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"What does MCAB do with the extra money?" |
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There isn't any. In the two full years that I've been running MCAB, we've ended the year with $370 and $275; so far I haven't really seen any trend toward a slowly building reserve. You'd certainly like to see that - ending each year with close to nothing is not the ideal way to run things - but then again we're certainly not interested in turning a profit. I'm sure I've put more emphasis on gathering money for specific purposes than has been done before in MCAB. I seek out sponsors to pay for really good medals, shirts and the two Grand awards, and that's supplemented with money from sales of the qualifying brewer tee shirts. The entry fees provide money to host the competition and to mail awards and score sheets. I have a very specific schedule laid out for that: the first $500 goes to shipping and mailing expenses; the next $1500 goes to host the annual event. Sound like a lot of money? Yeah, well, guess what? Clubs aren't bustin' down my door to host that annual event. The next $500 from entry fees goes to MCAB to help pay bills and provide seed money for next year; anything beyond that (hasn't happened so far) gets split between MCAB and the host club. The host club can do whatever it wants with any money that's left over from their share; MCAB, as mentioned earlier, ends up with just enough to get started on the next year. In short, all the money gets spent. Nobody gets paid. I don't get reimbursed for entering the qualifying events to monitor their service. I don't attend the annual finals event unless it's close enough to drive to, in which case I pay all my expenses out of my own pocket. |
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"NHC should be a qualifying event" |
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NHC is NHC; MCAB is MCAB. NHC is run by the American Homebrewers Association. MCAB is run just by homebrewers. AHA is the backbone of the home brewing hobby. It's an organization. It's a governing body. NHC, the National Homebrew Conference, is about fun, education and THE National Homebrew Competition (also known as NHC.) MCAB is just a bunch of independent competitions and a finals event. NHC and MCAB are both national homebrewing competitions. They're separate competitions, and each is its own goal. Why would one end event - the NHC - be a qualifying event for another - MCAB? It doesn't make sense. One of the many nice things about NHC is that it's backed by a big, strong organization. But probably the coolest thing about MCAB is that it isn't - MCAB truly is "of, by and for homebrewers." I know of no animosity or competition between NHC and MCAB. But they're two separate things. I can't see any reason to not keep it that way. |
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Web site organization |
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I got a fair number of responses saying the MCAB site is too wordy/badly organized/too hard to find information. Hmmm ... it seems pretty organized and straight forward to me (but that's always the case - it always makes perfect sense to the guy who does the web site or the competition page!) I need specific suggestions in order to make improvements, so if you can let me know what specifically I can do to make it better, I'll certainly consider it. Someone said to reduce the number of colors on the Qualifying Events page, so I did that. I also went through and tried to make all the text on every page Microsoft Sans Serif. That's what it's supposed to be anyway, but now and then something else seems to sneak in here and there. Microsoft Sans Serif is a simple, no frills font, and I looked at a lot of fonts before I settled on it. If you know of one that might work better, I'll certainly look at it. And if you ever see anything that needs fixing, just shoot me an e-mail and I'll fix it. It's always nice to know that people are helping me to get it right, and many an error has been corrected as a result of people pointing them out to me. |
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"All the beer styles should be represented" |
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The original charter of MCAB was to concentrate on the most popular styles to avoid spreading the judge pool too thin. The style categories were much simpler when MCAB began, but with the expansion and added sophistication of style categories and substyles, the judge pool has become considerably diluted. The wood aged and smoked beer category was added a few years back, and the number of entries justifies that inclusion. Should the last three remaining beer styles be added? I'm inclined to say not until we can get more eager hosting and judge participation for the finals event. That may be a lame answer to those of you who want those last three categories included, but the landscape looks a whole lot different when you're the one driving the bus. I'm not saying no. But I am saying not now. Judge quality is one of the crucial issues that MCAB has to address, and you don't address it by spreading the judge pool thinner. |
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"The masterhomebrewer.com site looks kinda lame" |
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That's because the bus driver is also the webmaster. Here's the deal: Basically, one guy runs MCAB. Why? Um, gosh, I dunno, maybe because nobody else will really step up, take a task on and do it without fail week in and week out and year in and year out. For free. If you feel you have something to offer and you're willing to be really responsible for it and about it, please contact me. It's not like I couldn't use a little help.
I know the web site is lame - I'm just not much of a web guy - but I have three arguments in favor of my lameness: 1) it's current 2) It isn't fancy, but it works 3) It's current
See where I'm going with this? It's not query-driven, but it gets the job done. And you can count on it staying updated. The important stuff is updated almost immediately (even the qualifying brewers table is updated within a day or two of my getting the information.) And whether you like the look or not, it's at least consistent. I would gladly turn it over to someone proficient in web site development, if - huge ifs - all fancy or techy stuff worked, and was consistent; if I could count on it being updated week in and week out; if the spelling and grammar and attention to detail were good; and and if it were done in a common format that others could take over if need be. Any volunteers?
