Regular monthly Auckland-area SOBA meetings

[Martin Bridges]

We had a very successful initial meeting at Galbraiths on Saturday. Many thanks to the people who made the effort to come down (we had about 10 in total). A very interesting discussion was had, and some very good beer was drunk. It was really nice to meet a few people I'd previously only communicated with by email, and a few others who were totally new to me!

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss whether or not there was merit in the idea of regular Auckland-area get-togethers, and if so to talk about what form these might take. I'm pleased to say that there was unanimous support for regular meetings. Indeed it was felt that
this was exactly what was needed to get SOBA moving in the Auckland region.

In summary, we decided:
- monthly is the best frequency for the meetings
- Saturday afternoons are as good a time as any
- we should rotate the venue around different establishments (a few suggestions were mooted, and more are sought)
- each meeting should have a theme (e.g. a semi-formal tasting, homebrewing, beer guides etc.). Lots of good ideas were talked about.

There are a few things for future discussion (particularly whether or not we can do something jointly with the Hamilton-based folks) but I think a lot of progress was made.

I volunteered to come up with a date for the next meeting and after careful consideration I've come up with the following suggestion:

SECOND SATURDAY = SOBA!

My proposal is that the Auckland-area meetings should be on the second Saturday of every month at 2pm. That would mean that the next meeting would be on Saturday 10th May at 2pm, venue and theme to be confirmed (suggestions welcome).

Hope this works for people. I'll send a reminder out nearer the time.

Martin

[Martin Bridges]

A point worth making is that I had about 5 confirmed attendees, I told the pub that we would be bringing about 10 people, and 15 turned up. However, if I'd told them I was expecting 15 and only 5 turned up, they would have probably been a little upset had they put additional staff on.

Just pointing out that it's hard to be accurate on numbers.

Martin

[Tony]

Fair call, Martin. How do I go about confirming attendence in the future?

[Martin Bridges]

Just flick me an email or reply to the announcement on here.

It's not a big deal in most cases. I've learnt from experience of organising such events that if 10 people say they're going to come to something, you can guarantee that there will be either more than or less than 10, never 10! I was pleasantly surprised with the numbers on Saturday tho - my estimate was 10.

Still, it's nice to know so if you're planning to come, let me know. At least so I know I'm not going to be sat there drinking on my own!

Martin

[beerdrinker]

Although the ordering of the beers was a fiasco, the beers did get better as we progressed through them (or possibly the earlier ones were catching up with us). Perhaps Martin and Barry (without a funny face) should do a follow up visit to the Shakespeare, just so that the new manager knows this. It could also be a good chance to mention SOBA to him/her as well.