Dear Brethren,

At our next Board Meeting on Saturday the 8^th May 2010 at 9am I will propose that we discontinue barrelled beer in favour of a much wider variety of canned beers. Here is my reasoning and I would ask you to give it your consideration before our meeting. Malcolm would you please place my proposal on the Agenda of the next meeting.

On a number of occasions recently our Bar Manager, W. Bro. Cliff Foster, has mentioned to me the quantity of beer that is wasted using the barrelled beer system. The length of time between some of our meetings at the Centre means that an amount of beer sits in the pipes of our system, thus detracting from the taste and quality. This has lead to complaints from Masons about the quality of the beer they have been sold. Bro. Cliff has also mentioned to me that barrelled beer is not always available from our suppliers. I have spoken to Sarah about these matters and she confirms that we do waste quite a substantial amount of our barrelled beer.

In the last month or so since our last meeting I have visited 3 Masonic Centres that have moved away from barrelled beers to a system of selling canned beer only. One is my Yorkshire Lodge in Barnsley South Yorkshire. I spoke to the Eastgate Masonic Centre manager who regaled me with the number of complaints he received from Brethren when he moved away from barrelled beer to a canned system. This happened in September 2009. It is very obvious now that the Brethren have grown used to having a variety of beers to chose from. (They offer, IPA, Speckled Hen, Black Sheep, and Courage). They have no waste whatsoever and beer profits are up by 10%. Courage paid half of the cost of the cooling cabinets and they have much more room, both on the bar top and behind the bar. This general picture was repeated at the other 2 Masonic Centres which I visited.

Of course stock-takes would be much more accurate without barrelled beer, there would be no need to buy gas and the health and safety aspect of injury caused by carting full beer barrels around would be negated.

There is no doubt that, should you agree to this proposal there will, initially, be some complaints from Brethren. I am quite happy to shoulder those complaints. I guarantee that, after 6 months, the Brethren will be quite happy with the new system and very happy with the variety of beers which we will be offering.

Our Bar Manager and our Caterer are both positive about a move away from barrelled beer to the canned system and I put this matter to you as a proposal for consideration, and I hope your approval. If approved the move would be achieved by September 2010.

Regards

Geoff Swann