Getting my hands Dirty: A day with Lava Mae

"Hygiene brings dignity and dignity opens up opportunity"
                 - Doniece Sandoval, Lava Mae founder

Last night before I went to dinner with a friend I took a shower. Not that I really needed one, but it's something I tend to take for granted that I will be able to do... to freshen up for company.

This morning I woke up at an ungodly hour and headed into San Francisco to work an opening shift for LavaMae, a mobile shower (and toilet!) facility serving San Francisco's homeless population.
I arrived at 730 Polk Street at 9am, and was immediately put to work assembling 'hygiene kits' in the front of the bus. These were ziplock bags full of donated toiletries including soap, bodywash, toothbrushes and toothpaste to provide to clients who didn't have their own (which was a large percentage.)

By the time we opened at 9:30 there was already a fairly long waiting list for our two shower units. People can arrive on a drop-in basis and sign up. They get about 15 minutes in the shower and we clean it after each one, but there's a lot of down time for the volunteers in between, so I got to talk to the clients.

It is truly a vast cross section of humanity. One man who stopped by told me he hadn't had a shower in 14 months. He goes for a swim when he needs a wash, but last week when he tried to get on a bus to go home to see his mother (who he hasn't seen in 15 years) he was turned away because he was too dirty. He thought he might come back and shower before he tries again next week. We also talked about whether he should shave his beard "I don't want her to think I've been living under a bridge... even if I have!"

Another man told me about traveling the world and his time in Thailand. Another told me about how he spends the days collecting bottles to recycle, and it's a pity more people don't take an interest in keeping the streets clean. A couple of young entrepreneurs traveling down the west coast on a budget stopped by. A young man helped me rescue a bee that had fallen on the sidewalk because it was too cold to fly.

Lava Mae was the brainchild of Doniece Sandoval, a marketing and PR professional, who is passionate about creative solutions to problems like homelessness. When she heard a young woman on the street crying that she had never been clean a seed was planted, and when she heard that Muni was upgrading their busses and had a donation programme for the old ones she came up with a crazy idea. If you can have food on wheels why not showers on wheels? So she secured a bus, donors, an architect, and last year the first LavaMae bus hit the streets of San Francisco.

Several asked me during the day what made me want to volunteer, and I fumbled with an answer ("Because I'm interested in toilets... it's a long story...")

I suppose in part the day was dedicated to a Toilet Attendant who became a close friend in London. I used to spend time chatting, and watching his interactions with customers. The trials and tribulations of the life of cleaning up after other people. He was pretty direct about calling me and his boss out on one thing: "You get to drop by, but this is my reality all day every day." He was amused but baffled by why I (or anyone) was so interested in Toilets. I like to think he'd be proud of me, but in reality I'm sure he'd still be baffled ("Why on earth would you voluntarily spend the day cleaning toilets?")

Lava Mae has been on my radar for quite some time, since they did a world Toilet Day promotion a couple years ago, and I've started and failed to finish several posts about them in the past, partly, I think because I've lacked the words to express the uniqueness of what they do. I needed the hands on experience.

One thing that is incredibly important to me as a researcher is not to remain above the fray. It's an easy comfortable place analyzing, reading and thinking, but I think if you truly care about something you have to be willing to get down and dirty, or at the least dip your toes in. What I learned from the day of working on the bus may not be the stuff which anthropological PhDs are made on, but it was a more important reminder about the power of human connection.

Incidentally there was a recent NPR article on a related subject: "Nonacademic Skills Are the Key to Success: But What Should We Call Them." About the semantics of how we deal with all those things that can't be measured by tests. A quote that particularly jumped out at me was this thought from Noah Webster (the dictionary guy!) in 1778:

"The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head."

So more food for thought as I think about whether and where to do a PhD, and what angle to approach it from.

Something I admire about Doniece and the way she approaches her work is it's very specific to people and place. A group of private citizens responding to a need and leading by example. They're not trying to solve homelessness or launch a massive sweeping campaign that will slowly mobilize the government into action. They're not even trying to create something that can be scaled massively, since, as she explained to me the first time we met, each place and population has its unique circumstances and issues. The dream is to inspire others, perhaps to provide guidelines for them to replicate and adapt the model (more, I think, on scalability in a future post.)

