Dear NABA Members:

It is with great disappointment that your NABA Board of Directors is announcing the cancellation of this year’s annual Convention. This will mark the first time in 49 years that our cherished annual event will not be held. Given the COVID-19 pandemic and the danger of another surge in the virus, we do not want to risk the health and safety of our members.

This Board decision was unanimous and strongly supported by our membership in the recent survey we conducted, where nearly half of the entire membership responded. Many thanks to all of the members who took the time to share their thoughts! We would not have wanted to make such a momentous decision without the strong consent of our members.

Before Covid, the 2020 Convention was set to be our biggest and best ever. With more than 250 new members added to the NABA roster in the past 30 months we had anticipated a very large turnout. Chairman Mike Michalik and his team had set up an outstanding schedule of house tours, a bus tour of breweries past and present, a new Friday night “speakeasy” event and a variety of interesting seminars. We had all the rooms together on a few floors and anticipated outstanding room-to-room trading. And there were some special surprises for the auction, too.

Much of our membership growth has come from the East Coast, and the Pittsburgh location was proving to be a huge draw based on early registrations. That’s why we are re-scheduling with the same great plans at the same great hotel in Pittsburgh, two years from now, in 2022.

For those of you who already have registered for this year’s now cancelled Convention, you will receive a full refund and of course still receive your free commemorative tin-over-cardboard sign. We will not be mailing them out due to expense, but we do have a list of everyone who already had registered and will make a concerted effort to hand them out at various shows, etc.

In addition, we have cancelled all the hotel room reservations at the Doubletree that were made as a part of the NABA group, so you need not worry about cancelling your hotel reservation if you already have made one.

As for next year, our 50th will be in Milwaukee – where the founding of the club and our first convention all began. Mark your calendars for July 28-31st 2021 – our 50th will be the biggest celebration in NABA history! We have booked the newly-renovated Ingleside Hotel in Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb for this event. Many long-time NABA members will recall that we held highly successful conventions there in 1996 and 2004.

Thank you for your support of NABA and the decision to cancel the Convention in the wake of the pandemic. Like you, we hope that life returns to normal again soon and we can once again resume our breweriana gatherings. In the meantime, we wish you all good health and hope you stay safe!

Sincerely,

NABA Board of Directors

John Ferguson, President

Ken Quaas, Vice President

James Kaiser, Treasurer

Dave Alsgaard, Recording Secretary

John Stanley, Executive Secretary

John Bittermann, Director

Paul Cervenka, Director

Joe Gula, Director

Darla Long, Director

Mike Michalik, Director

Matthew Olszewski, Director

Don Roussin, Director

Barry Travis, Director

Christopher Watt, Director