A year-end look back

As I write my last piece for the website before our AGM this month, I am simply overjoyed when I think about what we have done this year, and what the future holds. What we have accomplished this year simply wouldn’t have been possible without the best team out there. Here’s a small sampling of what your executive has done this year; just my way of saying thank you to them.

Vice-President, Kerry Dyson, was with me through the liquor reform. He met members of government with me, he analyzed policy with me and he helped us organize our UBC in trivia night!

Our events coordinator, Samantha Ingham, organized, well, all our events. Missed them? Well I am talking about CIDERwise, session cask festival, no-nonsense cask festival, Vancouver Canadians Baseball game, The Mission to Mission, and many many education classes.

Our Communications Director, Shawna Perry, brought in a a new re-vamped website and anew newsletter format. We moved to a monthly digest and spent more energy focused on social media presence, with a heavy focus on analytics and create a more immersive social presence.

Our Education Liaison, Kai Miller, came in late in the year after our previous executive member stepped down. He has brought a strong knowledge of non-profit procedures, an incredible knowledge of beer and a winning smile. We couldn’t ask for more.

Our treasurer, Renata Duquemin, was the epitome of fiscal responsibility. I came into this position last February preaching conservatism with our spending. Mere days after, I met with Renata and we built a very ambitious budget that would hold the board members accountable on their spending. I don’t want to ruin Renata’s big presentation at year end, but I can proudly say we did quite well financially this year and she is the main reason for that.

Our Secretary, Danika Strecko, had one of the hardest jobs. Keeping all these crazy people under control and communicating clearly. There were times when communications broke down his year and I could always rely on Danika to regroup everyone and get them back on track. She built survey forms, she ran votes and managed to continuously keep our minutes up to date.

Our Membership Coordinator, Dan Olson, has managed his membership database since the start of our huge membership drive a few years ago. As the CAMRA veteran, he brought in a great voice of wisdom to a young board of directors. I know each and every one of us is thankful for that.

Our Community Liaison, Jeremy Noonan, came in guns-a-blazing this year. He started working with our community partners early in the year and worked aggressively. He brought a great CAMRA presence to the local beer scene and was able to pump out many community spotlights throughout the year highlighting the new, the old and the different.

Our Jane-of-all-trades, Ashleigh Begg, has done everything. While her formal title is webmaster and is not in an elected, voting board position, she has been an integral part of our work this year. She built our website (which is awesome,) she designed our marketing materials for events, she redesigned our banners, she attended all our meetings, she worked events with us all over the place over festival season… The list goes on. Ashleigh is one in a million and I am so happy to have worked with her this year.

There are amazing people doing truly amazing things. These are just small sampling a of what they have done this year. I couldn’t have asked for a better team to help ease me through my first term as president. I know that our next executive while be just as inspiring in the coming year. Which leads me to the AGM, coming up on February 27th. In case you missed it, we will be holding it at the Biltmore Cabaret from noon-2:00pm (with an after party at 12 Kings Pub!)

Over the past few months I have spoken to many members who have told me that they didn’t plan on attending the AGM because they were too new to the community, or because they didn’t know very many people, or because they’ve never done anything with CAMRA before and the AGM seemed like an intense place to start. I am telling you right now that the AGM is a fantastic place to get involved with the community. Start by keeping the people that run the organization accountable. Show up, see the financials, hear us speak our views, and voice yours. This is your organization. This is your money. This is your community. Please, join us on the 27th for the CAMRA Vancouver AGM – you can rsvp here. Additionally, when you go to the AGM you get to meet all the amazing people I just wrote about, that in itself is worth it!

David Perry

President – CAMRA Vancouver