Move if not in the correct place.
This is from this article.
Gary Glass, director of the American Homebrewers Association, who had been with the organization for 20 years;
Damn it.
How can the director be laid off? Dang.
whoah.
Wow- not good. At all. Looks like they really needed to find big savings by cutting salaries- can save a lot if you let the highest-level people go. But at what cost to the organization overall? I suppose being a member of the AHA affords no power to influence staffing decisions by the BA. Bummer.
Didn’t know the budget was so dependent on meetings.
DAMN… Should we boycott?? Maybe I shouldn’t pay my dues next go-around since they ain’t supporting us anyway?!
Very depressing to hear this.
Boycott?? Why don’t you cut off your hand, since it will do as much good?
All those events that Brewers Association and AHA produce are integral to their purpose and income. There is an army of people that make it happen. Add the fact that the commercial brewing industry is also reeling, and it should be apparent that there’s going to be a money problem.
I really hate what has happened, but there was little choice. Blame the conditions, not the organizations.
Sorry to here this. It must have been a very difficult business decision to make. I trust Gary will land on his feet.
However, if you feel any organization you are a member of does not support your views then you might reconsider your membership.
This really saddens me. I have had a great working relationship with Gary over he past 5 years or so. I have also worked with Kathryn as well. But like Martin says, money is reeally tight for the BA now and things like this are bound to happen.
With regard to supporting the membership, if you have questions or issues you can bring it before the Governing Committee and we can relay it to he AHA. Although we are only an advisory committee, we act as a sounding board for the membership. Our e-mail addresses are on the AHA site in the Governing Committee link and the email addresses for the subcommittees are there as well. If you don’t tell us what concerns you, we can’t work with the AHA to address them.
The budget for the BA/AHA is almost totally derived from events.
In order to make things worse? Who says the support isn’t there any more?
Words escape me.
Stunned.
I’m still on the BA email list. There was an email from Bob Pease this morning. Revenue is down 70%.
I figured this would happen pretty early on. There’s just no way the BA/AHA doesn’t live and die by those events. Organizations primarily source funding from external sources whether it is fundraising or hosting events.
As much as I am glad the BA did the right thing by canceling the events it is deeply unfortunate for everybody who lost their job. I hope they all land on their feet and nobody else suffers the same fate.
As an AHA member I would like to know why the decision was made to eliminate the director and what plans are in place to replace his job duties.
Gary’s duties will be taken over by Brewers Association Vice President of Staff Development Ryan Farrell
Can’t say I’m sad about the trouble the AHA finds itself in. They certainly don’t represent, or even accept, a certain portion of the brewing population. Maybe this will end up being cathartic.
How would you suggest the AHA represent and accept this certain portion of the brewing population?
I believe the more accurate term is “cult”.
Saw this coming when I asked early on about Homebrew Con and Nashville tornado storm damage back then. I figured that cancelling would be problematic. Really unfortunate. Just shows how tenuous things are.