Reflection, Intention, GFN16

As I prepare for the journey to attend GFN16, I have been quite reflective on what I hope is accomplished and how best to accomplish it.    As some know, Steve and I spend HOURS chatting on messenger, usually late at night once his shift at hospital is done, talking about the days events, activities, plans, news, etc.   We have spent the last couple of days discussing the situation here in New Zealand and how the GFN correlates to our mission.  Some would say we overthink, overplan and overdiscuss.    I would say that both of us would agree and have a good laugh at that, but that is also exactly how we birthed AVCA.   We needed to have our own voice, as vapers, in New Zealand and then in the world.  

There were too many different voices speaking for us, without us.  There were too many different agendas that were distracting from the main mission of helping people get off the tobacco and giving them the information and then choice option to vape if they chose that method, for whatever reason.  The dissension was maddening – some of it was competition between vendors, some of it was the misinformation and/or lack of information readily available through government cessation providers, some of it was internal disagreements within the community between motivations and reasons for how and why to use electronic cigarettes and some of it was in academia, where the information that was presented by the so called “experts” was specifically void of any input from the people who actually used electronic cigarettes and vaped, for whatever reason.  It could be said with a fair bit of accuracy, that the majority of the dissension came from and still exists because it was built around misinformation, errors of omission (either intentional or unintentional) and a lack of cohesion across all the people involved in either doing it, selling it, studying it or wanting to know more about it.    

We feel that it is our responsibility to try to bring people together.  At the very least, we have accomplished that with our Vape It Forward and Advocacy program and with our social media presence.   We have brought all sorts of folk together, under the umbrella of vaping, friendships have been made, meetups have been had, that probably otherwise would never have even been conceived of.   But, you know, it is *still* not enough.   In discussing it with Steve, we both feel that even though there has been much positive feedback, meetings of AVCA reps with researchers, correspondence with government ministers and positive feedback the media, there are still many misconceptions out there as to who we, as vapers are, and there is still a sense of discomfort (??) between certain factions of the community.  This bothers us both no end (and a few others who have mentioned it as well).  Divide and Conquer is a very old method of domination of one group over another.    To see certain parts of the community attempting to use this method to fracture the community is disheartening at best.  It distracts from the unity we need to get the powers that be to listen to us, take us seriously, and be a force to be reckoned with.   

One of the first things that Steve and I agreed upon, and have asked every advocate, mentor and member of AVCA to agree to, is that we represent everyone in New Zealand in their choice to vape.  Our Mission Statement isn’t something we came up with because it read well or sounded good.  We all believe it, to our very core, each and every member of the team.   AVCA is not in competition with anyone.  None of the team members have any vested financial or material interest in seeing its programs advance and thrive.   We are truly in this for altruistic reasons, as volunteers to share our knowledge, to help people.  To save lives and promote well-being (be it physical or mental)  among the people.

We fully realise that without a free retail market for electronic cigarettes, e-liquid and accessories there would be no vaping community in New Zealand.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t expect that people who manufacture liquid or equipment shouldn’t be held to a certain standard for hygiene and fair market practice.  We fully realise that without a robust academic research community, there is no knowledge.  But that does not mean we accept facts that are not evolved from the scientific method of discovery, but instead based upon personal opinion or agenda.  We fully realise that there are some who vape for tobacco harm reduction/smoking cessation, just as there are those who vape to “chase clouds” and as a hobby.  We also realise that some begin their vaping journey on the cessation end and wind up being hobbyists.  And that is all good with us, because that is less folk being harmed by tobacco.  But that does mean that we, as the whole community, should be perceived or represented as “cloud chasers” or hobbyists only.

So, onward I go to GFN16, to represent the vapers in our community, hoping that I will find advice and guidance and information that can be used to help all of us become more united, more knowledgeable, more of family (ok, we are always going to be dysfunctional, but whose family isn’t?) that plays nicely together.

I tak to wygląda. (And so it goes)

Nancy 🙂