To all Bay Area Homebrewers and Judges,
It is clear to everyone in the Bay Area brewing community that the Bay Area Mashers World Cup of Beer homebrew competition had some serious organizational problems in 2005. Today we are writing to apologize for what happened last year. We know that many Bay Area homebrewers and beer judges have come to expect from us a well run event with a quick turn-around of the results, and that we completely failed to provide that in World Cup 2005. We are also writing to you today to let you know of our efforts to fix all the problems and get the competition back on its feet as the event you all remember as a fun and reputable homebrew competition.
We are still learning about what happened, or did not happen last year. Communications snafu’s, frank mistakes, and absent competition management have conspired to leave many of your questions and complaints unanswered, many judges and entrants furious, and those of us picking up the pieces still partly in the dark. We are still discovering new oversights and old complaints that were never acted on. If after reading this letter you still have any outstanding concerns remaining, please do not hesitate to contact us as provided for at the end of this letter.
And on behalf of the entire Bay Area Mashers homebrew club, I apologize to you for the mess we made of your competition last year. We promise that we will work hard to fix all the problems we created.
We also promise to our Bay Area homebrewing and beer judging community that we will restore the World Cup of Beer to the event it used to be, and answer all unaddressed problems as fast as possible. To this end, this remainder of letter will address these efforts regarding World Cup 2005.
Judge and Steward Points: We are now working to get all judges and stewards their points for World Cup 2005. The BJCP is being very accomodating and helpful in this aiding effort. What we need from you is to know who participated, as unfortunately all records of judge and steward participation were lost. I urge all of you who participated in World Cup 2005 as a Judge or Steward to contact us (see below) and let us know what panels you and your compatriots judged or stewarded. With this information, we can get you the points you earned. So please help us help you to get your points. You earned them after all.
Ribbon Awards for World Cup 2005: We have ordered a full set of ribbons for World Cup 2005. These will be mailed out to last year’s winners as soon as possible, hopefully by February. Again, our apologies to those whose expectations were not met because of the absence of ribbons in World Cup 2005: your ribbons are on the way.
Competition Management: Please rest assured that new management is in place for World Cup 2006, and that we are now working to correct all the problems left over from World Cup 2005. No leadership from last year is involved, and some familiar old faces have returned that know what needs to be done to run the show properly this time around. The mistakes of last year will not be repeated.
We think that in the end, the biggest thing we can do to make up to our local homebrewing and beer judging community for last year’s problems is to World Cup to its previous state as an event that you all enjoyed. To this end, we have secured Trumer Brauerei in Berkeley (at the facility which used to house Golden Pacific Brewing Co.) as our event host for World Cup 2006. We are planning to have the same quality judging and post-judging party for which we are remembered.
But to really bring The World Cup of Beer, and your appreciation of it, back to what it once was, we need your help. We need you to enter your beers in the event and to show up to judge, steward, and attend the party and awards ceremony. Because there is no event without all of you. BAM can work to fix the mistakes of the past and set up a great event for the future, but in the end we need our homebrewing and beer judging community to show up and make it work. Please help us, and yourselves, out with your participation in 2006.
We are working hard to make it worth your while.
Humbly yours,
Lee Shephard
BAM Club President
If you have any remaining unanswered questions or complaints, please contact me at: (lshephard@earthlink.net). Judges or stewards seeking their points should follow the link on the BAM home page (at www.bayareamashers.org) or contact Doug Ashcraft at ashcraftmd@comcast.net.