For the clients it's 20 minutes of clean private space. Dignity. Possibly a first step towards getting on a bus, going to a job interview, or other opportunities.

For volunteers like me it's a chance to scrub away labels and prejudices both conscious and unconscious. A reminder that the overarching label of 'homelessness' encompasses a wide spectrum of circumstances... but that all of them are no less human or deserving of respect than any of the rest of us.

When I got home I took a shower before going to my afternoon job... because you can't show up for babysitting smelling like toilet cleaner. I suppose still took it for granted, but at least I have a greater appreciation for how lucky I am to be able to do that.

If you're in San Francisco I highly recommend volunteering, especially if you like meeting interesting people. Or donating... money, soap, tooth brushes, hand cream... it's all useful.

www.lavamae.org

Dancing at the Lava Mae "Showered with Love" fundraiser gala in March... they're raising money for additional busses in San Francisco.

This was a very different atmosphere to being on the bus on the street. Fun as it was, I think if I had to choose just one place to be I'd pick the bus. 

Being a Diva: Menstrual Taboo

Img source: http://www.girlsprepguide.com

Yesterday was Mother's Day in the US, so what better time for a reflection about women's bodies and the weird and wonderful things they do. Once you've been sucked down the world of toilets it's a short leap to the subject of menstruation.

Two years ago as a fly on the wall at the predominantly male British Toilet Association's annual meeting the topic was covered only briefly, as a slightly redfaced gentleman explained the problems it creates for restroom cleaning: "You women tend to...  erm... sync up in offices... so we can't just have the bins emptied on a regular schedule."

Tampons can be an awkward thing to deal with for a lot of other reasons too. Imagine that moment on a dinner date (or worse, a job interview) when you need to use the loo and go through the mental process of "Oh shit! This dress has no pockets... will it look bad if I carry my backpack to the bathroom with me? Will they think I'm running away? Will they know? Maybe I can maneuver it into my sleeve?"

Gentlemen... if a woman ever dives under the table digging frantically through her purse, casually re-emerges 30 seconds later, shrugs it off and then excuses herself you now know why. Somewhere on her person- up a sleeve, in a shoe, or in extreme cases, in a bra, is concealed a small piece of cotton that will afford her another three hours -give or take- of dignity.

My days of dealing with this are mostly over. I've become a convert to the Diva Cup.

I'd say that I can't believe it took me 25 years of my life (or, more accurately, 12 years of menstruating) to discover this, only that is partly my own fault. My freshman year of college one of the seniors actually did, as her senior project, an educational theatre piece with stories about periods, and well dressed women dancing in large plastic cups. My younger more easily embarrassed self didn't quite know what to make of it, so I watched awkwardly and then forgot about it.

Fast forward six years and a lot of toilet tours later when there's nothing much I won't talk about, and I came across an article about eco feminine hygiene products. Vague memories of the diva-cup were re-awakened and I thought 'maybe this is worth a go after all!'

The advantages are numerous. They are re-usable, so not only are you saving money in the long-run not buying tampons and pads every month (Tampon tax has been getting some interesting press lately), but you spare those poor long-suffering gentlemen of the BTA the need to constantly re-calculate the bin emptying schedule.

It's a weird concept to get your head around. Essentially sticking a little squishable cup up your neither regions. I thought for sure it would leak, or fall out, or get stuck, or just plain wouldn't fit in the first place. It doesn't do any of those things. It's actually so comfortably you can pretty much forget it's there.

Chances are the intricacies of female plumbing aren't your forte. They aren't for most people- including most women (any more than most of us know how the pipes and wires are set up in our homes.) So here's a lesson in female anatomy 101: The blood comes from the uterus shedding its lining, so it's all coming from the cervix which is at the top of the vagina. So the cup catches it pretty much right at the source, getting rid of a lot of the mess of tampons.) The urinary tract is a separate hole entirely slightly in front, so it doesn't interfere with that.

