2014 is an election year for the BJCP. In order to provide BJCP members and voters a better understanding into the platforms and policies of representative candidates, The BJCP Bulletin recently conducted interviews with the candidates. Because BJCP Officers are elected from the BJCP Representatives, the platforms and policies of the candidates will likely impact all program members, not only those who reside in the candidate's geographic region.

The BJCP Bulletin adapted a set of questions from a similar certifying organization (KCBS) for the purposes of the interviews. Each candidate was provided the same standard set of questions and exactly two weeks to provide responses, via email, to the question set. Each candidate was instructed that there was no limitation to their response length, however, all responses had to be received at the end of the two week period. Each candidate was also asked for a picture to accompany their responses.

Below are the responses received by Mid-Atlantic region representative candidate, Gordon Strong. No alterations were made to either the question set or to the responses as they were received.

1) Please describe the skills you posess (which you believe are stronger than the other candidates) which would make you an asset as a representative and board member in dealing with the challenges facing the BJCP, and give an example of how those skills would serve the BJCP Board of Directors and its membership.

I don’t know the skill sets of other candidates, so I’ll just focus on my own. I’m running for a position, not against any person.

I have extensive knowledge of our organization, its history, its processes, policies, and structures, its personnel, and its past activities. This hard-earned corporate knowledge helps me be more effective since I know how things work, what things have been successful and unsuccessful in the past, and what resources our organization has available to employ.

I have developed strong personal relationships and trust with people in key positions, both inside and outside our organization. I have no learning curve when dealing with those in these positions, and they all know what to expect. We’re a stronger organization when we are a responsible member of the craft beer community, and I’ve helped us establish and maintain that credibility and status.

I have sound judgment and decision-making skills, and value good ideas no matter the source. I care more about results than getting credit, and am willing to take measured risks on new ventures. Everyone gets a voice, and the best ideas win. Sometimes those ideas are mine, sometimes not; but I always work to support and implement them to the best of my abilities.

In addition to a technical degree, I have advanced degrees in management and business administration. I understand how to organize and run a large organization, to understand finances, legal, and business matters, and to lead teams to get results. These skills have proven very useful in the past when we’ve had legal or contractual issues, had to assess financial plans, and when reorganizations have been necessary.

I have proven my dedication and ability to commit time to this organization over the long haul. I have a passion and drive for this organization and its goals, and the experience necessary to continue to improve the organization as we expand in membership, geographic reach, and scope.

2) As a judge, exam grader, steward, or member of a committee, please identify the major BJCP issues concerning one of the areas in which you are involved. Describe the major issue, your strategies to correct or improve the issue, and what you see as the biggest challenge to the success of your plan.

The BJCP does a great many things, but we were founded to be a certifying organization for beer judges. So the inability of us to meet the full demand for certifications is my biggest concern, since it strikes at the heart of our core organizational mission.

The organization has more than doubled in the past five years as measured in members, competitions sanctioned, and exams given. This growth has strained the organization in many ways, but none have been impacted as much as the exam directorate and its ability to grade exams.

The introduction of quotas was a necessary measure to control the flow of exams into the system, but it did nothing to respond to the growing demand. The time taken to grade exams had slowly grown from reasonable to unacceptable, and potential members were likely being turned away.

I helped lead the concept development of the new format exam, and to rally support from within the organization. When implementation stalled, I moved to empower a new team to drive the concept through to completion.

The change in exam format reduced the time needed for grading and review, and also eliminated the need for a written exam for more than 80% of examinees. Quotas were eased, and demand was better met. Yet, demand continues to grow and more action is needed.

The current need is to further reduce the grading turnaround on exams, and to increase exam site quotas, thus allowing more people to take exams.

The plan to address this issue has many components:

• Routing the exams electronically will reduce wasted time taken by mailing physical exams.
• Increasing the staff processing database work and streamlining the processes for transmitting data will increase the available throughput.
• Expanding and re-organizing the exam staff and empowering them to increase efficiencies will allow more exam sets to be handled, and exam site quotas to be raised.
• Adding more resources and documentation for graders should allow graders to complete tasks faster and with more consistency.
• Exploring whether adding grader incentives would allow for quicker grading while maintaining quality.
• Providing direct grader training should improve grader skills and invite more graders into the program.

The challenge to implementing this plan is that there is a high workload of current exams, and making a significant transformation is difficult while operations are being maintained. My mitigation plan for this is to select key personnel to be overseeing the process, reduce their workload from other activities, help coordinate external and internal dependencies, empower them to own the process, and to regularly monitor their results.

The biggest mistake anyone can make with the BJCP exam program is to attempt to force something on the exam directorate without their support. In an all-volunteer organization, getting buy-in to a common plan and maintaining good coordination between those designing and implementing the change are keys to success.

3) Identify your major short term goal and major long term goal, if elected to the BJCP Board, and your plan to implement change or improvement in order to carry out each of these goals.

This is kind of a trick question, since it implies that I only have two major goals and that it’s only up to me to get them done. I have quite a few goals and projects, many of which are discussed in detail in the most recent Annual Report on the BJCP web site. I invite you to read my report in detail and look at all of the activity going on.

