I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to read many of these posts. People calling for action and saying "we need to do something" and saying the very same things that we (CASAA) have been begging people to help us with for 3 years now. People who obviously have not been attending meetings to know we are already working on these things and all of the things we have to deal with in addition. We (the board of directors) aren't paid executive directors sitting isolated in a board room somewhere scratching our heads. We are volunteers who have been working our butts off trying to build a presence in the world and we haven't been living in a vacuum for the past three years. Of course we know positive news is paramount - anyone who know me knows that that's how I got involved in CASAA in the first place! But I've been fighting that fight and if anyone is interested I could fill them in about how hard it really is to get that positive press.
Yet instead of talking about supporting us and helping us get further, people want to start from scratch with a different organization?? People have NO CLUE how hard it was to keep CASAA going and get it as far as we have with so little money and with very little participation of the vast majority of the e-cigarette community. It took 3 years and a very devoted and hard-working core of directors (giving up evenings and weekends with their families and donating their own money, services and talents) along with the support of a handful of dedicated members to keep CASAA from disintegrating into a well-intentioned memory. We have grown from a small group of people with absolutely no experience with lobbying, advocating, fighting legislation, scientific research, fundraising, running a non-profit organization; and with no money in the bank and virtually no help from anyone but Bill Godshall and somehow beaten all odds and instead of fading away into the la-la world of best intentions we are not only still here, but we now have over $15k in the bank with reoccurring monthly donations finally coming in, have testified before the FDA committees, participated in a historic and landmark court case, met some movers and shakers on the national level, have gained one of the most well-known tobacco harm reduction advocates to our board of directors (Dr. Carl Phillips) and are slowly but steadily becoming a force to be reckoned with. So, I'm not going to feel bad that we haven't completely saved the world from the ANTZ yet. You want to start your own organization because CASAA isn't doing enough in your book? You think you can do better? Be my guest. (Sorry, but it really ticks me off that people don't appreciate that it's not as easy as they think or we'd have already done it!)
We have been David fighting Goliath, but all of our work to date has been just trying to get ahold of a sling shot and getting people to help us collect some rocks for the fight. To have people who have been sitting on the sidelines and watching not only not help us gather more rocks, but now start tossing the rocks AT us instead (for not fighting hard enough) is just completely disheartening.
I hope this will inspire more people to start attending meetings and/or donating their time and efforts to CASAA. The board of directors in not CASAA. CASAA's strength and effectiveness is directly related to the involvement of it's members. YOU are CASAA. If you aren't happy with CASAA's progress, then you only have yourself and anyone else who hasn't bothered to get involved to blame. Because if we had the right support and involvement from the community, we'd already be doing these things.
To steal a very fitting line from JFK - Ask not what CASAA can do for you. Ask what YOU can do for CASAA.
I hope to see everyone who has been giving opinions on what CASAA should be doing logged in at our next meeting!
