RHBC By-Laws

Updated: March 6, 2023

On May 10, 2022, the officers voted unanimously to change the by-laws. See Article 9, Section 3 – Revision History for details.

ARTICLE 1 – ORGANIZATION

SECTION 1 – Name

The name of this organization is the Rock Hoppers Brew Club, hereinafter referred to as RHBC.

SECTION 2 – Purpose

RHBC is the premier Colorado homebrew club dedicated to pursuing and pushing the limits of the creativity, art, and science of brewing through continuing education, collaboration, and the development of community. We always strive for brewing excellence and actively encourage the growth of all club members.

ARTICLE 2 – MEMBERSHIP

SECTION 1 – Qualifications

Standard Members

Membership into RHBC is open to any adult 21 years old or older with an interest in brewing beer, wine, mead, cider, or any other fermented beverage. To be considered active, members are expected to attend at least one meeting and/or event within a 24 month timespan as well as be actively creating homebrewed beverages. RHBC officers have the authority to accept or reject any potential applicant.

Honorary Members

Honorary Members are those who have been accepted into RHBC by any term of RHBC officers and have been given access to the RHBC website. Honorary members are not dues paying members and are not eligible to serve as an officer or vote in any club matter. Honorary membership is subject to the same standards as described in Article 2, Section 5.

SECTION 2 – Membership Term

The term of membership is June through May, one full calendar year. Dues are paid in June for the full year or prorated quarterly for new members only (see Article 3, Section 1). A member in good standing is one who is current in dues and not under suspension.

SECTION 3 – Participation

Members are expected to take an active role in club meetings and events. Members are further expected to help with the setup, maintenance, and/or clean-up of club meetings or events.

SECTION 4 – Voting

Each regular member in good standing of RHBC shall have the right to vote on all matters that come before the membership.

SECTION 5 – Revocation or Suspension

Membership to RHBC may be revoked or suspended by a unanimous vote of RHBC officers for the following reasons:

  1. Failure to pay dues (will only result in membership suspension).
  2. Failure to abide by club by-laws.
  3. Conduct that is detrimental to the image or purpose of RHBC.

SECTION 6 – Reinstatement

Paying, in full, any annual dues owed will reinstate any member whose membership has been suspended due to the failure of paying their dues. Any member whose membership was revoked or suspended for other reasons may be reinstated by a unanimous officer vote.

SECTION 7 – Guests

Members are welcome to bring guests to club meetings. Some events may require the guest to pay a fee for materials used or consumed. A guest may only come to three meetings and/or one event before dues are required. Members will be held responsible for the actions of their guests. Restrictions are not intended to apply to a spouse or significant other of a member in good standing.

Colorado state liquor law stipulates that guests are not allowed to consume homebrewed alcoholic beverages at any club meeting or club-sponsored event. As such, in order to consume homebrewed alcoholic beverages at club meetings and/or club-sponsored events, all guests must become members of RHBC by paying annual dues.

ARTICLE 3 – DUES

SECTION 1 – Annual Dues

The annual membership fee (subject to yearly membership review) is $40 per person per year, due in June, coinciding with RHBC’s fiscal year. Annual dues will be prorated on a quarterly basis for new members in their first year of membership only.

The fiscal quarterly intervals are defined as follows:

  • Q1: June, July, August
  • Q2: September, October, November
  • Q3: December, January, February
  • Q4: March, April, May

After the prorated period, new members will pay full annual dues. Existing or returning members do not have the option to pay partial or prorated membership fees.

The amount of annual membership dues will be determined at the RHBC April officers meeting and can be changed with a unanimous vote of the RHBC officers. Any changes to the annual membership dues will be announced at the May meeting.

ARTICLE 4 – CLUB OFFICERS

SECTION 1 – Officer Commitments

All officers are expected to dedicate time to their position. Officers are not required to attend every meeting, activity or event, but as role models for club members, their presence and engagement is very important.

Each officer must fulfill the following commitments:

  1. Participate in an officers meeting prior to the monthly meeting to coordinate, strategize, and plan for the upcoming general meeting.
  2. Be an AHA member.
  3. Serve as a staff member for the club’s annual competition.
  4. Make every effort to attend HomebrewCon (formerly known as the National Homebrewers Conference) during or the year following their tenure as an officer to further RHBC’s visibility in the national arena.
  5. Attend one major beer-related event (such as the Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines festival, Great American Beer Festival, NHC, HopUnion Hop & Brew School, etc.) while representing the club and/or collecting educational materials for the benefit of the club.
    1. The club will provide up to a $75.00 one-time stipend to be reimbursed for the cost of the event, to be paid at the end of the membership year. Reimbursement must be approved by a majority of fellow officers, and receipts must be provided for payment.
    2. Every attempt should be made to attend an event as a group of officers.

