I'm afraid a new rep is needed

[Blownupdolly]

Jun 14, 2013 16:56:51 GMT jess said:

I'm really sorry that it hasn't worked out, womble. You gave it your best shot & it's totally understandable why you want to walk away from it, walls are hard & nobody wants you suffering with a sore head. Thank you very much for giving it a go.

Totally agree Jess. I think there's a hell of a lot of us who feel we are banging our heads against a brick wall.

[esmecullen]

sorry to hear that womble.............but you did your best and good luck to the new member

[vereybowring]

We all understand, I think, womble.
I was in at the early days of ECCA UK V1.0 and the same problems from back then have just come back again for VV2.0 it seems. New bods have come in with fresh ideas but are having trouble getting any head of steam up to move too far forward.

It doesn't help that directions of travel both times seem to have come up against changing opinions going the other. First time round everything was aimed at being political and leaving consumer stuff till afterwards and members eventually didn't like it. Now in V2.0 they have changed to wanting to concentrate on consumer issues and are now being asked why they aren't defending us politically.
Heck opinion is even split around the place on what a good consumer association should be, only cover consumer and ignore politics, or be dual purpose if a little split.

Its a no win for everybody unless strong leadership can drag members and committee to an accord.
I really hope also the new idea for a membership fee to be a full voting member is set at a level that will not put people off since regard for ECCA UK has not been very high otherwise they kill it right there.

We have to see where it will all lead, but thank you for trying nonetheless.

[GunJack]

my thanks added to all the above

[lynxkat]

May I ask in plain terms, who has re-placed womble ? and womble are you still around ?

[matt1988]

No Womble hasn't been replaced as of yet lynxkat I have stepped into the role on a temporary basis until we can find someone willing to take it on

[gibla53]

Not wishing any harm at all to ECCA in what I want to discuss here ( it may ultimately help in a successful re-launch)

There is a thread just started on another forum gathering what skills can people offer to a focussed "Beat the Ban" type campaign along the lines of ecigssavelives campaign . What this needs though is joint efforts from ALL forums /ECCA/ECITA possibly a pipe dream .... but if an effort like this could could be successful it will massively add to the cause .

So in a roundabout way this is not in competition with ECCA and I'm not trying to hijack the thread .Please give some feedback on what I have inadequately tried to propose ..... Remember this wants to be an ALL forum initiative with clear open official support from ECCA and ECITA

[matt1988]

Hi gibla53 this is something that ECCA would be able to look into, although we have to be careful when working in partnership with trade bodies such as ECITA, that would be my only concern.

But if you could post a link to said thread, I will have a read and see if it's something ECCA can help with. I am however worried about how many separate organisations there are for the same thing, with ECITA, ECCA, ecigs saves lives, fight the ban etc. I'm not veing dismissive just airing my views, but I will definitely look at thr proposal.

[Blownupdolly]

Jul 12, 2013 8:09:27 GMT matt1988 said:

Hi gibla53 this is something that ECCA would be able to look into, although we have to be careful when working in partnership with trade bodies such as ECITA, that would be my only concern.

But if you could post a link to said thread, I will have a read and see if it's something ECCA can help with. I am however worried about how many separate organisations there are for the same thing, with ECITA, ECCA, ecigs saves lives, fight the ban etc. I'm not veing dismissive just airing my views, but I will definitely look at thr proposal.

No disrespect Matt, but what did you think would happen? ECCA has so far done very little to represent the consumer in the fight to stop the EU nonsense, and this is why splinter groups have popped up because people have felt completely impotent in getting their voices heard.

[matt1988]

Jul 12, 2013 8:23:38 GMT Blownupdolly said:

Jul 12, 2013 8:09:27 GMT matt1988 said:

Hi gibla53 this is something that ECCA would be able to look into, although we have to be careful when working in partnership with trade bodies such as ECITA, that would be my only concern.

But if you could post a link to said thread, I will have a read and see if it's something ECCA can help with. I am however worried about how many separate organisations there are for the same thing, with ECITA, ECCA, ecigs saves lives, fight the ban etc. I'm not veing dismissive just airing my views, but I will definitely look at thr proposal.

