The ISTA issue rumbles on as it has for years. sparks of interest, then lethargy repeated ad infinitum. The reality is most of us are very busy (I certainly couldn’t find the time to run it) and more importantly we can’t meet in person. Someone said this was not a problem - believe me it is. I sit on many committees and they could not function without personal contact. Even when we video conference, its difficult. It can not happen in the way its been discussed and I think its time to either bin the idea or make a decision to do something. However I think something could be done very easily and my simple suggestion is: we re name snuff house as Snuff House the Home of the International Snuff Takers Association. Membership would be on the closed ISTA threads for members. At this point we could let this grow to a private section of the site with reviews and works etc. This would be immensely easy to achieve, free and we have the capacity to do it now. It could then grow of its own accord. Build a wall and you very quickly realise you have to lay the first brick and then the foundation for the thing to grow. Our constant back and forwards chatter (all well meant and I mean no disrespect) will just never get anywhere. Even if you do a fanzine or something similar, it’s likely to fizzle out. If Alex does make these changes then we would have built the meeting place for the association and things could only be on the up from then. Snuffster
I thought the whole idea was to gather people who may not be interested in internet forums, but are interested in snuff. All we really need is a constitution or a mission statement. The mission, of course, can be on going. No need to have everything finished at once.
I don’t think that was ever the idea, certainly not to my knowledge. The whole thing is entirely web dependent so members would perforce be people who know about this site or are members of it - the ISTA would have to be in effect an internet forum -at least to begin with. The problem is inherently what we are doing now; sending emails back and forwards with never a single decision being made. You’ve been a member here for a while now Xander, the ‘discussion’ has been going on like this for about three years now. I think that is because we have aimed far to high - if you review the posts we’ve had all kind of suggestions but never any mechanism for progressing them. That is beacuse we have no leadership, committee or working group that have the time or capacity to deliver. Take your own suggestion of using hard copy; who writes it, get’s it printed, finances it (especially with the economy the way it is), delivers it, stores it etc etc? To do anything as involved as running an international association you need a quorum of people who can physically meet and we can not do that. And this has not got off the ground precisely because we can’t. We have to go for a simple approach to begin with just to get things moving. I’ve run projects for years and without exception they start with a single decision to do a certain thing - we have never made a single decision about the ISTA becasue we have no decision making process in place; just endless suggestions.
Sometimes I think you and I are the only ones who even talk about ISTA anymore. I discuss it mainly because I want it to happen. Hopefully discussion will generate interest to get it started. Something. Anything. Most of the ISTA members don’t even check in anymore. I agree with most of what you write. Leadership is the critical thing, the rest all comes later. I’m in several non-internet groups, most of whom I’ve never met another member of. Some are very small groups. I suppose some have very small meetings of their core leadership, but rarely any mass gatherings. Yes, I’ve been here awhile now. I’ve also spent more time than is good for me on snuffhouse, and I’ve read every thread in the archives, even the ones that were here before me. Personally, I’d love to have some involvement in the project, but its time dependent of course. Also for me, not really in a conveinent geographic location for physical meetings. London, though, you must be able to find at least a handful of people to see each other. Where it goes, I’ll leave up to Alex, and Roderick. I just don’t want the idea to die.
I agree. The first momentium needs to be made to get anything started. Get some real foot work in. Start small and let it grow organicly from there. I personaly keep hopeing someone starts something because I’am sure once it really gets on the ground and running we’ve got tons of people who I’am sure will have great contributions. I imagine for instance once a prescence is established it will be easy to get manufactuers to feel it’s worth their money to get involved (for example). So does anyone have an idea of where to strike first to get this thing started??? So far the only thing I’ve been able to do is us the ista to introduce people to snuff (some reason people look at it a little less funny when it’s international then just your weird habit.)
Xander, I typed a long post and then stupidly back clicked and lost the darn thing! However; This has been debated for going on three years, it’s a great idea but one that has been impossible to progress. The simple fact is that you can’t create something like this by email. An international association is by definition a big project and one that needs people to physically meet up. It needs a project manager to lead, goals, the whole kit and kaboodle. It doesn’t matter how many bright ideas we have when there is no mechanism to put them into practice. I say that the association should be this webite and we build on this. It wil stay nothing more than a discussion otherwise. I don’t think Roderick will do anything with this, or Alex - they are just too busy. It can’t be helped, but I think the only way forward is to develop a simple proposal that they can agree to or just forget the thing.
there are technologies beyond email. Teleconferencing and such. It doesn’t have to be a big project. It does need a leader.
One other thing I’d like to add. This little section of the forum is visible only to people with ISTA on their account status. Granting that status to some of the long term forum members who are regulars can make up for the people who don’t come back anymore. Recruiting a few more of them in this little group, might get a few things rolling. New faces, new ideas. There are 10 or 15 memebers who are here every day or almost every day as long as I’ve been here. Some pretty sharp minds there too.