Every two years, we change up our Editorial Advisory Board here at Barista Magazine. We bid a fond farewell to the roster of folks who have served us well, pitching ideas, giving me feedback on stories and concepts for the magazine, and being general sounding boards for us.
I’ve always hand-picked the Editorial Advisory Board in the past, but I thought this year maybe I would ask you out there if you had any suggestions for our new group. I like to have a good mix of men and women, of folks from different countries and from different backgrounds in coffee. It’s not an arduous job but it’s an important one, insofar as I count on you guys to keep me in check, to offer insights from the front lines and hopefully continue to help steer Barista Magazine in the direction that our readership most wants us to be moving toward.
I’ll be determining the new 10 or 12 people who will comprise Barista Magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board for 2011 “13 in the next few weeks, and will debut them in the February/March issue of Barista Mag. If you’re interested, or if you have someone in mind who you think would make a good candidate, please comment to this post with information on why you or that person is qualified and has potential to help us in our quest to continue to be relevant and current with professional retailer and barista culture. (Note: I’m not asking you guys to email me because I’d like this to be public, as the Editorial Advisory Board is listed in print in every issue).
Finally, a giant round of applause and cheers to the outstanding group that has comprised Barista Mag’s Board for the last two years. Thanks, guys!
Holly Bastin, PT’s Coffee (Kansas)
Gabriel Boscana, Ecco Caffe (California)
Bjørg Brend, Cafe Europa 1989 (Denmark)
Shane Devereaux, Habit Coffee + Culture (Canada)
Jon Lewis, CoE (Montana)
Scott Lucey, Alterra (Wisconsin)
Erin Meister, Counter Culture (New York)
Emily Oak, AIR (Australia)
Christopher Owens, Intelligentsia (California)
Klaus Thomsen, Coffee Collective (denmark)
Zak Rye, The Ugly Mug (Michigan)
What an awesome opportunity. I’d love to help if you would like insight from Eastern Canada’s coffee scene.
A bit of background on how I might be qualified:
-Barista Trainer for Bridgehead Coffee located in Ottawa.
Started in 2007 first working as a cafe manager, then moving into a trainer role for the company in 2009.
We have 12 busy cafes with synesso and Robur E an Anfim fit ups. I’ve been working with 200 or so baristas in regard to initial training and ongoing development.
My current project is developing a Coffee Professional Track for our baristas to help guide learning, and demonstrate well rounded professionalism and a high level of customer service in our shops. Our objective is to nurture and direct learning with our baristas so customers will benefit from having more well rounded coffee and service professionals in our cafes. I’m incredibly excited that the other half of this training duo is our coffee program manager, Ian Clark. It’s a whole lot of geeky fun in these parts.
-ERBC Canada Regional winner 2008
-CBC National competitor 2008
-Central and Eastern Regional Sensory and tech judge 2009
-ERBC Canada Regional Competitor 2010
I’m in such a fortunate position to be in Canada, amongst world class baristas who have made this a career. It would be a crime not to have a couple recommendations for you (from eastern canada of course), so here they are:
-Zane Kelsall from Two If by sea, dartmouth, NS
This guy is part owner of an incredible cafe in Nova Scotia. Its busy. Stupid busy…. and somehow they are able to handle the morning rush with french press and other non-batch brewing methods.
-Anthony Benda, Cafe Myriade, Montreal,QC
He owns and operates an excellent and again, stupid busy, cafe in the midst of a university campus in the heart of montreal. He’s no stranger to barista competitions placing 3rd and 2nd in the national in years past. He’s a man after my own heart in regard to repeatable and strong technique in coffee and espresso prep too.
Good luck with your search.
Happy new year!!
-Laura
I would like to start or contribute as much as I can. I want to give back what this coffee culture has given me and letting me do what I love to do each and everyday. I think I would be in a perfect candidate and a relevant one as to help grow this barista culture. I am willing to learn, share, and past my knowledge like the people before me has done to help me grow.
Thanks for reading,
I doubt that I’m qualified enough, but if ever I can help further community and education, count me in.
As an avid reader and a forever learner, I must jump at this chance to say: consider me! I love to be involved.
I’d be down for helping out as well.
I am very interested in offering support.
I’d be really interested in doing it.
I’d love to do it.