Smoking v. Non-Smoking Meetings

[spike]

Has anyone noticed a change in behaviour of members when smoking meetings go non-smoking? We are all non-smoking now, gone are the days when barely being able to see across the room was part of the AA experience - sadly.

I have noticed a tendency for a constant movement of members in and out of the room getting their fix. Sometimes half the meeting is outside smoking while people are still sharing. Personally I think this so discourteous but I am in danger of becoming grumpy old Mrs. AA......

This never happened prior to the ban and other other effect is that the rooms empty very quickly after the meeting, rather than members getting another cup of coffee and staying to chat.

We do have a lot of meetings in the London area, around 720 a week and the idea of the home group is less recognized, people tend to flit from meeting to meeting.

 

[nicowolf]

I never was one to stick around inside the building more than 5 minutes or so after the closing. I would empty 3 or 4 ashtrays, put away a few chairs, then rush outside. The best and most candid conversations were always outside and they still are. Once the ashtrays were put away, the smokers had to go outside because there was nowhere to put your butts (both kinds).

What I have noticed since pretty much all the meetings have gone nonsmoking, is that some of the nonsmokers actually come outside now and participate in the "meeting after the meeting". A few actually admit to wanting to hang out with the smokers because the conversation is more interesting.

With my ADHD I have gone through spells where I just had to get up and go outside in the middle of meetings to keep from fidgeting and being disruptive. I find I got a LOT out of the more personal conversations I had with others doing the same thing. Leaving during a meeting can sometimes be more respectful than staying (for me anyhow). The people outside during a meeting are not necessarily skipping out on their program, just getting it in a different way. I find myself doing this WAY more at larger meetings than smaller meetings (I think I just get more antsy in bigger groups).

After all this, I guess what I am trying to say is: "Wherever two or more are gathered...", even if that happens to be right outside of an official meeting.

This same issue has really ruffled some feathers around here too. Everything I just said is just my take on it - my experience, strength, and hope. I welcome others to share theirs too. I learn a lot from hearing the other side of things ya know.

 

[nicowolf]

I forgot to mention that I vape throughout both of the meetings that I attend regularly (pretty much the same group of people at both). I get the occasional odd look and maybe a question after the meeting, but not the controlling glares I expected. I also made sure to show up early and stand outside chatting and explaining my new toy before ever attempting to use it inside the meeting. I even offer to let others try it out and I carry extras to loan out, just in case. I have loaned out two starter kits now to people who seem genuinely interested. vaping at meetings gives me something to do with my hands and I feel much more comfortable and can still even if the speaker is longwinded and comments go on and on.

 

[spike]

I do agree with you about the non-smokers hanging around outside with the smokers - it happens here as well. I suspect I just don't like change...and my lack of control...ho hum, another character defect.

I take my e-cig as well, hand out cards of my usual supplier and encourage like mad. Perhaps I can single handedly convert the smokers to e-cigs and thereby solve the perceived problem............

 

[nicowolf]

Yeah, I want to convert all my friends to vaping, almost exactly like I wanted to convert all my partying buddies to the program when I first came around. I am enthusiastic about these things - I wish you could see how I light up when someone wants to know about my puffer thingy. I was just as enthusiastic about the program. I don't light up as readily with that anymore - too many have asked and not followed through, so I don't get my hopes up, I just spill out information and a willingness to hold their hand for awhile and see what comes of it. I am sure my eagerness here will wane with time and experience too, but for now, I am enjoying being an enthusiast again.

 

[nlgoddess]

Hey spike, I miss those days too. I got clean shortly before you did and remember those smoke hazy rooms with such fondness! We use to spend hours after the meeting just hanging out and providing group sponsorship. Funny but those same people still maintain that link, and most of us are still clean, or reclean. I got clean in Alaska, and when the Alanon club went non-smoking people quit hanging around. Just tooooooo COLD to hang around outside.

Oh, My name is Wendy and I am an addict. My clean date: 11/10/1986

 

[spike]

Hey spike, I miss those days too. I got clean shortly before you did and remember those smoke hazy rooms with such fondness! We use to spend hours after the meeting just hanging out and providing group sponsorship. Funny but those same people still maintain that link, and most of us are still clean, or reclean. I got clean in Alaska, and when the Alanon club went non-smoking people quit hanging around. Just tooooooo COLD to hang around outside.

