Are you prepared to give back something for all of the help you have had?

I am so disappointed in the attitude of many members of this forum. Yes it is all very nice to help each other and exchange information, but this is a BATTLE!
Recently NNA AU asked for funds to help them, members are not paid, they do it out of the goodness of their heart, and hey guess what, with nearly 800 members on this forum, they received a measly $200 of donations.
This is pathetic, I am sorry if I offend anyone, but we all know damn well that not only vaping is saving our lives it is also saving us many thousands of dollars a year.
Do many of you just wish to pick up the benefits without giving anything back? If that is the case I think that is a really sad situation.
If even half of the members donated say $20 per month by direct debit, we could achieve so much more. This is just about (I think) about the price of the cheapest packet of cigarettes.
Do please show some appreciation for the unpaid and hard working people who are giving up all their spare time to work for YOU.
We, well at least I assume most of us have seen what Vince Van Heerden has been through to try to save smokers lives, it was appalling and he is now very likely to be declared bankrupt and will lose everything and I mean EVERYTHING.
There is a vape meet coming up in WA run by Gasman and we would welcome any donations that can help Vince try to rebuild his shattered life.
But PLEASE just for the cost of a a few coffees a week, please help us to save lives in Australia and make a regular donation to NNA AU. Because if we do not fight and win this battle, many will go back to smoking and DIE.

I am sorry to be so blunt, but I am gutted by the lack of support for our cause.

Thank You

 

Oh Cristina,
I know you have the best of intentions and feel passionate about the issues facing us as Vapers - I am not sure the language used will result in more folks signing up for small regular donations.
I know several of my friends here at the cafe make small regular donations to the NNA AU, as do I - my $10 a fortnight isn't missed and it adds up to $240 a year - I know most folks could afford this but its up to them to do it - Guilting people very rarely works in Fundraising - making it fun does.
I have other causes close to my heart (animals) and make small regular donations there too but if I ever felt bullied or shamed into donating - I would stop payments in a heartbeat.
I hope you arent offended by my response as I adore you and your passion.

 

Oh Pippi I am not trying to bully or shame anyone,
I just feel they need to wake up and understand what is being done on their behalf.
A lot of people I understand have zillions of problems with day to day living, but the switch from smoking to vaping is saving every single one of them huge amounts of money and I truly feel that they should show some appreciation for that. It is like pulling teeth.if they just prefer to take the benefits without showing their appreciation, that is their call, maybe I have a different outlook and values on life? I may be right, I may be wrong..........

 

Would like to send money to NNAA but as I am a vendor I cannot. I support your work but as it has been mentioned you dont wish there to be a COI with vendors and NNAA
I sent money to Vinces Go Fund Me several times.

 

Well done, he is our unsung hero who started everything.....Thank You

 

Lol, even running fun raffles is like that - its damn hard work with the same VCA people stepping up every time to support.
I have no answers.....

 

I do volunteer work with youth. Even then 20% of the people do 80% of the work

 

I could be wrong on this technical point, but if 'John Smith' owns 'Smith Vapes' then donations from Smith Vapes cannot be accepted while donations from John Smith can.

AFAIU, gear/juice donations from vendors for raffles are welcome.

Can anyone (e.g. @Donna) clarify?

I'm only surprised those numbers are not '10% do 90%'.

 

There are many individuals that donate monthly/fortnightly from the Cafe and even some outside the cafe. We appreciate every cent and it all adds up. Thank you.

Regarding donations from Vendors, we don't investigate every donation but if we see one with a company name in it ie. via paypal johnsmith@Vapeshop123, we refund it.

 

Dear Pippi,
I have been thinking about this silly thread which I started.
You are right, I get ever so passionate and frustrated by things. We are all different, sometimes I forget that.
It is not my place in the world to go around trying to "fix" things. I expect you can imagine the times that this has got me into strife.
Thinking back, I was secretary for 2 different groups a few years ago, this too was a voluntary position which I was passionate about. Luckily after a year someone offered to take over. But the second one was different, nobody would hold their hand up, even though I was exhausted. But eventually some lovely person came along and took over.
It did sound upon reading it through again, that I was trying to guilt people. This is so bad, I apologise and also regret writing in these terms.
We all have our priorities and issues which change regularly.
I slap my own hand........again! Sorry everybody

 

It is amazing how many "life lessons" I am learning on this forum. The honesty and constructive criticism from many of you lovely wise people has made me realise that I need to change. I am afraid I have carried far too much baggage from my childhood and from time to time find myself acting like my parents. Nobody speaks to my Dad, my Mum has no friends and now I see why.
One step forward and two steps back sometimes, but I love you all and am thankful for your friendship xxxxx

 

I've only been vaping a short time now, and have only been off ciggies for nearly a fortnight. im going donate between $10-20 per month to the NNAA for each month I'm off the analogues. even if I happen to slip, my donation will come in as I start again.
And I did promise @Pippi i would pass on her generosity where I could

 

Christina, you have a big heart and are so genourous - Some of my most Fav people go over the top sometimes and my world be lesser without thier passion & craziness.
Don't change too much!

