Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

I've been late in posting on this topic, but I think this topic needs to be addressed on the board so that we don't arrive at next meeting and only to postpone actual decision-making once again. The subject of CAMRA executive positions needs to be addressed. Given that we are a homebrew club, I'm not sure that positions of President, Treasurer and Secretary necessarily meet our needs adequately. I'm going to propose that we have new positions going forward.

Meeting leader (i.e. President)- ensures that meeting agenda is fulfilled, acts as club liaison to outside groups

Treasurer- handles collection of membership dues, debits on behalf of club, and club fundraisers (e.g. raffles)

Webmaster- maintains club website

Competition organizer- maintains current competition schedule, handles submissions for club-only competitions, organizes drop-offs for local competitions

Social organizer- schedules monthly meeting, notifies club members of approaching meetings, organizes social events beyond monthly club meetings

I'm open to other suggestions, but this should be a start.  Decisions need to be made though and I felt like last meeting had a lot of ideas put forth, but no decisions made.  Some issues can be voted on, others need an appointed/elected point-man (or woman) to ensure they get done.  When we meet in February, I'd like to have some issues voted on so that we know where the club stands.  Namely, a vote on positions and a vote on whether to actively expand membership.  I also want to initiate another push to contact the ABC agent ourselves. These are some major issues that I thought really stood out.  
I'd also like to see the by-laws from Christopher's former homebrew club to see their organization and how their framework might suit our needs.  Can you bring them to our next meeting?  Thanks.

Hi Greg,
Interesting suggestions, thanks. Let's talk about this at our next meeting.

As for the Bylaws, here's a link for anyone to view what's currently in use: http://bit.ly/CAMRA_Bylaws

Good start Greg. I agree that we need to get this show on the road.

It seems that we need to:

Define leadership roles

Choose leaders

Collect Dues

Have a club-wide "brainstorm" on what we want CAMRA to be and how to get there

Outline a meeting/activity general calendar for the year (Big Brew, Teach a Friend, Club Only Competition, Member-led style talks, formal and informal tastings, etc.) so we have a good sense of our upcoming events

Have members volunteer to lead talks, host tastings, schedule brewery visits, etc.

Set our meeting dates with Timberwood to reserve our space for the appointed dates

Get a "yes" or "no" from the ABC agent much sooner than later.

GB

We can either tackle these topics at the next meeting or schedule a mini-meeting of those interesting in taking on leadership roles...
I for one am pathetic with computers and would make a lame accountant but would be willing to step up to the plate and get involved beyond honorary titles. Moving the meeting date to the second Tuesday would be great as well so I don't have scheduling conflicts and can make sure I get to the meetings!

Who wants to step up to something new? Or retain and/or modify their current positions?

2 more things.  One, I should commend Christopher, Jamey and Tom for founding and organizing CAMRA.  You guys have done a great job, and we should all be appreciative of that.  Don't take any of my comments personally or targeted.  Secondly, my previous posting was not simply words; I am willing to fill one of these roles for CAMRA.
When is the next meeting anyway?

Our fearless CAMRA leaders are definitely the cat's meow. They saved me from having to form a club.

Greg(s),

I think that the ideas you have presented are good ones.  I don't necessarily think that we need to have the traditional roles of President, Vice President, and Treasurer.  We do have some standard activities/jobs that need to be covered, and I think that Greg W. has covered those well.  Speaking for myself, I would welcome presenting those ideas to the larger group for a vote.  The one thing I would add is that what needs to be presented is a specific set of ideas, flushed out.  It seems that whenever we have asked for general feedback from CAMRA members, we don't get much.  This makes sense to a degree, as it is hard for a group to offer specific feedback.  So, if we can come up with a specific proposal, that would be good.

As for next month's meeting, an email will be coming out soon.  But, as a teaser, take a look at my other post in the General Category regarding feedback from ABC.

+1 to Tom's idea. What we do need is people to commit to various duties and task and carry through with them while honorary titles are secondary (but useful to define roles).

That being said, I will gladly serve as the the Supreme Leader, President, Fearless Master, and Most Beloved Dictator. Seriously.

Would the title "Lord Master of the Universe" be good enough?

+1 on Lord Master of the Universe.  Can we just call him "He-man" instead?   

Greg & Greg-

I completely agree with the both of you.  Thanks for raising the issue - I felt the same way after the January meeting and have meant to post something myself.

Whenever Christopher, Tom and Jamey have brough up this topic during meetings in the past, the discussion has "run away" from the intended purpose.  It tends to focus on ideas rather than how to move forward with a leadership transition.

I highly recommend we seperate the two discussions as much as possible.  These discussions are related, but need to have some seperation in order to reach a consensus on one and allow us to move forward to the other.

I'd like to recommend we begin the meeting on Tuesday discussing the bylaws and structure we want for CAMRA.  Then move forward...

Sounds like we could broach the topic, rock the B-Day fest, down some suds, and get a core group established in quick due-time and plan out the immediate CAMRA plan...