Oh, My name is Wendy and I am an addict. My clean date: 11/10/1986

And it was also bound up with the feeling that there was going to be more to life, that there was going to be a life. That I could do anything except drink, my horizon was limitless. I had a great enthusiasm for this fellowship which I have never lost, pushed into service by my sponsor early on I have never been out of it and consider it a cornerstone of my sobriety - also I like to know what's going on.......

Keeping it simple, I was good at that in the early days, now I let life complicate me. So in a way I look back with great affection at my beginnings.

 

[sendit2mybb]

My home group in VA has the best of both worlds...we have a self-contained, separate ventilated smoking room in the back of our Clubhouse. I can vape with all of the other nicotine junkies and they all love the E-cig. Even have my Sponsor hooked now on the E-cig and he's trying to bum extra juice and cartridges from me. I actually prefer to give him juice than a real analog ciggie!!

 

[spike]

My home group in VA has the best of both worlds...we have a self-contained, separate ventilated smoking room in the back of our Clubhouse. I can vape with all of the other nicotine junkies and they all love the E-cig. Even have my Sponsor hooked now on the E-cig and he's trying to bum extra juice and cartridges from me. I actually prefer to give him juice than a real analog ciggie!!

You have to watch these sponsors - give them an inch.........
What an enlightened group you have, I might even make the trip over just to smoke indoors with you all.

 

[sendit2mybb]

You have to watch these sponsors - give them an inch.........
What an enlightened group you have, I might even make the trip over just to smoke indoors with you all.

Please do Spike..we'll welcome you with open arms Yeah, those Sponsors are sneaky ones...they may help you grow spiritually; although, they'll deplete your liquid supply in a heartbeat (don't let them fool ya'...they're addicts also!)

 

[noisland]

Good conversation. Just started this e-cig last week. Got my first kit from Vaporello but appears he has gone on to other things. Waiting on new supplies. I have to admit that I am kind of excited about it. When the meetings changed over to nonsmoking I was wondering how I'd make it through a meeting without lighting-up. Has since become accustomed to nonsmoking meetings. But I'm always one of the first ones out the door. Seems, I've become the unofficial greeter at my regular meetings. Standing outside smoking, I get to be one of the first to introduce myself to all the newcomers. Besides that, most of the newcomers are smokers also. When I get my e-cig supplies in, I imagine the e-cig will be a real conversation starter. Ever wonder why you don't hear of the friends of Dr. Bob?

 

[bear]

Ever wonder why you don't hear of the friends of Dr. Bob?

Who wants to be associated with a proctologist?

 

[Father Luke]

I work the after hour phones occasionally, called the diverter where I come from, and
when people call up looking for a meeting, I always tell them to look for the crowd of
people outside holding styros of coffee, and smoking.

People who smoke outside of meetings are being of service.
It's true, you know.

I come from an AA where there used to be so much smoke you could bottle it, and sell it
as fog. There are still some meetings I go to where people smoke. Usually the old timers.
Real old timers, like guys who were sponsored by Dr Bob, and even Bill.

One old guy spoke in a meeting and said that he was suing the tobacco companies. He
said that he had started smoking because cigarettes were supposed to cause cancer. Well,
he's been smoking for over twenty years, and he was in perfect health, so he thought he
could get a breach of contract verdict.

Gott'a love it.

- -
Okay,
Father Luke

 

[Mossman]

Haha... I heard something similar from an old-timer around here...

In this area, all the meetings became non-smoking about 4 to 4 and a half years ago... I got sober 3 years ago, so I missed out... Actually, I had been to a few meetings with my father, when I was a little kid (yeah, give my family tree a shake and see what falls out.) and the one thing I remember is my eyes burning from all the smoke... That, and hearing a lot of war stories that a little kid probably shouldn't hear...

As I mentioned in another thread, they have a break in the middle of the meetings around here, so, unless someone needs to have a private conversation with somebody, there's not many stragglers hanging around outside during the meeting.