Are you blushing yet? This topic is still definitely a step beyond my normal toilet and pee and poo talk in terms of taboo. Where most people warm pretty quickly to toilet humor in the right environment you can see them get visibly uncomfortable when it becomes too personal. Maybe because it's moving from what comes out of the body to what goes on inside the body? Maybe because as a gender-specific topic we don't have it as universally in common.

I'm still exploring how to talk about it without making people shy away and shut down (like I did when I saw that play as an 18-year-old freshman.) It needs to be talked about, because it's so fundamental to women's equality. One of the primary reasons for girls dropping out of school in developing countries is a lack of toilets and safe places to go when they start their periods.

On the home front, if you want more women in the workplace you can't take the body out of the picture. A lot of workplace routines are designed for male bodies that don't spend 5 days out of every month bleeding and dealing with cramps, back pain, headaches and haywire hormone levels. Usually, as women, we try not to let that show, and carry on with business as usual, lest it be seen as a sign of weakness. A friend of mine used to like to say "never trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die." Maybe there's something in that... we're tough creatures! Beware our power!

Anyway, all this is to get back to the fact that when you don't talk about something, progress and innovation is difficult. Hence the slow rise of an amazing product like the divacup. You won't see people queuing up for the latest model, like an iphone 6.

If you can get over the initial awkwardness, it's probably the best gift you can give to any of the women in your life. I recommend Lunapads.com who not only carry a lot of lovely products, but donate a significant portion of their proceeds to supporting girls in developing countries.

***

Just for some comic relief, here's Sarah Silverman talking about lady parts.

Music and potty training

"Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents." --Ludwig van Beethoven

Warning: This blog post contains a lot of ear worms.

Recently I've been particularly into toilet training songs. If you don't have a 2 year old (or spend much time around one) this is probably a foreign world to you, so here are a couple highlights to get you in the mood:

   

   

Okay, so as a 25 year old maybe humming potty training songs to myself at the bus stop is possibly a bit odd. But they're catchy! And this is the point.

I have always remembered things best in songs and verse. From the alphabet, to my eights time tables to how to be a good friend, a lot of my education has been shaped by songs. They may not be high art, but they're fun. In "Music and Learning: Integrating Music into the Classroom" Chris Boyd Brewer writes:

"Music helps us learn because it will--

• establish a positive learning state
• create a desired atmosphere
• build a sense of anticipation
• energize learning activities
• change brain wave states
• focus concentration
• increase attention
• improve memory
• facilitate a multisensory learning experience
• release tension
• enhance imagination
• align groups
• develop rapport
• provide inspiration and motivation
• add an element of fun
• accentuate theme-oriented units

(Article source:  http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/topics/Arts)


At some point in our education music (and fun in general) stop being a generally accepted part of the experience. As grown ups we're expected to be able to learn and do things because we know we should, without having to go through the extra step of making them creative and fun. While it's a useful skill to be able to sit still and study even when you don't want to, I think it's the wrong approach. As I continue to think about and refine where I want to go with my research and studies the question of 'how could we make this as fun and interesting as we would for kids, but in a non-patronizing way?' keeps coming to my mind (This goes for all adult education... not just toilet behaviors... how much more awesome would any office job be if you started the morning with musical circle time?)


Combatting open defecation: The first Bollywood Poo Music Video 

The closest thing I know to an adult version of a potty training song is this musical Public Service Announcement produced in India in 2013. This song was written by Shiri, whose other credits include the theme song for the Life of Pi, so we're talking seriously professional shit here:

 

The Take the Poo to the Loo campaign was launched by Unicef to address the fact that 45% of India's population practices open deification, collectively producing 65 million kilos of poo each day (for perspective: if an average elephant weighs 5000kg that's 13,000 elephants!)

Sadly there isn't much analysis publicly available for this video or what sort of reach and affect it had. How many people, as a result of having "take the poo to the loo-oo-oo" running through their heads made a point of avoiding open defecation?