As for any issues with "clutter", I can only assume those would be related to the sponsor logos - they're just splashed gaudily across every main page, aren't they? They certainly are, and there's no way that will ever go away on my watch, no matter who the webmaster is. MCAB didn't even have sponsors three years ago. Now there are thirteen of them splashed (consistently) across every main page. Who do you think pays for those fancy medals and shirts? Could we do with less? Yes, and in fact we may actually do with less in the future (winner's shirts) , if money is what it takes to attract hosts for the annual event. MCAB needs some core amount of money to operate at more than a subsistence level, and the sponsors provide that money. In return, I try to provide the most stunning sponsor presence of any homebrew competition organization anywhere, ever; the sponsors are front and center. They're the stars of the main web pages. I try to ask so little and give so much that they can't refuse the offer to sponsor MCAB. I want them to be proud of their affiliation with MCAB, and I want them to be highly visible. So there's your clutter - stick the sponsors on some back page somewhere where they won't get any recognition and the web site would be so clean that it would put you to sleep. I love the sponsorship clutter, and I think MCAB participants should be happy to see it.
Seriously, you want to run the web site? Send me a layout of how you would do it. Convince me that it would be one of your major passions; that you would keep it current; that you're the right person to do the job. For free. Week in and week out. Year in and year out. At least until you can find someone else to do it with that same passion. And, oh, make your peace with the fact that those gaudy sponsor logos are going to be front and center.
As for hiring a web developer to do it: see the first paragraph. |
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"Need more qualifying events" |
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Mmmm, well, no, probably not, really. MCAB is a delicate dance. The more qualifying events you have, the more entries you get in the finals. The more entries you get in the finals, the thinner you stretch the judge pool. And the more qualifying events you have, the more you're assuming that there is a ready supply of extremely high quality events with strong judge pools. Or else you're not thinking of those things at all. And you should be. Only the best of the best are well managed, serve their entrants well and have highly qualified judge pools. And MCAB should seek the best of the best, shouldn't it? |
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Someone said, "Too many e-mails" |
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Dude! All you have to do is reply and ask me to put you on a more restricted list. Or to remove you from such lists as the qualifying brewers tee shirts reminders list. I used to feel bad about sending those reminders out, but I found that every time I did, I got additional orders from people thanking me for reminding them. I send out a lot of reminders about the finals event too, in the months and weeks as it approaches. I think too much communication is probably better than not enough. If you don't want e-mails about a particular thing, or if you only want to be reminded of things once, just tell me. In generally I respond extremely well to polite requests. |
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Survey design |
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Someone said that in the two sections that forced ranking of preferences of event characteristics, I should not have restricted use of the same preference (same column) for multiple items. I agree that it would have been interesting to allow anyone to say, "I want it all and I want it now." What I think would have been really interesting would be to ask to rank the same list of items first in order of preference, and then without any restrictions on preference. I'll definitely do it that way next time. |
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"Remember, it IS just a hobby" |
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People chide me occasionally (sometimes all at once) for being too overbearing, too demanding, too regulatory. They say things like, "It's supposed to be fun." The fact is, it IS fun. It's a blast. People who help put on the biggest, best competitions have a blast. But they also take the planning and implementation very seriously. I've been rating the qualifying events, and my rating system looks pretty damn regulatory. People miss that fact that I'm just trying to set high standards for MCAB that are well defined. Once everyone brings their standards up, the rating system can be a lot simpler because either you maintain your high standards or you don't. The current rating system looks regimented, but actually it's just spread out over a broad spectrum and graduated so as to be lenient. Once you're used to doing it, and proud of being one of the few who does it, you will maintain it. When that point is reached, the need for lenience goes away and the more the grading system can become, "Yup, they're maintaining high standards" or "Nope, they're not." It will look less regulatory and overbearing then. But in reality, it will be tougher because it will be less forgiving.
"But still," you say, "what is all this stuff with standards? Relax, man! Have a homebrew! It's only beer!"
To which I say, look at the survey results. People want to be served when they enter competitions. They pay money. They send some of their precious beer. They have expectations. And that's just for ordinary competitions; this is MCAB. This is supposed to be one of the premier competition series. The more we act like it, the more we will be. I think MCAB can be something really special, but I don't think it will be unless it has aspirations. That having been said, yer darn right it should be fun. I work my ass off on MCAB. And guess what? It's fun! |
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