 

You are very kind, but I know my faults and find them hard to live with, but thanks Pippi anyway xx

 

Thank you Christina for your tireless efforts to help Vince and the NNA. I'm not good at fundraising or asking for money, so I leave that mostly to others. I will never stop my advocacy for which I will never charge a cent, even if there are no funds, but funds do help us to do a whole lot more.

I did some sums the other day and found it interesting that the all the Cancer Council state organisations together raise about 150 million dollars from ordinary Australians each year. This compares to our $15,000 that we raised via donations and raffles etc., especially thanks to Pippi's and Steve's hard work. That's about 10,000 times more funds raised for the Cancer Councils.

Given there are hundreds of thousands of vapers in Australia now, it is certain that as a whole vapers would rather give the Cancer Council money to fight vaping than to the NNA AU to defend vaping, because they must have certainly given far more donations to them than they have to us. They would rather fund lavish trips and wages of anti nicotine zealots who would like to kill vapers by forcing them back to smoking because they somehow seem to be suspicious of us. None of us draw a wage, but much of the Cancer Councils funds are for nice fat wages for lobbyists to go and convince people in power to ban vaping. They are paid to do this full time, while we have to do it in our spare time.

Many people think their donations to the CC go to research to fight cancer. But this is a small fraction of their spending. Let's take the example of CC NSW, the largest one. https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/CCN17307_Full-Financial-Report_web.pdf

They got $81 million income in donations from ordinary mugs.

The largest expenditure item was "fundraising", ie. paying backpackers to shake cans and hassle people. This cost $22 million.

The amount spent on research was a paltry $14 million. This does not only mean core science research on finding a cure for cancer. It also includes ideologically charged "research" surveys on vaping with loaded questions to get the prohibitionist answers they want to make it appear their pro smoking ideology is supported by the public eg:
https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/wp...srv_results_report_FINAL_for-distribution.pdf

Most of the rest is for wages and "advocacy" and media and buildings. Even the financial report auditors got over $50,000, much more than the total donations to the NNA.

I honestly don't know how vapers can continue to pour funds into this corrupt organisation without question, while we face fierce critics on our own side (mostly on the other forum). On the other hand, if the critics of us in the vaping community formed an alternative organisation that was getting more traction and being more effective than we are, I would wholeheartedly disband the NNA AU and get behind them instead. We only started this because nobody else was doing anything.

Of course, tearing others down is far easier than building something, and seems to bring satisfaction to some mentally unbalanced people.

If tearing down is all they can do however, it would be better if they focused their efforts on tearing down the enemies of vaping.

 

Oh Wow Doc, if I may call you that.
This is the core of my frustration. People run around with silly pink ribbons and armbands and to be fair to them, they truly think that they are helping to cure cancer.
If only they knew where the money was spent and how (just in my opinion) they are keeping the wheels of cancer turning, with practically no hope for a cure....
They are just propping up an obscene enterprise. I am not saying that everyone in the CC does not have their heart in the right place, I am sure many do. But I think it is a large corporate money making machine.
Somehow or another, over the years, they have earned kudos and I know from many conversations with their press officer that although they vehemently deny it, I found out through my own research that their biggest sponsors are big pharma. This is not rocket science to discover, because now big pharma have to reveal who they give their contributions to.
I did tackle the CC about this, but I was almost immediately banished from further contact.
This is why they are fighting us, they will lose their nice safe jobs. I find this to be appalling. The same can be said for the so called "Health Department". We all know who I am referring to. How the hell can they sleep at night? Do they have no conscience?
I truly believe there have been many cures for cancer from about the 1970's and it sickens me that people are prepared to profit from other's pain and suffering just for their own benefit.
I take my hat off to you and a few others in the mainline medical establishment, you are giving us credence and brave support, with no financial return.
You have a good heart and I so admire the fact that you are possibly alienating yourself from "The establishment".
Just take care because we all know people such as you actually put their lives in danger.
The other fight we have is the mainstream news i.e. "Murdoch press" they are all in the same ring.
I know I stick my neck out and make myself unpopular at times, but how else can we wake people up?

Thank you for your kind message, sometimes I just feel like crawling back into my shell so that I don't cause waves. It is so hard to be passionate and want to change things.
But thank you and the team from the bottom of my heart for having the guts to try to change things.

Christina

 

Don't go away. It's support from passionate people like you that keep us going. Thank you.