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