It's not a perfectly parallel comparison in any case to the children's potty training. The steps aren't quite as clear or as simple. The aim is behavioral change on a much larger societal level. Toilet training of young children is generally focused at normalizing them into a society that can already provide them with the tools they need to accomplish the task (a potty, toilet paper, a sink to wash their hands.) For the target audience of this video there's likely a more complex chain of steps required. It's more like if you asked your child not only to start using the potty, but also to finance the purchase of a potty chair, and install it in your home. A combination of marketing playing on emotions of shame and aspiration.


Change begins at home

The bollywood video is tangentially related to Theatre for Development (TfD) which featured heavily on my Applied Theatre MA course. Most academics would probably argue it doesn't fall under that umbrella because a) it's not live performance and b) it's not participatory, but that's arguing apples and oranges. Whatever you want to call it it's a piece of art used to create dialogue and affect behavioral change.

One ethical issue I have always taken slightly with a lot of TfD work is the fact that despite the best efforts of well-meaning practitioners it tends to be an attempt at westernization. Even under the guise of a bottom-up participant-lead approach there is an element of 'our way is better' leading towards certain conclusions. You can see slight hints of that in the music video: the toilet that all the dancing poos get flushed down in the end: it's a decidedly western design: in fact you could go so far as to say it is a strong symbol of the age of British imperialism. The seat with cistern, lid and flush pull chain, which evolved from the likes of Alexander Cummings, George Jennings and Thomas Crapper, is still, 150 years later, a symbol of the height of sanitary technology, but not in fact the most practical or ecological solution.

We're getting to a point where it's not a great solution in California either. While we thankfully aren't dying from diarrhea and other fecally transmitted diseases on a daily basis we certainly haven't got the toilet thing figured out in San Francisco. In the midst of the worst drought we've ever experienced we're still flushing 1/3 of our drinking water down the loo because that's what we're used to. Someone said to me once (and I paraphrase) "One of the problems in developing countries is people want what they see as a luxury item... not some second-best solution. If Obama would install a composting toilet in the White house then everyone would want one of those instead."

So perhaps by focusing more of our energies closer to home we'd have a larger knock-on effect than we might at first realize. A challenge to people who are more musically/lyrically inclined than I am: how do we introduce water saving behaviors in song and dance?

First Flush: San Francisco Trial Day

With a much larger crowd than expected (16 people!!!)  the Trial San Francisco Loo Tour kicked off last Saturday. The tour wound it's way from a green street toilet by the Ferry Building to Union Square.

My victims guests were a great lot. Based on feedback I've had so far, doing the trial tour really served to confirm what I already suspected: There is some interesting content that needs a tighter narrative, more fleshing out, and a shorter walk.

At this point it is looking like the tour will naturally divide into two routes. One along the piers, focusing on toilets, water politics, sewage and plumbing. The second in the inner city focusing on politics of space, gentrification, public toilet facilities, and what it means to have (or be denied) the right to a safe clean toilet.

More on both these journeys anon. In the mean time, here are some shots of the tour in action.

The kick-off: Embarcadero Centre

A complete list of publicly available toilets in the city actually exits!
Showed here next to a "restrooms for customers only" sign. 

An innovative plan. Discovered by accident on the tour.

Rears and Fears: Basic toilet seat logic

The click-bait video of the week ("First I thought it was a normal toilet... but when he flushes it I was left speechless") is this self cleaning invention:




This speaks to the thing I find most fascinating in the world of sanitation: how people (often misguidedly) choose where to focus their innovation energy based on societal perception.

This is not the first product to champion the idea of a sterile toilet seat. Any woman who grew up in North America will be familiar with the waxy toilet seat protectors available in most public rest rooms. Some are so in the habit of using these that if they aren't available, miles of toilet paper will be sacrificed to the cause of covering the seat to prevent any skin contact.** Chicago International Airport takes the cover a step further by providing a rotating plastic cover that goes round with each flush.

To give the public due respect, it's not hard to see how a path of logic lead to the need for these things. The average person might go through the following list of assumptions:

1) I've been told that Pee/poo/things that go in toilets are dirty.*
2) Therefore my bottom is dirty.
3) I don't want my dirty bottom sharing the same spot as other people's dirty bottoms. 

