Fellow Homebrewers,
I can hardly believe it’s already time for me to write my final president’s message before I pass the gavel on to our next president of 2016, Kenny Purcell. 2015 has been a great year for me and for our club. We have honored our club traditions and events, and most importantly followed the mission of our club which is to promote the art, heritage and enjoyment of homebrewing through education and preservation of the many varieties of brewing techniques.
It has been a great honor and privilege to be the president of such an amazing club and I am extremely grateful and humbled by the experience. In 2015 we had another great club barrel brew (even if the results were less then optimal). We shone like the stars we are at every local event we support (each year I wonder how we could possibly out do ourselves next year). We have increased our club image recognition with some great new signage for the club events and also gotten some awesome new shirts as well. I am pleased our club has continued to participate in the big brew for National Homebrew Day as well as Learn to Homebrew Day, and I greatly enjoyed our quarterly club social nights. It was a real treat meeting outside of the hectic and sometimes noisy club meetings and beer fests to share some time with club members, friends, and family members in a social setting. I have personally grown as well as a homebrewer and I will continue to challenge myself with personal goals with the support of the Evansville homebrewing community.
One of the things I am most proud of is the canned food and money we have collected during the meetings throughout the year. I have been blown away by the generosity of our club members to donate money and food to those in need. I feel very strongly that a club our size has an obligation to our community to give back to it and by supporting great local organizations like SWIRCA, The Evansville Zoo, The Evansville Museum, Wesselman’s Woods Nature Preserve, Holy Redeemer, and the Food Pantry we are ensuring a prosperous future for our community.
At the December meeting we will vote for the 2016 board of directors. I want to give a huge thank you to the 2015 OVHA board: Vice President Kenny Purcell, Treasurer Jack Frey, Secretary Chris Norrick, and Board Members John Dippel, Dwayne DeLaney, Jill Mecklenborg, Nathan Ferrell, and Michael Julian. Our board has worked hard to make sure our club stays on track and moving in the right direction. The support they provide has been crucial to the success of our club. It is the hard work and dedication of our board members behind the scenes that keeps our meetings and events running so smoothly and I want to thank them for their support. I would also like to thank former presidents Jeff Smith, Don Heisler, John Mills, John Dippel, Dwayne DeLaney, Peter Frederick, Kenny Lucas, and Dutch DeHaan for their wisdom and guidance. They are an invaluable treasure to our club with an encyclopedic wealth of knowledge who collectively has probably forgotten more about homebrewing than I will ever know!
Before I turn the keys over to Kenny Purcell I have just a few reminders. December means it is time to renew your club dues for the next year. The club relies on our membership dues to maintain our equipment for brewing events, to supply the meat for the December meeting, to purchase materials needed for the club group brew, and all the other great things our club does for us like rare beer tastings, door prizes, and so forth. So please be sure to renew your dues, we are counting on you! We will have our first appearance at the Christ the King Winterfest on January 9th, 2016. This is a new event for our club and we would like to have a good showing as we do with our other events. The hours will be from 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm.
And lastly, don’t forget the December meeting is this Wednesday December 16th at 6pm. At the December meeting we encourage all to bring your family and friends along with a side dish or dessert. We will announce the big turkey winner at the meeting and vote in next year’s board of directors.
Thank you Ohio Valley Homebrewer’s Association for making my term such a memorable one and I can’t wait to see what Kenny has in store for us in 2016!
Cheers!
Sky Buttrum
