six
Six months ago I was sitting on the floor of the flat I’d just moved into, desperately trying to get the hotspot to work on my phone so I could keep working on the project that I didn’t even have a name for yet. It was like a big ball of string made from anger, determination and hope that, although I couldn’t untangle right away, I knew that it had a purpose. So I kept going. Skip to now and the WiFi is still pretty terrible, but the project is now a website with a name, content, and, more importantly, you.
The past few months have been a research and development period, seeing what works and what doesn’t. I am not someone with a background in social media, marketing or web design, and I have been lucky enough to work on the first six months of this project with a group of people who have allowed me to bounce ideas off of them. My first set of thank yous is dedicated to Sam Jones, Elliot James Comanescu, Rachel Hendry and Ben Thompson.
Thank you Sam for all of your hard work on the website, it was so amazing working with someone who just completely understood what I was trying to achieve and was super into the concept from day one. Thank you Elliot for your beautiful drawings, your artwork has been the glue that holds this project together and I feel very lucky to get to work with you. Thank you Ben who has donated fantastic written work on cider, for as long as I have known you cider has been your passion and it has been truly wonderful to see that passion realised. And thank you Rachel, for everything that you do. Whether that is editing my written work merely an hour before I need to send it somewhere, or donating your beautiful and endlessly funny words on wine.
In a year where the events industry came to a halt, I have still had the chance to virtually meet some incredible people. During a more relaxed part of the year, I was even able to travel across to Broome Farm for “Not Ross”, the socially distanced very tiny version of Ross on Wye Cider and Perry Festival. No one described the small gathering of friends in cider better than the brilliant Lily Waite in this piece for Good Beer Hunting.
“To me, with everything that’s happened—or, in the case of so many sorely missed events, not—this year, that’s as good as the biggest festival.” Lily Waite
From the beginning Burum has grown from three important ideas: people, community, and education. The main focus of the website was on people, by conducting our Behind the Bar interviews and our Social Sweethearts feature, showcasing those in the industry we feel deserve celebration. in 2021 we will be able to showcase people in a different way, by being able to commission written work. Whether they are personal pieces or more industry focussed, having a collective of voices is what Burum has always been about.
Community is not something that you can just achieve overnight, it is something that needs to be continually worked on. Up until now we have had a Mighty Networks forum, I have had to make the decision to move the forum across to Facebook. I would like to reiterate that my email is open for anyone to contact me, if you have questions or feedback on Burum Collective, please don’t hold back.
In the new year our focus will be on the accessibility of education. We want to be able to pool together all of the resources for beer, wine and cider education in one place, so that everyone has access to, and information on, all educational routes within our industries. Later next year the Burum wine contributor Rachel Hendry will be kick starting this with a series on “How to Learn About Wine” which I am particularly excited about. Education is also something that I’ll be working on with Cloudwater as part of the Wayfinders internship and we have some really exciting things in the pipeline.
Inclusion, diversity, accessibility, and the goal for equity within the drinks industry are at the heart of all of our work. I’ve grown up watching the world tell myself and other far more marginalised people that they don’t matter, and this year I have been looking at our industries not saying a word to the contrary. I made this project as a way to turn my anger and frustration into something positive. In my mind, I was just a bartender, I thought it was up to business owners and the government to make changes to help those who need it. But I refuse to wait around for those in charge to decide that the lives of those who are different to them matter.
This kind of work cannot be achieved solely by one person, I have a particular point of view and have lived a life that is different to so many of my peers. The biggest achievement for us this year is being able to go into 2021 paying one contributing writer a month. In order to make change we need to listen to and learn from each other. Burum Collective will first and foremost be a community blog for people working in the drinks industry. I hope that when we open pitching again next year, more of you who have never written before will feel comfortable to pitch to us. Believe me when I say, you’re never just a bartender.
Lastly I would like to thank you. Six months is not a long time, and Burum Collective would not be where it is right now without your support. Whether you have been an interviewee, contributor, newsletter reader, Patreon subscriber or friend on social media; your support and friendship has been invaluable. There’s plenty of work to be done in 2021 and I can’t wait to do it with you all.
Blwyddn Newydd Dda!
Stay excellent,
Hels
