are required with various organs of the state, how to open a business bank account, essential record keeping and a quick run through the types of taxes applicable to businesses and individuals.

The emphasis will be on answering your questions throughout the presentation.

On-line booking form Tea/Coffee/Biscuits

 

Thursday 23rd February

Time: 10:00 Location: County Library Tallaght

The Seven Habits review at Tallaght Library

This week we move to the Mornings at Tallaght Library, the good news is it comes with coffee and tea, same place the business book section, new time 10am.

This week we will be discussing Stephen R Coveys, Seven Habits of a Highly Effective and how to make a habit out of a philosophy.

Facilitated by Ronald Hughes of Contact Ignition.

 

Friday 24th February

- NOT TO BE MISSED Sean McGowan of B-Connect - Motivational Talk

  NOT TO BE MISSED ON-LINE REGISTRATION This is a talk that will inspire and will have you asking yourself if he can do that what is stopping me from fulfilling my potential and my dreams.

Location: Tallaght Stadium,

Date: Friday 24th February 2102 Registration: 10:00 Talk Commences : 10:30 Finishes: 12:30

As the first Irishman to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo, Sean McGowan has the grit and stubbornness to see his tech start-up vision realised. His talk and presentation will have you on the edge of your seat, this talk is definitely one not to be missed.

So book online and come along to hear a great story of the human spirit.

Booking is essential. Bring a friend or 2 along they will enjoy it.

ON-LINE REGISTRATION

 

Tuesday 28th February

Social Media an Overview

  Registration: 10:10 Start: 10:30

Finish: 12:30 Location: Study Room in the County Library Tallaght

This will be a talk which will give those who are looking to get there Social Media skills up and running. This will be an overview of Social Media covering Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google + and in it we hope to break down those fears and myths of using Social media.

From this talk we will then commence running the successful series of Social Media Means Business set of seminars again. So if you are thinking of getting using Social Media this is the best place to start.

This talk is limited to 20 places so please register on line using the link below.

ONLINE REGISTRATION "Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to achieve it." Dalai Lama

 

Jim Nolan  

IE Network Manager 

1^st Floor
Mainscourt
23 Main Street
Swords
Co. Dublin

M: 085 8506160
T:  01 8074482   
E: jim.nolan@ienetwork.ie

 

 

Free lunchtime lectures on the Economy in March @DCC Ilac centre library

The Irish Economy. What happened? What next?

Date:

1, 8, 15, 22, 29 March

Time:

1pm

Price:

Admission free. Booking essential

Location:

Central Library

Address:

Ilac Centre, Henry Street, Dublin 1

Audience:

All 

About this event:

A series of lunchtime talks taking place each Thursday in March at 1pm in the Central Library, ILAC Centre. The series addresses questions around the Irish Economy. How we have reached the point we are now at, what the policy of successive governments has been and what effect these policies have had. Contributors include noted economists, journalists and historians. The talks are in partial fulfilment of the library service’s mission to help inform, enrich, and empower library users by providing relevant information and ideas.

From independence to the IMF: the Irish economy and the forces that shaped it, 1922-2010

 Conor McCabe - Thursday, 1st March

Conor McCabe is a Labour historian and author. He holds a PhD in Irish History from the University of Ulster. A contributor to the Dublin Opinion blog he recently authored Sins of the Father: The decisions that shaped the Irish Economy which looks at the development of the economy from the foundation of the State to the IMF bailout. Described as “far and away the best … attempt to explain our economic collapse” it had garnered praise from pundits as varied as David McWilliams and Vincent Browne.

Austerity; time for a Plan B?

Michael Taft - Thursday, 8th March

Michael Taft is a political and economics researcher at Unite, the trade union. He blogs at notesonthefront.typepad.com andwww.progressive-economy.ie and is part of the TASC network of economists.

Ireland's Property Market - How did it come to this? And where to next?

Ronan Lyons - Thursday, 15th March

Ronan Lyons is probably best known as the resident economist atDaft.ie and is responsible for its quarterly report on Ireland’s residential sales and lettings markets. Ronan Lyons is an economist at Balliol College, Oxford, a Research Associate at the Spatial Economics Research Centre in LSE and a Visiting Researcher at the ESRI in Dublin.

He blogs at ronanlyons.com and recently co-edited Next Generation Ireland.

'The Irish banks and Eurozone stability: Learning from the past, looking  to the future'

Gregory Connor - Thursday, 22nd March

Gregory Connor is Professor of Finance at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.  He holds a PhD in economics from Yale and previously taught at the London School of Economics, the University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern University. Gregory blogs regularly on the Irish Economy website and has recently co-authored papers on the differences between the credit crises in Ireland and the U.S and on the cost of Ireland’s lax financial regulatory regime.