No disrespect Matt, but what did you think would happen? ECCA has so far done very little to represent the consumer in the fight to stop the EU nonsense, and this is why splinter groups have popped up because people have felt completely impotent in getting their voices heard.

With the greatest respect, I totally agree, however if everyone supported one group/organisation we woupd be much better off! ECCA are working with limited time and resources, the current committee and volunteers are spending 80% of their free time trying to get things in place. We are very regularly up until 12-1am hoing through ideas etc. Our biggest hold up at the moment is the new website, we have all the information data etc to go on it, but our volunteer web designer has been very busy with paid work, and hasnt found the time to complete it.

I'm not trying to argue with you, and I agree your points are very valid, just explaining our position.

[Blownupdolly]

I'm not trying to argue either, just giving my heartfelt opinion.

I do understand that setting up an organisation is not easy. I set up my own business from scratch so know how hard it is to get the right people on board etc. BUT, and this is a big but, I know there is a fair percentage of people who feel ECCA are focusing too much on trivialities right now, and not representing the people in the biggest fight of their lives! And that is not being over dramatic because for a lot of us it will be their lives affected.

I honestly don't know the answer, and I am not getting at you personally, I just want ECCA to be what it should be, a fighting machine to represent the consumer and their rights. This is the reason there are splinter groups popping up everywhere.
For what it's worth, in my opinion, there seems to be a lot of "personalities" not wanting to get into bed with other "personalities" At the end of the day, unless EVERYONE pulls together in one big force in the same direction,we won't be getting anywhere, because Joe public will be confused and eventually give up the ghost.

[matt1988]

Exactly. The key now is to get Joe Public on our side, not just non-smokers and smokers, but more importantly vapers who have no idea what's going on! And that is one of the things ecca is looking at right now. Getting e-cig users that don't know whats going on involved and aware.

[Deleted]

ECCA could do worse than looking at the their French counterpart AIDUCE

[gibla53]

The so-called splinter group ecigssavelives managed to raise over £2000 really quickly the website ecigssavelives.co.uk has managed to produce at very short notice the website the downloadable flyers etc etc . The same group of people are now looking at getting something non-forum aligned with as much broad support as possible .
Matt 1988 I went along with about 70 individuals from the UK to Brussels the end result was not fantastic but the enthusiasm surrounding that and the recent campaigns is gathering pace and its surely better us all getting behind something like this for the next few months . Personally if I was on the ECCA committee at the moment I would suggest reducing each others workload and get actively involved in this until the next key votes in the Europarl. in Sept/Oct . in the meantime as Jess above has suggested spend some time looking at the workings of Aiduce ... I have contacts there if you wish .

So summarising I am not asking permission I would like instead ECCA to fully and actively get involved in this "splinter group" ( I f.....g hate that expression where its all of us in this together and these so called splinter groups are in fact the same people trying to get the apathetic majority to get involved in something to help to preserve what we have now.

[Blownupdolly]

Jul 12, 2013 13:32:17 GMT gibla53 said:

The so-called splinter group ecigssavelives managed to raise over £2000 really quickly the website ecigssavelives.co.uk has managed to produce at very short notice the website the downloadable flyers etc etc . The same group of people are now looking at getting something non-forum aligned with as much broad support as possible .
Matt 1988 I went along with about 70 individuals from the UK to Brussels the end result was not fantastic but the enthusiasm surrounding that and the recent campaigns is gathering pace and its surely better us all getting behind something like this for the next few months . Personally if I was on the ECCA committee at the moment I would suggest reducing each others workload and get actively involved in this until the next key votes in the Europarl. in Sept/Oct . in the meantime as Jess above has suggested spend some time looking at the workings of Aiduce ... I have contacts there if you wish .

So summarising I am not asking permission I would like instead ECCA to fully and actively get involved in this "splinter group" ( I f.....g hate that expression where its all of us in this together and these so called splinter groups are in fact the same people trying to get the apathetic majority to get involved in something to help to preserve what we have now.

So what word should I have used then? Not wishing to offend and all that