Subject: Digest for the period 5/12/2006 - 5/13/2006 Date: Sat, 13 May 2006 01:01:20 -0400 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. American Home Brew Clubs (Stephen Neilsen) 2. The BJCP and AHA (Andy Litrenta) 3. CEP At the NHC (Tumarkin) 4. Re: Appropriateness of AHA posts? (David Houseman) 5. RE:Large club advantages (Michael Reidy) 6. All about the money? (Tumarkin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Stephen Neilsen Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 15:48:06 +1000 Subject: American Home Brew Clubs My apologies if this not the most appropriate forum but with all the cross listing going on.....!! Thus if you reply direct to me and not to the list it would be appreciated by all . Do you guys stop people from outside of area from joining your club, or do you encourage all brewers from anywhwere in US or indeed the world to join? Thanks Stephen...... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Andy Litrenta Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 02:05:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: The BJCP and AHA Let's keep the AHA discussion in their own forum and leave it off of the judge net. I am not a member of the AHA and have no desire to be. If folks want to read about AHA issues they can go there. I surely hope this is not going to be the start of trend that will be seen due to the recent merger of the BJCP/AHA. If so, I will move on. Andy Litrenta ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tumarkin Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 06:51:33 -0400 Subject: CEP At the NHC Steve wrote about cross-posting between the various e-forums. I've been one of the folks that's done that, but let me address that in a separate post. First I'm posting an answer here to a question Bev Blackwood asked on the HBD. I think it's of interest to judges- Anyhow, Bev wrote: >Are there exams at the end of the NHC sessions that will earn CEP >points? I don't know what to expect.... Being the Speaker Coordinator for the AHA Conference, I have been working with Kris England, the BJCP Education Director, on bringing CEP to the NHC. Since the CEP program is brand new, it's not really surprising that you don't know what to expect. Almost all CEP events will include a short exam. This includes those at the AHA NHC. We are planning on sending out information on this soon, but I'll try to answer this now. These are short answer, approx 15 questions quizzes. The purpose of these is to be sure you understand the presented material, a 70% score will be required. The questions will be given out at the beginning of the talk, so if you pay attention this shouldn't be a problem (hint: there is a Q&A period at the end of each talk). Your BJCP number will be required and only current BJCP judges can receive credit (no retroactive points like for judging and stewarding). Check out the CEP section on the BJCP website for a program overview - http://www.bjcp.org/cep/ Mark Tumarkin Hogtown Brewers AHA Speaker Coordinator ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ Webmail provided by InfoToGo.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Houseman Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 07:48:47 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Appropriateness of AHA posts? I was going to stay out of this one. But some of these comments about AHA-related postings to JudgeNet have been so childish that I'm forced to remind everyone that this is 2006, not 1995. A lot of time has passed since there was some unfortunate issues between the AHA and the BJCP. Neither organization is the same today as it was then. There are different leaders and members. GET OVER IT. First, any competition that is registered with the JOINT AHA/BJCP Sanctioned Competition Program has a right to the judge lists. They have a right to contact judges, whether through snail mail, email or through posting in all the usual places. Some of these competitions are run by clubs, some by state fairs, some by the AHA. I as a judge want to know when and where these competitions will be held. I read and post to all the usual forums since I may miss something on one that I pick up on the other. If there is a competition involved then a posting is appropriate here. I've judged around the country. I've talked to literally hundreds of BJCP judges. There is little to NO animosity towards the AHA, except for a very few individuals who seem to be stuck in a forgotten time. The AHA and the BJCP have been working together for years now. We have one set of style guidelines. We have one set of judging forms. We have one jointly branded Sanctioned Competition Program. Chuck provides a much appreciated service by providing this forum. But it is not a BJCP forum. The BJCP is not involved in JudgeNet. The BJCP has it's own discussion forum. Go look and use it if you don't like the postings on JudgeNet. I for one try to read them all; communicating among brewers and judges is also a part of this hobby. Finally, what a stupid comment that the AHA is all about money. Of course competitions generate revenue. With rare exceptions, every club run competition generates revenue from the entry fees that the clubs use throughout the year for other activities. GET OVER IT. It's 2006. Not 1995. David Houseman BJCP Competition Director (and in the spirit of full disclosure, AHA Governing Committee member) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael Reidy Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 07:11:30 -0700 Subject: RE:Large club advantages Or have the winner from the previous year choose the next winner by whatever criteria, thus ensuring the honor passes club to club. Mike Reidy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hollen`at`woodsprite.com Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 13:57:41 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Large club advantages why not just do away with Homebrew Club of the Year. No, I am not joking. If one wants to have a Homebrew Club of the Year award, why not change it to be awarded to the club which contributes the most to advancing the hobby with education and service to our community? dion ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tumarkin Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 10:33:02 -0400 Subject: All about the money? As part of the cross-posting thread, Nathaniel wrote - >She hit the nail on the head, for the AHA it is all about money. I have to disagree, from several viewpoints. I have posted here recently as the Chairman of the AHA Governing Committee. I don't get paid for that. Also posted in my role as Speaker Coordinator for the AHA Conference. Again, no money. I've worked to bring the CEP to the NHC because I'm a member of the BJCP. And as pointed out by the tax deduction thread, we don't get paid for that (with rare exceptions). I (and many of us) are involved in the AHA and the BJCP, and our local clubs, etc because we are passionate about this hobby. For all of this we're volunteers, it's a labor of love. The AHA has changed over the last 5+ years to a much more grass-roots, member driven organization. Even the paid staff don't make a huge amount of money - and they work really hard for all of us to earn what they do get. The AHA is under the umbrella of the Brewers Association, a non-profit organization. Now, that said, money is of course an issue (when is it not?). Nathaniel talks about the remaindering out of the old Styles series. That was done by Brewers Publications (also part of the BA), but not by the AHA. So I can't speak to the specifics. I can imagine that a decision was made to try to move out the old books quickly, and apparently a favorable deal was made with Waldenbooks. I can certainly imagine that a homebrew shop owner wouldn't be pleased by having to pay more - and if that caused you not to carry the books, then they'll have to deal with the fallout from the situation. Still, that's not reason enough to completly reject the AHA. A lot of us are working to make the hobby better in all its facets. There may be bad decisions made on occassion, but its hardly all about the money. Always a factor, certainly, but not the deciding one by any means. that's just my opinion, but there it is, Mark Tumarkin ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ Webmail provided by InfoToGo.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Important Subscriber Information ***** To post a message to JudgeNet, send it to judge`at`synchro.com. Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments. Make sure you use a meaningful subject. Quote only as much material as is needed for context. 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