The second stage of CAMRA's Revitalisation Project — a fundamental look at its purpose and future — is under way with data from the initial survey of its members being analysed.
At the same time, external views are being canvassed at a series of meetings with experts in the pub, brewing and political sectors, to find out what other interested parties think is good and bad about the organisation. These meetings will run in parallel with consultation events involving the Campaign's members this summer across the country.
With more than 24,000 people responding to the initial survey of CAMRA members, the Revitalisation Project steering committee has a large and complex job to start to analyse the huge mass of information and expressions of opinion.
Revitalisation Project chairman and one of the founders of CAMRA, Michael Hardman said: 'It's important to emphasise that while we are now analysing the results from the initial survey, this is only the start of the process and consultation is continuing. It would be wrong to base our proposals simply on one part of the consultation process. The results from the survey and the mass of opinion expressed at the consultation meetings to date confirm how broad a church CAMRA is.
'We need to make sure the proposals we put forward for CAMRA's future take into account the sizeable minority opinions already expressed by members to ensure we're best positioned in future.
'The final decision rests with the membership who will get to vote on any proposals during CAMRA's Annual General Meeting in 2017.'
Hardman said he was also pleased with the interest the Revitalisation Project had sparked among non-members. More than a thousand have completed a survey to give their views and as many again have downloaded the Project's consultation document from camra.org.uk/revitalisation for more information.
He added, 'Now that we have successfully launched the project, the real hard work begins. We'll be adding additional specialist experience and knowledge to the steering committee to help us analyse the data. We'll be testing and refining our proposals during the summer through additional surveys and consultation of members before they get to make the final decision on the future of CAMRA next year.'