I have been with the club since I met Karl, Jim, Bob and Pete at a CR Brew meeting in 2004. After a few years, we grew and created a new club name, the Cedar Rapids Beer Nuts. I was a big part of helping establish the beginning of what we have today. There were less than 10 of us at the time. I served as Treasurer for several years and then took a reduced role in the club as I grew my family from 1 to 4 kids. They are old enough now that I can leave them home alone and that is letting me regain some personal time. I have been brewing since 2002 and have done OK in that department. I won the THIRSTY CLASSIC in 2004 with 1st and 2nd best of show. I have a Best Homebrew title from Beers to You and Gourmet Too in Waterloo in 2012. I won Homebrewer of the Year in our club for 2015. I have many 1st place ribbons from various homebrew contests. I can promise you, if you elect me president, I will still brew.
I served as Vice President over the past year and enjoyed being on the club cabinet. It does take some work to be a cabinet member and I enjoy it. It was a great way to get back to being more involved with the club. I helped in any capacity I could and had a significant role in the execution of this year’s beer fest along with everyone else. I also put together this year's grain order. Hope many of you are enjoying the results of that effort.
I want to thank Tim for his service over the past five years. He was the main man who created and executed having our own Beer Festival. Our Annual Homebrew Festival was his baby and it has been a great success. It allows us to fund club activities and contribute a substantial amount of money to our non-profit festival partner Pints for Prostates. It is also just plain fun. Tim also got us out of people's basements and in to public establishments which really helped the club grow and was a great move. We really made a huge leap forward during the five years he has been president. Thank you Tim.
Going forward. I do not plan any major changes. I really like the lineup of activities we have going this year. Daryl has done a great job adding new programs like Beer Nuts Happy Hour, maintaining great tech meetings, and managing our events. We have a pretty full slate where our members have lots of opportunities to do things they like, be it geek out on tech meetings, socialize at our regular meetings, or pour their beers for the public. I love that people continue to improve their beer quality and our club, and feedback opportunities, are a big part of that. I do feel I can provide strong leadership and my strengths will further benefit the club. I am very good at the details and getting the job done. With me as President, you will be in good hands. I will work to maintain the growth we have and welcome continued growth as well.
The major item I plan to push is continuing to make us all better brewers. That has always been the biggest benefit to being in the club for me. I hope to start working towards becoming a BJCP judge. No idea on a timeline but I am getting started with some personal study. As I learn more about the process I hope to get others to follow suit. Other clubs around the country have a strong presence of certified judges in their club and all of them I have talked to said it really helps them help each other to be the best brewers they can be. That is still my main focus, making great beer. I also promise to have fun. In the end, we all need to relax, don’t worry, and have a homebrew.
My name is Matt Franklin, and I approve this message.