We had a few complaints from shopkeepers on the 15th I recall. Too much noise or summat. We also had a bit of support, with my mate chatting to one woman and me talking to Che Jules guy who was pretty sound.

I reckon it might be worth informing 'em beforehand that we're protesting (if the police haven't) just to keep things creamy good with everyone, keep up the support and mebbe even explain why we're protesting.

That way, due to cunningness, they might not only tell their customers why we're protesting, but we might even get support in the way of fliers and posters in a few of the shops, as I heard that one or two shopkeepers were also weary of the scilons.

If no-one else is up for it, I'll do it a week beforehand, with maps and numbers and lol. (number withheld, naturally).

Any thoughts?

That is a hell of a good idea.

Why don't i ever think of awesome win like this?

+5 Internets for Cranon

^ What they said.

So it's not a crap idea... good to know. I need to atone for Fail Speech anyhow...

Another thing worth thinking about is some kind of contact thing. Naturally we don't want anyone giving away their real names or addy's or anything, but something like what Ash did with the police, making a new email addy for contact with people and to adress concerns and whatnot. If anyone has a decent email for correspondances that they might use, that may help 'cause I might not be the best person for the job. I can come accross as a bit abrupt at times.

Still, if no-one else is up for it, I'll make a new addy for ueries and I'll use it to keep everyone updated on these forums on the local thoughts of local people.

Problem is, I don't want to go round tell various anon that they "need to keep the noise down" or "not to stand in such and such place" as too many rules will defy the point of the protest. I'd have to make it clear that we're within our rights, and while we'll do our best to accomodate as many requirements as possible, the protest itself is important. I don't want a limp wristed pointless protest that's scared to upset anyone.

More thoughts plx?

I thought failspeech was good... But there we go.

I think we should take a "firm but gentle" approach to the local shops:

We have a right to protest, We're exercising our right, because we believe CO$ is bad. This a letter to inform you of our next protest date, as we want to minimise disruption to surrounding businesses.

Feel free to check out what we're doing at *linky:brumanon* and *linky:enturb*.

Many Thanks

Anonymous.

Or something to ^that effect. I believe the first sentence is crap. Please rephrase?

How would we email all the businesses? Not all businesses would be locally email-able. I think flyers are a better idea.

Nahhh, what I meant was, use the email after the phonecall. For instance "Hello, blah blah blah, protest. If you have any enquiries, [internet link] or [email addy]. Please let us know your concerns and we will do our best to address them blah blah, we're awesome, bye".

Something like that,

However, local fliers are also another good idea, only problem is I don't want scilons emailing us with false worries to create drama that doesn't exist for the purpose of making us look gay. Unlikely, but I'm pretty tinfoil hatty when it comes to this stuff. It's a small risk, but if everyone's okay with it then it's worth doing.

I think, definately, we should ensure they are aware, and, within reason, we should do our best not to inconvenience them. I had an employee from the Cafe ask me if the music would be going on for long, as it was disturbing their clients (this was when it had been played loudly for a few songs in a row). As it happened, the music stopped soon after anyway, so it may be seen by them that we'll try not to disturb their business too much.

yup, let's get on their good sides. I remember the tea shop offered us a free cuppa on Saturday. I politely refused as I didn't wan't to have to disappear for a widdle.

If we get local shop keepers on side, its defn. in our best interests

All good ideas, especially phoning them up before hand to give them an email addy is excellent.
I'll suggest adding that if something is becoming a problem in relation to the protest, to come talk to us and we'll hopefully reach a compromise. We are reasonable anon :)

Crossposting, perhaps a better audio system is in order. It's possible that the complaints come to being because of the horrible feedback we were generating.

2 Cents worth.......

Firm but gentle is good but one might consider being wary of asking for their concerns in any communication. Should a shopkeeper have a concern, and it may not actually be reasonable, and Anon effectively then ignore it the storekeeper could have a real old grouch to our detriment. Who knows but a storekeeper may even sympathise with the culties.

Much better I think to be plainly and simply informative having consideration for their business but take anonuk323's suggestion of if there is something specific on the day then just come and talk to us and we would be very happy to discuss it. I would not mention in an email the word 'compromise', whilst one may well do so on the day it seems to me that there is little advantage to be gained by saying up front Anon will compromise, it sort of suggests that we almost expect to annoy them - if you see what I mean.

Anon are going to protest and have a right to do so, there may well be no concerns other than the hardy annual of inevitable noise so why seek them out in advance. The anon after all will always be considerate on the day.

