Where do we go from here?

[carrisr]

It's great to see that the club is continuing to move forward and newer faces are stepping up into leadership roles and new members at meetings. I think the club is in good shape and has a bright future. But I want to challenge the new board and the membership to continue to keep the club vibrant and relevant going into the future. I think we also need to consider our festival and if/how we want it to evolve going forward. So here's some things I'd like the club to think about and hopefully discuss. I apologize for a long post.

What does the membership want from the club going forward? I know my motivations for both the brewing hobby and the club have changed significantly over the years. I started brewing at a time when good commercial beers in Iowa were a fairly rare occurrence. Bars etc only had crappy macros. I stared brewing mainly so that I could learn more about styles and drink better beer. At the time, the club was largely responsible for encouraging me to give the hobby a try and to help me learn to make good beer.

For me my motivations have changed quite a bit. Now I'm more interested in recipe crafting. My fridge is overfilled with great craft beers from all over the country. I can buy great examples of nearly any style to enjoy. I'm more and more looking to professional brewers for inspiration. For the club, I still like the exchange of ideas we have. The tech meetings are great. But mostly the friendships I've made are what really keep me around.

To all the new faces that have shown up over the last year or two: What drives your interest in the hobby? What attracted you to the club? What keeps you coming back? What would you like to change? How can we get more of your brewing friends to join us?

For the festival: what can we do to both keep it exciting and to support our club and hobby? There's starting to be a glut of beer events and festivals now with more every year. What can we do to separate us from the pack in the eye's of our attendees? Getting more clubs involved is great, but I'd like us try for something creative and compelling. Maybe we can bring the hobby more into the fest. Put some focus on the how rather than entirely the end product. We've talked about brewing on site in the past but never went anywhere with it. Maybe we should reconsider it and make it a centerpiece. What about selling special tickets where people get to participate and help brew a beer? It might be something we can expand on to make that it's own thing or for "learn to brew" day.

How about bringing some "club night" fun from NHC into the picture with clubs coming up with wild and crazy themes. This would set us apart from the typical festival with just a bunch of booths pouring beer. Maybe encourage guests to get in on the fun. Show people that home brewers are fun people to hang out with. Half of the fun of club night is seeing the booths and costumes groups come up with.

Anyway, please chime in with your thoughts and ideas.

[andrewmaixner]

- "Brewing on sight" as in basically moving "big brew day" type event into the BeerFest? That popped into my mind before even getting to that part of your post!

- Last night Tim talked about the first instances of HomeBrew Happy Hour at local bars that we are starting.

- Combine the two, and bring a 1 or 2 vessel rig to demo a brew while also serving one?

[czubak]

To all the new faces that have shown up over the last year or two: What drives your interest in the hobby? What attracted you to the club? What keeps you coming back? What would you like to change? How can we get more of your brewing friends to join us?

In my 3rd year and been brewing solo for 8 or so and had no idea really what I was doing. I joined to learn more, gain a better grasp for processes that improve the end product. I come back because I keep learning. Once I stop learning I may stop attending, unsure really. I do really enjoy the friends I have made as a huge perk of this.

Change....more joint brew sessions with other members (that have portable systems). I hope to always have a portable brew setup just for this type of a thing. More than just Big Brew Day, more than a collaboration brew with another member. Set aside a day and go hang out, brew and screw off.

Getting new members....Quick story, last summer a co-worker invited me to a friend of his place that brews and said they were brewing on Saturday and to come over. I get there and there are 4 guys with their junk in the garage brewing, playing yard games and smoking some ribs. All extract brewers with no desire to join the club out of fear their extract brewing would be laughed at. I did my best so convince them otherwise, but no dice. They did attend the fest and I relayed our dues went down to $20, all I heard was crickets.

Some people just aren't club people. I know others that have no desire for this club, but I would still brew with them or meet for a beer any day of the week. Me personally, I get that. I have almost always been involved in a club in any hobby I have been into from my rock crawling days, dirt bikes, mountain bikes, etc. Some clubs are cliquey and aren't welcoming to new members. Some clubs are just ran poorly and I drop out because I was not getting out of it what I was putting into it.

For the festival: what can we do to both keep it exciting and to support our club and hobby? There's starting to be a glut of beer events and festivals now with more every year. What can we do to separate us from the pack in the eye's of our attendees? Getting more clubs involved is great, but I'd like us try for something creative and compelling. Maybe we can bring the hobby more into the fest. Put some focus on the how rather than entirely the end product. We've talked about brewing on site in the past but never went anywhere with it. Maybe we should reconsider it and make it a centerpiece. What about selling special tickets where people get to participate and help brew a beer? It might be something we can expand on to make that it's own thing or for "learn to brew" day.

