You quit right when I moved up from a dial up connection. Be great to have something on YouTube.
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You quit right when I moved up from a dial up connection. Be great to have something on YouTube.
Another good page to see what we've been doing is The FDA & Deeming Regulations of E-cigarettes Our focus for some time has been the FDA, but we'd done a lot of state and local stuff before that, which you can see by reading older posts on our blog.
If you were around in the early days of the first election(s), you'd understand why we haven't been doing those anymore. It was a big mess and most of the people elected based on popularity either never showed up to the first board meetings or quit soon after. Vapers tend to come and go from the community.
Since then, there has been very little interest from members in joining the board and taking on this kind of responsibility. CASAA's BOD is largely a WORKING board, responsible for many duties to keep the organization running. If it was just an oversight board, it would be different. Any new board member has to be trained or bring skills that we need. We also have a limit on the number of vendors that can be on the board. Given this situation, we can't have a situation where Joe Vapor can just decide he wants to be on the board and ask the community to elect him. The community at large has no idea the kind of work the board does to keep things running and the skills needed or required. It would decimate the organization and throw it into chaos to suddenly have a mostly new board with no experience or of people who don't truly support the organizations whole mission The working board has dedicated advocates who bring certain skills to the organization and sacrifice a lot of personal time to keep it going. That is more than most people want to take on, let alone are qualified to do. None of the board is paid, although the non-voting Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Carl Phillips, has recently been given a small, annual salary for consulting, which is why he is no longer on the actual BOD.
So, the existing board members have been forced to fill open spots by watching and listening to the more active members and inviting them to apply. If they seem like capable and serious advocates, they are then interviewed and vetted before being elected by the existing board. Some have declined the invitation and some have been found to not be qualified or support CASAA's mission fully. I honestly cannot see how we could just have open elections under these circumstances.
Our funds pay for the website, email, mailing, phone, printed materials, PO box, materials and products sold on the store, accountant fees, press release fees, travel expenses to hearings and conventions, research (such as the Burstyn paper), small donations to other advocacy groups and legal support (such as the lawsuit in New York), our local representative in Alabama (required because we incorporated there and must have a physical presence) and most recently, Dr, Phillip's consulting salary. We spend no money on membership - that is al done via word-of-mouth by our members on social networks. The only thing we really do towards that is provide the vendor store stands and cards, which we sell for cost, so it pays for itself. If you want to know more about how much we have and where the money is spent, you are welcome to contact our treasurer, Karen Carey.
If you were around in the early days of the first election(s), you'd understand why we haven't been doing those anymore. It was a big mess and most of the people elected based on popularity either never showed up to the first board meetings or quit soon after. Vapers tend to come and go from the community.
Since then, there has been very little interest from members in joining the board and taking on this kind of responsibility. CASAA's BOD is largely a WORKING board, responsible for many duties to keep the organization running. If it was just an oversight board, it would be different. Any new board member has to be trained or bring skills that we need. We also have a limit on the number of vendors that can be on the board. Given this situation, we can't have a situation where Joe Vapor can just decide he wants to be on the board and ask the community to elect him. The community at large has no idea the kind of work the board does to keep things running and the skills needed or required. It would decimate the organization and throw it into chaos to suddenly have a mostly new board with no experience or of people who don't truly support the organizations whole mission The working board has dedicated advocates who bring certain skills to the organization and sacrifice a lot of personal time to keep it going. That is more than most people want to take on, let alone are qualified to do. None of the board is paid, although the non-voting Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Carl Phillips, has recently been given a small, annual salary for consulting, which is why he is no longer on the actual BOD.
So, the existing board members have been forced to fill open spots by watching and listening to the more active members and inviting them to apply. If they seem like capable and serious advocates, they are then interviewed and vetted before being elected by the existing board. Some have declined the invitation and some have been found to not be qualified or support CASAA's mission fully. I honestly cannot see how we could just have open elections under these circumstances.
Our funds pay for the website, email, mailing, phone, printed materials, PO box, materials and products sold on the store, accountant fees, press release fees, travel expenses to hearings and conventions, research (such as the Burstyn paper), small donations to other advocacy groups and legal support (such as the lawsuit in New York), our local representative in Alabama (required because we incorporated there and must have a physical presence) and most recently, Dr, Phillip's consulting salary. We spend no money on membership - that is al done via word-of-mouth by our members on social networks. The only thing we really do towards that is provide the vendor store stands and cards, which we sell for cost, so it pays for itself. If you want to know more about how much we have and where the money is spent, you are welcome to contact our treasurer, Karen Carey.
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