The other part of the question that is tricky is that it implies that my goals are more important than the goals of others, and that I’ll pursue those independently. The BJCP is a member-drive organization; many of the goals and activities that we have pursued in the last year were directly in response to member input solicited during our Annual Member’s Meeting. I updated my own goals with the input of members when formulating our strategy for the past year, and those are exactly the initiatives we are currently pursuing.

So I believe that all board members will bring ideas to the table, but also that we need to listen to the good ideas of our membership. Together we evaluate and prioritize the activities and pursue what is best for the organization, not what we as individual board members may want to do. Sure, individual board members and staff can have side projects of interest, but the major work gets done when we’re all working towards a common goal.

But in the spirit of answering the questions, I’ll select two projects of interest to me apart from the one discussed in the previous answer:

My major short term goal is to get the new style guidelines published, then adapted to all the various formats and translations we have supported. The guidelines themselves are nearing completion, but will need to be reviewed and socialized throughout the organization. Our exams will need to be updated. The web site will have many changes. Our partners and those who use these materials need to be informed. The dependencies upon the style guidelines are significant, and carrying them through to implementation is something that is quite a bit of work. But I have done this before, and know what is involved. I’ve been working in advance to let people know that change is coming, and to allow for sufficient time to do these other tasks before the guidelines come into effect.

My major long term goal is to see the BJCP web site transformed into a modern portal for judges, exams, competitions, and training. Many of the preliminary steps have been taken, including selecting a new hosting provider, contracting for web site design support, and adding additional staff with both the time and experience to work with our applications. Longer-term steps will include rewriting our existing applications and databases to be completely web-based, and to remove the need for offline processing. Increasing the server-side functionality while adding personalization is something that can be attained once on the new host. I see the need to expand the development staff once the necessary groundwork has been finished. The ultimate goal is to have the web site be the central hub for both sharing information and for performing the tasks that the BJCP supports.

4) If elected, please explain your level of committment, time and energy for committee projects, judging, exam grading, organizing competitions, as well as representing the BJCP to the public and being responsive to our members.

I typically work between 20-30 hours a week on BJCP business, and have since I’ve been on the board (and before, when I was volunteering in other BJCP positions). This last year has been closer to 30 hours a week, as we’ve expanded our staff and have quite a few active projects. I expect to be able to maintain this level of effort in the upcoming term as well.

I have represented the BJCP at national and international events, including representing the BJCP’s interests when at events for other purposes (e.g., speaking on homebrewing). I have attended every NHC since 2000, and was instrumental in improving the experience for judges at the conferences, including getting a member’s meeting, a judge reception, and training for judges and graders at the conference.

I continue to be active in judging and exams, and meet with members at these events, as well as during speaking engagements. I have helped develop and encourage new chapters of the BJCP in other countries, and identify key personnel as leaders.

I have worked issues for my region, as well as the entire organization, while serving as president. Some personnel and oversight functions are not for public discussion, but have been handled to the satisfaction of those raising the issues. I understand how to get member issues to the right person for resolution when I cannot handle them myself. Direct contact from a member always gets a high priority from me.

I grade occasionally, maybe one set a year now, but I served as an Associate Exam Director for 9 years. I now grade whenever we introduce a major change in the exam program, or when the program is in desperate need.

I don’t organize competitions any longer, but I do judge in about 18 competitions a year, and often serve as a guest speaker at competitions and events. I do often help competition organizers in a consulting role. I think I’m better able to help competitions by sharing my experience and knowledge and by assisting others in developing better skills than by performing those tasks directly. By judging, I get to see how well competitions are run, how our materials are being used, what problems are encountered, and to hear issues directly from other judges.

I have served on several key committees in the past. As President, I have to be involved in all committees, but I have led many of the key activities. Currently, I’m leading the style guideline rewrite, which I also had done in 2004 and 2008. I try to stay in an oversight role for other committees unless I have direct contributions to make. My role is more typically coordinating work between committees and other parts of the organization, providing resources and advice, and helping resolve problems that arise.

5) Please describe your previous participation in BJCP activities and years of experience.

• BJCP member, 1997-current (17 years)
• BJCP representative, 2005-current (9 years)
• BJCP president, 2006-current (8 years)
• BJCP grader, 1997-current (17 years)
• BJCP associate exam director, 2002-2011 (9 years)
• BJCP IT director, 2003-current (11 years)
• Committee Chairman, Merging Competition Programs Committee
• Committee Chairman, Style Guidelines Committee
• Committee Chairman, Mead and Cider Exam Committee
• Committee Member, 2006 Exam Committee
• Heavy involvement in 2011 Exam Committee, Legal Committee, Color Guide Committee.
• Judged in over 260 competitions.
• Organized 12 competitions.
• Taught 8 exam prep classes.
• Graded over 1100 exams.
• Administered or proctored over 40 exams.

6) Please explain why you want to be a member of the BJCP Board.

I care deeply about our organization and its future, and the best way that I can contribute is to have a voice in setting its priorities and policies, and then help get them implemented. I have invested a significant portion of my life making this a better organization, and have proven that I can get things done – both through my individual work, and through leading others. I continue to see ways to improve this organization and better serve its members, and will work tirelessly towards achieving those goals.

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Mr. Strong's candidate statement may be found at /docs/2014gordon.pdf

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The BJCP Bulletin wishes all candidates the best of luck in the 2014 elections.

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