A Petition of Grievances — Following Layoffs, State Guilds Implore Brewers Association to Reinstate National Guilds Manager

THE GIST

On the morning of July 2, 25 directors from more than 20 brewers guilds across the country emailed a letter to their parent leadership organization, the Brewers Association (BA), calling on the trade group to reinstate the role of its state brewers guilds manager. The BA eliminated that position—previously held by Acacia Coast—a week earlier on June 25.

The job was cut as part of a round of layoffs that also included a membership coordinator and member services positions. Other prominent staff let go included craft beer program director Julia Herz, director of the American Homebrewers Association Gary Glass, and event associate director Kathryn Porter Drapeau. When contacted by Good Beer Hunting, Coast declined to comment. The Brewers Association didn’t reply to a request for comment as of publication time.

The letter, shared with Good Beer Hunting by one of its signees, was addressed to Brewers Association CEO Bob Pease and the BA’s board of directors. In the letter, the guilds say that a national manager is crucial to their work at a time when many are struggling for economic survival. With the loss of revenue from events because of COVID-19, many guilds are fighting to stay financially viable while their own member breweries are asking for guidance. The letter identified the guilds manager—Coast—as the guilds’ “primary BA liaison” who “provides invaluable guidance and services to our guilds.”

(Those who signed the letter include guild leaders from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Los Angeles County, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington, D.C., Wisconsin, and Wyoming.)

The letter calls the BA’s elimination of the position, coupled with a cut of financial assistance from a guild grant program from earlier this year, as “contradictory” to its mission.

“It signals to our guilds and our boards that we are now ‘on our own,’” the letter reads. “Without a dedicated resource to address state needs, the BA has diminished the impact guilds can have at a local and regional level.” 

WHY IT MATTERS

The letter indicates a growing rift between core constituencies of the BA’s membership and its executive leadership. 

The guilds assert that their state- and regional-level organizations are fundamental to the BA’s mission to “to promote and protect American craft brewers, their beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts.” But the BA’s choice to reduce guilds’ grants and support staff has sent a different message. Notably, it's counter to what the Brewers Association has long said is key for its best way to function: encouraging members to guide discussions and decisions regarding what the BA should do with its lobbying, education, and other support programs. The loss of the state guilds manager disconnected their direct line, making it less clear who's leading who.

“You have guilds of all sizes and ages who are struggling; then to find out that we’re losing the primary support and contact we have at the BA was just horrifying after we’d lost funding for our most vulnerable guilds,” says Mary Macdonald, executive director of the Ohio Brewers Guild. 

The letter essentially questions the BA’s priorities as the country deals with a recession that has impacted bottom lines across all businesses and industries. While the national organization has had to lay off key staff members, it’s kept its executive team intact. In announcing an initial round of layoffs on April 27, the BA committed to operational budget cuts as well as “tiered salary reductions for our management team.” The BA’s announcement didn’t specify what the reductions were or what they would amount to in savings.

According to the group’s most recent IRS filings, CEO Bob Pease earned $341,950 in compensation in 2018, plus $44,370 in “estimated other compensation from the organization and related organizations.” That’s down from the $409,000 he earned in base compensation in 2017, and more than Charlie Papazian earned in the same position in 2014. Papazian’s salary at that time was $258,000.

According to that most recent filing, in 2018:

• BA operations director, now senior vice president of operations, Stephanie Johnson Martin earned $173,000 in compensation. 

• Finance director Tom Clark earned $141,000. 

• The BA paid $3.3 million in compensation to its largest vendor, Sterling-Rice Group, a Boulder, Colorado-based firm that provided marketing and public relations work. 

The letter from state and regional guilds makes no mention of executive or contractor compensation, but does intimate a disconnect between the guilds and the BA’s leadership that extends beyond the current pandemic, and at least back to 2018. 

“The sentiment sowed in the guild community as a result of Acacia’s dismissal will stretch far past this crisis,” the letter reads. Not every state or guild director signed the letter.

All this comes at a time when some state guilds have discussed the replacement of state-only groups with regional alliances. Those conversations have arisen in part because of financial shortfalls made harder by the BA’s lack of funding as a parent organization.

On a July 2 phone call between guild directors and leaders of the BA including Bob Pease, guilds asked that if the guilds manager position could not be reinstated, the BA: 

• Give a guild representative a seat on the BA’s board, or

• Form a guild committee or subcommittee made up of guild leaders.

According to Macdonald, who was on the call, BA leadership said the organization would consider those requests. 

How the BA responds to demands from brewers guilds will prove critical to the difficult months ahead. Guilds are key resources for their members, providing lobbying and political advocacy, regulatory guidance, marketing and events support, and more. The letter from state guild leaders cites Coast specifically as a key reason the guilds increased overall revenue from $5 million to $15 million from 2013-2019. Additionally, the number of guilds hosting legislative events increased from 18 to 42, and those who worked with a lobbyist more than doubled, from 15 to 36 states. 

Now, while COVID-19 continues to complicate plans for economic reopenings across the country, breweries are more dependent on state-level resources. What’s difficult for guilds is also difficult for their member breweries. As stated last month in a Sightlines podcast about guilds’ struggles: “What happens when the organizations meant to support you—especially during bad times—can barely support themselves?” It’s not just breweries asking that of their guilds, but now guilds asking that of the BA. 

“People were really looking for how that communication flow and resource flow were going to go after [the elimination of the guilds manager position],” says Rob Fullmer, executive director of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild. “The exchange of resources and information is critical. I don’t see an answer yet as to how that’ll be fulfilled without that position.”

Words by Bryan Roth