The Brewers Association (BA) is the American trade association working to promote and protect American craft brewers, their beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts. Full disclosure, this website is one of the tools the BA uses to support their mission.
The BA is made up of members who elect a Board of Directors to help shape and guide BA staff on behalf of the U.S. craft beer industry. The board meets a few times a year to discuss goals and messaging. Despite staff having the opportunity to meet and work with members of the board in a variety of settings, much of what they discuss is somewhat of a mystery, even to me. So it’s cool to see board member Larry Chase of Standing Stone Brewing Co.(Ashland, Ore.) update his staff, and the brewery blog with info about the board and how he came to be a part of it. Here’s what he had to say:
What does the BA Board of Directors do?
We develop high-level strategy and provide direction for the Brewers Association staff of 50 employees. In 2013, we met for a two-day strategic planning session where we refined the organization’s purpose and revised our mission looking forward past the year 2020. The big goal that came from this session was for craft brewers to have 20+% market share by 2020. Board members also chair and/or participate in one or more of the ten committees that do more specific work in conjunction with staff.
Larry’s path to the board:
In 2011, one year after I began working at Standing Stone, the BA created the Brewpub Committee in an effort to ensure the organization remained relevant to its brewpub members. I was an inaugural member of that committee, became vice-chair in early 2012, and briefly took over as chair in the latter half of 2014. Since mid-2012 I’ve worked on the Brewpub Server Training Manual subcommittee, and after almost three years we will be publishing Beer Server Training for Brewpubs — A Manual for Hiring, Training & Retaining Great People.
For even more information on what the BA Board of Directors is tasked with, check out Standing Stone’s blog post: “Catching Up with BA Board Member Larry Chase.”
Photo © Standing Stone Brewing Co.
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