September 2020 update from the President – Meetings, Elections and More

From the President….

In this post:

What’s happening
Membership Renewals
Upcoming Elections 2021

What’s happening?

Greetings! hopefully, you are all safe heathy and are adapting and adjusting as best as you can. This year continues to present an unprecedented challenge and your board is still here trying to weather out the storm and plan for the year ahead.

So, what’s a homebrewer to do when many activities are cancelled or locked down?? Brew More of course! Since February, I’ve brewed about twice the normal amount. Being able to brew more frequently has been an unexpected benefit of this year’s boil-over. There’s only so much homebrew this household can consume, so I’ve been providing plenty of growler fills to friends and family. There’s 10 growlers in a corny, so the kegs can kick pretty fast. Hey, if you want to brew more, just give a lot away! I should also mention that I’ve also doubled my cycling miles to also offset the ‘extra’ homebrew around the house. You should too if you don’t want to be shaped like a keg…

We encourage you to stay engaged, to keep brewing and to reach out to your fellow homebrewers and keep the craft alive.

During this pandemic, we have worked to pivot and to rise to the occasion. Just like homebrewers often have to do when dealing with a with a stuck sparge, equipment malfunctions and other murphy’s law situations. When the coronavirus lockdown hit, ASH quickly shifted gears and moved to the virtual ZOOM format. Since then, we’ve been delivering some great presenters, like Brad Smith Phd, Eric Salazar and Dave Clark. This month, we’ll have the Brewing Science team from NAU talking about their upcoming “Intro to Brewing Science (an educational opportunity with NAU)”.

The board recently met to discuss the burning question of “When the right time will be to resume our face to face meetings, and large comps and festivals?

We discussed and debated some of the legalities and responsibilities with trying to bring groups of people together. In short, we just don’t think that we’re there yet, so we will have to continue in the virtual medium and with midi comps for the time being. Be assured, we all want to meet up again and be social homebrewers. We just want to be reasonable and responsible when we determine when it’s ok to meet back up. ASH cares about your homebrewing efforts and wants to support you with our every effort. So, stay tuned for more event information.

Some of you have may have been wondering how ASH is doing financially.
ASH is in a solid financial state, this is largely due to the conservative spending habits over the past years. We always ask the questions. Is it worth the expense? Is it providing value to our members? These continual critical questions leave us in a strong position today.

ASH appreciates each and every one of our homebrewers. You’ve supported ASH over the past years and we want to return the favor.

This next round is on us! 

In the 2021 ASH year, we extend the offer to you to renew your membership and zero cost. Stay engaged, re-up and keep ASH strong and keep homebrewing alive.

When it comes time to renew your membership for 2021, you’ll most likely discount coupon worth a Silver membership (We’re still working out the details) . If you are in a good place during this COVID pandemic, you can opt to skip the discount. Better yet, gift your discount to a new homebrewer and introduce them to all that ASH has to offer.

We’re currently working on getting another clubhouse and will let you know when/if we finalize the details.

Upcoming Elections:

Serving on the ASH Board is a terrific way to bring exciting and fun opportunities to the ASH member community.

Multiple positions on the 2021 ASH Board are open, and we need passionate and dedicated members to join the Board and help direct club operations and fulfill our mission statement.  All positions are on the table for the new board to decide.

Important Dates:

  • Nominations at the September 09/21 Zoom Meeting and during the following week via online form.
  • Voting will take place online from 10/04 – 10/10
  • New board will be announced at the 10/19 Monthly meeting.

See 2021-board-elections for more information.

Cheers!
-Paul Vincent
President – Arizona Society of Homebrewers.