Our club is great, right? We have awesome monthly meetings with educational content. We host several successful parties throughout the year. We stepped up our competitions (as the young’ns say “literally”) with more entries, really nice medals and prizes, slick marketing both from the Homebrewers Circuit and word of mouth, and helpful feedback from our talented judges. We have amazing Sponsors like OHSO, Fermentis, and Blichmann. We have a kick ass clubhouse with a stocked kegerator, TVs, couches, pool and fooseball. We host a yearly Pro-Am competition and party that is well respected and well attended by pros and homebrewers, alike. We put on 4 or 5 brew outs at our clubhouse where we can show off our brewing prowess and teach others that might be intimidated by the process or the equipment.
But the best thing about our club – by far – is YOU – our loyal and faithful members that attend all these events and make them great. As the weather starts to heat up and we start our hibernation inside, I hope that you continue to value the club, and continue to participate. These events take a lot of work to plan for and put on. As your humble leader, I think it’s safe to say that our Board members and committee leaders don’t do this for any recognition or praise. They do it because the care about the club and want to see us continue to grow and thrive in the wake of brewery closings and a contracting group of crafty people that want to share their love for making beer – and the resulting product with their friends and families. When an event that we put on is well attended – that might be thanks enough, knowing that your hard work brought a lot of joy to the attendees.
Recently, however, our attendance at meetings, judging sessions, SpringFest, ProAm and the brew outs has been down. We have also not had much participation on our meeting room remodeling efforts. The burden then falls on a few that work so hard to plan for great events, only to see a few members show up. This, unfortunately isn’t sustainable. It leads to burn out. Our volunteers need to see the fruits of their efforts. Their effort itself needs to be tempered by more members participating – not only in the attending, but in the planning. Perhaps this is due to the great weather of our mild Winter and prolonged Spring. Many have small children that need to be driven around the valley for their sports teams. I understand. It’s just beer club. But it is a GREAT beer club that is only made better by your participation. I urge you to please consider to give an hour or two here or there, as time permits. Come to a meeting. Come to a brew out. Only by participation do we make ASH an amazing club – where we make lifetime friends and share our love of making and sharing fermented beverages, together.