BSA Golf Day & AGM - Monday, 12th July 2010

Venue: Greetham Valley Golf Course, Rutland

Golf Sponsored by 3M                   AGM sponsored by Cadbury

On July 12th at Greetham Valley Golf Club in Rutland the BSA held its most successful AGM and Golf Day to date.

Twenty Members and guests enjoyed the Valley Course, sponsored by 3M, with Rennick Hodgson of Coffee Care emerging as the overall winner. Rennick was also the successful winner of closest to the pin. Ajay Atharu of new members Aromatique won a Ferrari (kindly donated by the David Veal) for posting the lowest score.

Approximately fifty members attended the AGM & dinner, sponsored by Cadbury Ltd. Prior to the dinner the members heard presentations on the changes and work that has been undertaken by the Executive Committee over the last twelve months.

David Veal outlined the changing environment that all businesses were now working in which made it very difficult for Associations to prosper. However, after consulting with the members it had been agreed that the BSA would continue with a change of name to the Beverage Standards Association and would concentrate on increasing the number of candidates going through the City & Guilds VRQ Barista Training scheme; relaunch the new BSA website in September and reduce costs.

Further presentations were given by Jim Devlin on the City & Guilds VRQ Barista Training scheme, where he outlined the continued growth in satellite training centres and the increased interest from both independently run businesses, along with the major high street chains who saw the benefit of a well recognised training scheme within their business.

Martyn Herriott outlined the situation on the finances for 2009/10 explaining that action undertaken by the Secretariat and the support of Executive linked sponsorship by a  number of high profile members costs had been reduced during the BSA financial year. In essence, this meant the loss in 2009/10 was substantially down on the previous year and it was forecast that the 2010/11 year would have a small profit.

Elisa Kelly from Coffee Kids gave a short presentation on the company's charity work in coffee growing countries. Les Mills of Masteroast was the keynote speaker and he spoke about the changing trends in the hot and cold beverages industry over the last six to ten years. he also reminded everybody in the room on how important the Beverage Standards Association was to our marketplace.

Goodbye to Phillipa Clow

Very sadly for the BSA, our long standing secretary, Phillipa Atkinson-Clow has left. Phillipa has worked for the BSA since 1997, joining not long after our inception and Phillipa has very much been the voice and face of the Association for many of the members and people who have spoken to the Secretariat over the years

Phillipa was presented with a digital radio at the AGM by ex Chairman Les Mills of Masteroast and she leaves with the good wishes of everybody on the Executive Committee and members past and present.

Thank you Phillipa for all your hard work, dedication and efficiency over the years, not least of which was keeping the present and past Chairman in order. Good luck and best wishes from everyone at the BSA.