On the Web
Schell’ s Border Batch www. borderbatch. com
P A G E 2 B O R D E R B A T C H B R E W I N G S
As the incoming Secretary / Treasurer of the Schell’ s Border Batch I’ d like to take a few moments to ponder some important points about our club from the point of view of my new office, meaning a financial perspective. Now I know nobody wants to have to think about money topics in relationship to their hobby. After all hobbies are supposed to be fun right? But in order to have that fun under the umbrella of the Schell’ s Border Batch we need to take good care of our organization so we can continue to have that fun in a thriving environment. Now you might be thinking,“ Hey- I pay my dues & buy raffle tickets for fundraisers.” That’ s all well & good, and the club appreciates this, however, the bottom line is that we need to build up our coffers in order to continue to do the things we do so well as an organization( Day at August Schell, Stubie Fest, a first rate award winning website, appealing merchandise with great logos, etc.) in a more financially responsible way. What I’ m driving at here is that I was a bit surprised to learn that a few of our members are basically bank rolling things like events & merchandise ordering and getting paid back at a later date. Talk about dedication to the hobby! In the hindsight of Stubie Fest its even more evident than ever how a few people are shouldering the financial burden of promoting this club’ s events. I’ m not exaggerating when I tell you we knocked the socks off of BCCA President Joe Germino with Stubie Fest. We should be proud of that fact that as a small club we are putting on a really first rate weekend long breweriana experience. On the flip side, I think as a group we need to extend a little effort into changing the way we operate financially. One of the first steps we are going to take towards a sound financial footing is increasing membership dues. their current rate for quite some time, while at the same time we’ ve made a number of significant improvements to the club with out a commensurate increase it dues. So, we are long over due in having an increase. Secondly, the cold reality is that the price of everything is going up and unfortunately we must act in accordance. And finally, there are so many wonderful benefits to being part of this organization, that we as officers know that the minor inconvenience of a moderate dues increase will be gladly absorbed by our loyal membership. Another change is that items such as t-shirts & etc. are going to see a little bump in price too. This is not intended in order to increase the club’ s margin but rather to reflect the increasing costs of the items themselves. As always we appreciate any input you might have for other ways to stimulate financial growth for the Border Batch. With that said, I’ d like to take a moment to thank those members who have taken a financial burden upon themselves in order to promote our club & hobby. A great big PROSIT to you all! So please get those dues paid in a timely manner, buy some raffle tickets for that super clean crown we have as a prize, & if you can, donate a few extra bucks to the chapter. We think we have a top notch organization( and the recognition we receive from the BCCA substantiates this) & will try to spend that money to continue the effort of progress.
On the Web
Schell’ s Border Batch www. borderbatch. com
For the Membership year 2008 the dues are as follows: Single non-BCCA $ 12 Single BCCA $ 10 Couples $ 17 Take $ 2 off if paid before Jan 31, 2008. I’ m a big proponent of this rate hike. First of all, my understanding is that dues have been fixed at