EFVI UK was set up in late February in an attempt to assist EFVI-EU with a dedicated Facebook feed page
https://www.facebook.com/efviuk?ref_type=bookmark and Twitter feed
https://twitter.com/EFVI_UK In the beginning this was manned by approximately 5-6 volunteers .
As time progressed it was decided that an EFV-UK support group (also based on Facebook) should be established to further our efforts. This was done in late March and currently is comprised of 32 members, who offer a vast array of talent - this is a closed group and membership by invitation only.
Many ideas have manifested over the months but some key events are most notable:
EFVI Launched 25/11 BUT delayed start (due to the EU-which is in the process of a challenge) until 12/1/14
VTTV(
Live Broadcast) began promoting EFVI in late February with assistance from the UK based forums. A massive surge of up to 1000 signatures per day, at its peak, were collected. This probably accounts for the majority of potentially active UK forum members signatures - by the end of March though, signatures had expectedly started to drop.
Implementation of the Dodo-Box Scheme began. This is a way of collecting signatures in a purpose made, small, cute box used in bricks and mortar shops. The Dodo-Box in the UK was introduced with minimal delay on 10/4/14 . This idea with its specially tailored signature sheets(12on an A4 sheet)has proved very successful and popular with vendors and customers alike ,5700 signatures were collected in the first operating month of the scheme.
500 Dodo-boxes were introduced to the 623 bricks and mortar shops and 48 market stalls around the UK - because the initial intention was to assist other countries in collecting signatures, a fund-raising scheme was introduced to collect funds for a further 1000 boxes. We were able to raise an additional £2000 in just 3 days time to fund the additional boxes
Current countries assisted by the UK Dodo Box scheme include Ireland, Portugal, Denmark, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Italy, and Sweden . Design assistance has also been provided for the various language differences and Dodo-boxes have been redesigned for different nations. The close collaboration between EU countries has been a heartening sign over the last few months.
Currently signature collections were being fuelled by online forums, various promotions by retailers, independent bloggers, twitter bomb campaigns and word of mouth. Vapers from all over the EU have collaborated together in a series of smaller online events to help raise awareness and bring in signatures.
Two other methods exist to collect signatures but still need further work:
on-line vendors
street collections similar to what they are doing in Spain
Because of the complexity of local laws, before anyone can collect signatures in the street or public areas, they must investigate their local laws to ensure they are in compliance.
Anyone interested in helping Efvi in the UK please pm ,contact by e-mail
dodobox@efvi-uk.co.uk or visit and post here on Fb
https://www.facebook.com/efviuk?ref_type=bookmark
