CAMRA Jargon Buster

Acronyms/jargon used in the regional minutes and so forth

AA or AofA

The Articles of Association of The Campaign For Real Ale Limited. CAMRA is a private company limited by guarantee and like all companies in the UK, it must have a set of Articles which legally define the company’s structure and aims.

AGM – Annual General Meeting

All branches and regions must hold one of these once a year, but also used to mean the CAMRA National AGM and Members Weekend which moves around the country from year to year.

AO Area Organiser

An RD can appoint AO’s as ‘deputies’ to liaise with branches in a given area – often a county. This happens when a region is too big for an RD to be able to get branch mtgs etc.

Apple

A former semi-independent body within CAMRA which looked after the interests of orchard products (eg. cider). Apple was disbanded in 2020 when cider campaigning was integrated into CAMRA’s combined Real Ale, Cider and Perry Campaigning.

BIS Brewery Information System

CAMRA’s internal database on UK breweries and their beers

BLAG Brewery Liaison Advisory Group

The group comprising all BLCs

BLC Brewery Liaison Coordinator

Each CAMRA region has a BLC who is appointed by the NE. The BLC coordinates the activities of the BLOs who report to him/her

BLO Brewery Liaison Officer

A BLO works with a brewery to promote their cause and to act as a conduit between the brewery and CAMRA. BLOs can only be appointed or dismissed by the BLC. Normally; a branch will offer a BLO candidate when there’s a vacancy in one of ‘their’ breweries and the BLC will rubber-stamp this. A BLO can only be removed by their resignation, at the request of the brewery or by the BLC (ie a branch cannot unilaterally remove their BLOs)

Branches Committee

A powerful national committee comprising all sixteen RDs

CBoB Champion Beer of Britain

CAMRA’s competition to find the Champion Beer

COBAS CAMRA Online Branch Accounting System

An online package designed to make branch treasurers jobs easier than traditional spreadsheets. First introduced in 2017 and now used by most branches across the country.

CotY Club of the Year

See PotY for details

CPotY Cider Pub Of The Year

Competitions to find the top cider pub in branches and the region, similar to the PotY.

EPD External Policy Document

The EPS used to be a document which defined how CAMRA and its members interact with the outside world. As of 2021, it was replaced largely by the Campaigns Policy document.

GBBF

Great British Beer Festival – see gbbf.org.uk.

GBBF-W

Great British Beer Festival Winter – annual festival held in the Winter. To be held in Burton On Trent in 2023.

GBG

Good Beer Guide. Often followed by the year eg GBG23 – the GBG for 2023

HQ

CAMRA’s Head Office, located in St Albans, is often referred to as “HQ” for Head Quarters. While the Head Office is where CAMRA’s Chief Executive and the majority of the paid staff are based, CAMRA doesn’t have a head quarters as the board of directors is the NE who are all volunteers and are based around the county.

IPD Internal Policy Document

The IPD used to be a document that defined how CAMRA members and branches interact with each other. It was replaced in 2021 by a set of individual policy documents covering different aspects of the Campaign, grouped by the key committees responsible for managing policy.

MBCF – Manchester Beer & Cider Festival

The annual festival previously held at Manchester Central, organised by members from across the region.

Members’ weekend

A get-together open to all CAMRA members; comprising the national AGM and debates on motions to add, change or remove CAMRA policy. Elections to the NE take place at the members’ weekend

NE – National Executive

The twelve volunteer members who run CAMRA. They stand for re-election every three years, usually two or three in any given year. NE members are elected by those present at the National Members Weekend

NERDs or NE/RDs

The collective noun for the NE and the RDs

NERDS weekend

A quarterly get together of the NE and the RDs to discuss national and regional strategy

NWAF

National Winter Ales Festival. Former name of what is now Great British Beer Festival – Winter.

PotY – Pub of the Year

Every branch elects or should elect, a PotY. These PotYs can then go ahead into a regional round. The winner is the regional champion and then goes forward into the national competition against all the other regional winners (16 of).

The same competition runs to find the Club of the Year (CotY). Regional round PotYs are judged by members of the branches in the region, though a judge is barred from judging their own branch winner. National finalists are judged by NERDs

QFI – Quarterly Finance Information

A short snapshot of branch finances that are required to be sent to the RFO each quarter. This has largely been replaced by COBAS.

RCC

Regional Cider Coordinator. Apple’s rep to the region

RD – Regional Director

The RD is responsible for running their region. They are elected at a regional AGM for a period of office of either one or three years. The RD reports to the NE and is automatically a member of the branches committee

RFO – Regional Finance Officer

Each CAMRA region has, or should have, one or more RFOs responsible for managing the finances of the region

Region

CAMRA comprises a set of regions, 16 in total, covering the UK. Each region is managed by an RD and comprises a set of branches which run their local area.

RM / Regional Meeting

A meeting regularly convened and chaired by the RD . All CAMRA members are welcome to attend. Regional Officers are expected to attend. The RM comprises reports and other items of general interest across the region.


Greater Manchester Branch Codes

For use IT systems like WhatPub.com, each branch within CAMRA is allocated a three letter code. Some of these codes date back to the early days of CAMRA since when branches have divided into smaller branches, moved their boundaries or new branches have been created. Therefore the branch codes don’t always reflect the modern names of branches.

The codes for the nine branches of Greater Manchester Region are:

  • BOL – Bolton
  • CMA – Central Manchester
  • HIP – High Peak, Tameside and North East Cheshire
  • LAS – Wigan (originally Lancashire South branch)
  • LSE – South East Lancashire
  • MAN – Salford & District (originally Manchester branch, then North Manchester)
  • MAS – Stockport And South Manchester (originally Manchester South branch)
  • ROB – Rochdale, Oldham and Bury
  • TRA – Trafford & Hulme