Hi Matt,
Apologies that this response is indeed a little late. It is also somewhat unsolicited from the club in general, as frankly, I haven't been much assistance to them for the past 12 months. Hopefully this will explain somewhat to you what has happened and how we can resolve your gripe.
At the time of last years comp, we had limited resources available to the club (time. people available, funds etc) but nobody else really wanted to pick the ball up and run with it, so we jumped in. All was on track for a really great comp (and I still personally believe it was), up until the a week or so after the comp had finished. At the time, my employment changed, along with my wife's employment, some family circumstances on top of that as well as some other financial stresses and curveballs thrown in. I don't wish to make excuses or bore you with the details, but as you can imagine, when you have been away from home for 46 of the past 58 weeks, you're concentrating on keeping your marriage, your family and your house, your priorities shift a little...
Now, onto the prizes... As a club, we didn't officially plan any, apart from the BOS prize that Mark from MHB kindly took upon himself to arrange, and donate. As an aside, when I collected the entries from the pick up spots, I asked them verbally if they were willing to donate some vouchers to the tune of $50 for category prizes. All of the pick up locations pledged their support, some with 2 pledges, as well as a couple of local businesses here, Craftbrewer, and a few other odds and sods. Due to the timing, I was fortunate enough to get the trophies out (with some small delays), the rsults posted and our BJCP obligations filled. However, the pledges for the vouchers were never collected upon, nor have they ever been cashed in. Hopefully that will dispel some of the things I've seen flying around about corruption from the HUB club, or it's members.
Now, you might say that I could have passed on this duty to somebody else to fulfill, but at the time, I had made the promise, and I wanted to get it done. To my poorer udgement though, I didn't get this done, and I am happy to accept full credit for it. This should no way be reflected on the HUB club, or it's current members.
So, going forward, I don't think I could reasonably expect the guys that made pledges for 12 months ago to simply cough up, so I guess if you want the three vouchers or whatever it was you won, you'll have to PM me your bank account details, and I'll sort it out with you personally. I am happy to accept the blame.
As for this years NSWABC comp, I fully believe that the HUB guys will run an awesome competition in the same light as last year. I would love nothing more than to be able to assist, but I simply won't be around, and after this whole thing, I don't ever want to put my name against any promises until I'm either unemployed or retired. I hope anybody that is/was considering entering this year has not been put off by some of negatives in this thread; I can assure you there are some of the countries most knowledgeable beer community involved again in this years comp and that your entry fees will be well worth it.
I hope this allays the concerns thus far.
Cheers,
Tony