How about bringing some "club night" fun from NHC into the picture with clubs coming up with wild and crazy themes. This would set us apart from the typical festival with just a bunch of booths pouring beer. Maybe encourage guests to get in on the fun. Show people that home brewers are fun people to hang out with. Half of the fun of club night is seeing the booths and costumes groups come up with.

Anyway, please chime in with your thoughts and ideas.

I think we need to reach out to people that are considered somewhat celebrities in the home brew arena and invite them to be our guest of honor. If we can get someone like say Chip Walton (Chop n Brew/Summit employee), Mike Dawson (former Northern Brewer rep/Wyeast brand manager??) and crew to come down, enjoy our festival, maybe even film it for an episode of theirs??? If there is time, maybe a brew session could even take place. No better way to make a name for the club than to get on a video where someone has 15,000 subscribers. I am sure there are more popular blogs/vlogs out there I am unaware of. I watched those old NB videos a lot back in the day to learn since at that time I wasn't ready to join the club.

The theme idea doesn't really work for me personally, but if that's what the club thinks it will take.....My $0.02

Side note, does anyone update our website? Nobody that stumbles upon our site is going to think we are active at all. 2015 Fest, August 2015 meeting announcement. Photo link is from the 2012 festival. New links the 2013 Festival. Point being it needs some upgrades in a bad way or deleted all together. I am not volunteering for this as it's not in my wheel house

[Eric B]

Don't worry, the club is in good hands as Tim said last night. We have a lot of great ideas and goals for this year. This years festival will be the best one yet! If you have any ideas you want us to discuss at one of our cabinet meetings, feel free to reach out to one of us and we can make it happen.

[czubak]

I also think we should think about a Facebook club page where we can post up questions like here on the board, but it may reach more members since this board doesn't get a ton of traffic and sometimes I forget it's there. I am on FB regularly though. Case in point the Home Brew Network FB page.

[Eric B]

Ill be working on a private FB for the group for whoever wants to use it.

[andrewmaixner]

I also think we should think about a Facebook club page where we can post up questions like here on the board, but it may reach more members since this board doesn't get a ton of traffic and sometimes I forget it's there. I am on FB regularly though. Case in point the Home Brew Network FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/CedarRapidsBee ... mebrewClub

Not sure if facebok lends itself very well to technical posts and stuff...?

[czubak]

I also think we should think about a Facebook club page where we can post up questions like here on the board, but it may reach more members since this board doesn't get a ton of traffic and sometimes I forget it's there. I am on FB regularly though. Case in point the Home Brew Network FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/CedarRapidsBee ... mebrewClub

Not sure if facebok lends itself very well to technical posts and stuff...?

Ask and yee shall.....

[daryl]

One of my goals as your activities director, will be to schedule and execute public events for AHA Big Brew Day and AHA Learn to Homebrew Day.

As part of this outreach, I am going to recruit as many volunteers as I can, to populate as many locations as we can support...be it one, two, three, or more places in the local area.

Potential sites: Lion Bridge (patio), BIY (parking lot), Big Grove (patio), the NewBo Ale House has a great patio too; and I am sure there are other potential locations we can vet over the next month or two.

These events are in my calendar for event development:

May 7 - AHA Big Brew for National Homebrew Day. Not all of our demos have to happen on this day IMHO.

Nov 5 - Event – AHA Learn to Homebrew Day

At the end of the day...for both events, and in the spirit of Chris's vision....we can have a bunch of brewers and hopefully future brewers or members...brewing and sampling beer. And I like the idea of encouraging group collaboration brews amongst ourselves....that'll go on the list - this could be a lot of fun.

I also think, either one of these venues might appeal to Chris's friends, who might be intimidated to come to a meeting...but might be willing to hang out and watch others methods of brewing...just a different, outdoor environment that might feel less restricting. And is provides, as Randy suggests, "Put some focus on the how rather than entirely the end product".

More later, when there is more form to the plan and we will be ready for a call for volunteers.

Until then...save one or both dates....May 7 (and maybe the 8th too) and Nov 5 (and maybe the 6th too).

[tony b]

See, I'm just the opposite. I don't Facebook, but I'm on here regularly and occasionally TapaTalk.

[Eric B]

I like your thoughts Daryl but I'd much rather have brew days at peoples homes in the spirit of homebrewing instead of commercial locations.

[whitedj]

See, I'm just the opposite. I don't Facebook, but I'm on here regularly and occasionally TapaTalk.

Me too. I just don't like face book anymore.

It was great in 2007 when they were small. but then extended family members and contacts from high school posting all their issues and drama.

I'm contemplating going down to a minimal amount of friends. We'll see.

[czubak]

It's an alternative form of communication. I'm not wanting the message board to go away


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[Matt F]

We did a big Brew day years ago at a members house in his large garage. Had a nice turnout with about 30 people. Only 20 were members at the time. Had three different systems going including mine. That was fun.

[mjensen52402]

How do I sign up to pour at Lion Bridge in February?

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