Meetings

The Society organises several meetings across the country each year, along with it’s main “National Meeting” which usually takes place at a different venue each September. Any member can organise a local meeting and the Society will support you by providing any brand new and recent issues it has received along with a selection of mats to be used in an auction. If you are interested in organising and holding a local meeting the contact us via the contacts form. We will get back to you and liaise with you about your needs and how we can support you.

So what happens at a meeting ? Well, usually the organiser will find a suitable venue, often a pub or a club that has enough room for c30-50 members along with space to spread “new issue” mats out on tables. Members usually arrive well before the start time and a signing-in list is maintained with members signing in as soon as they arrive. Nearly every member brings a bag of spare mats that they don’t want and a “drop-out” area is created where members just put all these mats. Anyone can delve through this growing pile anytime during the meeting and freely take anything they want – it’s a great way for newcomers to build up a collection.

Lots of intense swapping takes place between members and if you find yourself with a mat that other members are looking for you’ll soon find yourself with lots of swap offers. Members chat and swap and talk all things beermats throughout the meeting…..it’s all very informal.

The only formal parts are when someone announces the new issues are ready and members go up and pick through all the mats they want – at this stage, usually due to the extremely limited numbers of each copy, members can have 1 of each of the mats. Members go and choose in the order they signed in, the earliest members getting the first pick – often useful if there’s only a very small number of some of the mats !! Once every signed in member has had their turn, if there’s any left any member wanting extra copies can go and get some more.

Once the new issues has finished, someone will run an auction of the older and rarer mats that have been supplied by the Society. There’s usually a list available giving details of the mats and their respective catalogue number. Members get the opportunity to openly bid for any mat that they want – some go for pence……some go for pounds. More often than not there’s a raffle ticket sale ongoing throughout the day, usually beer related prizes with all monies going to a local charity of the venue.

All in all, meetings are well worth going to – you’ll be made very welcome as a new member and if you let the organiser know you’re coming they’ll probably give you lots of mats that remain at the end of the drop-out. You’ll meet lots of like-minded collectors, local contacts and often friends for life.