CAMRA President Rick Green (left) & Dockside Brewing Brewmaster Daniel Knibbs (right)

On January 17th, the CAMRA Vancouver Annual General Meeting took place at the Alibi Room. If you have ever been to an annual general meeting for any sort of organization, then you know that it’s not always the most exciting thing in the world. In order to get the conversation flowing, R&B Brewing graciously donated a keg of their award winning Auld Nick winter warmer. Along with the free beer also came free food from our good hosts at the Alibi Room, making everyone feel appreciated as an organization and ready to dive into the business at hand.

Certified Cicerone Chester Carey (left) & CAMRA Vice President Lundy Dale (right)

The first order of business was to review the mission statement of the organization and what we as a group have accomplished in the last 365 days. Without drowning you in details, the year was a great success in many ways. Membership numbers grew, corporate sponsorships grew, and taking into account refundable deposits the financial surplus grew. With that the focus of the AGM shifted, moving towards the 2010 executive positions. At this point a mild bit of drama occurred when Canada’s first certified Cicerone, Chester Carey, was nominated to take over the Vice President role from incumbent Lundy Dale. After all ballots were cast and votes tallied, Lundy won the challenge to her executive position by the slightest of margins. The rest of the positions were either retained by incumbents or filled by unchallenged nominees.  The election positions are as follows:

Returning Incumbent Executives Monica Frost (left) & Rodney Gitzel (right)

CAMRA 2010 Executives

President: Rick Green

Vice-President: Lundy Dale

Corporate Liaison: Monica Frost

Treasurer: Jack Pajak

Secretary: Amanda Barry

Membership Secretary: Rodney Gitzel

CAMRA Executive Newcomers Amanda Barry (left) & Jack Pajak (right)

Post executive elections, focus turned to the coming year. After a quick reminder that the first major event of 2010 will be a screening of the documentary Beer Wars on January 31st, the floor was left open for event suggestions. Many event ideas were proposed, including a Haiti Relief Fundraiser, bus trips to out of town events, and a CAMRA summit with our brethren from Vancouver Island, CAMRA Victoria. All ideas were noted and will be reviewed for inclusion in the 2010 event calendar. With proposals out of the way, a big buzz was generated by the official announcement of Vancouver Craft Beer Week. Although rumors circulated of the possibility a VCBF, the official announcement came as a surprise to many who were excited to find out a small group of organizers have formed and have been working on plans for well over a month. Needless to say the CAMRA AGM was a fruitful event and gave the Vancouver craft beer faithful many things to look forward too.

Thanks to Mike Victory for the use of his photos

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