This meeting between the members of the Development Council of Buffalo Yogis was a long time coming. Not that these women hadn’t met before, they certainly had and do stay in contact over email and such as well, but rather than they had never met for this exact purpose before… and this conversation was long overdue.

Sarah, as always, started the conversation by stating the obvious.

“Okay. So we all know we’ve gone over a bunch of this stuff, like, a million times but I think it’s time we made a decision.”

The other women expected her to continue and, perhaps, make a case but she fell silent instead. The air between the women was full of unspoken opinions that had already been repeated, countless times, over email.

Finally, Rachel broke the silence.

“You all know me. I think we should just let things be and not get involved.”

This statement seemed to break the dome of unsaid words and suddenly everyone started speaking at once. Arguments already stated in emails were now rehashed through chapsticked lips and iced vanilla skinny lattes were left forgotten on the table. One woman, Dana, offered for them all to consider the consequences of letting things stay the way they are. Rachel put up her hands defensively and stated, again, that she’d rather stay out of the whole thing. Sarah listed off all the ways this problem had already effected how the women ran the yoga studio and Eva, ever the disagreeable one, rolled her eyes in response.

“Why not just, I don’t know, ask our members what they think?” Shannon asked. It wasn’t a new idea but always seemed new when asked again. The girls around her were silent as they, again, considered this idea.

“Well, how would they respond to a question like that? It’s not like it’s an appropriate conversation to have, or even send out through email! Plus it’ll cost the yoga studio x-many amount of money and…” Sarah started, but was interrupted by Eva.

“We KNOW the issues with making this decision, we don’t have to keep beating a dead horse, for God’s sake!”

“Look, just because we think it’s not needed, doesn’t mean somebody else won’t. I think we should do it.” Shannon said, just wanting to end this debate for good and go home to her cat and boyfriend.

“I like Shannon’s idea, let’s ask the members,” Dana said. The table went silent again as the power of majority opinion started to shift.

“Yeah, let’s ask the members!” Rachel repeated, backing up the other two women. Sarah looked to Eva, hoping she might find support from the women who never agreed with her on anything. She realized it was a lost cause when Eva shrugged noncommittally in response to Rachel, Dana and Shannon.

“Fine! We’ll ask the members but I don’t want to hear it from anyone when we start getting weird responses! I will NOT be the one fielding those messages!” Sarah finally gave in and made a note to make up the email later that day.

The tension above the table was still palpable, though perhaps had a less bitter taste as the Developmental Council of Buffalo Yogis adjourned that afternoon.

Later that week, a carefully worded email went out to some 200 women, asking their opinions on the studio creating a separate “men’s” bathroom in the building, instead of the unisex one that was there currently.