The View From The Mezzanine

Well, here we are; the morning after. Alright, a couple of mornings after. This event gave me and my family the chance to spend a night AWAY from our brewery so for that I'm thankful.

After speaking that night with a few of the participating brewers, I wanted to get some thoughts out to the Guild members for thought and comments:
This event, while for a very worthwhile cause, suffered greatly from an obvious lack of coordination and communication in my opinion. It wasn't until after I arrived there and spoke one-on-one with Dan Vogel that I learned what organization was benefiting from this event (true, that was probably my lack of attention to emails). I feel that this event could have been better endorsed via the participating breweries had we all known more about the culinary program and it's goals. True, I received a very colorful poster advertising the Fest of Flavor, but I did not get much in the way of information about the foundation itself. It was also unclear why I was asked to bring a case of brewery glassware and then the reason kept changing once I was there: "we're gonna raffle them off. You can decorate your table with them. We're going to use them to pour into." I was more than a little surprised that this foundation (after seeing the high-color posters and postcards that were printed) did not seize the opportunity to print specialty beer-tasting glassware for this event and instead relied on "last minute" donations from the participating breweries.
From a business and courtesy standpoint, I would have appreciated being asked, prior to pouring, if we would donate the beer and glassware to this event. I truly do not feel that anyone was trying to pull the wool over our collective eyes, it was just a massive lack of communication.
Does anyone know who to contact at the foundation to obtain a tax/donation letter? Okay, I think I'm done with my rant.
Now, as I mentioned to Craig that night, I feel we as the Guild can use this experience to craft a very successful brewfest/pouring in the future.

• Excessive communication with the participating breweries, food vendors, bands, regulatory agencies, etc.
• Hammer it into the public consciousness who is benefiting from this event and why the public should care.
• Design and print event-specific glassware.
• Group all participating breweries in the same physical area.
• Examine and dissect the events calendar prior to committing to a date for the event.
• Promote it, Promote it, Promote it!

After thinking about this event and the Guild, it struck me how important it is to get the infrastructure of the Guild solid and established before we, collectively, commit to more events. I'm reviewing the bylaws-guide Craig passed out to us all at Great Northern. I feel it is imperative for us to get our Guild recognized professionally by completing and filing our bylaws and non-profit status.
Here are a few pics I took that night:

So long Summer! Here come's Autumn!

Howdy all,
I hope everyone had a successful summer. In Polson, we went through our first full summer in our new tasting room. I can't tell you how many returning summer customers felt obligated to tell me how small our old tasting room used to be!
I have not heard from the organizers of the pouring at Great Northern this October 3rd on this but I was wondering if it would be to everyone benefit if we consolidate jockey boxes instead of each brewery bringing their own box. I have a five-faucet jockey box I'm bringing. Just a thought.
I received an email from Craig at Tamarack regarding meeting before the pouring. What are your thoughts on that? Time? Place?

Well, I wanted to "resurrect" this medium of communication after the summer. I look forward to seeing everyone in Whitefish on Friday.
Prost!
Dave

Non profit organizing

Fellow Flatheaders,
I spent another in depth phone conversation with Brad Robinson of the Mt non-profit group this morning. We are lacking charitable contribution goals and alliances. I was recommended to get in touch with Sec of State and inquire about un-incorporated cooperative or association. This may provided some tax benefits. Mr. Robinson believes we will fall under the scutiny of the Dept. of Rev. and more likely be declared a 501(c)6 organization--without the tax bennies. I will be contacting the Sec of state and I will be in touch. I have a feeling that as we approach our 2008 busy season this may take some time. But little by little we'll crack away at it.

I was also doing some poking around in the "State of Montana" looking for opportunities to market and get some exposure. I found that only Bitterroot and Lang Creek were registered as made in Montana Products. I think this is worth while opportunity to align ourselves with Montana as a whole and obtain some good exposure and belong to another well respected organization. Each Brewery as an individual should consider becoming a "made in montana" product. Check it out at www.madeinmontanausa.com

I am loving the Art work Dave! The new logo looks like a great Pocket logo for the front of a shirt and the big logo on the back. Just a thought. Thanks again and lets keep talking.
Koontz

Congrats to The Rack. Nice article in today's Missoulian.
Any progress on the non-profit status and by-laws?

Just wondering in Polson.....

My input!

Hey guys and girl! I want to send some props to Dave as well! Thanks for the work on the designs. My preferences for the design are for the cleaned up star upside down with the logos. I really like having all the breweries' logos on the design. What happens if another brewery joins our ranks though? Not that its likely to happen anytime soon, but I though I would throw that out there.

Cheers to all!

Brad T.

YOU DOWN WITH O.C.D.? YEA, YOU KNOW ME.....

Alright, just because I can't leave well enough alone. Here are some more designs. I cleaned up the blue star design

and then rotated the star.

And now for something completely different.
Post your opinions and ideas here.

Prost,
Dave

star!

I'm super stoked that you moved so quickly to develop a logo, both are quite creative. I'm not sure I like the yellow star, I really like the lake behind it, I like the blue coloring of the second logo too.
Your mission statement is quite good, short and to the point. Thanks for all the enthusiastic work Dave!
I'm interested to hear what others think...
I've created myspace.com/langcreekbrewery
I'm not capable of several things with this ol' Mac of mine, but Brad will help me revamp!
slainte!
jessie may :)

WELCOME TO THE FLATHEAD BREWER'S GUILD BLOG!

Howdy All,
I thought it might be worthwhile to try this medium for all of us to interact and communicate short of a face-to-face meeting. I have done two designs so far for the Guild's logo. PLEASE let me know your criticism, comments, suggestions, etc. If anyone else would like to post to this forum, the email address is "flatheadbrewersguild@yahoo.com" and the password is "montanabeer".



Okay, here are the two designs I've cranked out:

NUMBER 1

and

NUMBER 2

I'm gonna set the permissions on this blog so anyone can post comments and (hopefully) so those comments can be seen by anyone viewing this blog.


Here's my shot at a mission statement:
The Flathead Brewer's Guild is a brewing-industry, non-profit, cooperative composed of members of the five brewing companies of northwestern Montana. The purpose of the Guild is to provide an opportunity to educate the public about the five breweries and their products as well as enable collective access to brewery's unique resources and support.

PROST!
Dave