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Conference News
John Hames
2011 National Conference
Rochester, NY
As I write this article, memories of the 44 th AWS conference
are still fresh in my mind. The great wines, great service by
the Radisson staff, incredible sessions and the opportunity to
talk to AWS members from around the US all mad e the conference
memorable. Thanks again to ev eryone who he lped
make the conference special—the conference committee, the
volunteers, the speakers, the wineries that provided wine,
and most of all, the 500+ attendees from 32 different states
who made the conference such a great success.
2012 National Conference
Nov. 8-10 – Red Lion Hotel on the River
Portland, Oregon
Yes, I know it’s almost a year away but we are already working
on some new ideas for the Portland conference. Ev ery
year we try to take the “lessons learned” from the previous
conference and apply them to t he next one – co ntinuous
improvement. Here are a f ew improvements we’re working
on for 2012;
‣Schedule a dedicated time period to recognize all of the
individual Amateur Wine Competition medal winners –
they worked hard to make their wines and they deserve
to be reco gnized. We tried to combine the awards wi th
the Amateur Wine Experience for the last couple of years
but we seem to run o ut of time each year. Next year
we’ll have a time slot dedicated to the medal awards.
‣Make prior arrangements with a local printer to have
posters with complete lists of amateur and commercial
medal winners ready before the awards lunch.
‣Eliminate the volunteer sign up option in the conference
registration process. Instead, contact everyone after
they register to see w hat they want to volun teer for.
This will simplify the registration process.
‣Look at having a dedicated room captain in each session
room for the entire day instead of a different one in each
session. Also, have the roo m captain be responsible for
moving the wines to the session room in time and making
sure the correct number of glasses are ready before
the session starts. T his should help all sessions start
and finish on time.
There will be more improvements, but these are a few we
know of now. It’s not too early to put a Portland vacation on
your calendar next November!
Member Services
Diane Chappell
New York, New York … wha t an amazing Conference!
As I am busy ca tching up on everyt hing, I
am still feeling the excitement from Co nference
week. We had 32 states and Canada represented this year!
That is such a compliment to all of us!
Thanks to everybody who was involved in making this years
Conference such a su ccess. It is a lways a group effort and
you are only as good as those who are on your team. Many
of you st epped up wh ere needed without questions. This is
how we are able to make this happen, thank you!
I think my favorite part was meeting so many of you in person.
Putting faces to na mes is something I really love being
able to do. I saw m any familiar faces from the 2010 Conference
and meet many more of you this year. I am already
looking forward to 2012!
I would like to summarize the growth of t he American Wine
Society for 2011.
‣We have 114 active chapters in 29 states across the
US—12 new chapters were formed in 2011!
‣We have 4323 total active members.
‣We have had 1032 new members sign up in 2011!
New Chapters in 2011
Alle-Kiski Chapter (at River Forest), PA
Austin Hills, TX
East Las Vegas Valley Chapter, NV
Green Gables Chapter, PA
Lone Star Chapter, TX
Napa Valley Chapter, Napa, CA
Ocean Isle Beach Chapter, NC
Santa Barbara Chapter, CA
Silicon Valley, CA
Space Coast Chapter, FL
Waverly Chapter, PA
Wine School of York Chapter, PA
As you can see we are growing and it is fantastic to see.
With more chapters and more members we get more word of
mouth advertising which produces more growth. With growth
we are able to add more services to you and more value to
your membership.
We are working hard to keep the AWS moving into the future
. Thanks to all of you who volunteer your time and skills
to make this happen.
The last year has been amazing but I know that it is only the
beginning. Bring on 2012!
Diane Chappell
Member Service Manager
diane@americanwinesociety.org
John Hames
executivedirector@americanwinesociety.org
888-297-9070
AWS News—December 2011
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