SOBA AGM
8 July 2017, 3 PM
The Third Eye, Wellington
Minutes
Meeting opened at 3 PM
Attendees: Phil, Tom, Maree, Warwick, Barb, Jess (committee)
Members: Brian Jordan, Toru Stewart, Chris Rabey, John Austin, Tim Meadows, Jamie Curtis,
John Brett, Phil Cook, Rob Mayo, Dylan Jauslin, Stacey Walsh, Jane Street, (at least 7 other
late arrivals)
Apologies: none
President’s Remarks
– Special recognition for this year’s honoured members – Dave ‘Dear Leader’ Wood
and Denise Garland
– Pursuit of Hoppiness moved to bimonthly and has continued to increase print run to
meet demand, thank you to Michael Donaldson and his team, as well as Pumpt, who
looks after printing and distribution.
– Mountain Ales had another sold out year, thanks to organisers. Looking forward to
supporting more new festivals in regions that don’t have them.
– Thanks to regional coordinators who have organised more bus and brewery tours in
the regions, great way to introduce more people to beer and SOBA
– Auckland Beer Week in its second year, exciting to formally partner with GABS to
increase our exposure and hope that we can continue that relationship in future
– NHC continues to grow and will move to 2 days of judging this year. 2016 saw more
than 600 entries and the organisers deserve a special thank you for continuing to
deliver a professional and well-run event.
– New committee members took time to adjust, including membership issues, for
which the committee sincerely apologise. Special thanks to Greig and Alex McGill for
their support throughout that transition.
– Membership currently at 1200, but like many organisations, we struggle to find new
volunteers. It is not limited to festivals – we have vacancies on the committee – and
without more volunteers, it will be difficult to continue to deliver our mission. If
anyone is interested, please get in touch.
Financials
– Small loss due to increased Pursuit of Hoppiness costs as well as Mountain Ales
falling on the first day of the new fiscal year (expenses incurred in the year but
revenue will appear this year)
– Financials passed
Amendments
– Amendment to Rule 9 – willingness to pay volunteers -passes
– Amendment to Rule 3 – revision to terms of office – passes
Other Business
Discussion around how to implement paying volunteers
– Becoming an employer is time consuming and very paperwork heavy, introduces a
lot of regulatory and H&S responsibilities – unlikely for near-medium future
– PoH editor invoices for time – could work for festivals?
– Most festivals are organised by committees – paying all of them will be difficult, but
spreading the organising load across multiple people makes it easier
– SOBA’s impact is in small, regional festivals, not massive events
– Broader issue of lack of volunteers for committee
– Member (from other type of festival – unsure of name) – runs other festivals with
large numbers of volunteers. Those who do large amounts of work end up on fixed
contracts for X dollars for Y deliverables – up to them to deal with taxes responsibly
– Phil C – In principle, paying everyone is a worthy goal. In the meantime, pay as many
people as you have to in order to get things done, and pay more as you can. If work
earns revenue, start using it to pay the people bringing it in. Spirit behind the
proposed amendment is to be willing to pay to get important work done if there
aren’t volunteers.
– [battery died – discussion about how handover of Winter Ale was handled,
specialised skills (e.g. PoH editing) v nonspecialised (e.g. event organising)]
– Informal consensus is that employer route is not for us
– Challenge of regional festivals that often operate at a loss to start – important for
growing the organisation, but how to incorporate paying volunteers?
– Major regional centres already have multiple festivals – where is the incentive for
SOBA to continue competing?
– Counterpoint – it’s part of our mission. People loved Winter Ale but no one stepped
up to run it. Attending and running a festival are different – many repeat attendees
would have welcomed a ticket price increase to pay organisers if it meant the festival
got to continue.
– Festivals are a big part of pursuing the organisation’s mission. It’s a national
organisation, so if the organisation remains solvent financially while delivering
mission, then many members are less interested in how individual events perform.
– Wellington challenge – city is saturated, ‘good beer has won’ – have we talked to
those who used to organise but don’t anymore? What happened? Probably a
combination of usual burnout of volunteers, people leaving, etc. Perfect storm
meant that many left simultaneously, so anyone who stepped up afterwards got
more than they bargained for.
– Acknowledge that it’s difficult for a volunteer committee to sanction paying other
volunteers (especially if we went down the employer route)
Meeting Adjourned – 3:57 PM