SECTION 2 – Officer Positions

Elected officer positions are:

  1. President
  2. Event Director
  3. Communications and Social Media Director
  4. Treasurer
  5. Competition Director
  6. Education Director

Non-Officer Positions:

  1. Webmaster
  2. A/V Master

SECTION 3 – Officer Duties

President

The president of RHBC is the public representative – the “face and voice” of RHBC. This person is the de facto leader in all club meetings, activities, and events. To be nominated and/or serve as president, a member must have served as an elected officer for at least one year during the previous term or has served as an elected officer at least once previously and has remained heavily involved with the club’s activities as judged by the current officers before the upcoming election.

The President is:

  1. Responsible for facilitating consensus among club members and officers to provide execution of the club’s goals.
  2. The liaison between the American Homebrewers Association and RHBC.
  3. The leader of all meetings, including general club meetings and officer meetings.
  4. Gives notice to previous officers to state eligibility for President as described in Article 5, Section 2.
  5. Active in communication with other area clubs.
  6. The public “face” of RHBC.

Event Director

The Event Director researches, coordinates, facilitates, and attends all club events including, but not limited to:

  1. All AHA sponsored events (Big Brew, Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day, local rallies, HomebrewCon, etc.).
  2. GABF coordination including volunteering opportunities and meet-up locations.
  3. Tours of local breweries, meaderies, and wineries (in coordination with the Treasurer).
  4. Meet-ups at local establishments or online.
  5. Procurement of guest speakers at club meetings (in coordination with the Competition Director and/or Education Director).
  6. Facilitation of accommodations and transportation for group events, tours, etc. as needed.
  7. Coordinate with Webmaster and Communications Director in updating the events calendar on the RHBC website, schedule signups, send email notifications, etc.
  8. Fundraisers.
  9. Responsible for scheduling all group happenings – Big Brew, AHA Rallies, etc.

The Event Director is expected to attend all events they schedule and to work closely with both the Treasurer and Education Director to resolve any financial and/or educational needs for an event.

Communications and Social Media Director

The Communications and Social Media Director is responsible for all club information dissemination, including:

  1. All communications on behalf of RHBC.
  2. Formulation and distribution of the meeting agenda and any related meeting materials. (in coordination with the Webmaster)
  3. Maintenance of all official RHBC documents.
  4. Taking of both officer and general meeting minutes. Coordination with Webmaster to post general meeting minutes.
  5. Take club meeting attendance.
  6. Promotion of upcoming RHBC activities via social media outlets to actively promote the club both internally and externally.
  7. Solicit assets and post to all RHBC social media accounts descriptions, photos, and videos of club activities.
  8. Compile, edit and publish content for the monthly club newsletter.
  9. Administration of the official RHBC Facebook Page members, roles, content, events, etc.

Treasurer

The Treasurer is responsible for all financial aspects of running RHBC. Including:

  1. Dues collection.
  2. Annual budget and forecasting.
  3. Banking and accounting.
  4. Cash inflow and outflow.
  5. Payment of all bills.
  6. Tax issues.
  7. Verification and provision of election ballots.
  8. Granting and revocation of website privileges based upon current fiscal year due payment.

In addition, the treasurer should work closely with the Event Director in assessing and collecting any costs incurred during an event (e.g., money above and beyond what club dues cover, etc.).

Competition Director

The Competition Director is responsible for competition coordination. Ideally, the Competition Director should be either studying to be or is a BJCP judge. If not, the person should work closely with those in RHBC who are. Responsibilities include:

  1. Planning, coordination, and execution of the club’s annual competition.
    1. At their discretion, the Competition Director can appoint an overall competition organizer or co-organizer.
  2. Maintaining the checklist for running the club’s annual competition, including dates by which actions need to be taken (BJCP sanctioning application, purchase of medals, purchase of gift cards, purchase supplies, etc.). This checklist should be passed from year to year to aid new officers.
  3. Coordinate club member entries into local/national competitions.
  4. Be the main resource for BJCP- and AHA-related competitions.
  5. Coordinate monthly tasting and feedback sessions at meetings.
  6. Coordinate quarterly intra-club competitions and publish an annual schedule.
  7. Coordinate, facilitate, and serve as commissioner of the annual Fantasy Brewing Draft.

Education Director

The Education Director is responsible for beer and brewing education. Ideally, the Education Director should be either studying to be or is a BJCP judge. If not, the person should work closely with those in RHBC who are. Responsibilities include:

  1. Coordination and/or facilitation of educational sessions at meetings.
  2. Be the main resource for general brewing, BJCP, and AHA-related education.
  3. Work closely with the Event Director in obtaining guest educational speakers.
  4. Serve as staff for the club’s annual competition.