But let's look at this logic for a moment.

Your bottom and your thighs spend most of their time shielded by clothing. At risk of getting too graphic, the bodily fluids and solids that go into the loo come out of very specific orifices, and aren't going to get all over you (You're not two years old and you can aim!) So the only thing coming into contact with the actual seat should, in fact, be one of the cleanest parts of your body. WebMD says: "Many disease-causing organisms can survive for only a short time on the surface of the seat, and for an infection to occur, the germs would have to be transferred from the toilet seat to your urethral or genital tract, or through a cut or sore on the buttocks or thighs, which is possible but very unlikely."

In other words, if you're going to catch (or spread) anything via the toilet seat, you are sitting on it very wrongly!* People love to play the "eww" factor by telling you that your cell phone, your keyboard, your tooth brush, money ... and plenty of other things "have more bacteria than a toilet seat!" Actually, it's in all probability the seat cleanest thing in the bathroom, so that shouldn't be a surprising claim at all.

What is  far more likely to spread germs are your hands. Aside from the fact you've just wiped yourself, your hands are everywhere, touching things all the time.

Now, let's note one ironic thing about the video: The flush button still has to be pressed by hand! So whatever horrible fate the cleansing seat was going to spare you has almost certainly been re-introduced on the flush button. Studies differ, but somewhere between 1-in-3 and 1-in-5 people won't wash their hands after using the toilet. Yet we rarely see technology aimed at getting people to wash up. We don't handle money and cell phones with plastic gloves. In fact, just this past February, Republican Senator Thom Tillis stated publicly that he thought the requirement for food-service workers to wash their hands should be optional.

We're not the first generation to leap to conclusions. The toilet revolution in London in the mid-1800's was spurred on by a medical belief in miasma... the idea that disease was spread through bad air. Germ Theory was still considered something of a quack science until the 1870's. So they got one piece of the puzzle... installing a toilet got the smells (and consequentially the hazardous waste) out of the dwelling places. But they hadn't yet worked out that putting raw sewage into their water sources was still going to be a problem. It took a long and gradual development.

It will be interesting to see what toilet concerns the next generation of users brings to the table. Perhaps with California's water shortage we will be heading towards an age of waterless, low flow and re-use... one can hope! But for the moment it is hard to see such radical new solutions being compatible with the paranoia around toilet seats.

* This is a simplistic view of a rather complicated topic for another blog post.
** So deeply rooted is this fear that many women opt to hover, actually worsening the chance of making a mess! See A Brief Disquisitation on the Existence of Butt Cooties.

On getting off the ground

I have a new year's tradition of doing a class in something terrifying that I'm no good at. Last year it was stand-up comedy. This year it's vertical dance class. In harnesses bouncing off walls sideways and upside down. Well done it looks something like this:

The reality as an out-of-shape beginner is something of a different story.

I'm like an aspirational chicken trying to blend in with a group of swans.

When I get the rest of my 15 classmates are warming up. One is doing handstands and splits in all directions seemingly effortlessly. I can sometimes sort of stay upright if I'm against a wall. And splits don't happen, right side up or upside down.

The class is mixed level, which is actually quite nice. We started with warm-ups and safety talks. The most important thing really is not to fall on your head and die. In order to make sure of this your harness gets triple checked by you, your climbing buddy and an instructor before you leave the ground.

There are four of us newbies, and we started out by working on ropes in the middle of the room. Once I'm up I'm pretty happy. I may look like a sack of potatoes, but I enjoy playing, flipping upside down and spinning. There's a wonderful freedom to being in the air, knowing your triple checked harness has you safe. The least dignified part of the whole ordeal is getting up there. We have an 'ascender' which grips the rope above us, and lets us pull ourselves up a bit at a time. At least, it lets people with coordination and upper body strength do that. I think my biggest mark of improvement is going to be whether I can manage it myself in 8 weeks, instead of having an instructor helping hoist.

