Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

I will let Dave chime in, but he said he was willing to host in January or February. I am volunteer for March as usual.

I talked to the owners of White Star the other day and they said that if you wanted to use the "Museum Room" at White Star for the meetings, it's something we could start doing. It's a really nice space that can hold 60-70 people. And you can bring homebrew. During the day it's the location of Jambayz (the Jamaican lunch place downtown). At night it's turned over to White Star for events and overflow.

Come down and check out the space and have a think about it.

Feel free to pm me with concerns or comments.

happy brewing,
Quin

That is a nice room. I had lunch in there last week. The cabinet will be the decision makers on this, but a main factor is cost. We currently pay $50 for the use of a room at the Long Branch and can bring homebrew. I like the idea of meeting down there and the space is great.

The other issue I see is people drink beer and driving from downtown.

BrewHound wrote:The other issue I see is people drink beer and driving from downtown.

I'm not sure how that's different from anywhere else.

Yeah, usually all of us, except the hose end driving home from the meetings anyway.

Yes but it's downtown. At least out in the offskirts you can duck through residential and side roads.

I think a room like this is a great option. Regardless, the days of meeting in member basements are over. We all need to get used to that idea. We are moving from a private club to a public club. New members want to meet in public places, and I have been told by several new members that they waited until we were at Longbranch to come to a meeting.

We cannot hide out, and still be a public club that feels welcome to all.

Another nice thing about those public meeting places is it takes away the liability issue from the home owner and the club, which is nice. Would be cool to use both locations, the Longbranch and White Star. If we are done in basements, I propose White Star for March, if we end up doing stuff there. They have one nice big TV in the proposed meeting room that could be useful. Again, cost is unknown there at this point. If someone talks pricing with White Star, a good negotiating tool for me with Longbranch was pointing out to them many of our members would be eating at their establishment prior to the meeting, thus supplementing their revenue in more ways than our room charge.

A weird situation we will have at White Star is people at the restaurant may be stopping by our gathering. Can be good to meet more beer enthusiast. It could be an opportunity or a potential "interesting" experience. No way to tell until we try it.

About how many paying members do we have these days? I know all the dues aren’t in for 2012, but any estimates? Twelve meetings at $50 a pop is $600. 30 members at $30 a head is $900. More members will help, but another revenue stream would be good like the homebrew competition that gets mentioned here and there. Also, the $50 may not stick as we grow the group. The rooms we have been using go for over $200 at regular price. I have been able to keep the rate low so far but they do make noise about needing more. We started at $40 a few years ago.

Overall, I agree, as much as I enjoy hosting the Beer Nuts in my personal brewpub, we have grown in to a group that should be meeting in public more. I am looking forward to 2012!

The cost at White Star was going to be $0 for the use of the space with an assumption that people would buy a beer and possibly some food.

I will double check on that to make sure.

Nice! Sounds like a winner.

I for one would buy a meal and at least one beer before each meeting if they let us use the space at no cost to the club!

On Friday 16 December 2011 12:41:36 pm you wrote:

The cost at White Star was going to be $0 for the use of the space with an
assumption that people would buy a beer and possibly some food.

I will double check on that to make sure.

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

[quote="carrisr"]I for one would buy a meal and at least one beer before each meeting if they let us use the space at no cost to the club!

+1 here

[quote="carrisr"]I for one would buy a meal and at least one beer before each meeting if they let us use the space at no cost to the club!

On Friday 16 December 2011 12:41:36 pm you wrote:
[quote]The cost at White Star was going to be $0 for the use of the space with an
assumption that people would buy a beer and possibly some food.

I will double check on that to make sure.




[/quote]

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)[/quote]

I'd Let Randy buy my meal and at least 1 beer if we could use the room for free!

This is a good option for us.

My only issue with White Star is trying to find parking! We'd need to cross-check calendars to make sure that TCR wasn't having a performance the same night.