How many people on here are member of the CBA?

[bunkerbrewer]

I am going to attempt to upgrade the website infrastructure in the next couple of weeks and work on a parallel site. To try and at least bring it to some semblance of up to date / remove the out of date stuff, and possibly even put some photos of young people on it .

Great response :

Could I suggest that a early update is to make it a bit easier to join? I was all set to impulse-spend the £15 yesterday, but the site says I have to post a cheque. My chequebook is in a drawer somewhere, I don't think I've used it since 2009! :)

A PayPal link would go a long way, and make the PDF form editable. The site says you can email the PDF form, but you can't type in the fields :hmm:

 

[Xian]

I was going to join but put off by the web site. It is still anoucing a date and venue for the september 2012 GBA nationals. I would be a member by now if it was up to date and had an events page with the likes of the spring thing on it and no offence ment by this next observatio as I am a very enthusiastic 36 year old brewer, I am not enthused by the pictures, it seems to be just a bunch of men in a pub, where are the brewing pictures? I am an avid listener of basic brewing radio and would love to have a UK brewing scene 10% as good as they do in th US.

Sorry to moan so much but I found this post after almost joining the CBA and also living down south and out of London I feel very brewing isolated. Thank F for the Internet. ;-)

Sorry chaps but I have to agree with this - I was left with similar impression of the website. But this stuff takes time and work, and the kind of "scene" they have in the US didn't happen all by itself. Maybe if more of us joined up and volunteered to do things like update the website and write articles, it could gain a bit more presence? :hmm:

I'm sorry, but being in the US "scene" I can say that you all seem a bit more aprochable. Here it's not really a group that gets together to be nice to one another, it's more of a pissing match. Everyone out to prove who's beer is better than the next guys.

I'm only a menber for the discounts and contacts. I'm planning on opening a microbrewery here within the year. I don't know how popular it will be. I tend to brew less hoppy than most out here, but I've never had to bring any beer home from any event I've gone to. Hopefully I can get California off of this HOPPY kick one beer drinker at a time.

 

[bunkerbrewer]

I'm sorry, but being in the US "scene" I can say that you all seem a bit more aprochable. Here it's not really a group that gets together to be nice to one another, it's more of a pissing match. Everyone out to prove who's beer is better than the next guys.

Yep, I've dropped into the homebrewing subreddit a few times, I reckon I can summarise the entire content:

"LOOK! here's a photo of some HOPS! Next to a CARBOY!!1!1 lolz" - "Don't use carboys you freakin' idiot"

and

"LOOK!! I've just spent $2000 building a kegerator!!11!"

On the other hand you folks have some great homebrewing "celebrities" who (as an outsider) seem to do a lot of work to spread the love of good beer with articles, podcasts etc. We've had a "real ale" movement for decades, and it seems there was a much bigger hill to climb in the US against the megabreweries.

I'm only a menber for the discounts and contacts. I'm planning on opening a microbrewery here within the year. I don't know how popular it will be. I tend to brew less hoppy than most out here, but I've never had to bring any beer home from any event I've gone to. Hopefully I can get California off of this HOPPY kick one beer drinker at a time.

Best of luck! Let us know how it goes. Get those Californians drinking some British ales, stouts and porters :thumb: :

 

[Aleman]

A PayPal link would go a long way, and make the PDF form editable. The site says you can email the PDF form, but you can't type in the fields :hmm:

I can do a PayPal payment option more or less instantly, It is there fully tested just the extrs wor to move everything to the parallel site when the update happens.

Editable PDF?? Not sure if I can do that with the open source software I'm using. .. may have to do it at work:sad:

 

[Aleman]

A PayPal link would go a long way, and make the PDF form editable. The site says you can email the PDF form, but you can't type in the fields :hmm:

I can do a PayPal payment option more or less instantly

Paypal Has now been enabled

Well for UK Yearly Memberships (Sorry about that for our international members), lets see how that goes and we will increase it to 2 and 3 year memberships, plus international ones.

Also apologies, but we have had to add paypal charges to the online membership option

 

[bunkerbrewer]

Paypal Has now been enabled(

That was quick! I've just put my money where my mouth is - you've got a new North London member :

Could I also suggest adding the "Subscribe" button to the "Why not join" top-level page? I could only find the online signup by clicking on the smaller "Create account" link at the bottom right of the page. Other than that, signup and payment was very quick and easy :thumb:

 

[SweetMoFo]

Paypal Has now been enabled

Good work Aleman, I did email my printed out, filled out and scanned back in form with a request for bank details on friday lunch time but alas I have had no reply so I decided to just do the paypal thing. But no, when I filled out the form on my iPhone the CAPTCHA image did not apear so I assumed it was an iPhone ActiveX thing so I went to the PC filled the form in again and still no CAPTCHA image, I then tried using ie instead of chrome (without filling the whole form out first) and it was still not there.