I read an article the other day on how excessive praise can be bad for children. Or more specifically certain types of praise. Studies have shown that when children are praised for talent ("you did great, you must be good at this!") rather than effort ("you did great, you must have worked hard!") they tend to develop a fear of failure... and in their attempt not to be seen as anything less than perfect they'll hold back, and try only things they know they can safely accomplish.

I catch myself doing this sometimes, both personally and professionally. If I'm worried about not performing well I'll lurk on the sidelines watching. "I could do that any time I want... I just don't feel like it at the moment."

Part of my new year's ritual is to do with reminding myself I don't have to be the best. The stakes are, in many ways, lower, because I'm not working at something I'm ever likely to be a professional in. I'm just there to see how far I can get (though I'd by lying if I said I didn't wish I could just naturally be amazing at it. Life isn't fair sometimes.)

I don't expect to be asked to join the dance company any time soon. At best I'll become more fit, learn a lot and make it up the rope by myself. At worst it's at least a good exercise in humility.

I like this message even if I'm not exactly sure what I'm hoping to become a master of.

My two cents on a successful Crowdfunding Campaign

I work in the arts... which means I'm around lots of people looking for money a lot of the time. 

After years of supporting or being involved in Kickstarter campaigns and seeing countless more posted on FB and in e-mails (some of which did well, and some of which flopped miserably) I finally launched one of my own. I learned a lot in the process, and it ended up being quite successful and raising nearly 500% of the initial goal (you can still check it out here)

Since then I have been approached a few times about advice for other campaigns. So here are some of the things I think are most important. 

Rule 1: You already know your backers!!!

This is the most important thing which a lot of people fail to realize.  

Crowdfunding platforms are not magical money making machines to which eager investors flock to poor money into your idea. Most of it will come from people who already know your work... friends and family, previous audience members, your mailing lists and facebook fans.

My project got 77 backers and with two exceptions I had already had some form of contact with all of them before the kickstarter had launched. The first on board were family and friends who have followed my work (willingly or by force) for a long time, and I know will always be behind me (and would probably back the campaign even if it was a bit shit.) Others were former tour guests who had enjoyed the tour and who I had kept in touch with either over social media or through my mailing list. A select few people I'd never met but corresponded with quite a lot on either e-mail or twitter where we had bonded over shared interests.

So before you start your campaign it's important to think who your backers will be, how much they're likely to donate, and whether that will be enough to reach your goal. If you don't already have a network of fans outside that 'will donate anyway' circle of friends and family then Crowdfunding may not be the best way forward (you'll spend a lot of time creating it, and pay around 10% comission fees, when a direct ask might give a better return for less work.) 

The upside to this is that since you know who your backers are, you can plan to make the most of your opportunity to talk to them. You've got a target market.

Rule 2: Prepare the way...

Some people think the campaign begins the day you hit the launch button. But if you wait until then to tell people about it you've missed your prime opportunity to raise money. 

You need to start well in advance, talking up the project, letting people know what you're doing. You don't have to smack them over the head with the fact that you're raising money, but get them excited about it, so when it comes they want to be on board from the beginning. 

An interesting lesson learned: I had several friends with experience look at my kickstarter before I launched to get feedback. I asked them to point out the strengths and weaknesses and anything that would lose or confuse them as a potential investor. Was it clear? Was it interesting? Did it look realistic? Quite a lot changed thanks to their feedback. Revise and revise again. A cool and unplanned consequence was all of them pledged very early on. The point here is not to trick your friends into pledging, but to point out that when people feel they have investment in something they are more likely to support it financially.

Sometimes it even helps to rally people who you know are going to donate to be there for the first few hours. Campaigns that have a strong kick-off will gather momentum, because others want to be part of something successful. A campaign that reaches 50% of it's goal in the first day is going to be a lot more exciting than one that's still hovering at 40% 15 days in. 

in order to build momentum...

Rule 3: Dream big, start small. 

It's counterintuitive but in crowdfunding modesty is rewarded. 

