One thing that I’ve thought is that we could use an alternative structured feedback mechanism that isn’t paneling. Paneling is tough, paneling isn’t right for everyone and every beverage, and paneling isn’t always easy to deploy. That makes it tough to have things that the Guild does in a visible way at events.
So I came up with a new tool that I’m calling the Brewer’s Roundtable.
The Brewer’s Roundtable is a lightly structured feedback session designed to encourage and capture this exchange of wisdom. Here’s how it works:
-Any Guild member of rank can host a roundtable for as many people as they think they can handle. You’ll need to either print out handy-dandy sheets ahead of time, or I guess you could use notecards or scrap paper. You’ll need one sheet per person at the table, and something to write with.
-Everyone at the table who wants to can share a beverage around, and you all can chat about it and talk shop like you do. Period or not, documented or not, it doesn’t matter – this is designed to promote discussion about ANY TYPE of beverage that ANYONE brings to the table.
-Everyone at the table who tries the drink writes down TWO pieces of SPECIFIC feedback on the form – one thing to keep doing (titled “Keep It Up”) and one thing to try doing differently (“Try This Differently”). Your feedback MUST fit those requirements: one each of something to keep and something to change.
-Once everyone’s written stuff, hand the paper back to the brewer, and boom! They have a bunch of ideas for stuff to keep and try that they can use or not at their discretion.
-Repeat until everyone who wants has had a chance to get feedback.
The goal here is to create something lightweight, flexible, and friendly, that creates obvious Guild activity without requiring a lot of investment or prior organization. It’ll allow a degree of spontaneity, which should help the Guild be active in more places.
None of this would count for rank or anything – it’s just pure feedback. I envision this being a good place for us to meet new brewers or people doing modern stuff, and for existing Guild members to pass around something that’s not quite ready for paneling.