Join the BGE Working Group

The Barista Guild of Europe Working Group is coming to the end of their first term as elected members. They've had the opportunity to shape the guild by listening to members and providing advice, support and education through events and online communications. Now it is time for some new blood and energy, so nominations for the BGE Elections 2017 will be open from 15 December 2016 until 15 January 2017. 

BGE would like to strengthen the Working Group and allow for more opportunities to get involved so a new structure within the guild is being formed. In addition to our ad-hoc Unification Committee, formed earlier this year, we will devise three committees within the group and each of these committees will have a Chair and Vice-Chair.

These committees are:

  1. Education

  2. Events

  3. Communications/Membership

We are inviting nominations for seven positions within the BGE Working Group. Following the election, each successfully elected member will become a Chair or Vice-Chair of a committee. The current BGE Chair, Tibor Várady, will step into the role of Past-Chair. The current Vice-Chair, Andrew Tolley —who was appointed earlier this year by the Working Group— will become Chair if elected. The newly elected Working Group will collectively decide who the new Working Group Vice-Chair will be.

Additionally, each committee will have the opportunity to recruit their own 'members at large' —these are volunteers who step in to support the committee's projects or events, but aren't part of the Working Group. This is a great opportunity to extend the BGE into the community, so that we can create a more powerful, more interactive organisation that listens to its members.

We invite anyone who feels strongly about the direction of BGE and the service that we should provide to the barista community, to come forward and nominate yourself for a position on the BGE Working Group. 
 

What's Involved? 

The term of a general Working Group member is 2 years, (the term of the officers Chair, Vice-Chair and Past-Chair is 1 year). It is a voluntary position where Working Group members are expected to commit to approx. 2 hours a week for input into projects, advise on event content, drive new initiatives and respond to the needs of the barista community. With a wide geographical spread, the current Working Group meets most regularly through Skype meetings and then in person on a quarterly basis. The Working Group have a part to play in events like Barista Camp and CoLabs as well as other collaborations that take place throughout the year, however free access to these events isn't guaranteed.

There are roles available in each committee, where each Working Group member takes ownership of a certain aspect of our organisation, and will coordinate strategy and plans, with the assistance of the BGE Executive, and as determined by the whole working group and overseen by the Chair.

Candidate
As a representative of the barista community, you should be excited about the future of Barista Guild of Europe as we begin our journey to merge with Barista Guild of America. Working Group members should have a connection with the barista community through current or past employment – you should have an understanding of the daily issues a barista faces – what drives them to improve and what do they desire.
 

Formalities
As members of the Working Group, successful candidates are expected to

  • attend monthly WG calls

  • attend quarterly in-person meetings

  • each WG member will be the Chair/Vice-chair of a committee, and will —as such— be responsible to create the committee as well as meet regularly (via Skype calls) to reach objectives, as well as identify new initiatives.

  • financial: while BGE has a limited budget for meeting expenses —which we try to plan around our events— the travel to, and attendance of, BGE events isn't covered.

 

Election Process

These are the steps in the BGE Working Group election process:

  • Nominations are open from December 15th until January 15th.

  • Candidates will be verified, and each profile will be posted on this website.

  • Voting will take place over a 3-day period from 5th to 7th February.

  • The seven valid candidates with the most votes will be invited to join the BGE Working Group, and will start their term on the first in-person meeting of the new WG in late Feb-early March (dates tbd).

 

How to apply?

Applications should be submitted via this form.  To accept your nomination you need to be a:

  • current SCAE Barista member

  • current SCAE Professional Individual member

  • registered Secondary member under an SCAE Company membership

  • new member of the unified association (after Jan 1st) in the Barista category

The deadline for nominations is 15 January 2017.