Right off the bat, I realize this post is 9 hours 18 minutes (and counting) late. Yesterday was a crazy day for me; as soon as I woke up I hit the road to Houston, where my day was filled with meetings and then an epic (and yes, I mean epic) beer tasting that didn’t allow me to post. But I’ll make up for it today with a double dose, (insert Robert DeNiro “Double Dose.”).
TexasBeerFreedom.org
I’ve mentioned this before, but we’ve founded a non-profit organization called Texas Beer Freedom that can be used as the political vehicle for Texas craft brewers, now and in the future. Immediately, Texas Beer Freedom is raising money to help with expenses related to ensuring HB 660s passage. Along with expenses on items like shirts, pint glasses, coasters, growlers, etc. – we also are incurring significant expenses for a lobbyist we have retained to help our bill navigate its way through The Capitol and a Consulting firm to help us with our events coordination and PR. The grass-roots movement is an extremely important piece to this process, but we felt the lack of a daily presence in the Capitol could hamper our bill as it moves forward – especially considering that our opposition has a team of several lobbyists working around the clock to defeat the beer’s progress in Texas.
www.TexasBeerFreedom.org will be a central source of information (along with this blog) for info on beer-related legislative issues, and also where you can find info on where our money is coming from and how it is being spent. Unlike other groups, who derive strength from the secretive nature of their dealings, we have nothing to hide and pride ourselves on complete transparency.
The website is a work in progress, but the message is still there. If you can find it okay to donate whatever you can, we would be highly appreciative of your support. If donating isn’t something you can do right now, we are still highly appreciative of your support, and your voice is still needed. While walking through the Capitol the other day, many staffers mentioned that they had heard of HB 660 because of your emails, letters and phone calls.
HB 660 Rally at the Flying Saucer Houston!
Reminder: I’ll be at the Houston Saucer at 3pm today to hang out, drink great craft beer and talk HB 660. I have a bunch of T-shirts with me available in exchange for a donation as well. Hope to see you there.
