[Liquidpoets] Education ..fallen by the wayside

Tue May 8 10:13:43 MDT 2012

I'll claim 35+ years, and I am always happy to talk beer and brewing!

Ted

Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 09:53:49 -0600
From: hopaholic at gmail.com
To: bestbrew at comcast.net
CC: LiquidPoets at lists.robsims.com
Subject: Re: [Liquidpoets] Education ..fallen by the wayside

I'd also like to give my two cents. When we first started, I already had seen large, older clubs turning into drink-fests, some of which had hardly any homebrew and for the claimed purpose of "further education." Of course there's nothing wrong with that, but none of us then wanted to go there, which is where the tasting panel originally started. There is a lot of real hands-on knowledge to be shared with just that alone. As far as falling to any wayside, I don't think the club has ever put a huge emphasis on lectures and talks of that sort, though they usually come around every three or four months on their own.

The club has always welcomed ideas, and it's worth reiterating that anyone who wants to give a class or present a topic or conduct an experiment has only to run it by the board. There is even a fancy "project proposal" write-up on the front page of our forums:
http://www.liquidpoets.com/LP%20Project%20Proposal%20Plan.doc

Our yearly schedule seems pretty well spread out, with Big Brew, Poetry Slam, BBQ, Mead Day, Winter Party and whatever else, so there's no time better than another to bring up a project proposal. Some of us have been in the club since the start, and not to say we're out of ideas, but much of the excitement and urge to share discoveries happens with the newer members. I would invite any of you that have been here one or two years to think of some experiment, or "homebrew wisdom" to prove or disprove, come up with the list of needs and estimated costs and get it to the board. It is always a fun thing.

One element that may be in play, hindering more frequent talks, is that whereas before we were all very fresh in the club and excited to get to know each other, some 40% of us have been hanging together for quite a while and may feel that what one has to share might not be of interest, or that someone else is better qualified for the job. If so, we could certainly make a point to give a talk directed at noobs for instance, or even rope two or three of the more seasoned brewers to give a joint talk with Q&A. None of us knows everything, and at least one of us has been brewing for (what is it?) twenty-five years or something. And he's polite enough to let you share without a peanut gallery.

One last thing (and thanks to those who've read this far): we should work out just how often the majority of us wants to have a talk. Is it every month? Every other? Just getting through some socializing and the tasting panel makes for a full night sometimes. If there were spots to fill on a schedule, maybe we could rope folks into taking their turn.

The club is awesome. Highly functional. I haven't been very active lately, so thanks a million to you relatively few folks that keep it driving forward, and thanks to Joe for doing an excellent job so far.
Cheers!T
On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 8:27 AM,  <bestbrew at comcast.net> wrote:

Hello my friends:

 An Open Letter to the Liquid Poets.....   from 
Jim  “Doc” Damon

Caution: Education
has fallen into a very low priority in our club!!

There always seems to be a  reason why we can’t have any educational
talks.

“The meeting place is poorly equipped for a talk”

“We got to dispose of all this beer “

“That’s the way we have done it in the past.”

“We don’t have the time”

Truth of the matter is that we have only had two 15 min
talks in the past 10 months.

What do we need to do to improve this?

Select meeting places where we can have a private meeting;

 if this means renting
a semi-permanent meeting place , so be it

Schedule some topics in advance...We could do styles of the month; pour beer for all
and have a discussion open to all about that style and even discuss the members
examples

Have panel discussions, on broad topics such as “My favorite
Yeast”   “how I ferment”

Or  “my favorite
gadget”

Have an open forum where members can ask Brewing Questions

Invite guest speakers to speak on Topics we choose...of
interest to all

We certainly have tons of 
expertise in our local area.
Truth is there are tons of way to improve our brewing knowledge;

 But in order to make it work WE MUST PLAN to do it IN
ADVANCE, 

and take some time and dedicate it to EDUCATION.

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"Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."
-- Ben Franklin, 1738

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