Ack - I hadn't realised it was happening around now. Details?
Vicky
--
Ivanova: "Lennier, get us the hell out of here!"
Lennier: "Initiating 'getting the hell out of here' maneuver..."
- Babylon 5: "The Hour of the Wolf"
--
Chris Jackson <ch...@statslab.cam.ac.uk>
MRC Biostatistics Unit / Statistical Laboratory
> FWIW, I will be attending the beer festival tonight, and would be pleased
> to meet other cam.miscers. I'm wearing an olive green NTK 'Elite' t-shirt.
> I'll be posting my blatant clone of "Bob's Top Tips" tomorrow morning...
I may well be there tonight (latish). If I escape having to work, I'll
be around in an unremarkable blue T-shirt. Find me near David ;-)
Matthew
--
Rapun.sel - outermost outpost of the Pick Empire
http://www.pick.ucam.org
http://www.cam.net.uk/camra/2001/28cbf.html
--
Andrew Mobbs - http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~andrewm/
> In article <ZO*BQ...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>, David Damerell wrote:
> >FWIW, I will be attending the beer festival tonight, and would be pleased
> >to meet other cam.miscers.[...]
>
>
> Ack - I hadn't realised it was happening around now. Details?
http://www.cam.net.uk/camra/2001/28cbf.html
--
Paul Oldham, Milton villager and telecommuting COBOL hack
The cam.* FAQ ---> http://the-hug.org/paul/camfaq.html
Milton web site -> http://www.miltonvillage.org.uk/
If I make it tonight, olive green "Baada ya kazi - Tusker Lager" (Kenya)
- Huge
To save the onerous task of following a URL, I shall quote from the
poster:
Monday 21 to Saturday 26 May 2001
Opens: Monday: 17h00-22h30
Tuesday-Friday: 11h00-15h00 and 17h00-22h30
Saturday: 11h00-22h30
Last admissions 22h00
Admission GBP 2.50 after 18h00 (free for CAMRA members)
It's the big tent on Jesus Green.
Mike
-- Mark
> FWIW, I will be attending the beer festival tonight, and would be
> pleased to meet other cam.miscers. I'm wearing an olive green NTK
> 'Elite' t-shirt.
> I'll be posting my blatant clone of "Bob's Top Tips" tomorrow morning...
Do I win any nerd points for still having an original 1984 vintage
Acornsoft Elite T-shirt?
RObert
[snipped...]
> I'll be posting my blatant clone of "Bob's Top Tips" tomorrow morning...
Cool, 'cause I wont! Living in Cottenham has it's disadvantages this time of
year. I'm certainly not cycling back on a dodgy BMX after a skin full, so
I'm not sure when I'll be going...
Bob. http://www.ocston.org/~bobar/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Now, you listen here! He's not the Messiah.
He's a very naughty boy! Now, go away!"
- Mandy Cohen
> > I'll be posting my blatant clone of "Bob's Top Tips" tomorrow morning...
>
> Cool, 'cause I wont! Living in Cottenham has it's disadvantages this time
> of year. I'm certainly not cycling back on a dodgy BMX after a skin full,
> so I'm not sure when I'll be going...
What's wrong with using the 104 bus[1]? Last bus back 2220 or 2320.
I suspect we'll be making full use of the 9/X9 bus[2] this week. ;-)
[1] http://the-hug.org/bus/index.php?ttname=sc104sc105sc106.doc
[2] http://the-hug.org/bus/index.php?ttname=sc9.doc
Free to all comers before 18.00, then? I must get away early...
Steve
> In article <3B09201B...@sco.com>, bo...@sco.com (Bob) growled:
>
> > > I'll be posting my blatant clone of "Bob's Top Tips" tomorrow morning...
> >
> > Cool, 'cause I wont! Living in Cottenham has it's disadvantages this time
> > of year. I'm certainly not cycling back on a dodgy BMX after a skin full,
> > so I'm not sure when I'll be going...
>
> What's wrong with using the 104 bus[1]?
It was never fully endorsed as a standard.
Jon
--
SPAM BLOCK IN OPERATION! Replace 'deadspam' with 'pobox' to reply in email.
Spammers: please die now and improve the mass-average IQ level.
Want a deadspam email auto-responder? http://www.deadspam.com/deadspam.html
Only if you wear it.
--
David/Kirsty Damerell. dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk
"We have always been quite clear that Win95 and Win98 are not the systems to
use if you are in a hostile security environment." "We absolutely do recognize
that the Internet is a hostile environment." Paul Leach <pau...@microsoft.com>
> Mike Pitt wrote:
> >
> > Admission GBP 2.50 after 18h00 (free for CAMRA members)
>
> Free to all comers before 18.00, then? I must get away early...
Also free to volunteer staff workers (who also get fed). It's bloody
hard work, though; if you're looking to save 2.50, find some other way!
