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THE LAST YEAR HAS BEEN AN EXCITING ONE for the Barista Guild of America (BGA). In the spring, we refined our vision and mission statements to better reflect who we currently are and what we hope to be: one of the world's most important networks for the professional barista. We pursue that concept through our duty of providing baristas a community dedicated to innovating, sharing, and demonstrating best practices in coffee preparation. The following is a recap of the last 12 months and all that we've done and are currently doing in the pursuit of that goal. Barista Camp In the summer of 2012, we brought the BGA Barista Camp to Pembroke, Va., marking the first session to take place outside the West Coast, and the first year we held multiple camp events. The addition of a second Barista Camp was due to the success of the previous West Coast camps and our desire to fulfill our members' requests to make the events more accessible to baristas in other parts of the country. In many ways, Barista Camp (formerly known as Camp Pull-AShot) has come to encapsulate everything we are working toward within our vision. BGA mission concepts like innovation, knowledge sharing, and demonstration of best practices are commonplace among baristas who attend camp. Through the team challenges, certificate courses, lectures, round-table discussions, and classes in subjects outside of just coffee preparation, Barista Camp is providing the professional barista with growth opportunities in both knowledge and relationships. One of the chief benefits of camp is the opportunity to engage with folks who represent every part of the industry: café owners, importers, producers, educators, and, of course, baristas. Looking ahead to the future of Barista Camp, we will continue to bring this event to various regional venues around the country to best serve our membership; in fact, we just wrapped up a sold-out summer camp at Delevan, Wisc., the first time we've hosted Barista Camp in the North Central region. Upcoming camps will continue to provide the professional barista with an opportunity to pursue BGA professional certification through courses such as Intro to Sensory Analysis and TurboCharging Your Café Sales, and to engage with fellow passionate coffee professionals, as well as the chance to play with some of the best equipment in the industry. If you haven't been to camp yet, we welcome you to the fall 2013 Barista Camp, which will take place in Palm Springs, California. TED & The BGA Another exciting thing that happened for the BGA this last year was our involvement in the coffee service at the West Coast TED event. The nonprofit began in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from the three worlds of Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED). We knew this event would provide our members a great opportunity to collaborate and work with other baristas in a café type environment, as well as give us the chance to share specialty coffee with a very influential community of thought leaders. The organization of the service proved to be an awesome exercise in collaboration with the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) and the Roaster's Guild. Coffees were curated by the Roasters Guild and served to TED attendees by BGA members via five state-of-the-art coffee installations located throughout the TED campus in Long Beach, Calif., as well as two installations at the TEDActive conference in Palm Springs. It was an incredible event that offered not only meaningful interactions with each other but with the TED attendees, as well. We look forward to doing it again in the fall of 2013 and having more of our members experience this unique opportunity. Certifications BGA certificate programs have also seen a huge amount of positive activity this year, the most exciting being that the SCAA is pursuing accreditation of the BGA certificate program. What this will mean for BGA Level 1 and 2 certificate holders is a higher level of industry recognition that ultimately could lead to better job, promotion, and compensation opportunities for baristas, and a network for café owners to use in sourcing employees. This goes a long way toward creating a common language in our collective workplaces and creating internationally recognized skills for a barista to put on his or her resumé. The amount of time and effort that folks have put in to building and rebuilding our classes so that they meet the criteria for being accredited is unbelievable. Ildi Revi, the SCAA's education manager, has been the driving force behind this effort. Also, Dan Streetman, our current past chair, and Lorenzo Perkins, our current BGA education committee chair, have been major contributors to this project. Another big item in our education development is the recent addition of an online testing system. As of June 1, the SCAA has been conducting all knowledge tests for certificate programs, including BGA certificate programs, in a secure online format. This new digital system allows for easier participant access to tests as well as faster turnaround times for reporting of results and awarding of credits and certificates. The new online format will also allow participants all over the world—even those that cannot attend events—to take BGA knowledge tests when it is convenient for them in the comfort of their own home or business. The official launch of this new system occurred at the Barista Camp this past June. Streamlining of the BGA Executive Council Our leadership structure also evolved this year to better meet the needs of our rapidly growing membership and ensure a strong, diverse group of council members. The BGA Executive Council (EC) was expanded to include up to 15 elected officials, and a working subcommittee structure was created in support of Guild initiatives and includes an education committee, a membership committee, and an events committee. Each of the operational committees has at least two EC members serving as chair and vice chair of the committees. These operational committees have given us the ability to focus more on individual areas, be more productive, and include more of our members in the process. Currently our Education Committee is chaired by Lorenzo Perkins and vice-chaired by Miguel Vicuna. Our Membership Committee is chaired by Colin Whitcomb and vice-chaired by www.baristamagazine.com 77