Thank you.

posted by David Doe, 4 Apr 2010
As a large portion of the world celebrates the first Sunday after the first full moon after the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox, a time traditionally spent celebrating the rebirth of the Sun and the day's renewed dominance over the night - a time seen as a period of thanks and renewal, I want to take the opportunity to give some thanks of my own.

The Gamers4Croydon journey started out very small, and while I'm sure that my friends were placating me and what seemed like an incredibly silly idea, to those early few; Cathy (Smeggette), Scott (ThinkNo), Kevin (sherx), Adam (K1L3RB) and Jim (JRepeat); Thank you! If it weren't for your initial confidence and support, Gamers4Croydon would never have happened.

Over time, we've managed to develop something of a working relationship with the press, but the gaming press in particular was generally keen to print something about our journey. From ScreenPlay's Jason Hill, to TOG's BookBuster, AustralianGamer's George and Luke, the team at Good Game, Richie from GameArena, GameSpot, Ethan from GamersRequest, Bennett and the gang at games.on.net, and the legendary David Wildgoose of Kotaku AU whose timely column on the morning of the first sign-up event way back in early November almost singlehandedly made Gamers4Croydon possible - they all had a hand to play in our success. To the guys and gals of the gaming press, thank you! If it weren't for your coverage and exposure to larger audiences, Gamers4Croydon would never have happened.

When I started Gamers4Croydon, I was told that in order to register as a political party, I would need to sign up 150 electors to say that they would not only be a member of the party, but that they would vote for us at the coming election. To all of our 800+ members nationally, but particularly those 241 South Australian members who were part of our initial lodgment with the Electoral Commission - You either came to a sign-up event of your own volition, had me knock your door in Croydon (thanks for the beer that day, Karen) and explain the aims of the party, or had me or another member badger you at a barbecue; Thank you. Without your implied support for the party to the Electoral Commission, Gamers4Croydon would never have happened.

Something of a point of pride for me personally is the grass-roots nature of Gamers4Croydon. With zero corporate money coming into our coffers, I can hand on heart say that every piece of electioneering material, advertising, merchandise and administrative costs were completely paid for by the community itself. As a group, we raised over $16000 (and probably spent more than that) towards the cause. It needs to be said that every donation (From $5 to $500) played a part in our success at the polls, no matter how large or small, because by the end, much like every vote, every dollar counted. To everyone who donated their hard-earned; Thank you! Without your contribution, no matter the size, Gamers4Croydon would never have happened.

Our volunteers made our party the success that it is. We had volunteers from almost day one, the earliest of which was Zoran, quite literally limping around the eGames expo in Melbourne handing out our first sequence of fliers while he was on crutches. There are almost too many people to thank, because we all made an effort somehow. To everyone who told a friend, re-tweeted us on Twitter, invited friends to join on Steam, got on Facebook and spread the word, came to any of our events, wore our badges, bought our merchandise, displayed our bumper-stickers, forwarded our emails, changed your avatar, commented positively and shared their goodwill; Thank you! Without everything you did, Gamers4Croydon would never have happened.

Election Day was always going to be interesting, and our special host of how-to-vote cards volunteers made it even more so. From dressing as Sailor Moon, to driving hours to get to Croydon itself, to getting drafted with a night to go (thanks Erin!), but mainly just for being there and taking part; Thank you! Every vote we garnered outside our demographic and by the simple fact that you were there helped set the stage for our successes on the day.

A few very quick mentions to a host of people whose input changed the way we were able to interact with the populace at large, and without whom, we would have seen a very different Gamers4Croydon.

To the StreetGeek team, who not only gave rise to the line "church-based activities" for most of our candidate bios, and indeed gave us most of our candidates, but who gave us time at multiple LANs to proselytize (and stay sane); Thank you!

To Lee Gaywood and the team at Unlimited Space who gave us free hosting and answered my many, many tech-support related enquiries, generally quite late at night and with me sounding like not having email was the world coming to an end; Thank you!

To Stephen Rangott for making the How-To guides for the parental controls on the PS3 and XBOX - I know they must have been boring to make; Thank you!

To Tim Jupe for giving us access to his home studio, his expertise and his photoshop, to get our fantastic campaign corflute photos done; Thank you!

To Lee Harriss for giving us a website that not only didn't make people cringe as soon as they saw it (as my effort before his surely did), but for providing us the sexy framework to give people access to information we thought was important; Thank you!