Hope I've not said too much

Bruce.

The easiest way to appease the shopkeepers is to go and provide our patronage in order to atone for any potential lost business, I believe.

Should we email the surrounding businesses, cafe rouge and vie baguettes, and apologise for any inconvenience but gently remind them we will be back and is there anything we can do to minimize disruption?

I think a slew of e-mails and things like that is a bad idea. If we keep reminding them of our presence they will be more annoyed than before; I think.

I think just being polite and accommodating on the day is good, and making sure there are always clear paths available into the establishments.

Thoughts?

Better.
much better.

I think notifying rouge and Baguettes in advance may be usefull... Rouge make an awesome Hot chocolate (avec cointreau), As for baguettes, good for a snack between caeks? It would be nice if we could be served in these places whilst still masked...

*edit* Snack, not snake <_<

Not bad. There's a lot of us as-well, if we tell the shopkeeps they might get sum extra business because of us (buying snacks, etc) they might be moar willing.

If we notify them in advance as well, they may not have a problem with serving us masked.

Perhaps a (short explanatory) leaflet drop at local shops on Fri 11/4 if there is anyone local to Brum centre ?

I agree with letting them know in advance, as, as previously stated, they may agree to serve us whislt masked. We'd provide them with custom on the day, as it would be convenient for us whilst protesting, and would more than likely make up for any loss to business our protests may incur.

I'll draw up a leaflettish letter, shouldn't take too long.

EDIT: I'll post it here for criticism/approval when it's ready.

Okay anon, how does this sound?

Please add/remove/criticise.

The "hold concern" bit sounds ... I dunno, sinister.

Maybe

Also maybe provide a link to a section about Fair Game? We are here after all to educate the public, and maybe also provide the brumanon.co.uk address (kudos to the anon who bagged that :) )

Good point, I'll reword it to

Will do.

Second draft:

when dealing with the sandwich shop behind the protest, i was polite and even got them to stick fliers on their counter ;) just shows manners go a long long way.

A suggestion would be to have representatives from anon go around the stores we may be impacting upon to hand them the above drafted letter and speak with anyone who is concerned by our presence. From my expirence in customer service I feel it'd be more effective than just giving them a sheet of paper that'll get ignored, lost, et al.

I'm not saying these anon should be unmasked, tho it would be good for face to face relations, perhaps a small mask/bandanna?

Just a thought.

A half mask would do nicely in that situation.

Final draft of the letter to the shopkeepers in PDF form, for whichever anon goes in:

http://www.maj.com/gallery/anonsrus/Bruman...shopkeepers.pdf

If there's any problems, do sound the alarm and I'll edit and reupload.

Not really important, but try to keep abbreviations out:

If you’re interested in what we’re doing, please feel free to visit www.brumanon.co.uk.

Change you're to you are

Same goes for we're. (No, not to "you are", silly. To we are!)

Edited, and pdf link updated.

Quick bump, do we have anyone that's going to take these letters by and talk to the shopkeepers for a few minutes?

OK, I went around the shops and eateries around ethel street/victoria square end of new street and talked to them about the protest, and also handed them the letter by anonsrus.

Everyone was OK about the protest (although some did look a little bemused), and were grateful about being informed in advance.

Some things to bear in mind on the day;

1) Please don't block off the whole street and keep the shop fronts clear
2) If you do go into a shop and they ask you to take your mask off, please do so; although there were a few shopkeeps who were OK with the masks, most wanted them removed as you enter the shop, so please do that for all.

One shopkeep also pointed out she didn't know if we were scientologists having a party or we were seriously protesting against them; I think it would be a very good idea that an anon or two make up some large signs with "Global protest against the Church of Scientology" to post at either end of the protest to get around this.

Another shopkeep noted that the lawyers in the same building as the CoS weren't too happy with the noise last time, so I'll try to mail them the letter; since there seem to be a fair few offices in the building, what do anon think to me mailing a half dozen addressed "To the buildings manager" or similar, with a covering letter asking them to distribute the letter to all in the building? I'm aware the CoS would also get a letter, but I kinda think they already know about it ;)

Good idea. I had already made a poster before reading this thread to let people know. I suppose it mite not have much use now but here it is anyway:

http://shup.com/Shup/33149/anon.pdf

If anyone wants the Anon "logo" in a vector format let me know.

If the letter gets to the CoS, it's kinda funny telling them we'll supply our patronage. A redraft is necessary, methinks.