It’s been another week of seeing the effect of YnyFro.com – mainly, that new people have been getting in touch with us and offering practical support, something that hasn’t happened for at least two years. A number of extremely worthwhile people have contacted us, and it’s looking hopeful that some of them will have a go at reinvigorating some of the quieter local branches, with the direct purpose of promoting the website locally. The website stickers have been going out to the length and breadth of Cymru, and I’m hoping that we’ll start to get some interesting pictures of them before too long – so remember, if you see a sticker somewhere entertaining, take a snapshot and send it to us!

It’s been a week of preparations, too – we’ll be launching another campaign website very shortly, one that we’re hoping will broaden our audience and our membership. We’re busy deciding exactly how to launch it, but it’s looking very likely that we’re talking about either the 5th or the 19th. The website’s live already, but I’d better not promote it here until we’ve launched officially.

Um… on second thoughts, I can’t talk about the next thing that I want to without you getting the website address by default, so what the heck. www.NotEnglish.com is the address, and the aim, obviously enough, is to open the way for non-Welsh speaking Welsh people to get involved…:-)

The next new step that we’ve taken this week is to open an online shop, and start making some interesting new merchandise. We’ll probably send out a press release about it at some point, but it’s mainly something that we’ll be looking to promote internally, to existing members. There’s a fair amount of entertaining new goods in there already, and we’ll be looking to add a lot more over the course of the next month or two. Many thanks to Deri for his design wizardry!

What with launching the new website and the shop, a great deal of the workload of the last couple of months should be over (I hope!), and I’m hoping I’ll now get the chance to push on with the Fro Gymraeg campaign (boring lobbying stuff, mostly), and to see how much mileage there is in our idea for a Shop Locally campaign in Pwllheli. The more practical, positive projects we get involved in, the more effectively we will be able to protest when necessary.

Now, how about going and buying one of the new Cymuned Cows T-shirts?! www.DaldyDir.com…:-)

I’m in a bit of a hurry, have to go to the Fforwm Iaith in Porthmadog tonight, so this won’t be a very long, thoughtful entry, I’m afraid.

But it’s worth giving a quick update of where we are so far with the YnyFro.com campaign – it’s got off to a roaring start, with visitors to the website jumping from about 10 a day to over 90 a day in the early part of this week, and a fair bit of mention in various newspapers.

What’s perhaps more important is that the people who go to the website are then contacting us to ask for stickers to put up themselves, and in what is for us quite significant number – 8 in the last two days alone, which is a great boost for all our long term activists. They’re also signing up for the weekly email, so we should be doing a far better job of keeping in touch than has been the case for a long time.

There’s been a very significant jump in useage on our main website, too, which is something I hadn’t expected – over 200 visitors a day so far this week, which is slightly over double what it used to be, so that’s a welcome bonus.

And the response from already active members has been excellent – the first 3000 colour stickers have already completely gone, and we’re now desperately producing more black and white – less striking, but a heck of a lot cheaper! And some people have said that although they’re less dramatic, they’re easier to read, so it could be a win-win.

It’s been a great feeling to be able to give such positive feedback to long term members who’ve been working their socks off for years, without often getting much by the way of thanks or by way of victories, however small. That’s why the Marina result was so important for us. But this is possibly even better, because it’s a pattern we can keep going, and seeing people who’ve been slogging away at this stuff for years getting excited and enthusiastic again is a wonderful feeling.

So, everyone who’s been putting up stickers, and signs, here’s a massive vote of thanks. Keep at it, you’re making a measurable, real difference.

Don’t have your stickers yet?…;-) Drop us a line – cymuned[at]cymuned.org!

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