To Katie for covering more ground than anyone else in Croydon while letter-dropping our fliers; Thank you!

To that one guy who said that he didn't know who Gamers4Croydon was before he went into the poll booth, but googled us and found out that what he thought we were about was right; Thank you!

To Bob, Tim, Jason, Matt, Alan and everyone else who got their hands dirty (from the cheap ink) while letter-dropping, Thank you!

To the girls at Officeworks Croydon, I don't think photocopying has ever been as much fun as you helped make it; Thank you!

To Julian (FunkyJ) for always having something positive to say, and for always asking the tough questions ahead of the press; Thank you!

To Eggs, for braving the steps of parliament house and edging into as many photos as possible; Thank you!

To Sandy Biar for the stimulating conversation, the heads-ups, the polite rivalry, the understanding, the information on the process; Thank you!

There are a few very special mentions for some very special contributors to Gamers4Croydon that need to be recognized. These aren't in any order, but they are all incredibly significant and without any of these people helping as much as they did, this whole effort, this whole party, this whole movement would never have happened.

To Rupert (Stinky) for single-handedly inviting almost every South Australian on Steam to the G4C group. Who custom-made our email widgets to spec in his spare time, who always had something positive to say, no matter the situation; Thank you!

To Adam Rudd, Gamers4Croydon's principle artist. Without Adam's selfless help and ongoing (often nightly) contributions, we wouldn't have had our logo, any of our fliers, our how-to-vote cards, our merchandise, our website looking so slick, our advertisements or any of a hundred other things that I asked him to provide, and he did it all with his trademark upbeat attitude, and all over the phone via teleconference between Melbourne and Adelaide. Adam, thank you!

To my parents, for not only giving me permission to use your "Office" as the Gamers4Croydon office, however 'mysterious' Channel 7 might have thought it was, but for feeding me, providing financial aid and giving me space in your house to run the campaign for the entirety of January. Though I was a long way from home, you made the transition into full-time campaigning much easier; Thank you!

To Granma, for giving me space in your house to run the campaign from February to March, and for reminding me that a lot of people think there are only two parties; Thank you!

To Matt Allpress, Tom Birdseye and Ben Ernst, for being our candidates for Light, Adelaide and Mawson, for taking part, for ponying up the cash to run as a candidate, for the beers, for the badges, for handing out how-to-vote cards on the day, for the lols; Thank you!

To David Egge, for being there from the start, for being our candidate for Norwood, for always offering to do the hard yards, for the pizza, for the movies, for Firefly, for the d20s; Thank you!

To Kat Nicholson, for coming forward and offering to take a stand with us, for being the Croydon candidate in good humour, for seeking your own media, for heading out to the election panels, for the fliers, for the corflutes, for being the 'face', for challenging the status quo; Thank you!

To Chris Prior, for getting in my face that first sign-up day and forcing your way into being an integral and irreplaceable part of the party, for doing all the things I didn't want to do, for the reams and reams of paperwork you made me read (or read for me and gave me the gist of), for taking the 'truthiness' out, for getting press, for literally beating down the press' door, for knowing the rules, for making sure that I knew the rules too, for the countless hours dropping letters, watching photocopiers, folding fliers, licking envelopes, keeping morale high, for the uber-charges, for the late night and early morning chats, for guiding the process just as much as I was, for keeping me sane, for updating the website, for putting up with me not updating the website, for the shared cynicism, for the laughs, for the policies, for the ideas, for the interviews, for being a friend and for being the best candidate we could have possibly fielded (proven by getting 7934 votes -so far- in the Legislative Council); Thank you!

The final person I need and want to thank is my wife, Nicci. Nicci let me take time off from my real life to go off on this crusade. While I was away from home, Nicci looked after our house, did renovations, paid all of our bills, tended the garden, organized a holiday and never uttered a word about the inconvenience of not having her husband at home or the financial burden of my not pulling a wage. She was a constant source of support and inspiration and without her understanding, without her love, without her unceasing and unflinching support of the idea what was Gamers4Croydon, I can safely tell you all, that Gamers4Croydon would never, ever, have happened. Thank you, Nicci, none of this would have been possible without you!

I mentioned before that this time of year was traditionally seen as a sign of renewal and rebirth. Here's to looking forward and to being positive about the future. Together, we've planted the seed of something special. Let's nurture it into something extraordinary.

My name is David Doe, and if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be a Gamer4Croydon.



TL;DR - Thank you.