Webmaster

The Webmaster is not an elected officer position. The Webmaster position is appointed by the Club President and may or may not be another officer.

Responsibilities include the administration and maintenance of the following assets:

  1. The rhbc.co and bierederock.com websites.
  2. The RHBC Master Google Account, which includes:
    1. RHBC Officers Google Drive.
    2. RHBC Officers Google Calendar.
  3. Any other RHBC related digital assets.

The Webmaster’s responsibilities for maintenance of the rhbc.co website and all other website-related items are important club functions. The Webmaster position is appointed by the current President. Responsibilities include:

  1. Posting to the RHBC website all informational articles and news (meeting agendas, meeting minutes, etc.).
  2. Maintenance of the RHBC website – the website should never be out of date or stagnant.
  3. Security, User, and system maintenance for the website CMS platform.
  4. Training new officers how to use the CMS platform (where applicable).
  5. Periodic updates to the website’s content management system platform.
  6. Testing and rollout of new website capabilities.
  7. Maintenance of the Biere de Rock competition website.

A/V Master

The A/V Master is not an elected officer position. The A/V Master position is appointed by the Club President and may or may not be another officer.

The A/V Master is responsible for:

  1. Providing/coordinating the audio and video systems for every general meeting.

The A/V Master position is appointed by the current President.

ARTICLE 5 – OFFICER ELECTIONS

SECTION 1 – Nominations

Nominations for officer positions will take place annually at the April meeting. Any member in good standing can be nominated for an officer position. Members can nominate another member during the meeting or nominate themselves. Members are not compelled to accept a nomination.

Any nominee for president must meet at least ONE of the following criteria:

  1. Has served as an elected officer for at least one year during the previous term.
  2. Has served as an elected officer at least once previously AND has remained heavily involved with the club’s activities as judged by the current officers before the upcoming election as described in Article 5, Section 2.

To be nominated for an officer position, a member must be an AHA member, or become an AHA member within one month of election.

SECTION 2 – Notification of Intent for President

A member who qualifies to be nominated as President as described in Article 5, Section 1, subsection B must notify the current officers in writing one month before the upcoming nominations of their intent. The officers will then determine the member’s eligibility for the role of President at the Officers meeting prior to the nominations meeting. The determination will be communicated in writing to the potential nominee prior to the nominations meeting.

SECTION 3 – Elections

All nominated members for each position will have time during the May meeting to present to the club membership why they should be elected to the desired position. Additionally, campaigning is encouraged. However, “negative” or “attack” campaigning is strictly prohibited and will result in the revocation of a member’s nomination.

All members in good standing may vote in the election. Voting shall be conducted via an online secret ballot. Members will be provided a seven-day window to vote, which will open within 24 hours after the May meeting concludes.

Winners will be announced at the end of the seven-day window. In the event of a tie, a live runoff vote will break the tie at the June meeting.

Election results will be verified and ratified by the current Treasurer.

SECTION 4 – Term

Terms of office shall be for 12 months for all elected positions except for Treasurer, whose term is 24 months. Terms begin June 1st and end May 31st the following year. Newly elected officers will become trainees immediately following elections in May and will remain trainees until their term starts on June 1st.

Trainees will have a transition meeting with their respective outgoing officer and will attend all officer-related functions in order to learn the responsibilities of the position they are going to fill. Outgoing officers will serve as mentors for the newly elected officers for a period of two (2) months after their term has ended.

The June officer meeting will serve as the transition with all outgoing and incoming officers in attendance.

SECTION 5 – Term Limits

The president of RHBC can serve no more than two (2) consecutive terms as president. All other positions may serve up to three (3) consecutive terms in the same position.

SECTION 6 – Vacancies

When a vacancy exists, the remaining club officers can appoint a new officer within 30 days or as needed.

To keep the club as a functioning entity, the President and Treasurer are the minimum elected or appointed officer roles.

In the event that the President and Treasurer are not elected or appointed, the membership can hold a special election within 60 days of the yearly election in May to fill any vacancies.

Should these roles not be filled, the outgoing President and Treasurer will put the club status into hiatus, effectively shutting down operations. Following refund of any dues paid by members for the upcoming year, all monetary assets will move into a savings account for up to a year until the next election cycle. If a President and a Treasurer are not elected at that time, all funds will be donated to the American Homebrewers Association.

SECTION 7 – Removal of an Officer

If an officer has not performed or is unable to perform their duties, the remaining officers can remove and/or replace the officer by a unanimous vote of the remaining officers.

