16 June 2008
CAMRA is very proud of its diverse membership. Around 89000 people of all ages enjoy membership, with over 6% of these being aged between 18-30 years old. The young members group (YMG) was formed to campaign on issues effecting young members and to encourage the drinking of real ale among the younger population through numerous social events both locally and nationally.
At the ripe old age of 29 years I still completely and totally blame both my dad and the Chappel beer festival for my interest in real ale! I found myself at 18 standing at chappel railway station, sitting in a disused train carriage with a pint glass in my hand and a very strong tasting beer in it. I have no re-collection of why I was there ( just like every Saturday after a Colchester United away game really ). However I knew i was having fun watching quite happily slightly drunk smiley men with beer related t-shirts, and beards wobbling from one old shed to another... queuing up to purchase numerous pints of amusingly named ales , and then dancing to live music, eating hog roasts and telling jokes to complete strangers! I know I have completely stereotyped this, but its just the way I remember it . However these days beer festivals are jam packed full of families, the young, the old, fairer sex, and the not so fairer sex, wobbling from one bar to the next quite happily drunk..which I find wonderful.
Anyhow... from that point in time my interest in real ale continued, or rather spiralled completely out of control. It put its hand on my back a few years later and shoved me into The Hospital Arms in Colchester for my first experience of a CAMRA meeting. My memories are again quite blurry (surprise surprise) but I remember being made to feel incredibly welcome in a potentially daunting situation. Items that are now part of my daily dictionary were explained to me as the meeting took place....things like GBG, beer cards, POTY trip I learnt was not a day out looking at kiddies toilets! At the end of the meeting a random man in a hat came over to me. He had noticed my football scarf and soon our mutual interest had lead to a good friendship along with with many others. I started to attend meetings on a more regular basis, getting to the know the Colchester branch 'family' and helping out at the beer fests.
In recent years Colchester decided to appoint a 'young members contact' to join the committee and encourage more 18-30 year olds to join and become actively involved in CAMRA ridding the image of beards and sandals that some not very well informed people associate with it. Jonathan Bennett took on this role and did a sterling job with trips to London and Nawwwich pubs and a day out visiting pubs on the Bittern Line. We also saw the introduction of a 'young members bar' at our beer festival. Jonathan decided to broaden his horizons, and took over the role of social sec....leaving the post for me to take on.
This year Colchester Young Members have organised a Ghost Pub Crawl around the town and a joint beer tasting session in conjunction with Ipswich young members. Initially our members were made up with other young members in the 30-75 yr age group..young at heart, but we needed to attract more 'real' younger members. As time has gone by we have slowly seen an increase in the 18-30 yrs bracket attending meetings and helping out at the beer festival, with 11 people attending the beer tasting session it would appear our campaign is having some effect. It seems there are many young ale drinking colcestrians out there and all we need to raise awareness of all the social activites that go with CAMRA. Colchester YM have tried to do this by regular e-mails, we choose and serve the beers at our young members bar (which increased in length this year, but has also grown in height...this has attracted several comments about my 5ft height from the wobbling people on the other side of the bar), we also write a piece in the festival programme. We have our own page on the website.
I wrote this article mainly in response to a few letters I have recently read in 'what's brewing' including 'do the time warp' in Februarys issue. Comments about CAMRA being stuck in a time warp seem so unjust. Our branch not only has its own website and e mailing system but also has launched itself on facebook. I personally have met several other young members of CAMRA on facebook from around the country. The comment that 'lager' is part of our culture and we should get used to it also annoyed me slightly.... we have actually had 'real lager' on our young members bar....which sold well along with our other traditional ales....not sure if it had anything to do with people finding it funny to ask me for a 'crafty shag'...... ( the name of the afore mentioned beer). I believe it was also mentioned in this particular letter that there needs to be more entertainment. Most beer festivals around the country that I have attended have had entertainment on a couple of nights. However I personally feel that its nice to have a couple of quiet nights so that people can meet family, freinds and share a good quality beer and have a chat with complete strangers, after all that is what CAMRA is all about, meeting people who have something in common and promoting good beer!
Therefore I raise my jug to all the CAMRA young members and say keep up the good work.
:)
Georgina Root
(YMC Colchester Branch)