Well here we are again.
It’s nearly the end of the year and I’m trying to recall everything that’s happened so that I can pick out a couple of things to write about.
2014 has been a slightly odd year for CAMRGB – It’s been a year of excellent days out and a year of wishing I’d organised more.
For those of you wishing there had been more CAMRGB action in the real world I can only apologise, time seemed to be constantly racing away from me this year.
I didn’t even manage to put together a half decent Twitter event.
We’ll do some next year, I promise.

Connor at Marble Arch.
Twissup organiser supreme.

But CAMRGB continues to grow and evolve slowly but surely, not so many people joining up as in previous years, but loads more people using the #CAMRGB hashtag and getting involved in things.
The year began brilliantly with Connor’s (@likethemurphys) Manchester Twissup which was a resounding success and on a more personal note, meant loads to me as it was one of the first big events that was nothing to do with me but used the CAMRGB name.

People taking ownership of CAMRGB is what I have always wanted to happen.
Next up there was the second Birmingham Beer Bash which was amazingly good fun, warm and friendly, buzzing with life and full of fantastic beer of all kinds.
The setting was super and the weather was lovely, as opposed to the Birmingham Beer Festival a little later in the year where the beer was lousy and the venue cold and old fashioned.

A meeting of minds (and shirts).

A little later in the year there was the CAMRA Great British Beer Festival which had some super beer hidden away at either end of the miles and miles and endless miles of 3.9% to 4.2% Golden Ales.
The good and interesting beer was surrounded by the good and interesting beer writers and brewers in what was to be christened Craft W*nker Corner.
I’m hoping that at next year’s GBBF the organisers name that part of the festival exactly that.

But two things in particular happened this year that meant the world to me, poked me and woke me up and reminded me why all this started and that I am kind of on the right track.
The first was being accepted into the Guild Of British Beer Writers and writing my first paid article (to be published in the next issue of Craft Beer Rising Magazine) and the second was what happened with the limited edition black CAMRGB shirts.
You see, this year I dearly wanted to go to Indy Man Beer Con but couldn’t afford it and so I watched events unfold on Twitter.
And what seemed to happen was a bunch of people who’d not met before spotted each other’s Black CAMRGB shirts across the event and shook hands and took Selfies and had a chat, and that for me was incredibly important.
If CAMRGB does nothing more than get new people talking to each other, whether only about beer or about all sorts of things, then the whole thing is worthwhile.

So, here are the year’s facts and figures (correct as of 6:00am, December 22nd, 2014).
As I said, not a huge growth in membership, but big gains elsewhere:

Fully Signed Up Members: 880
Twitter Followers: 8,681
Average Monthly CAMRGB Website Hits: 9,000+

As for New Year’s Resolutions.
I WILL find the time and organise more stuff.
I’ll also be more active online as I have let that slip a little bit, mainly due to real life stuff, but nothing should get in the way of a good beery natter.
Thanks to everyone, and I mean everyone who talks about CAMRGB, uses the hashtag, drinks fabulous beer and supports all our excellent brewers.
Off we go into the future.
Cheers.