ARTICLE 6 – MEETINGS AND EVENTS

SECTION 1 – Regular Meetings

Regular meetings will be held monthly on the second Thursday of each month. In keeping with the club’s education and development mission, members are encouraged to bring homebrewed beverages to in-person meetings whenever possible.

As our mission is the advancement of homebrewing, members should refrain from bringing commercially produced beer, mead, wine, or cider to meetings with the intention of consuming on-site. Exceptions to this shall be considered on a case-by-case basis as approved by the officers.

SECTION 2 – Club Events

Club events will be held throughout the year as determined by the Event Director and officers. Members who would like to create or host a club-sanctioned event must confer with the Event Director for approval. This does not include “brew with me” or similar “get together” events, as these are ad-hoc and not considered officially sanctioned club events.

ARTICLE 7 – ETHICAL CODE

SECTION 1 – Consumption

All RHBC members are independently and solely responsible for adhering to local, state, and federal laws regarding the consumption of alcohol.  Members are responsible for portraying a positive public image for RHBC and shall not act in bad taste while in public.

SECTION 2 – Liability

Individual members of RHBC shall not be personally liable for the debts or obligations of RHBC, nor shall RHBC be liable for the actions of any member outside the guidelines of RHBC by-laws.

Each club member as a condition of membership shall sign a liability waiver each year.

SECTION 3 – Values

Honesty and respect are values that are required of RHBC members. No member shall steal, be violent, or engage in behavior that is disrespectful to others or themselves. Such behavior is punishable as described in Article 2, Section 5.

ARTICLE 8 – INSURANCE

SECTION 1 – General Insurance

To protect individual club members and the club itself against legal liability claims resulting from club-sponsored events, RHBC will purchase general club insurance on an annual basis.

The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) facilitates a program that provides both general liability insurance and liquor liability insurance to homebrew clubs that covers both club meetings and club-sponsored events. When available, RHBC will purchase general insurance via the AHA. If not available, RHBC will purchase insurance via other means. In either case, the Treasurer shall facilitate securing general insurance annually.

SECTION 2 – Officer Liability Insurance

In addition to purchasing general insurance, RHBC will also purchase Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance on an annual basis. D&O insurance provides liability coverage for the club’s directors and officers for decisions they make while serving the club in that capacity. Individuals can be held personally liable for these decisions while representing their club and the D&O insurance provides coverage which includes costs to defend the directors, officers, and the club against a lawsuit.

The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) facilitates a program that provides such insurance. When available, RHBC will purchase D&O insurance via the AHA. If not available, RHBC will purchase insurance via other means. In either case, the Treasurer shall facilitate securing D&O insurance annually.

ARTICLE 9 – BY-LAWS

SECTION 1 – Changes

The RHBC officers can modify the By-Laws at any time with a majority vote.

SECTION 2 – Effective Date

By-Laws effective February 1, 2011.

These revised By-Laws became effective March 6, 2023.

SECTION 3 – Revision History

Updated May 15, 2013. Out-of-date and/or irrelevant information was removed.

Updated January 14, 2019. Changes ratified by officers on January 28, 2019. Out-of-date and/or irrelevant information was removed.

Updated and ratified by officers on February 6, 2020. Out-of-date and/or irrelevant information was removed. Summary of changes:

  1. Article 3, Section 1 amended to increase annual dues to $40 per member.
  2. Removed clause in Article 5, Section 3 regarding proxy or absentee voting.
  3. Amended Article 5, Section to add verbiage and procedures regarding voting for any officer position that results in a tie.

Updated March 22, 2021. Changes ratified by officers on April 19, 2021. Out-of-date and/or irrelevant information was removed. Summary of changes:

  1. Clarified guest alcohol policy in Article 2, Section 7.
  2. Updated overall officer expectations in Article 4, Section 1.
  3. Updated officer election voting procedures in Article 5, Section 3.
  4. Updated Article 6, Section 1 to include the guidelines for members consuming commercially-produced alcohol at club meetings.
  5. Addition of Article 8 – Insurance.
  6. Renamed Article 8 – By-Laws to Article 9 – By-Laws.

Updated May 10, 2022. Changes ratified by officers on May 10, 2021. Out-of-date and/or irrelevant information was removed. Changes revolved solely around the shift of the RHBC fiscal year from March-February to June-May. See Article 2, Sections 1 and 2; Article 3, Section 1; Article 1; Article 5, Sections 1 and 2.

Updated March 6, 2023. Changes ratified by officers on March 6, 2023. Additions included clarifying language for President eligibility (Article 5, Section 1) and minimum officer positions required to function as a club entity (Article 5, Section 6).