I thought I'd share this as I had an opportunity to make my voice HEARD last night during a meeting.
One of the topics of discussion, during the HOA meeting, was the issue of cigarette butts being dumped near the doorways of various condo buildings...indicating that smokers were leaving their messes behind after they were done. Property management was suggesting the installation of cigarette urns beside the doorways of certain buildings....one of those buildings being my condo building. (I started getting the feeling of: "If you build it, they will come and congregate around those urns.") I voiced my objection based on the fact that I have only ONE way of getting to and from my condo which is through that particular doorway, I have asthma which has been triggered by second-hand smoke, and I have absolutely NO desire to be forced to constantly walk through a cloud of second-hand cigarette/cigar smoke every time I need to go out somewhere. I just don't want to have a repeat performance of landing in the emergency room on a nebulizer again, thank you very much! (I had that happen when I was working and had to walk through a cloud of second-hand smoke, from smokers congregating around a cigarette urn, to get to and from work every day until my asthma got so bad that I had to seek medical attention. That is EXPENSIVE!)
I offered a compromise of setting up a designated smoking area AWAY from the building doorways so that the smokers can smoke to their hearts' content and I can reduce my risk of asthma attacks. That got countered with: "But that's inconvenient to the smokers!" I shot back: "Being in the emergency room, again, is INCONVENIENT TOO!" That's when property management announced that they were going to forget the idea of installing the urns.
I also noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that one of the other board members was looking VERY uncomfortable and was staying VERY QUIET, which is normally NOT his style. (He lives in my building and I know he is a smoker.) He just had this guilty look on his face which made me wonder if HE was the source of that mess by my building's doorway. If the mess mysteriously stops, then that would mean HE got the message.
It felt good that, for once, I was listened to and had my voice HEARD!