I'll probably be somewhere behind the bar Thurs or Fri this week -- I
tend to pitch in when it starts to get frenetic, 'cos that's when the
help's most needed.
Be fair; with the small quantity of free beer and free food, it's more
like a fiver. It's not the easiest task in the world, though, no. :-)
> Robert Macmillan <rmacm...@cix.co.uk> wrote:
> >dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk (David Damerell) wrote:
> >>pleased to meet other cam.miscers. I'm wearing an olive green NTK
> >>'Elite' t-shirt.
> >Do I win any nerd points for still having an original 1984 vintage
> >Acornsoft Elite T-shirt?
>
> Only if you wear it.
Hmmm, yes, well, I'm not sure I wanted any nerd points anyway.
Robert
I managed a quick pint of Bateman's (or was that Batham's?) Best Bitter.
Very enjoyable: a fairly light, hoppy bitter, sharper than the sweeter,
more rounded Southern bitters, much more of a Northern tang to it...
"...I'm getting clogs, I'm getting slag heaps, I'm getting L.S. Lowry
paintings, the rattle of spinning jennies, the roar of the Stretford End
... very evocative ... you can almost smell the gas works ..."
I'll be back for some more on Wednesday - and I'm bringing some mates
with me.
Steve
Here is my beer list to date. The usual problem with mine is that I am
quite drunk while writing it, and this was no exception, so you get the
usual incoherent comments.
Batham Best Bitter - not strong tasting, but rather good.
Dent Aviator - not wonderful, but OK.
Green Dragon Bridge Street Bitter - well, it's bitter, but not a lot else.
Not great.
Hart Saigon - very dark, tasty, good stout.
Heck's Kingston Black Cider - different but very nice, strong flavour,
dangerous.
Kelham Island Pale Rider - pleasant pale beer, grows on you.
Milton Electra - not as good as last year but still good.
Phoenix Wobbly Bob - nice medium beer, satisfying.
Tring Jack O'Legs - fine but not special, rather weak flavour.
The pick for me has to be the Kingston Black, so far.
--
David/Kirsty Damerell. dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk
CUWoCS President. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~damerell/ Hail Eris!
Find advice on news posting style at http://www.usenet.org.uk/ukpost.html
and http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2000/06/14/quoting.html - useful to all.
Didn't see you. Oh well.
My award for "thing with most beer in it" (besides the tent, casks &c) goes
to.... <fumbles with envelope> Nick Winnington. ;-)
- Huge
Iceni LAD Lager - I'm a fan of Iceni lagers, this isn't their best, but its
still refreshing, creamy with a hint of vanilla somewhere.
Kelham Island Wheat Bier - Very hoppy smell, and a good clean refreshing
taste - pretty much what you expect from a clear wheat beer
Prince Rupert Mild - to look at, you would be suprised it was a mild, the
colour is very light. Nevertheless a nice light, slightly fruity flavour.
Milton Electra - I have to agree with David here, my notes say "Not as good as
last year"... Still my favourite Milton brew though
Reepham St Agnes - My beer of the festival so far, combines a subtle hoppy
smell with a creamy texture. Slips down the throat easilly... leaving me
in a room alone with a firkin of this could be dangerous...
Wolf Lupus Lupus - Very easy to drink if on the bitter side, has the same
characteristic tast all Wolf beers have, so if you like some of Wolf brewery's
other works, this'll go down a treat.
Ben
--
Ben Chalmers
(I'm already bored of the election - mhp 14/5/2001)
FWIW, I will be serving Wednesday night; probably wearing a Neon Genesis
Evangelion or Gunsmith Cats t-shirt.
I also liked the Lupus Lupus. As well as some Framboise from the foreign
section.
Back on Wednesday...
--
=>H<=
I have come to the conclusion that 'PC' stands for 'Pile of Crap'
spider_m...@ntlworld.com
hpg...@mercury.anglia.ac.uk
> FWIW, I will be attending the beer festival tonight
We (Hugo, the lovely Beth and myself) were there last night and drank some
fine (and not so fine) beers. The first one I had, someone's Dark Horse,
appeared to have silver sand in the bottom of it, but that nice Mr Treadaway
changed my glass for me (thanks Paul) and after that they got better. We
also saw Bob, who had declined my suggestion to use the 104 and despite
saying here "I'm certainly not cycling back on a dodgy BMX after a skin
full" seems to be doing just that ;-)
We took the piss out of the man on the tombola stall, who was wandering
around touting for business (he'd read Kier's articles about him ;-)), and a
cam.misc lurker stopped to say hello, having recognised me from the pic of
my home page!
Oh yes, and there's a Thai food stall this year: not Wrestlers quality but
not at all bad.
That would have been me, then :-) Hello again!
