January 2014
Meeting Minutes
Here are the meeting minutes from the January gathering held
on January 16th, 2014.
First of all, a thank you goes to Tim Martin for hosting the
meeting. Stout and stogie night is
always a huge hit and probably the most anticipated meeting of the year.
We introduced the officers, held a roll call and the
following members and guests were present:
Bryan Conway
Pete Frye
Greg Bergquist
Rob Jones
Dennis Overby
Ben Chapman
Jeremy Davis
Luke Dobbs
Tim Martin
Terry Laurie
Phil Smith
Mike Dawson
Brett (Mike Dawson's Guest)
Sam Lewis
Dick Smith
Dustin Canestorp
If anyone was accidentally excluded or a mistake to the list
noted, please let me know and I will correct the minutes.
The Treasurer's Report
revealed by Ben Chapman indicates that we have lots of money... Around $1,500=/-?
Old Business/Recent
Events:
A big thank you goes to Travis Watson for hosting the
Christmas Party last month. Everybody
attending had a great time. Thanks
Travis!
The members attending the Mill Whistle tasting gave a
glowing account of the event, Dennis and
Jeremy were pleased to have been able to attend. Looking forward to more events like this but
most importantly, another brewery possibly starting in our local area.
Committee updates:
The Crystal Coast
Brew Off Committee Chairman, Ben Chapman, reported that all is going well
with the planning and preparations for this year's CCBO. Dustin announced the Beer Army's extremely
exciting contributions to this year's event.
On top of allowing us to continue having the event at the Combat
Brewery, The Beer Army offered to:
·
Donate some assorted items such as
glassware/tees/etc.
·
Pay for 5 double occupancy rooms (two
judges/room=10 judges) at a local hotel for a night. The rooms would be offered to judges as an
incentive to travel here for the competition and would be reserved for judges travelling
200+ miles.
·
Allow the winner of the Best of Show award to
brew their recipe on the Beer Army Combat Brewery's commercial system for
distribution across the State of North Carolina. NICE!
New/Old business:
Monthly Club
Competition Committee was approved - Terry Laurie volunteered to chair
Committee and Dennis Overby and Bryan Conway volunteered to assist. One suggestion as to how this would be
instituted is: Pooled Money with entry
fee and half of entry fees going to ATF.
Competition Committee will set up the guidelines for the monthly club
competitions.
Incorporation Project
- it's a go. Bryan discussed his findings
from his meeting with accountant Stephanie Phillips in Morehead City. The basic premise is that once the
incorporation and non-profit status is achieved, there will be minimal upkeep
to maintain the non-profit status. Only
a postcard to the IRS will be required each year. To obtain this status, we will have to file
with the NC Secretary of State ($60.00+/-), re-write the by-laws to include some
necessary language, then file with the IRS ($400.00+/-) not including any
unavoidable attorney/accountant fees. This
will be a long process but will open the doors to many exciting opportunities
in the future. Motion was passed to
proceed.
Web Site: Webmaster
Rob Jones reports that we have:
·
a Go Daddy account for the next 2 years, paid
for: http://www.atfhomebrewclub.com.
·
We have 5 email accounts, one of which will be
used by the CCBO committee: ccbo@atfhomebrewclub.com.
·
QR code to add to advertising materials:
Use
of the yahoo email: Discussed using the
forum for most chatting and trying to get away from the yahoo group email. Yahoo can still be used for important
announcements, just keep it to a minimum.
We have a website now - use it.
Rob
also called for nominations for this month's "Brewer of the Month"
page and Dennis Overby was selected. Go
to the website to see a quick bio on Dennis.
Rob proposed looking into organizing a Home Brew Festival similar
to what Brew Durham has become, to be held in conjunction with the CCBO. The CCBO could be held on one night and the
festival the next. There seemed to be a
lot of interest and he will begin studying the possibilities and
requirements. This could become a
serious event on the calendar for all homebrewers in our region. This may not be able to be done this year,
but next year is plausible.
Jolly Skull - 5 members
attending to man the booth. A huge
thanks to Dustin and the Beer Army for allowing us to do this again, Thanks
Dustin!
Breathalyzer -
Last meeting, the motion was passed to look into acquiring a commercial grade
breathalyzer for use at the meetings.
Due to the inherent cost of such a piece of equipment, the need to
retain liquidity of funds is more important in light of the upcoming year
(incorporating, CCBO 2014). The motion
was passed to table the project at least until after CCBO 2014 is behind us.
Business Cards - Motion
passed to get business cards produced for members to pass out. Will have logo and website on front and QR
tag on back. Simple but effective.
ATF Logo - A
motion was passed to make the club logo more appealing to a broader base of
residents, the term "New Bern Brew Club" will be replaced with
"ATF Home Brew Club" on the banner so as to have it more generic as
to region and not alienate members outside of the New Bern area. The rest of the logo will remain unchanged.
Next Meeting will
be at New Bern Home Brew Supply at 7PM on February 20th and will be
sponsored by Greg Bergquist.
A discussion was started to begin forming a judging
committee. This committee will be
responsible for promoting a positive judging culture within the club and get
some members involved into the process of becoming a BJCP certified judge. The formation of the committee will be on
next month's agenda.
A discussion was also started to find out any details (date,
amount, cost...) and gauge an interest level on the Mill Whistle Brew day but
Travis was unable to attend the meeting so not much could be determined other
than what was in the original announcement.
There was several members that wish to participate. More will be discussed about this later.
This year's meeting sponsors will be:
·
February-Greg Bergquist
·
March sponsor - Ben Chapman
·
April sponsor - Bryan Conway
·
May sponsor - Luke Dobbs
·
June sponsor - Terry Laurie
·
July sponsor - Phil Smith
·
August - need
a volunteer
·
September - need
a volunteer
·
Oktoberfest - Dennis Overby
·
November - need
a volunteer
Motion passed to adjourn
the meeting, drink some beer and smoke some stogies.
