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Calling all Perceptions Forum Members! You can help to save Perceptions Forum!

Fill in and Send that Questionnaire!

For updates, see at end!

In April 2011, if you're a member of Perceptions Forum, you should have received a questionnaire about Rethink and Perceptions Forum. It's made of paper and is about A4 size, and it will have arrived in the post. This may not look important, but it may be more important than it seems.

I am Zyra and I have my own website www.zyra.org.uk and I also manage this website the Perceptions Forum website. I'm a paranoid schizophrenic myself, and I urge you to fill in the questionnaire and send it freepost to Rethink. There isn't long to do this.

So, why is filling the questionnaire so important?

In case you didn't know, recently there was a problem with Perceptions Forum and Rethink. There was a meeting a while back and some people got a bit upset about it. Consequently there has been opinion which could best be described as "divided".

Now regardless of whether you like our current Chair or not, and regardless of what you think about Rethink and/or the Psychiatric Movement, here are a few things which most of us should agree on:

* Perceptions Forum should continue, and not be closed down.

* Perceptions Forum may or may not be financed by Rethink, but it should not be controlled by Rethink. (The finesse of Perceptions Forum is that it's run BY mad people FOR mad people).

* Folk should get on well with each other in a reasonably civilised way, even if they don't happen to agree with the other person's point of view.

But regardless of your opinions about the bickering that's been going on, I urge you to fill in the questionnaire and post it. The point is, if you don't, then your opinion won't be counted by Rethink. We the people who want Perceptions Forum to continue, whether we like Rethink or not, need to speak up.

You may have had a flick through the questionnaire and you may consider some of the questions are a bit personal. Well, you don't have to answer them all! In fact, you don't even need to fill in all the questions, and you don't need to obey the instructions necessarily. This isn't a school exam. You can write all kinds of things on the paper and say what you really think.

The point is, the more of us write things and send a questionnaire in, the more our opinions count. The opposite, not sending it in, is a tacit rubberstamping of whatever unfair outcome is to be imposed on us. Don't let it happen, or at least don't let it happen without making a fuss and expressing your dissent.

If you are a member of Perceptions Forum and you have not received a questionnaire, and it's still a week or two before 20th May 2011, you should write to: Freepost RRYH-TZBZ-GEHU, Rethink, Rachel Brett, 15th Floor, 89 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TP, and ask for a questionnaire. Or, you could go totally ad-lib and write your own shpiel about how Perceptions Forum and Rethink should go on. Please keep it polite, if you can.

If you decide to send your questionnaire in, rather than ignoring it, you'll need to find an envelope, but you don't need to find a stamp. Surely it is not beyond your means to get this questionnaire posted?

My personal opinion (you don't have to agree with me) is:

* Perceptions Forum should either declare independence from Rethink and become an entirely independent organisation, or there should be an agreement with Rethink which allows Perceptions Forum to have self-rule (ie not a puppet setup).

Your personal opinion... That's for you to say, and put on the questionnaire and get it in the post! Do it, and you could help to save Perceptions Forum.

Update: Thanks to all those who filled in the survey! Here are the Results of the Survey

What's Going On?: There appear to be problems (2011/09) ...

• It appears that Rethink have made Rachel redundant. This is not good. On behalf of the members of Perceptions Forum, a special THANKS to Rachel for being so helpful to us for so long. However, we don't think Rethink have been quite fair to oust Rachel. It's not fair!
• There is an absence of democracy in the way Perceptions Forum has been run recently. Although our constitution states the organisation to be democratic, this has been lacking. The interactions between Perceptions Forum and Rethink have been conducted in secret clandestine meetings which have excluded the majority of the members!
• Many of the members of Perceptions Forum are unhappy with the chair of Perceptions Forum (2011/08). There have been e-mails going around that have been less than helpful. Note: I'm not making a big exposé of this at present.
• The legitimate Vice-chair of Perceptions Forum was summarily dismissed by the Chair. This is not right.
• The majority of the membership of Perceptions Forum contains a substantial group of disaffected people who are determined to prevent the abolishment of Perceptions Forum. It's a bit like those countries that have recently had revolutions and overthrown tyranny.
• Regardless of the problems of funding, we are going to continue. We're not going to go away! We already have an alternative funding model for the website, and we may yet be able to continue with Perceptions Forum as an online organisation at least.