>Oh yes, and there's a Thai food stall this year: not Wrestlers quality but
>not at all bad.
The green chicken curry was pretty pleasant - I haven't tried any of the
other ones yet. The sausages on the hotdog stand seemed good, but I made
the mistake of having the chilli sauce. It's got a bit of a kick to it,
so, whilst lovely, it did rather drown the taste of, well, everything I
ate/drank afterwards.
D
--
Douglas Pierce-Price | Queens' College
Cavendish Astrophysics Group | University of Cambridge
Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge |
>Oh yes, and there's a Thai food stall this year: not Wrestlers quality but
>not at all bad.
It's a shame they sold coconut juice, as i'd probably have had some
under different circumstances.
(hmm.. coconut ale?? nah..)
Thought I saw you...
>Oh yes, and there's a Thai food stall this year: not Wrestlers quality but
>not at all bad.
The sweet and sour chicken wasn't particularly sweet or sour, but did
appear to be chicken.
The Fenland "Sparkling Wit" was rather good. Shame I was driving, I
couldn't try any others.
Dave
(-:
>cam.misc lurker stopped to say hello, having recognised me from the pic of
>my home page!
(snip)
This reminds me: cam.* regulars should remember that
http://www.chaos.x-philes.com/home/mark/cam.html exists,
and let me know of any updates.
I also remain willing to do my usual rendez-vous preference collecting
for sorting out cam.misc meets, although I'm unlikely to make it to
any particularly soon.
-- Mark
Anyone else going to be there tonight? I'm planning on going (currently
wearing a Cygnus / Code Fusion t-shirt).
Vicky
--
Ivanova: "Lennier, get us the hell out of here!"
Lennier: "Initiating 'getting the hell out of here' maneuver..."
- Babylon 5: "The Hour of the Wolf"
... with a black cherry yoghurt stain down the front (moral: don't read
news while eating lunch).
:-)
> In article <memo.2001052...@books.the-hug.org>, Paul Oldham
> wrote:
>
> >We (Hugo, the lovely Beth and myself) were there last night
>
> Anyone else going to be there tonight? I'm planning on going (currently
> wearing a Cygnus / Code Fusion t-shirt).
Hugo and I have a date to try two player Snake now that I've got an 8210 too
so we'll be there. ;-)
> In article <90AB8ECED...@193.35.222.34>, vi...@jifvik.org.nospam
> (Vicky Larmour) growled:
>
> > In article <memo.2001052...@books.the-hug.org>, Paul Oldham
> > wrote:
> >
> > >We (Hugo, the lovely Beth and myself) were there last night
> >
> > Anyone else going to be there tonight? I'm planning on going
> > (currently wearing a Cygnus / Code Fusion t-shirt).
>
> Hugo and I have a date to try two player Snake now that I've got an
> 8210 too so we'll be there. ;-)
I'll look for you after 9, then.
Colin Rosenstiel
> Also free to volunteer staff workers (who also get fed). It's bloody
> hard work, though; if you're looking to save 2.50, find some other way!
OTOH, proceeds are to charity, and we give you free beer after
closing! Oh, and did I mention how much we'd like some more staff?
Matthew
--
Rapun.sel - outermost outpost of the Pick Empire
http://www.pick.ucam.org
> Jon Green <jo...@deadspam.com> writes:
>
> > Also free to volunteer staff workers (who also get fed). It's bloody
> > hard work, though; if you're looking to save 2.50, find some other way!
>
> OTOH, proceeds are to charity, and we give you free beer after
> closing! Oh, and did I mention how much we'd like some more staff?
Yeah, sorry if I gave the wrong impression. Yes, the work's hard, but
the craic's good, and the other staffers are fun to work with. More
hands are certainly welcome, and always have been.
I'll probably be on the bars this evening, most likely wearing my
Harlequin 10th Anniversary shirt, since I didn't have time to throw on
something cool. See youse folks at the crush...
Do you not read cam.announce?
Well guessed. On Monday evening there is usually plenty of space
and probably the maximum range of beers. On Thursday evening it
is far more crowded. By Saturday the numbers have dropped off a
bit and all day opening means its steady trade rather than a rush
of people early evening. That said, we had more people there this
year than at CCFC, but the relative numbers were about the same.
2.50 is what you save if you were going to come to the festival and
not drink. Staff get beer at around half price whilst working, and
a free pint or two after closing. And of course we desparately need
staff at all times.
Is Jesus Green a better venue than the football ground? Do you plan to hold
it on Jesus Green in future years?
There was some concern expressed both by officers and by some councillors
this year, but from what I could see the things they were concerned about
don't seem to have happened, so the pro-beer councillors might be able to
express their views less forcibly next time :-)
BTW I was amused to note that there seemed to be no signs at all saying
*what* this large enclosure in the middle of the green was! - obviously it
was some sort of pub, but I saw no signs saying "this is the Cambridge beer
festival", other than the T-shirts being worn by the bouncers.
