West Region
Travis Hammond
In this update, I’d like to share some Regional news, let you know about some changes on the horizon, and extend thanks to those who have been doing great work in our Region.
In West Regional Rep news:
- I’d like to introduce Oleg Shpyrko, the BJCP Assistant Rep for the San Diego area. Oleg is a Master BJCP judge, Cider Judge, and coordinates a monthly BJCP 101 class at White Labs for all people who may be interested in beer judging or for active judges to stay sharp between competitions.
- A big thanks to Eric Robinson who served as the San Diego Assistant Rep the past two years and fielded all of the emails I deflected his way.
- I’d also like to acknowledge our other Assistant Reps so you know who to reach out to with questions, ideas, or problems. Click here for contact info: http://dev.bjcp.org/about/governance/officers/
Brian Cooper – Northern California
Jeff Koehler – Los Angeles
Cindy Goldstein – Hawaii
Oleg Shpyrko – San Diego - Our West Region Assistant Reps and I get together on a conference call and desktop share every other month to share news from our areas, resources, ideas, questions, and to talk about issues facing the organization.
- In January, we were lucky to have Sandy Cockerham, the BJCP Midwest Regional Rep join us on our call to discuss what got her interested in serving as an officer in the BJCP, and what keeps her going after many years of doing many different jobs (mostly simultaneously). A big thanks to Sandy for staying up way past bedtime in her time zone to join us.
The BJCP West Region has been very active, as usual, with competitions, continuing education sessions, and exams:
- In the fall, Brian Cooper traveled to Hawaii to Proctor a Beer Judging Exam hosted by Cindy Goldstein.
- In January, Pavel Anisimov of DOZE homebrew club hosted the first Cider Judging Exam in the West Region since the original pilot cider exam at NHC 2015. Oleg and I traveled from San Diego to Oakland to join Mike Brennan who came down from Seattle to serve as Proctors. The local folks made us all feel at home and showed us where Cider may be heading in the future.
Upcoming election in the West Region this spring:
- Welcome to our friends in Nevada who will join the West Region this election cycle!
- This April/May, the BJCP will hold an election to choose a new Regional Representative for the West Region.
- It has been an honor to be able to serve as the West Regional Rep for the past 6 years. I feel very lucky to have worked with so many smart, motivated, talented, and passionate judges who are willing to put in the effort to make this the best organization it can be. While I will not be seeking re-election this year, I know there are several great people who are ready to step up to carry the torch.
I’d like to extend my thanks to folks who have been helping out:
- Thanks to Jim Wilson, Grand Master IV judge from Redondo Beach, CA for his many years of service as a BJCP Exam Director. We appreciate all of the hard work.
- Thanks to Hirendu Vaishnav, Certified Judge/Mead Judge/(soon to be) Cider Judge from Alamo, CA for joining in the Facebook Group discussion about opportunities to improve BJCP’s database and website migration. Hirendu gathered a team of computer scientists and WordPress experts from around the world (Omer Basha from Israel, Sarah Pantry from London) and reached out to BJCP’s IT Directorate to offer assistance. Hirendu jumped into the task at hand, learned our IT systems, and made the improvments he was assigned in a few weeks time. His team is now ready to take on more tasks when the time comes.
Call for help!
This leads us to my call for help….
Although Hawaii is a 5 hour flight from CA, the West Region is lucky to be a relatively compact area compared to some of the other regions. See this map: http://dev.bjcp.org/about/reference/bjcp-regions/
The West Region has as many active judges as the other Regions, and we hold as many competitions and exams as the other Regions. However, when you look at the BJCP Officers page: http://dev.bjcp.org/about/governance/officers/ you will see that we don’t have anyone serving the BJCP as a Staff Member in the Competition, Communication, Education/Training, Exam, or IT Directorates and we need to change that!
The key to getting involved in the BJCP leadership is consistency. Our Officers care a lot about the organization, and they don’t want people coming in with great ideas who are not willing to do some work, or coming in with lots of enthusiasm in the beginning and not finishing tasks that they start. Start slow and steady by getting to know the folks doing the work, prove you are someone we can rely on, and I promise, there will be no shortage of opportunities for you to help.
A great place to start is by attending the BJCP exams, judge reception, and Members meeting held at Homebrew Con each year. Meet your fellow members and BJCP leaders and connect with them on Facebook. Soon, you you will know BJCP judges across the country. You’ll be able to travel to judge or Proctor exams and stay in local judge’s spare rooms to save money and build friendships.
If you are a National level judge or a Certified judge with more than an 80 on your Tasting Exam, you can sign up to become an exam grader. There is an online grader training course that you get continuing education points for completing: http://dev.bjcp.org/faq/become-grader/
There is a dedicated email list for graders with some great discussion, and there is no better way to score higher on the exam than to learn what graders are looking for. You will be helping lift the BJCP workload, you can earn $ toward attending Homebrew Con by grading, and over time you can move into the Exam Directorate.
Any judge can organize a continuing education event. Just follow these guidelines and earn up to half of your points for advancing to the next level for organizing, presenting, or participating in an event: http://dev.bjcp.org/education-training/program-information/
Thanks for everything you do at a local level. We are looking for a few good folks to step forward and work at the National level. Anyone can do it. Let myself or your Assistant Regional Rep know if you might be interested in going down that path.
