Bitch Bitch Bitch!

It’s times like these where it’s pretty hard for Jim and myself to get inspired to continue writing and producing a newsletter for this organization. Although there is a small core of loyal attenders of meetings, and the executive is working to keep the organization going and stable, it seems that the general membership has lost interest in putting any effort into maintaining the Guild. Last year I thought we were on a roll: meetings were pretty well attended, the newsletter had a number of contributors aside from me, we hosted the first rounds of an international competition, and we had a number of newer faces who were starting to make a name for themselves in competition. We were Best Club in every CABA competition in Canada and we were ranked the number one club in the nation by the AHA. You’d think with all that success that there would be no problem having enthusiastic meetings, with lots of people turning out to talk about, share, and enjoy beer. But that doesn’t seem to be happening.

In fact our membership is down and we seem to have lost a number of long term members. Or we have long-term members who while still with the Guild show up only rarely. January’s meeting was a case in point. It was attended by only eight members, most of whom were the executive. As I said there is a small core of faces I see meeting after meeting and these people still seem to be enthusiastic about brewing. What about the rest of you? Do you brew anymore? What I’d like to hear from is those people who haven’t shown up for a while or do so only sporadically. What it is that the Guild is no longer offering to them that they The Worthouse News January, 2001 are no longer supporting the club? While the executive is responsible for maintaining the club, we are not solely responsible for generating all the ideas, enthusiasm and activities that go into making up a strong organization. Membership should drive the organization with the executive being there to direct activities and ensure that ideas are put into action. Without active member support this organization will not maintain itself.

Ok, enough bitching, I just had to get that out of my system because it was really starting to bring me down. I love this hobby and with all the neat new products out there to play with, with so much friendly competition available, and with a sizable pool of gifted local brewers, I just find it hard to believe that we are not all just bursting with pride and enthusiasm over what we do! We’re the best, why aren’t we there to celebrate it?