Every message here is left for all members to see - please read them

You only need to read the top post for each update you receive!

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=Yueko-Sama is running a contest at the moment, to celebrate her upcoming 5th dA birthday. [link]

Also, fellow CoF Admin ~termagen has had some great news - she's going to be a mommy! [link] Please drop by and give Steph lots of love!

And *somersetholmes is celebrating 20 years of beating the demon Booze! [link]

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Hello Everyone!

I really wanted to stop by and let you know that I am still here. Where have I been over the past year? I called off the wedding and relationship altogether. That whole nasty business with the ex has been over with since October last year, thank God and I now am lucky to be with someone very special

I may have seemed to forget about the club but I haven't. At times life has gotten busier, what with studying language, moving out of home and not having constant internet access like I did with my parents, and working full time on top of that, but the club and its members have been in my thoughts.

I am excited with what Alan has planned for the club, and I can see it going very far and very well. I know Amy's vision will be carried on by the love that you all have for each other and the kind words and support that you all lend someone in need really does make a difference.

A while ago I decided I wanted to make a difference, that I wanted to impact someones life but for the better. Through this club, that is possible.

I hope you will all stay with us on this journey, thankyou for sticking with us this far.

Take care of each other!
~termagen

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A quick update before I head off to bed =imaginati posted this to the :circleoffriends: userpage, and I wanted to share with you:

"For everyone who loved Amy, I started a group on Facebook in her memory. It's a place where we can share our thoughts, stories, and photos of our dear friend. Here's the link [link]

If you are on Facebook, please join this group. I would love to hear some of your favorite memories of Amy She will always be in our hearts!"

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My thanks for the feedback on the suggested revamp... I will definitely be bearing it in mind!

OK, this weekend I will be reorganising the journal, putting some CSS in place, and typing up the new mission statement and procedured for the group. I'm also going to spring clean the notes and the devwatch list - as the group is going to move to an open model rather than relying solely on notes to get the word out, this means that the current groups are being dissolved, although I will still be needing volunteers to go out and find people who need visits or advice. If you thing you can do that, note me! The Mod Squad will live on, albeit in a different guise. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people interested in helping to maintain our dAmn chatroom #COFcommunity - unfortunately, I don't think it has gotten much love lately.

One matter that I've been pondering on is the gender of =Circleoffriends - needless to say, it's currently female as it was Amy who set it up. I'm not proposing to change that, seeing as a lot of the Mod Squad are ladies, and also because the female of the species is usually the caring and nurturing side. So I guess I am in touch with my feminine side after all.

OK, gotta knuckle down and get the revamp underway - hopefully I've have everything done by the end of Sunday. Have a great weekend, guys!

`MonTemplar

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First off, thanks for everyone's kind words and well-wishes, both here and on my page and journal. It has made things somewhat easier for me.

Secondly, my thanks to those of you who've offered to support CoF and help to keep it going. It gladdens my heart to know that people are still interested in keeping this project going.

OK, as you are all probably aware, things have been very quiet around CoF the last few months. Amy was offline for the most part due to her illness, Steph has been away dealing with real-life stuff, and I was undergoing medical treatment and trying to get myself back in shape. My apologies to those of you who've been sending us notes and wondering why you weren't getting a response. Truth be told, though, there hasn't been anything to send out... and we need to rectify that somehow.

I've got a plan for revamping CoF and getting things moving again... but it's kind of radical. Let me break it down for you guys :

1) The current system of groups of members with moderators has grown to the point where managing it and keeping track of which members are with which groups has become virtually impossible. So I am proposing to dispense with all of that, and have a flat system where everyone can be a member and contribute whenever they are able to.

2) As a consequence of 1) I propose to replace the current notes system with a roughly daily journal detailing people who are in need of support. All of you who have this group on your DevWatch will see this in your message centre, and if you have the time to read it and go visit people, great. If not, no problem. But the information is out there for you, regardless.

3) Rather than people sending us notes requesting to join, and then sending more notes telling us what days you can do, I propose instead that you guys put yourselves forward for what I'm going to call the CoF Pledge - basically, a set of statements about the group's objective. In a nutshell, this will be along the lines of :

"As a member of =Circleoffriends I promise to take time to look out for my fellow Deviants who are suffering or going through hard times, to offer support, and to make the =Circleoffriends aware so that others can offer support and/or advice."

4) In order to spread the word about =Circleoffriends and get even more people involved, I am proposing to produce News Article detailing the work that we do, and hopefully some stories of success in helping out fellow Deviants. As I see it, the more people we have watching the group and visiting people's pages and journals, the higher the probability that we can put people together who've had similar experiences, and the more likely we are as a group to make a difference.

5) Finally, I want to gather together any and all information that can be of use to Deviants who are in need of help, over and beyond what we can provide here on dA. So I propose to network with the other support groups here and share information and resources, as well as calling on Deviants with knowledge and experience which they can contribute, and make all of that available through the journal and Deviations.


Like I said at the top, this is a pretty radical proposal, but I think that this will all us as a community to do a much better job, and really fulfil Amy's original vision. I know I can already count on a large number of you guys to step up to the plate. I am most definitely ready to do this. At the end of the day, if just one person managed to help out another or give them some comfort, thanks to our efforts, then that is a win for us, for dA, and for humankind!

I'm going to leave this up for a day or two to get comments from you guys - assuming I get broad agreement, I'll start the process of revamping the journals and getting things rolling!

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This is probably the hardest journal entry I've had to write, after the small entry in my own journal yesterday.

Our group's founder and head admin, Amy Morrissey `dualdesigns passed away a few days ago. I am still waiting for definite information as to what happened, but I know that she was still taking a lot of medication for pain and anxiety, as well as undergoing counselling and trying to make ends meet for herself and her two boys. This has hit me really hard, as I was in semi-regular contact with her up until the middle of last week.

Please send prayers and love to her family and friends.

I'm currently debating how to take the group forward now. It was Amy's baby, and I'm sure that she would want it to continue in some shape or form.

`MonTemplar