CRBrewHound wrote:EagleDude wrote:I strongly believe that the AHA is doing the best that they can given the unprecidented amount of homebrewers wanting to participate ... it is probably all the BN's fault and now we have one more thing for other "clubs" to bitch at us about.
I agree and disagree with that statement. Did the AHA want this to happen, no they want things to go smooth and work. They do not want to lose membership, which I have heard from a few of my friends that they were considering dropping membership. I think this is because there are 3 distinct benefits of membership (obviously there are a few others, GABF member session, pub discounts, and a few others).
1) attandence of the NHC
2) participation in the NHC brewing competition.
3) the Zymergy magazine
This year, many people were not able to get into the NHC due to it selling out in about 12 hours (the hotel was booked up prior to the release of the conference), which is pretty bogus and defeats benefit number one. Now many people were not able to participate in the competition portion because of the website issues, which really removes benefit number two unless you can sit there by your computer all day and try to get in. Then there is benefit number 3 the magazine, I like it but lets face it, BYO and zymergy are fairly similar and for some strange reason seem to have similar articles in each set of issues.
Now, I am not arguring for or against the AHA, but I think they have come to a critical mass point where it is step up or go home, brewing has exploded as a hobby and they are going to have to grow with the hobby. There are several things they could do to prevent this.
They could move to bigger venues for the NHC conference portion and by bigger I don't mean 500 people, they need to move it to a location that can house 6000 conference go'ers. This would benefit the brewing community and them, as they would make more money on the event.
The competition portion, the can also do several things. They can have a seperate website for each judgeing site. But again, they are filling this up so fast that they need to move to a three tier judging system instead of a 2 tier judging system. So they need to double the amount of entries in the competition to something like 15,000 entries, say 15 sites with a 1000 per site or allocated differently, then have the beers move to a regional competition from there, then the winners move on to the NHC for the national competion. They would have to start earlier and it would take longer, but again, this is what they need to do to keep up with the hobby.
I know people here will disagree with me, and please note that I am just stating my opinion. I just hate to hear people I know talking about removing themselves from membership because of the lack of availability of their benefits. It really should be more of if you are interested in participating there is a spot for you, not sit by your computer hitting the refresh button so you have a chance of getting in. Again this is just my two cents here and nothing more. If AHA is reading, please just consider this the ramblings of a concerned member and someone who loves the hobby and the AHA.
The problem with finding a place to accommodate 6000 middle aged guys in shorts and sandals is daunting at best. While the AHA helps organize the conference, ultimately the bulk of the work falls to the local organizing committee, who also have real jobs. (BDawg can probably explain this better than me.) Right now they can barely find enough judges to work a two tier contest.
Odd that these comments come so soon after FilmLabRat's complaint and some other recent complaints about the BN. Both the BN and the AHA are growing fast and the growing pains are becoming apparent.
BN Army // 13th Mountain Division 
