While membership subscriptions and donations are extremely important in providing funding for EFA’s work and activities, we realise that not everyone who shares our objectives will be able to provide financial support. Some other ways to help are below.
Spread the word by linking to EFA’s web site
Show that you support EFA and spread the word about issues and EFA’s work by linking to EFA’s web site from your own site. EFA banners and other graphics that you can use on your site are available on EFA Graphics page.
Contact your elected political representatives
Keep up to date with current issues, proposed laws, etc. and contact your elected political representatives to let them know your views. See EFA’s How to Get Politicians’ Attention page and how to stay informed about current issues and EFA activities.
Write to newspapers and other media
Contact the media when you see or hear ill-informed reports about online issues to inform them of the facts, and/or to raise awareness of an issue. Politicians and/or their staff generally monitor the letters pages of newspapers. As well, published letters can raise awareness of an issue among readers who would not otherwise be aware of it. Even if not published, your letter could be instrumental in drawing to the newspaper’s attention that the issue is of public concern and should be reported on by their staff.
Volunteers
EFA’s work and activities are primarily carried out by the annually elected members of the EFA Board (who are volunteers). Financial members of EFA receive a notice inviting them to nominate for election to the Board each year.
EFA does not have formal part or full-time positions available for other volunteers (except possibly for a part-time volunteer position comprising preparation of a regular EFA newsletter, see below).
However, from time to time other volunteers kindly assist the EFA Board on an ad hoc basis by undertaking tasks such as analysing proposed legislation and writing comments on areas of concern for proposed inclusion in an EFA submission, etc.
Current areas in which volunteers could assist EFA’s work/activities include the following:
- Volunteers willing and able to commit time on a regular basis:
- Preparation of a monthly or quarterly email newsletter about (primarily Australian) online civil liberties issues. One or more volunteers could be involved in researching/collecting references and compiling such a newsletter.
- Researching, compiling and updating as necessary (proposed new) information pages or FAQs on EFA’s site about primarily Australian laws on topics such as copyright and privacy.
- Volunteers with time available on an ad hoc basis:
- We suggest you subscribe to one or more of EFA’s public discussion mailing lists on topic/s of interest to you. Subscribers to these lists receive announcements about proposed legislation, action alerts containing suggestions on what you can do, general information, etc. As a subscriber, you will be in position to either take action individually as suggested and/or contact EFA to offer additional assistance on matters that you are particularly interested in and knowledgeable about. See the EFA mailing lists page for information about our lists and how to subscribe.
- If you are a lawyer practising in Australia with expertise in one or more areas of Internet-related law and interested in providing pro-bono or low-fee advice in meritorious cases, please advise the EFA board at
of your area/s of practice and contact details.
If you have a specific idea about how you could assist EFA on a volunteer basis, please send details to together with related information on your relevant background, knowledge, skills and probable time availability (hours weekly or monthly).