You should really have three budgets in mind:

• First, there's your ideal budget... how much you need to comfortably achieve your vision, pay everyone involved as the professionals they are, any travel and material expenses and cover kickstarter costs. 
• Then create a scaled back version. What's the bare minimum you could still make your project happen with? How many expenses could you cover personally if you had to? What are others in the project willing to pitch in or give you mates rates on. If you could realise only part of the project how would you do it (and remember: achieving that part could help for future pitches to make it bigger. 
• Third, there's the daydream... If you could go above and beyond your project to a new phase what would that be? 

The smallest number becomes your target- that's the point at which your campain has achieved its goal and you will get money (don't forget to account for kickstarter fees!) The middle number (the amount of money you're actually hoping for) is your first stretch goal, and the last is an additional stretch goal. You can add more stretch goals in between. Be specific where you can with what cool thing will be added at each step. 

There are 2 very good reasons for aiming low: 

1. Many crowdfunding sites are all-or-nothing platforms. With the amount of work you're investing into getting the thing up there in the first place you really don't want to walk away empty handed.
   
2. People like to be part of something successful. When you hit your first goal people aren't going to look at it and think "they've got all the money they need, so I'll fund someone else." They'll think "gosh, a lot of people like this... I want a piece of it too!" Again, reaching your goal (even if it's not the real goal) early looks good. 

Here's a snapshot of my campaign (£500 at which level I would have put in a significant amount of personal funds. £1,200 was the actual goal.) 

Rule 4: Reach far and wide

Don't depend on your crowdfunding page to do all the work for you. You need to not only share links, but embed widgets in everything you've got (your website, facebook, blog...)

As you can see from this graph only 10% of my backers actually found the project by going straight to the kickstarter. The rest "pledged via external referrers" which means all the places I stuck those links and widgets where I knew they'd be looking anyway. 

You also have to be prepared to harass people gently for the duration. Ideally you want to still have your friends at the end of it, so do it nicely and keep it creative and entertaining. But don't feel bad about it... if it's a good project they'll want to know about it!

Rule 5: Make rewards desirable and fun

You've got to be brutally honest about your own star power.

No matter how amazing you are crowdfunding is a business transaction. Ideally all your rewards will be a direct result of whatever you're doing anyway (e.g. I was making an audio tour, so my main thing was downloads... essentially advance sales.) but don't be afraid to get creative within that (e.g. the artist doing my cover art designed bespoke prints, available digitally, as prints or framed prints for different levels.) 

Your best hope of attracting that elusive pool of people you don't know is to have things that are so cool and compelling that they would want to buy anyway. 

Signed items are nice, but be realistic about the value of them... it's great if you're a celebrity who gets asked to sign things a lot, but if not then the main people to whom that signature will have meaning are your family (who as stated will probably pledge no matter what... and hopefully already have lots of birthday cards and letters signed by you anyway and don't have to buy your signature!) If you're charging £50 for your signature you have to be able to justify it. 

Likewise shout-outs on social media. It's a noisy space. 

On the back of this:

Include lots of levels!

Don't jump straight form £10 to £50 donations. My average donation was around £39.5 and most people donated £15-30. Leave options for all price ranges (and think about what kind of thing might encourage people to up a pledge from £15 to £20)

A Note on Budgeting:

When you're initially budgeting your campaign you've got to remember two important things: Kickstarter (or other platform) fees and the cost of reward delivery (production and postage.) You can see from the breakdown here that this ended up being about 1/3 of my final expenses. A lot of my rewards were delivered electronically which helped massively (it meant I was posting things to about 25 people instead of 77.)

Once you have the money...

You thought that last bit was work... but it's just beginning. Now you have to make that amazing vision a reality. Don't forget to keep the backers updated!

Good luck!

Credit where credit is due: lot of the things I got right I learned from two other great friends, who say a lot of the things I've said here (with arguably a lot more eloquence) plus more, so do have a read One Weird Trick for a Successful Kickstarter Project  by the Double Clicks (especially if you're in the music biz) and Please Stop Crowdfunding by the awesome Sean Brian (the fact that in spite of everything he backed my project was truly one of the proudest moments!)