CAMRA membership comes with whatever level of commitment you want to make. Maybe you joined up because you just want to support real ale or you might have been tempted with a special offer at a beer festival. I bet you never joined so you could go to the AGM!
Every year, in April, CAMRA holds its Members’ Weekend which includes its annual general meeting and a conference. The AGM is necessary for a constituted organisation: motions, elections, accounts, and all that (to some people) boring stuff. However, it’s free to attend for members and there’s always a great members’ bar where the beers are usually local and very reasonably priced. What’s not to like about a beer festival plus the opportunity to explore pubs in another city? There are also fringe events and local brewery tours, although you have to book the tours well in advance. Watch out for the registration e-mail from CAMRA later in the year to register for Dundee in 2024 (26 to 28 April).
In the members’ bar
This year was my second year attending an AGM. Correction; second year visiting the members’ bar and first year to actually attend part of the business! In 2022 the Members’ Weekend was in Eastbourne. The weather was glorious; it’s the seaside, and there’s the Downs to explore… We did however manage an interesting trip to the Long Man Brewery. So, the meetings weren’t quite as attractive but we should be grateful to those that do the governance work because someone has to!
Fast forward twelve months to Sheffield and I thought that it would be rude not to pop in for a second year. I also wanted to hear about the Inclusion, Diversity and Equality (IDE) Review. It’s important that CAMRA is tackling this issue; the final report runs to several pages and 24 recommendations. Looking at the mass of white, middle-aged males in the audience it’s clear that CAMRA still has a long way to go to be anything like representative of the population. It was also disappointing to hear about the outdated and offensive behaviour that the review reported on. Let’s hope things will change. CAMRA must do more to be more welcoming to those who haven’t felt included previously. What is your branch doing to tackle the recommendations? Are they thinking about how to improve the diversity of our organisation? On reflection, some of these challenges are not unique to CAMRA, so perhaps the hive mind will come up with some solutions that have worked in other organisations and can be tweaked for CAMRA.
The Fat Cat
Sheffield has some fantastic pubs, so we had to sample a few! The Members’ Weekend booklet contains pub recommendations from the host branch, something which is always helpful for a newcomer. On arrival at the railway station, I’d recommend starting with a little thirst quencher at the Sheffield Tap (Pub of the Year for Sheffield City Centre in 2022). There was a useful map to the Kelham Island area available and there is also information on the CAMRA Sheffield website. Some super pubs were sampled: Alder, the Old Workshop (great vegan menu), the Millowners Arms, the Fat Cat (no relation to the wonderful Fat Cat in Norwich), the Kelham Island Tavern and the Shakespeare. There were a few others but I can’t quite remember them all… It was an excellent weekend! Sheffield is a lovely city, worth exploring and not just for the pubs.
Maria Freeman