--
Tim Ward - posting as an individual unless otherwise clear
Brett Ward Ltd - www.brettward.co.uk
Cambridge Accommodation Notice Board - www.brettward.co.uk/canb
Cambridge City Councillor
> That said, we had more people there this
> year than at CCFC, but the relative numbers were about the same.
Can you explain the meaning of this apparently contradictory statement?
Colin Rosenstiel
I had to read that twice, but I think he's saying that the relative numbers
at different times of the week were the same.
> Is Jesus Green a better venue than the football ground? Do you plan to hold
Yes
> it on Jesus Green in future years?
Yes[1]
> BTW I was amused to note that there seemed to be no signs at all saying
> *what* this large enclosure in the middle of the green was! - obviously it
> was some sort of pub, but I saw no signs saying "this is the Cambridge beer
> festival", other than the T-shirts being worn by the bouncers.
Yes - we didn't want to publicise the site too much, the idea being
that we'd have a quiet year to get used to the new site. Never mind,
eh? :)
Matthew
[1]Much as I am secretary of the organising committee, don't take this
as a policy statement.
Probably does depend when you go. On Thursday evening it was mostly
the latter with a possible slight bit of the former when actually
getting drinks from the bars. By and large it's all extremely
civilised, though!
Vicky (who thought Jesus Green was way better than the football
ground as a venue)
I think he's saying that, for example, there were still 60% more
people on Thursday than on Monday, but the absolute numbers were still
larger.
-- Mark
> > Is Jesus Green a better venue than the football ground? Do you plan
> > to hold
>
> Yes
>
> > it on Jesus Green in future years?
>
> Yes[1]
This is also subject to a council decision. It was agreed that the
festival should go on Jesus Green this year after consulting the ward
councillors including me and my wife who chairs the relevant committee.
There will no doubt be a report on how it went this year and if that is OK
there should be no problem with allowing the site to be used again in
future years.
Colin Rosenstiel
Thanks. Not surprising really.
Colin Rosenstiel
That's what I was referring to in saying that I hadn't observed any of the
feared problems actually materialising, being (1) drunken disorder upsetting
local residents and (2) the green being turned into a mudbath. However any
future decision will as Colin says have to wait for a proper report, and not
just be based on the anecdotal experience of beer-drinking councillors!
> Colin Rosenstiel <rosen...@cix.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:memo.20010527...@rosenstiel.cix.co.uk...
> >
> > This is also subject to a council decision. (snip)
> >
> > There will no doubt be a report on how it went this year and if that
> > is OK there should be no problem with allowing the site to be used
> > again in future years.
>
> That's what I was referring to in saying that I hadn't observed any of
> the feared problems actually materialising, being (1) drunken disorder
> upsetting local residents and (2) the green being turned into a mudbath.
> However any future decision will as Colin says have to wait for a proper
> report, and not just be based on the anecdotal experience of
> beer-drinking councillors!
Indeed. Were I writing as a CAMRA member I might have spun it differently.
:-)
I was entirely confident that (1) wouldn't be a problem because the Beer
Festival has always been extremely professional in that department in my
experience of it over more than 25 years.
Upsetting the local residents is a wider potential hazard. I'm not aware
of any serious complaints. We'd have had them by now if there were any.
There were a few minor issues over (2) and there are ongoing issues in
that department affecting Jesus Green, Beer Festival or no Beer Festival.
Colin Rosenstiel
In many ways it is a better venue, since it's more accessible to people
coming from the city centre, and is a more pleasant space. There are
disadvantages obviously (e.g. having to plumb in our own water), but on
balance I certainly think it's an improvement. We hope to be able to hold
it on Jesus Green in the future.
>There was some concern expressed both by officers and by some councillors
>this year, but from what I could see the things they were concerned about
>don't seem to have happened, so the pro-beer councillors might be able to
>express their views less forcibly next time :-)
>
>BTW I was amused to note that there seemed to be no signs at all saying
>*what* this large enclosure in the middle of the green was! - obviously it
>was some sort of pub, but I saw no signs saying "this is the Cambridge beer
>festival",
As I mentioned elsewhere, we were very short of staff, and only just
got the festival ready in time to open 10 minutes late on Monday. The
harris fencing etc. was erected on Wednesday evening, and we hadn't
finished the job until nearly midnight, so there was no time to put
the posters up at the time, and the job just kept getting squeezed
out by higher priority ones.
> other than the T-shirts being worn by the bouncers.
We prefer to use the term 'stewards', since they have a number of
functions other than security (e.g. to control evacuation in the
event of a fire).
Eh? I never heard that suggestion made. As far as I recall, we had
posters we were intending to put up on the outside of the harris
fencing but never got round to it in the rush to get everything
erected.
