Join Me
Join Me is a movement started in London by Danny Wallace, when he was bored. On an impulse (and inspired by a similar project attempted by a relative who had recently died), Wallace put a classified advertisement in Loot magazine, asking readers to "Join me. Send one passport-sized photograph to...", but without giving any further details. Wallace states he had no plans as to what he would do when the photos came in, although he was curious as to whether he could reach and better the total achieved by his great uncle Gallus.Wallace claims "It was a piece of whimsy. A silly half-project. But thanks to a huge and diverse group of perfect strangers, it became something much bigger. I'm still trying to work out how."
The "Join me" movement soon took shape, and now has over approximately 4,000 members (known as "Joinees" or collectively as The Karma Army). Its primary tenet is that followers should perform Random Acts of Kindness, preferably to a stranger, every Friday (known as a Good Friday). As of December 2003, a trial period of Happy Monday's will begin, where a Joinee is encouraged to go that little bit further to treat themselves.
In 2003, he wrote the book Join Me, about how he started the 'cult'. The popular quote is that "it's not a cult, it's a collective", because Danny didn't want to encourage the wrong ideas - however, he has begrudgingly admited that it is, hence the book's cover blurb: "The true story of a man who started a cult by accident."
Joinees regularly meet-up at JOIN MEets [sic], basically an excuse to enchange stories, have a laugh and get drunk. The sort of things you do with your mates anyway.
Every December (in 2003, it's December 6), Joinees meet up for the biggest yearly MEet, also known as Karmageddon. It begins at Tottenham Court Road tube station and travels along Oxford Street, where-upon members hand out leaflets and, ocassionally, gifts. At the end of the day, the masses retire to a pub.
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