WIZARD's Upcoming Events

Club meetings this quarter will be October 21, November 18 and December 15, all at Deja Brew in Shrewsbury. Check our web page, call Strange Brew or call Deja Brew for directions.

WIZARD's Club Business

There has been much discussion over the last few months about how to improve the club. The suggestions being made all have the following goals in mind:

• Increasing membership and regular attendance at meetings, and
• Increasing participation in club activities, such as meetings, the annual homebrew competition and the pub crawl.

Before going into any of the specific suggestions being discussed, let me offer my own personal views on why a change is necessary. Clearly these are both admirable goals. Sure we're starting to get a good turn out at our club meetings, but now that people are coming we have to find a way to get them actively involved with the club. Club activities are a shambles. Attendance is at an all time low! Here is a short list highlighting the types of problems that must be overcome if we are to survive in style:

1. Four members made the last pub crawl.
2. Getting judges for the competition was next to impossible.
3. Only two brewers participated in our last brew day.
4. We rarely have more than one or two homebrews for any given style of the month.
5. No one wants to write a newsletter article.

It is my humble opinion that the way to increase membership involvement is to improve meetings and activities so that people want to keep coming back. But there isn't an easy way to do this. That's why I recommend the "do less, not more" approach.

The following changes were discussed:

• Reduce beer of the month styles to four times per year [Fewer style of the month leads to greater participation - no one can keep up with the current approach]
• Make styles of the month a little more common [Appeal to all Brewers]
• Schedule activities for non-style months [Keep people interested all the time]
• Make January a "new-brewers" meeting for all those who have received brew kits over the holidays [Get new members]
• Target these new brewers with a new flier in all new beer kits sold in the fall [Get new members]
• Update the club brochure to highlight the Strange Brew discount [Get new members]
• Create some point of sale materials to be displayed at beer festivals [Free advertising]
• Conduct the annual competition judging at the April club meeting and have a training session the month before [Solve the problems of the past]

Below is one suggestion as to how we could proceed for the year. Hopefully this will be a topic of discussion for the September meeting. And of course, the only way this will work is everyone takes the time to get involved and help out!

Dues for 2003/2004 are now due. Dues are still a bargain at $12/year and cover most, if not all, of our club activities. Dues pay our nominal expenses like buying the pretzels and cups for meetings. The biggest way your dues are spent is at club functions where the club finds some way to treat everyone in attendance like buying the pizza at our holiday party this past December or buying the appetizers on the annual pub crawl.

WIZARD's Recent Events

Sad to report but there is no feature article available this issue. We are always looking for articles from our members, so who will submit the next one? Perhaps it will be a seasoned old timer with a sad story to tell or perhaps it will be one of our newer members ready to share their experiences with homebrewing and the club?

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