Anglo Irish Bank and the part it played in Ireland's economic collapse

Simon Carswell - Thursday, 29th March

Simon Carswell is Finance Correspondent with The Irish Times and has covered the banking sector since the start of the financial crisis. He is the author of two books, Something Rotten: Irish Banking Scandals, and Anglo Republic: Inside the bank that broke Ireland, which topped the bestsellers list in Ireland for several weeks and has been described as “a fascinating read for anyone interested in the present Irish crisis and how it unfolded”.

He is a regular contributor to television and radio, and won National Newspapers of Ireland Journalist of the Year award in 2011.

 

Booking: 01 873 4333 centrallibrary@dublincity.ie

Arts Council Project Award - Deadline March 29th

Arts Council Project awards - Deadline

Category: Award

Deadline: 29 March 2012 

Website: www.artscouncil.ie

Email: awards@artscouncil.ie

The Arts Council will offer the following Project Awards for activities commencing in 2012. 

*Arts Participation Project Award 

*Dance Project Award 

*Film Project Award 

*Music Project Award 

*Opera Project Award

*Street Arts and Spectacle Project Award 

*Theatre Project Award 

*Traditional Arts Project Award

*Visual Arts Project Award 

The Arts Council Project Awards support specific project activities under each of the above artform/arts practice
areas. 

The Award Guidelines for each award can be downloaded from the available funding section of the Arts Council's 
website. Applications will only be accepted through the Arts Council's online services website and all supporting 
material must be submitted online. Applicants who have not previously used this system must register in advance of making an application. 

 It is recommended that applicants allow five days for registration prior to making an application. The window for 
making an online application opens on 29 February 2012.

The awards are open to individuals and organisations. However, organisations in receipt of funding under any of the main 

Arts Council grant programmes (Regularly Funded Organisations, Annual Funding, Annual Programming Grant) will not 

be eligible to apply

Water, Water everywhere, but €70,000 to drink!

 Council splashes out €70,000 on staff water

 

8 Feb 2012 Irish Independent Mark O’regan

Cash-strapped Dublin City Council spent more than €70,000 on providing drinking water for its thirsty workers – last year spending €15,000 alone on bottled water..
The council spent more than €58,000 on water coolers, the Irish Independent has learned.
An unspecified sum was spent last year on providing bottled water for firefighters to “consume as required”.
The €58,620 paid to an unnamed contractor includes the servicing and sanitisation of all 61 water cooler units twice a year.
“Breakdown cover” is also included, along with replacement water cooler machines “in the event that a problem cannot be rectified on site”.
Filters are changed every two years and are due to be changed this year.
“In an age of austerity this is a disgraceful and flagrant waste of money, particularly when they’re talking about privatising water. The council should be leading by example and need to shape up,” said local councillor Mannix Flynn last night.
“Things like bottled water are catered for within the budget and delivered within the budget. We certainly don’t overspend on any of these kind of items,” a council spokeswoman said last night.
Meanwhile, Dublin City Council says it will reveal the financial details of its controversial deal with waste company Greyhound in the near future.
During a meeting of the local authority on Monday night, City Manager John Tierney said the council was in discussions with the private bin collection company to determine what details would be made available to council members.
“We're currently in discussions with Greyhound in relation to producing the contract details for members,” Mr Tierney said.

Private Water Costs at Dublin City Council - Public Money

Dublin City Council should lead by example and start drinking its own tap water, whats good for the goose is good for the gander.  It would save substantial amounts of money.  The same goes for all public buildings including Dail Eireann, how much are they drinking a year while we all pay for it????  

Lead by example.

 

Question to City Manager           City Council Meeting 06/02/2012

COUNCILLOR MANNIX FLYNN

Can the City Manager furnish me with costs incurred to Dublin City Council with

regards the provision of drinking water supplied by private companies to all its offices

including the Council Chamber.

 

CITY MANAGER’S REPLY:

Mains fed water coolers are used in Dublin City Council offices which are metered for

water usage and charged as other non domestic customers. Dublin City Council has

a contract in place for the service and maintenance of the 61 mains fed water coolers

located throughout the Civic Offices.

 

This service contract includes 2 (6 monthly) service and sanitisation of all units, with

parts checked as necessary. In addition breakdown cover is provided including

replacement machines, in the event that a problem cannot be rectified on site.

Filters are changed every two years and are due to be changed this year. The units

themselves have an initial purchase cost of €961 plus VAT.

 

Dublin City Council purchases bottled water in respect of the Fire Services where

bottled water is carried on a fire appliance for fire fighters to consume as required.

Bottled water is also purchased for the Wood Quay Venue. Some sites made

purchases of bottled water during 2011, where possible revised arrangements

have been made to switch to a mains fed supply. In some instances such as City

Hall (Chamber and Exhibition Area) and the Coroner’s Court, areas requiring the

provision of water for elected members or the public are not adjacent to a potable

water supply, typically fed to a kitchen area. In these instances the most appropriate

option for health and safety, and value for money purposes, is the provision of bottled

water coolers. €15,000 was spent on bottled water in 2011.

