For many years, I supported the Twitter Blanket Drive across South Africa. While I lived in Johannesburg, I joined people on Twitter by encouraging people to donate blankets. Many of the people I had met at various Tweetups over the years made donations and supported the tweets. The community was strong and committed. And in 2016, I, along with Alan Straton, hosted the first Twitter Blanket Drive in the Eastern Cape, and more specifically in Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage, or Nelson Mandela Bay.
Melanie Minnaar, the founder of what she now calls TBDAfrica, also spoke at one of my Tweetups in Soweto once. She is a very smart and passionate marketing professional, originally from East London, living in Johannesburg. In recent years, she appointed a national co-ordinator for this annual blanket drive campaign, Merentia van der Vent, from Cape Town.
Since I moved back to South Africa after two years in Beijing, I once again offered to host the Twitter Blanket Drive in Nelson Mandela Bay. Since I offered to register their trademark, as well as a non-profit company, and host their website for the next 3 years as a sponsor. The website had been neglected for some time due to a dispute with someone called Attie van der Linde. Apparently, he refuses to “give up” control of the domain or website or both.
From Merentia Van Der Vent
Date: 12 May 2018
Thanks for hosting in the Eastern Cape.
I have joined Melanie in the burnout/fatigue/breakdown/adrenal fatigue/body breakdown club. That’s why I had to leave my previous job, where I was literally doing the jobs of 4 people, and this year they wanted to add a 5th job (TV channel Christian news) to my workload, and if I had stayed, I was going to end up in a mental institution, I felt. That work excluded the TBD and my social media events, which also added more to my life load.
Attie owns the TBD website, and he won’t relinquish it, so you should contact him directly. I’m not having that conversation with him, but if you can, that would be great.
#TBD2018 kicks off this week. Logos are being finalised this weekend and will be sent out soonest I have them. I can’t find hosts for Joburg and Pretoria, and the Protea Hotels up there last year were giving the hosts too much flak that I don’t think they’ll be involved this year. I’ve asked for no responses as of yet. The hosts also, during the campaign, either withdrew due to the hotel’s behaviour/attitude or hosted in their own venues.
Durban and the West Coast are on board again this year.
The Cape Town event will happen, but vastly scaled down. Collections by our local #TBDChampions (collecting over at least 50) started last month, already behind the scenes.
My number is 074 181 7899. I don’t pick up a lot of calls as life really gave me a battering. If I could, I would run away for a year and go live on an island alone and no contact with the world, but I can’t, so I’ve started rebuilding the body program with a doctor/homoeopath, and apparently, this is a long-term thing.
Thank goodness my new job understands, and I just go in to work and leave on time, no overtime (most days at least)
- I respond to all WhatsApps in time as soon as I can.
- I “gave up” social media-ing 2 years ago, so only making a small comeback now.
- #TBD2018 concludes end of June. Last Thursday for events. Last weekend if was no event.
- Any other questions, holler at me on WhatsApp.
- It’s great to have you on board again 🙂
— Transcript Ends —
Related