[dcbc]

Since this dead horse as not been beaten enough, I'll add my two cents.

I live in a small town.  There are several homebrewers here, but none of them are interested in a club.  Sometimes, it's like we don't even want to say hello when we see each other in the grocery store, much less get together and brew!  There is a small club in a town about 25 miles south of here.  Then there are clubs in San Antonio and Austin, about an hour and a half from me.  I don't feel comfortable that far, having a few beers, then driving home.  I am an honorary (i.e., non-dues paying) member of a club in Midland/Odessa, four hours away.  But that's because I run their website.  While I wore the colors on club night, I entered my beers under the BN, because that's where I get most of my information. 

This whole argument seems to boil down to meetings.  I would agree that an annual party is not a meeting.  But I have entered a BN forum competition, did a judging on Skype, and we passed along the results to the greater community.  There were several of these judging sessions.  I would say that they qualify as meetings.

Okay, so 1.5 hours from Austin or San Antonio and four hours from Midland.  Where are you, Fredericksburg?  Kerville?

I'm on the other, dryer (sigh) side of the state.

[marty]

Now the BN is like the New England Patriots.  After they won their Superbowls, everyone said they cheated and started gunning for them.

So maybe it's time for the other clubs to step it up and start gunning for CoTY...because you know the BN will be next year.

And it took the whiners in Indy changing the rules so they could beat the Pats, just like Beerpal wants to do here

boo hoo, there are 3 or 4 clubs that have a realistic shot at Club of the Year with or without the BN involved

[marty]

Should the BN defend its title, I am sure that the other clubs will respond by either focusing on the Gambrinus award or forming their own extra-regional alliances to even the playing field.

Or they could do it the old-fashioned way: brew better beer and more of it.  Brew more styles. Get more of the club to brew under-represented styles. Judge the beers before entering them so you can enter them more appropriately. Take care of packaging and shipping. A successful club effort takes focus and effort from individual members plus more coordination at the club level to maximize coverage of the judging categories.

enter the Club Only Comps, the BN doesn't enter those and they count towards club of the year

congrats to anyone who outworks the BN, no respect for those who decide just to whine about how they were done wrong

[hopfenundmalz]

My club is more like herding cats.  They will never be organized enough to contend.  That is why I am a member.  

Edit - not a knock on my club.  More of a statement on my own organizational skills.  I will never be a Ninkasi winner, but a medal at the NHC now and then is cool!  And I am on my second IPA...

[sjvworthog]

This way if club X has 5 incredible IPA brewers, rather than knock each other out in the regionals where there are only 3 medals available, they could enter in 5 different regions where there are 15 medals to compete for. In effect they could garner 5 gold medals, where previously they would have been limited to 1 gold.

Just stopping by to point out again that there's a rule in effect that prevents any club from getting more than 12 points for their beers. It is impossible by the rules to garner more than a gold, silver and bronze set of points.

The BN is awesome and I consider it to be my third club along with the two local clubs that I am also a member of, so I think they entirely deserve the win. The question I have is in regards to this rule. The rule states that point accumulation will not occur beyond 12, but as I read it the rule does not effectively state whether or not the club can shut out other clubs from garnering the points that they can no longer accumulate.

Could a single club take gold, silver and bronze in the first round (in one or more categories) in several regions, not gain points past 12, but eliminate other clubs from being able to get those points? I realize that they brewed better beer or got the luck of the draw in judging to beat out the competition and they deserve the advancement to the second round. I also realize that this may be an unobtainable goal for a club and that this can be achieved by any club and not just a national club like the BN, but a national club could do this unintentionally whereas a non-national would have to enter into multiple regions intentionally.

So am I reading or interpreting the rule incorrectly? If I am reading this correctly, then this rule could be meaningless in that scenario. I say beat the COtY at their own game and brew better beer. 

[theDarkSide]

BTW...we had a great Homebrew Club meeting on Monday night. 

[gordonstrong]

Could a single club take gold, silver and bronze in the first round (in one or more categories) in several regions, not gain points past 12, but eliminate other clubs from being able to get those points?

So am I reading or interpreting the rule incorrectly? If I am reading this correctly, then this rule could be meaningless in that scenario. I say beat the COtY at their own game and brew better beer. 

Yes, a club could lock out other clubs in other regions by getting more than 12 points.  Points are awarded based on medals.  The people who won the medals still get them.  It's just that their points don't count towards COTY.

Yes, brewing better beer always works.  In this case, it's also getting the best beer in front of the judges and then hoping they don't screw it up.  Repeat after me, judging is subjective...