It has been brought to my attention that there’s a big problem with smoking at the meetings.
I understand that some of you are allergic or you just don’t enjoy the smell of one of nature’s finest products. A product that has been responsible for the economic stability of the south as well as the funding and founding of many large universities here in the south, and that legal product is tobacco.
OK, now that that’s been said, tongue in cheek of course, we don’t want anyone to be uncomfortable at our meetings.
One of issues I have to deal with on this subject, is that the room we meet in is a smoking area for Stormies customers, so, smoking is permitted there. The other issue is that some members can’t stand the smell of tobacco smoke, which I understand. Maybe this wasn’t brought to my attention because you felt that because I’m a smoker, I may not be sympathetic with you- well, that’s not true, I am. Miriam doesn’t smoke and I have to be considerate to her at home or she’ll throw me out, and I’m sure we don’t want to see our President homeless, do we, so I do understand.
This is what I plan to try at the next meeting. I’m going to ask any NON-SMOKERS to sit at the south end of the room, that’s the area to the right coming in the back door. This way any customers or members can smoke at the end of the room toward the bar area and if any of Stormies customers come in and want to sit at the bar and smoke, all the smokers will be at that end of the room.
As I said, I’m going to give this a try and see how it works. I’m also going to ask Steve, (owner of Stormies) to crack one of the vynil window covers to allow smoke to be drawn out toward the bar end of the room away from the smoke sensitive folks.
But here’s the thing. No one has made an official complaint to me about the smoke. If I don’t know about a problem, I can’t do much about it. You have to let me know, not just in passing, but get my attention and let me know how important an issue is to you. You can always talk about things like this during the new business portion of the meeting too. I’m kind of dissapointed that it hasn’t been brought to my attention sooner.
I know its very hard for me to talk to some of you at the meetings because it gets pretty hectic for me on meeting nights. I honestly wish I had time to talk to everyone at the meetings but it never seems to work out for me.
You can also email me and let me know your concerns regarding any issue that you feel is important to you and the club.
I want everyone to feel comfortable at our meetings and if I’m forced to, I may have to suspend smoking during the meetings. I want to accommodate everyone but I’m not going to punish one group to appese the other. I think we can solve this problem as a club and make everyone feel at home at the meetings.
Please email me if you have any suggestions or comments about this subject or anything else that’s on your mind.
Our next meeting is Tuesday, March 6th. 7PM. Be there or be square! LOL
Your President,
Emil
emil2947@aol.com
