Meet the new Director
My name is John Peed, and I’m the new director of MCAB. I have always thought that MCAB, by its very nature, is a really cream of the crop competition. Consider:
· you have to place first in a Qualifying Event; not second, not third, but first
· the Qualifying Events tend to be the largest, most prestigious club-run competitions in North America, so the competition just to qualify is enormous
· The MCAB event itself is a competition among the dozen or so qualifiers in each category, so it’s the best against the best.
I have simplified and focused the MCAB mission statement to say exactly what I think MCAB is in its modern form: A means of providing a very challenging competition environment; a means of recognizing truly preeminent homebrewers; and a means of recognizing and spotlighting the very best club-run homebrew competitions in North America.
One goal I have is to try to come up with a set of MCAB standards for Qualifying Events, based on the very best club competitions. The goal will be to encourage all Qualifying Events to provide plenty of advance notice of their events, up to date information on their web sites, high visibility of the event on the web site, good organization of the information (including where to look for results and when to expect them), easy registration and entry, fast posting of results and prompt return of score sheets. In short, I will ask the Qualifying Events to be the best competitions, because those are the ones that MCAB wants to recognize and be a part of. I want MCAB to be a mark of prestige for homebrewers and homebrew competitions alike. I’ll try to be flexible, but at the same time I’ll try to set high standards. There is nothing elitist about MCAB – it’s available to any and all who enter the Qualifying Events – but I do feel it should be an elite event, truly a “champions’ championship.”