When I took over the Presidency from the esteemed Paddy Treavor in January I knew I had some big shoes to fill but I really had no idea what I was in for. However I knew that the new Executive knew what to do so I spent the first month with my mouth shut. I listened to them all, I listened to Paddy, I listened to BC President Rick Green and I did my best to remember everyone’s name. Once I had my head around what was going on I met with each member of the Executive individually and talked to them about their work, specifically what we could do to make it easier, efficient and better for members.
We began a program of internal changes but in February we received word about the changes to Growler mark-ups so we quickly started the Save the Growler campaign which to date has over 2,100 signatures and is by far one of our most popular campaigns getting coverage in the mainstream media and getting the attention of the government.
Soon after this we went to the BC Legislature in Victoria to meet some MLAs about the Growler tax and a number of other issues we felt need to be addressed, we followed this up with some meetings with more MLAs in Vancouver, we received wide-spread support and the NDP Liquor Critic Maureen Karagianis even added the growler tax issue to their platform for the election.
We also launched a program of very successful craft-beer education classes – firstly at Legacy Liquor store and then to Steamworks Brewpub, we managed to organise AND sell out a different class almost every month since March with lots of great guest speakers with even more planned for next year. Most of the classes are available on youtube along with the resources through our website.
The government announced that they would allow breweries to open “beer lounges” so that they could serve more than the paltry 16oz per day in their tasting rooms however municipal regulations in Vancouver prevented this from happening so on behalf of CAMRA I spoke to the city council about making this a reality. There was unanimous support and a few months later they approved the change and beer lounges moved one step closer.
At the same time I worked with our membership co-ordinator Brad to develop a better system for managing our membership, we created a new logo for the branch and new membership cards which seemed to be a big hit. We began plans to create a fully integrated system for members to manage their renewals online – it took sometime but it’s now fully operational. I would like to apologise to any members who have had issues joining and renewing, thank you for sticking with us! Please bear in mind that we are 100% voluntary and that the growth CAMRA Vancouver has experienced has been unprecedented. If you have any trouble with your membership please let myself and Membership know so we can resolve it for you as fast as possible.
May heralded our much anticipated Spring Sessional Festival where dozens of breweries offered lower alcohol beers at the Portside pub. It was a huge success and we hope it will become a firm fixture in the CAMRA Calendar. There was also some pie-throwing action as Event Co-ordinator and unofficial queen of CAMRA Vancouver Amanda Barry Butchart and myself both received a dish of cream to the face.
May and June mean only one thing: VCBW! CAMRA supported the event again this year and all the events I went to were superb but best of all during that week we held our traditional CAMRAPALOOZA at the Albi Room to help polish off the casks left over from the legendary Hoppapalooza.
In July we organised a bus trip to the new North Shore breweries, Deep Cove and Bridge, thanks to everyone who came along, the breweries for their hospitality and Wildside Vancouver for driving us all around! We also ran a bus trip to the Four Winds Brewery in Delta which was very well attended.
During the summer CAMRA Vancouver was given a community table at each of Vancouver’s Farmers Markets to talk about our community and advocacy work, we also began a campaign where market-goers signed CAMRA authored letters to the BC government asking them to allow Farmers Markets to allow local brewing artisans to sell their wares. Over 300 letters were sent to the Minister and someone must have listened because shortly after the election the Premier announced that there would be a full review of liquor laws in BC. It really goes to show that if you make enough noise and get involved in co-ordinated action the government must listen.
We scrambled into action and although we requested to be a part of the initial phase of consultation our invite must have got lost in the post, nevertheless a after a few phone calls we were invited to sit down with John Yap MLA and his associates to give our suggestions as to how BC could move out of the liquor law dark ages. We picked about 10 topics (more than we would usually get in a ministerial meeting) and over one hour we explained that we were talking from the consumer’s point of view – not industry pressure group spokespeople intent on making more profit. The meeting went well and it was fascinating to see their reactions when we told them about some of their own ludicrous rules!
As the Review moved into the Public Phase we encouraged everyone to get involved and tell these politicians exactly what they wanted as it could be another 50 years until the next opportunity! Over time more announcements were made and although some were regarded skeptically others have been accepted with welcome arms including the approval of craft-beer at farmers markets and off-site tasting rooms. We all look forward to even more positive changes in 2014.Thank you to everyone who got involved in the Review, these successes are your successes – CAMRA BC worked hard to get this opportunity and all our members should feel very proud that their support helped make these changes a reality.
In September we held the BC Premier of “Beerhunter – the movie” at the Rio Theatre in East Van, 250 of you came along (far more than we expected) and although we almost ran out of beer we managed to restock during the film thanks to the fast work of the local breweries who supported the event, extra thanks to P49 and Storm for going above and beyond!
Later in the month came Beerlesque 3, the annual Burlesque festival and fundraiser where I was invited to take part in the first inaugural craft-beer drag show, where – along with Scott, Shae and James I danced in high heels, wig, dress and make up to raise money for the Roundhouse Community Centre. The standard was set and hopefully next year there’ll be even more brews, boobs and brewers in dresses!
October brought BC craft beer month with events all over the province culminating in the wonderful BC Beer Awards which filled the Croation Cultural Centre with hundreds of craft beer fanatics as awards were given out to the best-of-the-best.
Earlier that month CAMRA ran a bus-trip up to the newly minted CAMRA BC – Powell River Branch where President Paddy Treavor welcomed us to Townsite where we had some wonderful cask brews and went to their awesome Oktoberfest. Hopefully it will become an annual tradition for us to visit, so book early next year to join in on the 2-ferry fun!
Many new breweries opened during the year in Vancouver, the aforementioned Deep Cove and Four Winds but also Brassneck, 33 acres, Green leaf and more. The whole year has been very exciting and as we reach the end of 2013 we look forward to the events already scheduled for 2014, our AGM at the Biltmore Cabaret and the CiderWISE festival in February, which I hope to see you all at.
My eternal thanks to the CAMRA Vancouver Executive, Paddy Treavor, all of our wonderful volunteers and supporters, we could not have done what we have without all of you.
Adam Chatburn,
President, CAMRA BC – Vancouver Branch.
@mr_adam
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