We rarely get disorderly drunks at beer festivals (although there is
the occasional incapable drunk). There was a fear (on our side as well)
that being closer to the centre would attract rowdy people from the
city centre circuit beer barns and so on, as used to happen in the
Corn Exchange, but this does seem not to have happened.
> (2) the green being turned into a mudbath.
The protective plastic flooring seems to have worked pretty well at
preventing this. (Which is just as well, since it was a bugger to
assemble.)
Sorry if I wasn't clear. I mean there were more people every day,
i.e. the ratio of e.g. Monday to Tuesday numbers was the same,
but both the absolute figures were higher. In other words, the
extra people were not all on Friday and Saturday, for example,
which would have been one possible scenario.
Yes, that's what I was saying.
Well, I saw one such on the Saturday before the festival while work was
still going on, but it was only about A4 size, so not all that
noticable. A big sign with just Cambridge Beer Festival running the
length of the fence would be good, but I can see that more trade than
was already around might be awkward!
--
l...@lspace.org http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~eleanorb/
Set-up work was still going on up to 5 minutes before we opened
the festival, so anything other than a few A4 posters probably
never happened.
> but it was only about A4 size, so not all that
>noticable. A big sign with just Cambridge Beer Festival running the
>length of the fence would be good, but I can see that more trade than
>was already around might be awkward!
Somewhere we probably had a large beer festival banner, but
we didn't have enough people to put it up, as we got even fewer
volunteers for set-up and tear-down than for the festival itself.
I think the good weather contributed to the extra numbers this
year (it rained at the last few), amd it never hurts to advertise
to passers-by, if only so they know what we're doing with their
green.
I believe that we used to have a banner, but it was stolen a few years
ago. We should probably buy a new one before next year (possibly from
the same people who made that enormous Milton Brewery banner).
Lack of staff was (and still is) a major problem at the festival year,
despite us having more staff this year than we have had for the past
few. The festival is being disassembled by only seven people this
year, and it's just too much work for us to cope with. We have no idea
where the other 380 members of Cambridge and District CAMRA are...
>I think the good weather contributed to the extra numbers this
>year (it rained at the last few), amd it never hurts to advertise
>to passers-by, if only so they know what we're doing with their
>green.
We certainly had people come up and ask what was going on while we
were setting up.
Stephen Early
Chairman of Cambridge and District CAMRA
It's not necessarily true. I can't compare the figures on the doors
because I don't have last year's available at the moment, but as far
as beer consumption goes people drank relatively more on
Monday--Thursday and relatively less on Friday and Saturday.
Stephen Early
CAMRA is not a charity, it's a non-profit making company. The proceeds
from the beer festival pay for the running of the local branch (admin,
publishing 'ALE' and distributing it to pubs, etc.), the purchase and
repair of equipment, the rent on the garages we store it in, etc.
Any money we can't use locally is sent to CAMRA's headquarters in
St. Albans for national campaigning.
Matthew is right about the staff. We need more staff, especially for
setup and takedown. (I was working 16-hour days setting up the beer
festival, and I have to be on Jesus Green at 7am tomorrow to carry on
taking it apart.)
Stephen Early
> Lack of staff was (and still is) a major problem at the festival year,
> despite us having more staff this year than we have had for the past
> few. The festival is being disassembled by only seven people this
> year, and it's just too much work for us to cope with. We have no idea
> where the other 380 members of Cambridge and District CAMRA are...
I must admit my wife and I are two of them but we're a tad occupied just
now. Blame Foot and Mouth!
Colin Rosenstiel
Feel free to ask me next year.
Dan.
--
Noble Plains Person
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~dans/story
The exceptional weather must have helped too. You may
not be so lucky next year.
Is that simply because there aws less choice by the end of the week do
you think?
--
l...@lspace.org http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~eleanorb/
Feel free to volunteer...
Bob. http://www.fatboab.org/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just cannot, you know, believe in a war against drugs when they've got
anti-drug commercials on TV all day long, followed by, "This Bud's for you."
- Bill Hicks
[snipped...]
> We have no idea where the other 380 members of Cambridge and District
> CAMRA are...
Finishing the bathroom flooring so I didn't get my testicles chopped off... :-)
> Lack of staff was (and still is) a major problem at the festival year,
> despite us having more staff this year than we have had for the past
> few.
Lack of staff is the one thing that really pisses me off about the fest. I
can't help thinking that the time has come for CAMRA to seriously consider
paying people to do the job. I might not be as jolly as having Bob serve me,
but I'd prefer being served quickly, and I'd certainly pay a few pence
more per pint for the privilege.