North Region
Brian Joas
In my 2nd term as North Region Rep I’ve continued to visit various locations of this large geographic region. Being in Wisconsin I’m able to attend many of the Wisconsin competitions, and also attend Mash-Out in Minnesota every year. I’ve also had the privilege to attend the ALES Open in Regina, Canada a couple of times over the last few years. With Mash-Out and Midwinter in Milwaukee, plus ALES Open being several of the largest competitions in the region I’ve been able to meet many of the North Region judges. I’ve also been to both Michigan Beer Cup and Mead cup, along with a long trip to Anchorage Alaska. I continue to visit the various areas of the region, so if you have a competition you would like me to visit please reach out to me.
I’m always available to support the regions various needs, and answer questions so feel free to reach out. I’d also like to note there are assistant reps in Regina, Rick August, and Michigan, Gail Milburn. Both Rick and Gail have been active supporting the BJCP for years. They both are capable and willing to help with your needs also.
Northeast Region
Diego Setti
This year I had the pleasure of judging the following competitions:
Mejor IPA de Sudamérica 2019 (Judge Director)
Cata Interna San Patricio La Plata – 2019
Somos Cerveceros 2019 (3 competitions yearly just for homebrewers – Organizer, Judge Director and/or Judge)
Copa Cervezas del Caribe
Copa Cervecera Mitad del Mundo
Surubeer Cup 2019 (Organizer)
Mboyere Beer Cup 2019 (Organizer / Judge Director)
World Beer Awards – Argentinian stage
Copa POA – Argentinian stage (Organizer / Judge Director)
Brussels Beer Challenge
Somos Cerveceros 2020
Copa Indie 2020
Cata Interna San Patricio La Plata – 2020
Copa Cordobesa (Homebrewers)
World Beer Cup 2020 (upcoming)
In expanding the amount of BJCP Judges in the Northeast Region I administered or proctored the following exams:
EA:
1905COCW
1906ARBU
1911ARBU
Proctor
1905COCA
1907ECQU
Issues & Concerns
We’re in the middle of an economical crisis here in Argentina, with a lot of problems to send money to foreign countries. That affects directly BJCP exams and competitions.
I formed a group of Latin American contacts to stay in touch with at least one active judge in every country and to discuss the implementation of the program in the region.
Also, I’m coordinating a group of english-spanish translators that are helping translating documentation to spanish. We have people helping with other languages like Yiddish, German, Czech and French.
I gave a speech about mastering BJCP Scoresheets several times during 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 (non-profit, of course).
Activities
During the Congreso de Lúpulo I gave a speech about judging hoppy styles and how to improve your hoppy samples at competitions (again, non-profit).
Goals For The Upcoming Year
BJCP in Latam has grown a lot in the last few years and is hard to coordinate it, so I think the first goal is to help organize the region. We’ll have new regions this year, so we have a lot of work to do.
Organize exam applications with an app.
If you need resources for an exam (proctor, administration, help to organize or take it) or competitions.
If an Exam Admin force you to pay for a course to access an exam seat or ask for more money for the exam fee. Also, anybody with time for grading non-english exams please signup to do so.
Thank you to everyone helping me put the program back on track in Latin America and improve communication in the region. I will continue to look and ask for your support.
Mountain/Northwest Region
Dennis Mitchell
Hello, Mountain/Northwest judges! I hope your 2020 is starting off well. We are hoping to provide a quarterly (ish) update from the region. If you ever have any regional news, feel free to contact me or one of your assistant reps.
Assistant Reps
Please welcome John Haven from Colorado Springs, CO as an assistant rep for our region! John is a national judge and is highly involved in his local area training judges and judging. If you are in Colorado, feel free to reach out to John with any BJCP-related questions or concerns. John joins current assistant reps Tracy Hensley in Oregon and Bob Hall in Montana.
Rep Activity
The four of us (Tracy, Bob, John and myself) will start meeting digitally on a more regular basis to discuss any concerns in the region and to talk about any upcoming regional travel and events. The judging front has been quiet on my end so far in 2020, and the upcoming competitions I had signed up for have been postponed or canceled due to Coronavirus (more on that below). This year, I am looking forward to helping with a judge training class organized by one of my club’s awesome national judges. I also serve as the BJCP Treasurer, so I’ve spent time working with Finance Director Al Boyce to approve the 2019 financial report and the 2020 budget.
Tracy proctored a judging exam in January and is trying to organize a carpool to get PDX people up to the JBLM competition outside of Seattle. If you are interested in that, contact Tracy!
Bob judged the “Grim Reaper” competition in Salmon, Idaho in October and the
Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines competition in Breckenridge, CO in January.
Coronavirus Concerns
We’ve started hearing some concerns about judging and the coronavirus, and the situation is rapidly changing hour by hour and day by day. Even between when this update was written to when it will be published, any update I could provide here would likely be outdated.
So, while we all navigate these peculiar times, please use common sense and do not show up to any judging events if you are sick. Take standard precautions of washing your hands and avoid sharing glasses. Strongly consider following any CDC guidance for travel and events. If you have any concerns or questions about a competition you are signed up to judge, please reach out to the competition organizer. Also, please have patience as competition organizers are likely dealing with a lot of stress during this crisis and making decisions on competition postponement or cancellation.
Above all else, stay safe and healthy.
Cheers,
Dennis
South Region
Phil Farrell
No updates at this time
Mid-Atlantic Region
Gordon Strong
No updates at this time
Midwest Region
Sandy Cockerham
No updates at this time