The inter-active map shows all UK and Irish active veganisers who are happy to give support advice and/or run groups and events.

The listing is driven by post codes and includes the clever combining of group and contact data. Non-regional specialist groups and activists are listed under “Specialist Groups”.

The map points are collections of the contacts and groups around a post code area. Hence, a plot point in a well populated area such as London will contain around 10 contacts, but a plot point in the Scottish Highland will contain maybe just one. A central postcode within a collection of contacts is the one chosen to be plotted on the map.

The number of map points is chosen as to give the best balance between giving the best detail without the dots over-lapping each other (too much).

If the number of contacts increases or decreased dramatically we may change the resolution to improve the map's readability which would change under which plot point a contact would appear.

The data quality should now be much improved. The details are now held in a true relational database and the data model now being used is far more sophisticated allowing us to do many more fun things with it.

To get to this position we've had to combine data from many sources and there were cases where the data was contradictory or corrupt. Before, the contact data was held separately from the group data which where again held separately from the web site data which was once more held separately from the email distribution list. (And it does not end there!)

We we have done our best to clean the data up but we expect a some keen eyes to spot existing mistakes.

The private staff copy of the map contains all the details about each contact including annual reports and the contact coordinators notes. Private and public data is clearly shown.

You can search for contacts and groups by postcode and email contacts within a stated radius, allow us to target appeals for help to local areas rather than filling all the contact email boxes with mainly irrelevant pleads.

Contact details also include a list of nearby contacts.

There are links to google maps to give finer map resolution.

The map can be filter to just show groups. Group details are much more impressive with the on-line version of the map and other LVW sites are directly integrate into the mapping system to gain access to their descriptions and events saving those groups administration time.

As above except only details the contact is happy to display will be shown. The email list features will be turned off. Emails given on the site will have much better spam protection than the VS site but will also be readable.

Those of you with web sites will be please to know that the new version will also display your web address clearly.

You name it, I bet we can do it! Suggest away!

Make your suggestions in the forum.

Contact Sophie here.

This web site is part of LVW which was created by Stephen Fenwick-Paul. A special modules to handle the contacts data was commission by the ActiVeg.

The map plotting software was freely supplied by Syd Egan of www.reflectable.com and further customised by Stephen.

Data was cleaned by Stephen and Sophie Fenwick-Paul.

The Vegan Society encured no costs for this work.

Each one has their own way of putting veganism positively forward and helps in different ways.

Being an ActiVeg contact is about promoting veganism in a positive, courteous and practical way.

They are available to answer simple queries from their local community on vegan matters. This could be as trivial as where to get soya milk. Questions of a complex nature can always be directed back to ActiVeg or one of the national veggie/vegan bodies. We'll also be keeping them informed by email of the latest activeg news on a roughly fortnightly basis, and as and when really big or urgent vegan news hits.

At a more active level an activeg contact may do such things as run a local group and organise social events, and/or partake in local campaigning activies such as leafletting, creating library displays, visiting local schools and making contact with their local press and radio. We've got a guide to being active in big or small ways to help.

At the very active end of the spectrum an ActiVeg contact may organise national events such as festivals, liaise with national and international companies to improve their product range, be available communicate with the national press on vegan issues.

All of these activies are of great value and we all can aim high and also appreciate the time commitment even the smallest of activies can bring so we take on only what we can manage and do it well. Being a positive vegan role model is a lovely action in the first place that requires no extra time, just a little thought.

Certainly, as long as the organisations don't have obviously conflicting or illegal aims.

In fact, it can be of great benefit. Without publicising yourself or having a website, you may only get few minor enquiries a year. As a contact for several veggie and animal organisations you will have many more people contacting you, many of whom will be interested in veganism. You'll be well placed and well supported to tell them more about it. This also gives you more people to join a group if you have one.

If you are talking to the media or the public in general, just be clear about which organisation you are speaking for on a particular topic.

If you are talking with an individual seaking advice, see what would suit their case best to help them on the next step on the veggie road.

Be aware of any organisation's standpoint, and just make sure that that is the only position you cover if you are using its name.

You will find that most of the active contacts support a variety of organisations, to the benefit of all, especially the animals and the environment.

ActiVeg was set up with the aim of getting active vegans together through the Internet, working together as they want to and sharing inspiration and news. That's what this website is all about.

• We no longer have a web forum for contacts and activists as this just wasn't being used enough. Contact us if you would like to be on an email group for general vegan activists.
• You can also ask to be on an email list for receiving news and action updates. This already exists, so just ask Sophie Show email address..
• It can be really good to talk, so how about phoning up another contact, or writing to them? Maybe even suggest some veganising you could do together.
• If you'd like help with buddying up with a fellow contact or two, you could contact us to help you.
• Activeg contact meetings and meals, both regional and national, may occasionally held, which are a great chance to meet up with fellow active vegans. We tend to have specific projects at these meetings so you come away with something useful, and the national ones can involve training workshops. Tell Sophie Show email address. if you have any preferences or suggestions for these meet-ups.

