Surf the Raddie! Fantastic Activities All Clubs Can Do

You really dig your local homebrew club! Great people, fun times. But, you wouldn’t mind if the club up’ed its game. Your club doesn’t have to be big or rich to be amazing, but the Hogtown Brewers (2016 AHA Radegast Homebrew Club of the Year winner) has a grocery list of ideas to share with your club that will push your merry band of homebrew enthusiasts to carry on at a spectacular level.

Learning Objectives

• Hear best practices to raise member engagement
• Discuss how to make your club inviting for new members to step up
• Think through ways to establish incentives to get your members brewing
• Get inspired to create a compelling and creative homebrew education curriculum
• Understand how to make your club’s website actually useful
• Explore why strong charity and community involvement is a win-win for your club

About the Speakers

Ron Minkoff has been homebrewing in the comfort of his driveway since 2003. He is a Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) certified judge, and for three years was president of the Hogtown Brewers. During his watch the club won the 2016 Radegast Homebrew Club of the Year. A glutton for punishment, he still participates in roles (both big and small) in the majority of Hogtown’s club activities (with emphasis on brew events, beer education, and fundraisers). Since 2009 he’s been knighted the title “Minister of Propaganda” (aka the Hogtown Webmaster). Ron has a few Zymurgy magazine articles under his belt, thinks Festbier is underrated, and gets nervous when his kegerator runs down to only six kegs filled with homebrew.

Steve Brosius has dabbled in homebrewing since teaming up with a local pro brewer on a friend’s wedding stout in 2013. An avid Florida Gators fan, five-year board member and two term president of a University of Florida Alumni Association affiliate club, Steve honed his membership engagement chops by working with over 34,000 alumni in the Greater Gainesville and Alachua County area. He served as president of the Hogtown Brewers for the 2017-2018 term, and, following a year hiatus, returned to serve in the same capacity for three consecutive terms between 2019 and 2022, most notably helping the club remain active in the midst of a global pandemic. He remains in a continuing leadership role these days and enjoys heading up and/or serving on the committees for Hogtown’s two largest fundraising events, while continuing to organize and lead the club’s annual brewery crawl, held in a different city each fall.

Kris Minkoff has been involved in the homebrew club scene since 2003. Leading the way as Minister of New Blood since 2010 for the Hogtown Brewers, Kris is heavily involved in member engagement, retention, and coordination for this 200+ member club. Whether its Hogtown’s major Med Faire fundraiser, craft beerfest, Brew-Off competition, beer and food pairings, or 27+ other events, Kris always has a seat at the table helping to steer that ship. Charity club food drive dis-organizer, t-shirt dye ringleader and vendor, event caterer, and cider brewer are just some of the many other hats she wears. Plus, (not to brag) but Kris has gleefully attended at least seven Rush concerts (a rare high level contribution to that fan base’s diversity!).