--
Paul Oldham, Milton villager and telecommuting COBOL hack
The cam.* FAQ ---> http://the-hug.org/paul/camfaq.html
Milton web site -> http://www.miltonvillage.org.uk/
An obvious way to reduce the chances of bad weather would be to move it to
some time in August. Now CAMRA are not constrained by the football club's
timetable they have much more flexibility.
> In article <9evi38$6v5$1...@cam-news1.cambridge.arm.com>,
> tna...@arm.REVERSE-NAME.com (Al Grant) growled:
>
> > "Paul Treadaway" <paul.tr...@dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
> > news:3b121cc6$0$12250$cc9e...@news.dial.pipex.com...
> > > In article <fSbQ6.10069$Hd6.1...@news11-gui.server.ntli.net>, Tim
> > > Ward says...
> > > > (2) the green being turned into a mudbath.
> > >
> > > The protective plastic flooring seems to have worked pretty well at
> > > preventing this. (Which is just as well, since it was a bugger to
> > > assemble.)
> >
> > The exceptional weather must have helped too. You may
> > not be so lucky next year.
>
> An obvious way to reduce the chances of bad weather would be to move it
> to some time in August. Now CAMRA are not constrained by the football
> club's timetable they have much more flexibility.
No students in August.
Colin Rosenstiel
And not many in May from what I could see ...
Perhaps my memory is playing tricks but I'm sure the fest used to be in
August in the days when it was at the Corn Exchange.
I probably will if I remember. I'd have there was a big list of people
to ask somewhere, or something. If there is, I'm volunteering to have
my name added to it. Though I'd be happy to volunteer at the time, I
only usually find out tangentially and close to the time that it's
happening at all, by which time I've booked to do other things.
If the organisers expect volunteers to come beating down their door,
then there's no wonder they have so few.
Interesting how you put "admin" on the top of that list... are your
admin staff paid?
Cheers, John
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Graley ARM Ltd
Software Engineer 110 Fulbourn Road
IP Solutions Division Cambridge CB1 9NJ
phone: +44 1223 400772 UK
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It did. And some students used to come back to
Cambridge specially for it. At the moment, they are
preparing for exams (some may be on beer-free diets
for the May Bumps too). Try holding it in May Week.
> And not many in May from what I could see ...
Something to do with exams, I expect. I remember cutting down to three
pints a night when I took my finals.
--
Martin
[snipped...]
> If the organisers expect volunteers to come beating down their door,
> then there's no wonder they have so few.
all members of Cambridge & District CAMRA have a staffing form sent to them
at some point during the year. There is also ALE which gets sent round all
the decent pubs which has staffing forms in it, normally.
The problem is that there is generally only 10 (or so) people from the branch
out of the 380 odd that are members who actually do anything. If the rest of
the membership weren't so lethargic then there wouldn't be a problem...
Of course not, they do it for the love of beer. There are people at CAMRA
HQ who get a wage, but the branches are run by volunteers.
> In article <memo.20010529...@rosenstiel.cix.co.uk>,
> rosen...@cix.co.uk (Colin Rosenstiel) growled:
>
> > In article <memo.2001052...@books.the-hug.org>,
> > pa...@the-hug.org (Paul Oldham) wrote:
> >
> > > An obvious way to reduce the chances of bad weather would be to
> > > move it to some time in August. Now CAMRA are not constrained by
> > > the football club's timetable they have much more flexibility.
> >
> > No students in August.
>
> And not many in May from what I could see ...
>
> Perhaps my memory is playing tricks but I'm sure the fest used to be in
> August in the days when it was at the Corn Exchange.
I thought it was end July but the same factor applies, I agree.
Colin Rosenstiel
> Dan Sheppard wrote:
>
> [snipped...]
>
> > If the organisers expect volunteers to come beating down their door,
> > then there's no wonder they have so few.
>
> all members of Cambridge & District CAMRA have a staffing form sent to
> them at some point during the year. There is also ALE which gets sent
> round all the decent pubs which has staffing forms in it, normally.
>
> The problem is that there is generally only 10 (or so) people from the
> branch out of the 380 odd that are members who actually do anything. If
> the rest of the membership weren't so lethargic then there wouldn't be a
> problem...
Usual problem, Bob. You need to approach people more personally to get
them to join in things these days. I'm sure I had a form sometime, in this
enormous heap of papers around here... In fact I'd have been scratching
around to use it if they hadn't changed the election date.
Colin Rosenstiel
See my posting to cam.announce of 20 February. Follow the URLs
to the staffing form. How much more of a path do you need?
Are you volunteering to do the extra paperwork associated with paid
staff then? (Tax, national insurance etc.)
I was going on the figures on the doors from memory, but I may
be mistaken.
There's always less choice by the end of the week. I don't think
the choice was significantly less this year than last at the end.
No.
I don't think the list was in decreasing order of cost. As I
recall 'Ale' magazine gets the lion's share. Admin is basically
stationery, stamps and similar expenses.
