In January 2013 SCAE embarked on a three year strategic plan which the new board of directors and executive team had spent the past few months constructing.
Crucial to this strategy is membership, with the desire to offer more benefits and support to our members, and to grow our membership being central to all that we do.
Over fifteen years, initially on our own, and latterly with World Coffee Events, we have developed and grown seven competitions so that they are now recognised and valued throughout the coffee industry.
As well as educating, enthusing and improving the skills of baristas and others within our coffee community, they have helped with baristas careers and also help to improve the quality of coffee throughout the world.
To be involved with these competitions is prestigious, for example many judges are proud to display their judging credentials on their business cards and other media.
For these reasons the board of directors of SCAE took the decision that in the future all competitors in our competitions should be members of SCAE, or work for members of SCAE, and that if they have to join in order to compete, their membership fee will include registration for entry into the competition.
Also all judges should be members of SCAE unless they are WCE judges from outside of Europe. We believe that these changes will not only strengthen our competitions but also help to build a better association for our members and promote the improvement of speciality coffee across Europe.
David Veal
(Executive Director – SCAE)
Source: SCAE