I am destined never to be a member of the CBA. Was it my first post in this thread? have I been black listed? :wha: :hmm:

you've got a new North London member

Where about in North London are you? I'm just North of London (St Albans) and there are only 2 of us here, do you know any other brewers or brew clubs?

 

[Brewedout]

(Swap Chairman Hat for Web master hat)

Thanks for the comments on the website, it has been neglected of late. I'd love to promise an all singing all dancing upgrade, but as there are around 2/3 people who actually produce 'events' for the site it is difficult to keep it 'dynamic'

Yes we need more people to get involved.

The Spring Thing is an example of what can be achieved when people do get involved with dynamic ideas and aspirations.

Unfortunately the attitude from a lot of people seems to be "What can the CBA do for me?" when it would be nice if it was more "What can we do for the CBA?". Some local groups (Bristol, LAB and Oxford) do get involved and we have had some great National competitions with the local groups performing the local logistics, but what we intended to do was to have a 2 day conference/social and AGM at the same time as the competiton. This can only happen with local teams doing the logistics, as there is no way the 4 (widely dispersed) members of the committee can get involved to that degree. . . and if they do the event will be organised local to them . . . and never move around the country.

Local groups are out there doing loads of things, and there are more smaller groups appearing, The CBA would love to publicise thier events/work/meetings, but we just don't get told about them.

I am going to attempt to upgrade the website infrastructure in the next couple of weeks and work on a parallel site. To try and at least bring it to some semblance of up to date / remove the out of date stuff, and possibly even put some photos of young people on it

The CBA wants to change (And, no offence chaps, we have removed the 'old guard'), and we would love your help and ideas to do so. The Kerfuffle two years ago was all about "Revolution not Evolution" . . we are now in the place to evolve into the organisation we and you want us to be . . . but it needs environmental influences to drive that evolution . . . otherwise it will stagnate and eventually become extinct.

I would be prepared to help out and do my bit, but not sure in what capacity?

Like Bunkerbrewer for the security... no Captcha image present so cannot complete form. :cry:

Thanks

Mike :thumb:

 

[Dunfie]

I totally agree with everything that Tony mentioned.

I appealed to the SCB members with the same sentiments at the weekend when we had our AGM in Perth. We didn't manage to get anyone new on the committee but there seemed to be some genuine enthusiasm to get involved in future events.

 

[Aleman]

B*gger will sort out the captcha in the morning. Might have to go to reCaptcha instead

 

[bunkerbrewer]

you've got a new North London member

Where about in North London are you? I'm just North of London (St Albans) and there are only 2 of us here, do you know any other brewers or brew clubs?

I'm at the top end of Islington. I recently found out about the London Amateur Brewer's club, haven't been in touch yet but it looks like they organise some good meetups. We've got a baby due in 4 weeks so active involvement in the brewing scene might have to wait a few months :)

 

[Aleman]

Captcha Sorted out . . Sorry about that, for some reason teh inbuilt captcha is FUBAR'ed gone to ReCaptcha instead.

LAB are a great group, with a lot of great knowledgeable brewers :thumb: :thumb:

 

[keith1664]

I'd missed this thread. I, like Orlando am a Shed brewer of East Anglia. I thoroughly enjoy the meetings..... especially the tasting of each others beers! :

 

[orlando]

I'd missed this thread. I, like Orlando am a Shed brewer of East Anglia. I thoroughly enjoy the meetings..... especially the tasting of each others beers! :

Best part. :drunk:

 

[SweetMoFo]

you've got a new North London member

Where about in North London are you? I'm just North of London (St Albans) and there are only 2 of us here, do you know any other brewers or brew clubs?

I'm at the top end of Islington. I recently found out about the London Amateur Brewer's club, haven't been in touch yet but it looks like they organise some good meetups. We've got a baby due in 4 weeks so active involvement in the brewing scene might have to wait a few months :)

I think a few months is hopeful thinking, I'm just getting some free time now and my boys 3. :drink: thanks for the link to the London brewers, they do look like they have some interesting meetings. I think I'll try to get to the next one.

BTW. I have got a reply from the CBA and will transfer the money tonight.