Dear ICV Members and Friends:

The ICV is on Twitter and Facebook!

For those of you who are Twitter and Facebook fanatics, we can be followed @CruiseVictims (Twitter) and Cruise Victims (Facebook).  We will be posting stories daily and will be covering the cruise industry closely.  We hope that you take a moment and begin to follow us.

For those of you who are not familiar with Twitter, we can be located at http://www.twitter.com/CruiseVictims.  There are millions of people who “twitter” daily and it is an increasingly popular and effective means of communication.  The cruise lines, cruise fan communities, and cruise bloggers are all on Twitter and are sending out information on a daily basis.  Even the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) has a Twitter page, called @CruiseFacts.  We will be watching all of these cruise twitterers and will be making certain that the true “facts” of the cruise industry are being conveyed to the public. Likewise, all of these stories will be updated on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000164420854&ref=profile,to insure that everyone is receiving their daily cruise industry updates.

Other features to be included on these social medias is a "Twitition," an online Twitter petition attracting signatures for The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009. In addition we will use, "Twitpay," a method combining Twitter and PayPal in which Twitterers and Facebookers can make donations to the ICV.

One week ago, we had 30 followers on Twitter, now we have 85. An interesting mix of travel agents, travel writers, cruise fans, victims organizations, and individuals are following us. Our goal is to have 1,000 followers by the end of the year!

If you have a link to a cruise related story, a video or anything of interest to our cause, please email us.  Jamie Barnett had the initiative to create our Twitter page and we thank Jamie for her time and energy.  Jamie will be assisted by Caitlin Burke, who is a recent graduate of the University of Florida.  Caitlin wrote a senior thesis called “A Qualitative Study of Victimization and Legal Issues Relevant to Cruise Ships.” You will be impressed with her thesis and  have attached it to this e-mail for your review.

She is going to become increasingly involved is our media efforts to get the ICV’s message to the public.

Both Jamie and Caitlin can be contacted at:

ICVictims@gmail.com

Sincerely,

Ken Carver