Also, you welcome to input what you want see on this site to further vegan incitement, just contact us.

The idea of setting up ActiVeg sprung up through meeting other active vegans at rare events and really enjoying their company and sharing ideas and plans, but finding it difficult to network remotely, with no real means of communicating as a group.

ActiVeg sits is a Local Veggie Web site. It's simple, straightforward and quick to update, so Contacts can suggest and contribute with things they want added.

Absolutely! We all feel constrained by what we may think of as a skill we do not possess. If only we could do that extra thing we would be so much more effective in promoting the cause! Well, there will be another contact who has the completely opposite skill set to you.

We need to be working more closely together. One of you may be a dab hand at writing press releases, but the idea of organising a veggie social do fills the other with the heebie-jeebi es. In that case, don't organise veggie meals out - leave that to someone else, but smarten up or even draft another contact's press releases.

The Internet is a wonderful help for working together across a wide area, and ActiVeg aims to make the most of this. Some activists and groups have more familiarity and better access to the Internet than others. They can help show others how simple and useful it can be, with practical advice, and even training sessions.

We also all need moral support from time to time, someone to share our experiences with and boost our sense of purpose.

This is where network Contacts can form supportive bonds between eachother.

Contacts can feel isolated sometimes. This is a difficult situation be in. Just having the direct support of one other person can make such a difference to the effectiveness and moral of a Local Contact. The Buddying system is an informal way to bring Contacts together to jointly work on projects. On the other hand, some people like working alone. ActiVeg will aim to satisfy the needs of the needy without imposing.

Who you buddy with will be down to mutual agreement.

The infrastructure for the ActiVeg Buddying System is being built now! Meanwhile,do tell your Contacts Coordiantor if you are interested in this Show email address.. However, you can already get in touch with another Contact to see if they'd like to share support and plans with you. And do use the Forum to share information and inspiration with all Local Contacts.

Events must be:

• ones we've found out about, so tell us if you know of more that fit ActiVeg criteria!
• in strong relation to veganism/vegentarianism and/or animals at the hands of humans
• peaceful and legal, and avoid promoting anything that is not
• positive and constructive

Events must be one of:

• bigger than normal local events, i.e. not the usual meet-up kind of thing, but when some extra effort has gone in, especially if they involve making a wider public aware and/or involve more than one organisation or group
• regional or national
• international

If any food at events will include non-veggie stuff it needs to be stated and there must be a strong presence of vegan and veggie food.

Suggest any events that fit these basic criteria, or just add them if you are an ActiVeg administrator.

Event contacts

Events require a named contact organiser, or at least the name of a group, and whoever's details are given must be told or have asked for them to be put there. Email addresses input using the special email address fields or button will be spam protected, but those simply included in description fields not using the email button will not be, so please never do this.

The ActiVeg website is built on Local Veggie Web. As such it very easy to update even for those without technical skills, although there is still some learning to be done. If you would like to be active in keeping the site's content fresh just contact Stephen for a site login and say how you think you can help.

I expect the area of most activity on the site will be the writing of "articles" such as the Help for Contacts ones.

For most users adding ideas to the forum is by far the most productive way to proceed. It allows for ideas to be discussed before any work is started.

Some ideas are non-trivial and require extra modules to be created for LVW, such as the buddying system and the Contacts skills database and unless you are a MySQL and Perl programmer with time to kill these are best left to Stephen - but design feedback via the forum is essential to getting things right.

This website will be particularly useful to those without regular Internet access.

You can access the site and forum from anywhere, like the library, your friend's house or wherever. Because notices and information will now be posted on the website and forum, not by email, you won't get your email inbox so clogged up. It will all be saved on the website so you won't need your own computer to save anything to.

For Vegan Society Network Contacts who really need paper copies of news and action, please make sure The Contacts Coordinator Show email address. knows, especially if you want to be sent out Vegan Society press releases. Otherwise stuff sent to you will be more occasional and ad hoc for now, though it would be good to have a newsletter one day.

We're also hoping that through the buddying system you may find a kindly other Network Contact to help you learn very basic web skills.

Please use our events suggestion form . It's also worth posting it all round the Internet on vegan & veggie forums and noticeboards, and telling the main vegan and veggie charities and campaigning organisations.

If you represent a vegan and veggie charity or campaigning organisation, or are just great at making big events known about, then we could give you an administrative login to this site so you can directly post events and tell the thousands of visitors to this site each month about what's happening. Contact us.

Add it to the forum and I'll put it in FAQ.

If you think a current FAQ answer is wrong, that can also be discussed in the forum.