|  | For many people the word cult conjures up images of mass suicides, new world orders and zealots dancing round a fire naked. What you probably wouldnt associate with it is the carrying out of good deeds each and every Friday ("Good Fridays") just to make the world that little bit better.
Well thats exactly the aim of Join Me, a collective started simply because its Leader was slightly bored one day and decided to put an advert in the Local Paper, an advert just saying "Join Me send a passport sized photograph to this address
.". Thus began an international rally to gain support for a cause which not even the cults elusive leader initially understood.
 |  |  |  | | Meet the Notts Karma Army - click on any of the images to find out what they do! |
Since that day Join Me has gained a following of thousands from countries all over the world, with members all following the Good Friday Agreement, all making the world a better place to live, in many different ways.
The man behind Join Me, known exclusively by his title as "The Leader", is journalist and author Danny Wallace. Some of you may already know him as the co-author of Are you Dave Gorman? the epic story of how a bet escalated into a worldwide search for people with the name Dave Gorman. Join Me is his second outing as an author, the story of how he gained the first 1000 thousand members of the group.
Here Danny helps us to understand a little more about his cause and tells us why exactly he wants you to join.
How many members do you now have, and how many are from Nottingham?
I've now got well over 4000 lovely joinees, each one of them a proud and noble warrior of goodness. Sadly, I'm not sure how many of them call Nottingham home - but I'm hoping that it will prove a fruitful recruiting ground...
What do you believe your members gain from being a part of the Join Me collective?
Different people gain different things. What I can tell you is, before I asked people to start doing random acts of kindness every Friday, I'd thought the people who would benefit would be the people you were doing the good deed for. In actual fact, turns out it's a 50/50 split, and the people doing the deed feel much better afterwards. It's weird. It's almost like it's nice... to be nice.
What activities have Join Me been up to since the release of the book?
Loads of stuff... tens of thousands of good deeds, done in funny ways, to slightly bemused people. The look on a pensioner's face when you hand them a helium balloon is a thing of joy. It should be on mugs and dinner plates across the land. Apart from that, joinees have been meeting up and getting drunk across the land - from Glasgow to Dublin to Cardiff to Oxford to the Isle of Bute and back... and it's great that that's happening. Check out www.joinme.info for news on meets in Nottingham...
What singular act of goodwill by a member would you pinpoint as being your favourite?
That's like asking a father to choose his favourite child. Every one of them is special in its own special way.
What do you believe to be the future of Join Me?
The next step is taking the Karma Army to America, to launch the American Karma Army (aka AKA)... through simple slogans we will penetrate the American mindset. "Don't mug me! Hug me!" is one I believe will be particularly effective in combating street crime.
Have you any message for the people of Nottingham ?
Yes. Join Me. ------ Meet some members of the Nottinghamshire Karma Army.
For further details on how to join or just to find out more go to www.join-me.co.uk. |