August is the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia, which
eliminates many of our potential staff from the last week of July
until mid- to late-August at least, along with all the essential
kit we need to borrow from HQ (taps, handpumps etc.) The end of
August would clash with the Peterborough Beer Festival (which
actually has more customers at it than GBBF) and the same applies.
In July we'd be clashing with numerous other beer festivals
and other events in Cambridge itself.
We have considered the possibility, but it isn't very plausible.
In any event, bad weather during the beer festival has been the
exception rather than the rule over the last decade or so.
When all the marquees etc. in East Anglia have been hired for
May Balls you mean?
Incidentally there are 7 other beer festivals overlapping
with May Week this year, (i.e. excluding those cancelled due
to F&M).
Yes. Consider the cost of sending a letter to 400 addresses five or
six times per year, for example.
Stephen Early
In fact, given the variety of beers in our re-order (57, I believe,
but the details are stuck in my laptop) I think the choice was
significantly greater at the end this year than last year.
Stephen Early
Of course not. You pay someone to do that too, if you can't get someone who
now no longer has to serve beer to do it.
Beer at the fest is already at the expensive end compared to pub prices, but
despite of this and poor service, very few tables, queues to get in, queues
to get glasses etc people still come. It's clear therefore that the punters
aren't very price sensitive. So why not put the price up a bit more, I
really can't believe it would be a lot given your turnover, and solve all
these problems by having enough staff.
Your situation is not unique, I see through my work with Milton PC more and
more organisations going through the same anguish with not enough volunteers
and until they finally bite the bullet and realise that people are money
rich but time poor and start to "think outside the box" to use that
horrible phrase. For example the charity which runs Milton Community Centre
has always had a volunteer treasurer who did the books. When the current
treasurer retired they couldn't get anyone to volunteer for such an onerous
job. Now they're separated the functions and have a paid bookkeeper and a
volunteer treasurer and everyone's happy. As a result the users will
probably pay slightly more next year.
BTW ... have you ever considered that if the revenue decided to get funny
about it they could treat the free/subsidised beer for volunteers as a
benefit in kind and make you jump through the same hoops anyway ...
There's an awful lot of this, as you say. Many is the time I've sat on some
committee or other where a group of people spends a couple of hours deciding
how to raise, or spend, a tiny amount of money. If we'd all stayed at home
and just sent in a cheque for the time we didn't then have to spend at the
meeting the organisation would usually have ended up better off.
--
Tim Ward - posting as an individual unless otherwise clear
Brett Ward Ltd - www.brettward.co.uk
Cambridge Accommodation Notice Board - www.brettward.co.uk/canb
Cambridge City Councillor
Not really, no. There are almost no pubs selling beer at backstreet
prices in Cambridge any more. In the Mill Road area you'd be lucky
to find a pint for under 2 quid.
> It's clear therefore that the punters
>aren't very price sensitive.
People are willing to pay a certain amount more for well-kept beer
and a larger degree of choice, as can be seen by looking at pubs
like the Kingston Arms, Live and Let Live, Cambridge Blue etc.
which have lots of guest beers. I doubt they'd be willing to
pay more than they're paying in pubs like these.
>BTW ... have you ever considered that if the revenue decided to get funny
>about it they could treat the free/subsidised beer for volunteers as a
>benefit in kind and make you jump through the same hoops anyway ...
In theory I suppose they could, since they're clamping down on
'perks' at the moment. It's all a matter of interpretation of
course.
Yet, for all its earlier years, the Cambridge Beer Festival was held
during the late lamented Cambridge Festival which, IIRC, ended with the
Folk Festival.
Colin Rosenstiel
> In article <memo.20010529...@rosenstiel.cix.co.uk>,
> rosen...@cix.co.uk (Colin Rosenstiel) growled:
>
> > In article <memo.2001052...@books.the-hug.org>, pa...@the-hug.org
> > (Paul Oldham) wrote:
> >
> > > An obvious way to reduce the chances of bad weather would be to move it
> > > to some time in August. Now CAMRA are not constrained by the football
> > > club's timetable they have much more flexibility.
> >
> > No students in August.
>
> And not many in May from what I could see ...
There were quite a few students I knew there; it tends to be promoted
to people who know organisers/the real ale society/staff, but not to
the wider student body.
Matthew
--
Rapun.sel - outermost outpost of the Pick Empire
http://www.pick.ucam.org
> We prefer to use the term 'stewards', since they have a number of
> functions other than security (e.g. to control evacuation in the
> event of a fire).
We're much friendlier too :=)
True, although there is a certain element of getting what one pays for.
>People are willing to pay a certain amount more for well-kept beer
>and a larger degree of choice, as can be seen by looking at pubs
>like the Kingston Arms, Live and Let Live, Cambridge Blue etc.
