Sunday 10 March 2019

Accounts 2: Money Money Money

As of today I have received a crowdfunded total of:

£8397 from kickstarter (in the window it was open last year) and 

£2976.98 via the paypal tip jar. 

£11,373.98 in total.

This is net of the fees that both Kickstarter and Paypal take. Gross, the total would be more than £12,500.
Bearing in mind I raised my crowdfunding aim from an initial £3000 to an insanely ambitious £12000 back in October, I am bowled over by everyone's generosity and I am happily fully-funded for the first two trials in this group litigation.
From the crowdfunded total of £11,373.98 I have already worked 21 days at a rate of £250 a day, totalling £5250.
These 21 days were spent covering the 15 day Common Issues trial, two case management conferences, a pre-trial review and three days before/during/after that trial dealing with admin, going through documents released by the court and writing up some extra posts for the blog.
The £250 day rate covers my travel, food, admin, insurance, tax and data expenses and the remainder goes towards feeding the family and paying the mortgage.
As of now I have:
£11,373.98 - £5250 = £6123.98 left in the kitty which means I can afford work another 24 days on this story.
The Horizon trial is scheduled to sit for 15 days. I have managed to do all the pre-trial work (save the days the court was actually sitting for case management conferences and pre-trial management) in my own time, so I have 9 days I can work when the trial is not sitting, or save for whatever comes after.
Basically - we are good. Thank you so very much for your generosity.
What does come after?
We know there will be at least one more trial which is currently scheduled to last four weeks in November.
At the first case management conference for that trial, the prospect of a fourth trial in March 2020 was discussed as a likelihood, rather than a possibility.
If I can and you want me to cover rounds 3 and 4 of this epic litigation plus the Horizon trial result and all the case management conferences inbetween, I will need to raise at least another £10K. 
It is therefore almost certain that at some stage in the latter half of 2019 I will go into full-on fundraising mode. If you have already given me some money, and you are thinking you might like to do so again - PLEASE WAIT until I send up the bat-signal and ask for your assistance. By that stage I will know how much cash I need to raise, and will have worked out the best way of doing it.
So why have you just added a paypal button to all your emails and blog posts eh, mister?
I am so glad you asked. There are a few reasons.
Firstly the PayPal tip jar on this website is not always visible. If someone is forwarded one of my emails and then clicks onto postofficetrial.com on their mobile phone, the tip jar cannot be seen. It can only be seen on the desktop version of the website.
It is entirely possible that some people have only ever followed this trial via emails which were forwarded to them or posted on a chat forum or whatever.
I'm more than happy for people to disseminate what I publish in any way they see fit, but some of the recipients of that information might themselves be minded to donate and join the secret email list themselves, or just chip in a fiver. If they want to do that, I should make it as easy as possible for them.
Secondly, someone emailed me the other day asking how they could donate, and I realised I could not actually send them a direct link by reply - I had to direct them to the website and hope they weren't reading my email on a mobile phone or they wouldn't see the PayPal button. If they were anything like me that is the point they would probably give up.
can send people my personal PayPal link (www.paypal.me/nickjwallis), but that only works for other PayPal users or people who can be bothered to set up a PayPal account.
So I thought - if I can get the PayPal button to work via email, then every time the email is forwarded, the button is put in front of a potential donor who can then donate with minimum fuss via card or PayPal. 
It means if you choose to forward my emails (and I would be thrilled if you would), you are not only getting the story of this litigation out there, you are putting the PayPal button potentially in front of hundreds of eyes.
If this has a significant effect - great - I don't need to do a big push later in the year. If not, there's no harm done.
Very good. What now?
We have the small matter of the Horizon trial starting and the Common Issues trial judgment being handed down in the same week. It's going to be busy.
Secret emailers will get a daily pre-trial briefing posted before 10.30am.
I will be live tweeting here throughout proceedings from 10.30am to 4.30pm. For those who remain wary of social media - you don't need to log in to read my twitter feed - just click on this link and you will be able to read what I write as I write it. Twitter is just another webpage. No logins required.
I will also collate my live tweets and post them up on postofficetrial.com immediately after daily proceedings finish.
I will also write up a daily report which I will post to postofficetrial.com and email to you afterwards before the end of each day. Unfortunately I can't guarantee the exact time, as it depends on my post-court commitments.
I also will post up the transcripts as I receive them.
And I will update the Horizon Trial Menu as each post goes up so you can easily navigate around.

Thanks.

Nick.

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