- Make Yourself Known
- College Involvement
- Mentorship
- Anxiety Reduction
1. Make Yourself Known
This weekend at Night of the Living Ales I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt from a brewing group in a city I lived in for eight years. I had no clue the organization existed. If I knew it was there, I would have joined. While it is in part the individual homebrew clubs job to publicize itself, promotion by AHA would be a good step in the right direction.
2. College Involvement
College involvement may result in quick growth, but comes with its own set of headaches. Setting up school sanctioned homebrew clubs on college campuses may be met with some resistance from college administrators. I believe establishing school groups would be a great way to let people know who and what you are. Additionally, I am a firm believer that we live in a country that does not understand alcohol. College groups may be able to teach alcohol responsibility.
3. Mentorship
Establishing a mentorship program, while labor intensive to set up and manage, may reap the greatest rewards. By having new members pair up with a more experienced hombrewer newbies may learn much quicker and make the connection to the craft. Mentorship could work in a few different ways. One option would be for the mentor to coach the mentee through his or her first batch. A better option would be to have a mentee head over to the mentors to brew a batch together. I would point out that a mentee should not be a free loader and should help pay their own way. Additionally, I think the pair should meet in a bar ahead of time and discuss what kind of beer they would make and to ensure personality compatibility. Either way the relationship has to be one both participants are comfortable with.
4. Anxiety Reduction
Finally, AHA and the beer community needs to reduce the anxiety. All to often I have come to events and had trouble breaking into a clique. At least for me, that anxiety transfers to a homebrew club. How can I join a group where I literally have no clue what I am doing? I personally feel apprehensive to show up at an event where I have no good beer to share, and can not help. One solution would be to suggest to homebrew clubs or the AHA itself in larger metro areas to host New Brewers Nights. A mixer/ educational evening or weekend afternoon would allow people a place to come and know they do not need to prove they should be there.
I know some of these suggestions will not be easy to institute and may take some time, but I hope those at AHA take a look at them and give them some consideration. Craft beer and homebrewing are quickly becoming a force in modern society. To keep the concept of flavorful beer, made locally going in the right direction we need new brewers. AHA does some great things, and I feel they have some big goals on the horizon. I wish them luck.
Great thoughts!
ReplyDeleteSmall Time Drinker (I was going to use your initials, but suddenly that did not look right ;-) - Crispy Frey here, Chairperson of the American Homebrewers Association Governing Committee (AHA GC), and avid homebrewer.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to that you for your succient comments and suggestions. Many of the issues and challenges that the AHA, the AHA GC and the hobby overall are not easy, but they important. Every organization needs to develop and nuture younger members into their folds, and the AHA is no exception.
I can particuarlly relate to your anxiety reduction bullet point. Several years ago I hesitated joining a local club because of its reputation and the fact that it had several homebrewing "names" involved with the club. I finally took the plunge and I can look back at the kind words and acts of inclusion that one seasoned member shared with me that made me feel that I could both benefit from and become a part of their group.
The AHA GC has increased its focus on ensuring younger members are aware, do feel welcome and can become an intgral part of both the hobby and craft of homebrewing. Again, I appreciate your comments, and if you would like to discuss it further, feel free to contact me at crispy275 at comcast dot net (I don't see a drop-down for this type of email address on this forum).
Cheers!
Crispy
Your comments were forwarded to the AHA Governing Committee, something you probably know by now. I would also like to mention something about "new brewer anxiety" that you brought up. While I agree that this is something that can keep people from attending a meeting for the first time, I think in most cases you will find homebrewers to be the most welcoming group of people anywhere. As far as letting people know "we" (both the AHA and local clubs) are there, that is more complicated. There are varying laws from state to state about how and where you can "serve" and drink homebrewed beverages. Many states for example will not allow you to serve homebrew at any event (like a beer festival) where admission is charged. We are working on these types of issues as well as things like shipping homebrewed beer to competitions (currently illegal to ship with the Postal Service). Another thing you have to be concerned with is underage drinking and appearing to be "promoting" alcohol consumption, esp. on college campuses. I am a firm believer in the idea that more information is a good thing, but it can be difficult to find the right way to go about this without creating problems. Love the background on the blog page BTW, esp. the "Acme" cap. Thanks for the suggestions and feel free to contact any of the Governing Committee members through our website at www.HomebrewersAssociation.org. Or contact me directly at acmebrew at juno dot com.
ReplyDelete