>which have lots of guest beers.
The Blue, of course, is an example of that rare commodity, the free house.
One of the good things about drinking there is being able to go there a few
days apart and get an almost completely different range of beers. There's
usually something new to try too.
--
/* _ */main(int k,char**n){char*i=k&1?"+L*;99,RU[,RUo+BeKAA+BECACJ+CAACA"
/* / ` */"CD+LBCACJ*":1[n],j,l=!k,m;do for(m=*i-48,j=l?m/k:m%k;m>>7?k=1<<m+
/* | */8,!l&&puts(&l)**&l:j--;printf(" \0_/"+l));while((l^=3)||l[++i]);
/* \_,hris Brown -- All opinions expressed are probably wrong. */return 0;}
> In article <9eunpu$5hu$1...@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk>, st...@greenend.org.uk
> (Stephen Early) growled:
>
> > Lack of staff was (and still is) a major problem at the festival year,
> > despite us having more staff this year than we have had for the past
> > few.
>
> Lack of staff is the one thing that really pisses me off about the fest. I
> can't help thinking that the time has come for CAMRA to seriously consider
> paying people to do the job. I might not be as jolly as having Bob serve me,
I think this would be a bad thing. Certainly, we need to recruit more
staff, but I think it's not so much that there is no-one with enough
time, but we're not doing a good job of making people *want* to work
at the festival - once someone's worked once, they tend to come back,
but C&D CAMRA members are just ignoring staffing forms[1]. I'm not
sure what the answer is though.
Matthew
[1]I know - I do it too.
> In article <7jpucxt...@rapun.sel.cam.ac.uk>,
> Matthew Vernon <mat...@debian.org> wrote:
> >OTOH, proceeds are to charity, and we give you free beer after
> >closing! Oh, and did I mention how much we'd like some more staff?
>
> CAMRA is not a charity, it's a non-profit making company. The proceeds
> from the beer festival pay for the running of the local branch (admin,
> publishing 'ALE' and distributing it to pubs, etc.), the purchase and
> repair of equipment, the rent on the garages we store it in, etc.
>
> Any money we can't use locally is sent to CAMRA's headquarters in
> St. Albans for national campaigning.
I was under the impression a fair amount got donated to Get Kids
Going?
Matthew
> Yet, for all its earlier years, the Cambridge Beer Festival was held
> during the late lamented Cambridge Festival which, IIRC, ended with the
> Folk Festival.
If it's that late lamented then perhaps the party in power should be
considering reviving it ...
> In article <memo.2001053...@books.the-hug.org>, Paul Oldham
> says...
> >BTW ... have you ever considered that if the revenue decided to get
> >funny about it they could treat the free/subsidised beer for
> >volunteers as a benefit in kind and make you jump through the same
> >hoops anyway ...
>
> In theory I suppose they could, since they're clamping down on
> 'perks' at the moment. It's all a matter of interpretation of
> course.
Could the revenue do that though? I thought the perks stuff only applied
to employees, to stop tax and NI avoidance by paying people in kind rather
than in cash.
Colin Rosenstiel
> pa...@the-hug.org (Paul Oldham) writes:
>
> > Lack of staff is the one thing that really pisses me off about the
> > fest. I can't help thinking that the time has come for CAMRA to
> > seriously consider paying people to do the job. I might not be as jolly
> > as having Bob serve me,
>
> I think this would be a bad thing.
Why? I hope you're not going to claim it's better to be served by a CAMRA
member who knows their beer and can discuss it with you because there simply
isn't time for that. In addition being served by people who're clearly far
more drunk than I am (one in particular could barely pour the beer or add up
and looked like he was about to topple over) is no great advantage to my way
of thinking.
It's been pointed out to me (in an emailed response to this thread)
that there are probably many people who might work at the beer
festival, but don't because they don't know what they would be getting
themselves into. Perhaps the solution is to tell people what working
at the festival is like before giving them a staffing form, so that
they have some idea of what to expect and whether they'd enjoy it.
I will write an article about working at the beer festival in the near
future and post it to all our branch members with the staffing form
for the little festival in the Corn Exchange in July[1]. I'll post it
here too.
Stephen Early
[1] ...which hasn't received much publicity yet, because we were busy
with the main beer festival, but which should receive somewhat more in
the coming month.
> In article <memo.20010530...@rosenstiel.cix.co.uk>,
> rosen...@cix.co.uk (Colin Rosenstiel) growled:
>
> > Yet, for all its earlier years, the Cambridge Beer Festival was held
> > during the late lamented Cambridge Festival which, IIRC, ended with
> > the Folk Festival.
>
> If it's that late lamented then perhaps the party in power should be
> considering reviving it ...
No longer feasible I think. The various events have gone their separate
ways, generally successfully.
Colin Rosenstiel