The Friend Circle As we know, Quilliam is the world’s first counterextremism think tank set up to address the unique challenges of citizenship, identity, and belonging in a globalised world. Quilliam stands for religious freedom, equality, human rights and democracy. Our most successful work has been based on the premise of dialogue. So when Quilliam launched it’s private membership service, the Circle, it should have been based around that notion. However, I feel that without interference the Circle will be short-lived, it is a Circle that is based upon monetary gain rather than a promotion of dialogue. The very essence of a coaching session is problematic, we are preaching to the converted which gives the impression of dialogue, when instead it is used as an incentive that is effortless on our end. This is all great and well that it’s effortless on our end, however the circle appears rushed, unprofessional and haphazard on the outside. The Circle should be an exclusive service where you can directly contribute to challenging extremism, promoting pluralism, and inspiring change - rather than receiving a t-shirt, accessing our once free publications and receiving a coaching session you didn’t know you needed. Even the pricing of our publications is flawed, not only are we charging for this once free information, but if you can use google you can access them for free, despite there a being fee on quilliamfoundation.org. See link: http:// bit.ly/2feGJqu The following document aims to correct these issues. The following document will introduce a project I have been working on behind the scenes, outside of my day to day work to improve the Circle. We cannot introduce the Circle and add it to our preexisting workload and expect half a million pounds or six thousand+ donors. We need to introduce something that beats the Henry Jackson Society and the Chatham House memberships and so on. The following project is called In Conversation With. It is one that I breifed Haras on in June 2016. All the information in this document is not based on possbilites, the location and the guests have all confirmed to participate if a project like this was to take place. The ‘In Conversation With…’ series, is where the chairman of Quilliam, Maajid Nawaz will sit in a prestigious location and have a progressive conversation that will be filmed infront of a live audience (Circle Members). For example, a conversation with Maajid Nawaz may consist of how religious literalism can and will exclude minorities, living as an LGBTQ person in the middle east and how the arts can turn the tide on discrimination against those who identify as LGBTQ with Sir Ian McKellen. The faces in the rest of the document have been heavily researched and contacted by myself to see if they would be willing to donate their time to our cause, for free. All of the faces below agreed. This event will not cost Quilliam a penny, apart from the guests travel and accommodation (if applicable). The Circle members will not be charged to attend such talk and will have an involvement on their talking points. We shall not hire a venue, if we place the series within religious buildings we have a greater chance to get them granted for free, as I have with All Saints’ Church, Blackheath. If we host Maajid Nawaz and Sam Harris in New York, the chances are that every attendee shall be a new member to the Circle. So if we host the conversation to 200 Circle members, where they have a chance to meet Sam and Maajid, that is £24,000 profit. The reason for having this series filmed is that a large amount of our supporters cannot attend due to small venues or their location. For the project to go ahead I would need an annual wage. As you can appreciate as of March I will have been at Quilliam for one year, with no wage, relying on my savings to pay for my efforts towards Quilliam.