Volunteers and the Class Action(s)
Some people have asked how they can help in speeding up the class action(s),
either because they have an interest in the result or just because they want South
Africa to be a better place.
One solution is to help Dr Shaw in the other things he has to do to give him more
time to spend working on class action documents. Some people have contributed
over the years and this definitely has speeded things up. Some of these things are
directly related to the class action, others may bring in income that means that Dr
Shaw doesn’t need to spend time on other cases in order to make ends meet.
Some of these skills can be professional, others can be amateur, it all helps.
We have talked to Dr Shaw and the class action team about what kind of skills would
be helpful, and this is what we have come up with.
Please also say how many hours per week you will be able to put in. Depending on
the task, it may not be feasible if it’s less than a few hours a week as the cost of us
to co ordinate
Some people, on the other hand, have worked with us to get work experience at full
time or almost full time and it has been mutually beneficial.
The areas we have thought of are publicity, social media,
- Publicity
Articles in the press and appearances on TV help to get class action members and
also put pressure on the banks and other class action respondents. If you have
done professional public relations, first prize but if you are able simply to contact
various journalists on the phone and talk to different ones about different angles after
reading up a bit or chatting to our clients to co ordinate them with journalists then
that is also important. - Social Media
We already have some social media but there is always ways to improve it. If you
are an expert on social media and think you can extend our profile, then that would
be welcome. If you know how to promote kindle, improve web site performance,
google ads, facebook business page, etc, etc, then your volunteering will help us a
lot.
We also need a site set up so that people can gift to our causes/class actions if they
want to. - Academic Research
Much of Dr Shaw’s PhD needs to be converted into academic papers and published.
Other research needs to be done in the areas he is an expert on for the benefit of
clients and the country as a whole. He is looking for a partner who has produced
academic work to collaborate in getting work published. This involves becoming
aware of the journals and being able to write and rewrite academically, so probably
with a masters or a doctorate.
- Other Factual Research
For some class actions we need a lot of factual research in areas written up in a
professional way. Right now its municipalities and their failings but we also interested
in credit bureaux, debt collectors, crime and, of course, banks. If you can improve
or expand on documents that Dr Shaw has written, that is helpful. - Editing
Research and legal documents often needs to be edited. Professional editors are
especially welcome, but even people that can point out where lines of argument
aren’t clear or can provide professional footnoting and check for relevance are very
helpful. Spelling and grammar is to some degree provided by word nowadays but it
is not 100%. - Legal
This is quite an obvious one but if you are legally trained and can actually draft legal
documents and contribute that to the cause, then that would help a lot. If you have a
lot of experience of litigation and might know the answers to questions we don’t on
occasions then if you can help us with your wisdom when needed then that is very
useful. - Administration
This is perhaps the role that the most people can do. This involves things that are
the normal business of life like arranging dental appointments, doing internet
searches, phoning people to find out things and when things will be ready. - Story Writing
If you have ever written stories professionally especially if you have had a book
published then you may be able to help in our project to help develop Dr Shaw’s
existing fiction works and his plans to tell the story of our banks, the class action and
other class actions as they develop as well as other areas. - Accounting
Accounting is very time consuming. If there are people that can help with this, then
that will free up time. Analysing our spending and returns. Preparing documents for
tax results. - IT: Programming
We need some help with a program to ask legal multiple choice questions which has
kind of get stuck, if you can do that. - IT: Maintenance
If you are an IT fundi and can solve problems that we can’t just with google, then that
would definitely help. - Manging the Above
Keeping track of all the tasks necessary for a class action practice dealing with the
media regularly and involving considerable research is in itself a times consuming
task. Management experience can help make sure nothing falls through the cracks
and everything gets done as efficiently as possible. - Recruiting the Above Roles
If you are not the above person but you know some people that have abilities and
would be willing to volunteer then if you can persuade or cajole then that helps us as
much as if you did the work yourself!Volunteering