Monument or State instrument of closure?

The Ryan Commission to inquire into residential institutional child abuse made a recommendation that a memorial be erected.  It didn't state when and it didn't state where; it was merely a recommendation - a non-thought out process. Through the auspices of the OPW a committee was formed in recent years, which examined and took submissions and observations on the issue of the monument.  No public debate took place as to the appropriateness of such an enterprise and, given the fact that the Magdalene women are still fighting for justice, given that children who were abused in day schools are still demanding a hearing and the enormity of the issue of residential institutional abuse and given that the general issue of child abuse in Ireland has not been thoroughly investigated or examined, erecting a monument to those of us who were cruelly treated while in State residential institutions would be 'othering' us and separating us from other children who were abused in similar fashion in other settings. 

 

To add insult to injury, they wish to inscribe on this artistic monument the words of the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, the hollow acknowledgment of an apology.  This apology came well before the facts of the Commission to inquire were published by the then Judge Ryan. What we know now is that the State knew and all the political parties knew what was happening to those children in those places where there was no inspectorate and no regulation, no accountability and no responsibility.

 

It is my view, that a monument at this point, would be wholly inappropriate and would be a milestone that would close the issue down rather than opening the entire issue up to all society.  The issue of child abuse by religious congregations and with particular reference to Catholic ones is a global issue.  In America alone, there are 6,000 clerics under indictment. That's tens of thousands of children who have experienced horrendous cruelty.  It is more appropriate that acts of 'Truth' be spoken, that those who were wronged be supported and that society in general be made aware of the fact that society itself was essentially indifferent to what happened to its children, that it turned a blind eye and turned away and let these horrendous acts of inhumanity continue for decades.

 

In my view this memorial, if proceeded with, would constitute an act of 'othering' and indifference. In addition it would bring about a premature closure on events which still need to come under much greater scrutiny.  The issue of Clerical sexual abuse and institutionalised abuse is far from dead or over and it does not need at this time a headstone memorial for the cost of 500,000 euros. Time to get it right. Let's begin the process to get this right.

 

Throughout the length and breath of Ireland there are many structures on the landscape that recall our memory and our trauma, they are the remains of many of the industrial schools, reform schools and Magdalene laundries.  For instance at Letterfrack we have the National Park which is where thousands of children were enslaved to hard labour.  St Josephs' industrial school is now the Connemara furniture college.  In Limerick the School of Art and Design now on Clare Street is housed in the Good Shepherd Magdalene Laundry, Industrial School etc and Waterford DIT was formerly a Magdalene laundry workhouse.  These are just a few of the examples of what took place in Irish society in its towns villages and cities.  Their histories at local levels are far more important a legacy to the traumatic events that befell peoples lives than some societal sentimentalised expression through a meaningless monument.  With all due respects to the artists involved, I would appeal to them to reconsider the implications of such an endeavour and pull back until such time as we have thoroughly investigated all these matters and brought out the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the honest truth and collectively taken ownership and responsibility of that and for what happened.

 

It is far better to do something actual and meaningful that can be valued in the present than some unnecessary public monument to a still, by and large uninterrogated, uninvestigated event. This process needs outsiders and independent thinkers to examine without fear or favour these crimes.  We cannot be charged with investigating ourselves or deeming what is an appropriate or inappropriate way of acknowledging our history.  Remember the old saying 'history is always written by the victors' it's time now to challenge this and not let it be so, that in itself could be a step in the right direction towards a fitting tribute to the tens of thousands of children's lives that were trampled upon by the State its agents and servants and the Church, its agents and servants and an indifferent society.

 

In an effort to keep this debate open I have submitted the following motion which will hopefully be debated tonight at 6.45pm  you can watch live from here http://www.dublincity.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/72867

   “That Dublin City Council calls on President Michael D. Higgins to begin the process to expunge the criminal records of all individuals convicted and detained as minors within residential institutions as defined by the commission to inquire into child abuse in residential institutions. 

And further, that it calls on the present government to fast-track the legislative framework and advice necessary for the president to carry out same .

 

Thousands of children were criminalised by courts through-out the Republic of Ireland. In many cases these children had no legal representation and never received due process and were subsequently incarcerated for many years in what are now known as Ireland's Residential Institutions.  In keeping with righting these grave injustices, I believe it is now time to begin the process of removing these children's criminal records. This act would be a far more fitting tribute of acknowledgment of the wrongs and damage done to tens of thousands of Irish citizens than the proposed monument to ‘victims’ of residential institutional abuse as proposed by the present Government.