August 2020 Membership Update
/By Hylan Joseph
What now? We’re headed into August. What do we do? Where do we do it? How do we do it? 2020 arrived unhappy and continues to act like the spoiled child of the new millennia. Every time we think we’re getting a break or a breath of fresh air, 2020 rears its ugly head and starts a tantrum again. At this point I would not be surprised if either aliens landed, Bigfoot became a selfie junkie, or the Loch Ness monster started teaching surf lessons.
This is singularly the most difficult time I have ever seen in our industry and our world. It’s leagues worse than the coffee commodity surge in 2010 when businesses went into lockdown because green bean prices were surging, and we were just coming off one of the biggest recessions in US history. Businesses were tightening up their equipment budgets, pm budgets and pushing service off as far as they could to save money. With that event we at least had some certainty that it would come back, at some point. And it did. Now, daily, we are greeted with uncertainty and weirdness. We feel like we can come up for air for a bit then bam, 2020 needs us to burp it again.
There is hope. Our job as specialty coffee professionals is to ensure that the world gets its daily cup of coffee. We make sure that equipment works so it can keep the gears of the world turning by making sure it gets coffee. Without our commitment to fix this equipment, refurb it and maintain it, millions daily could go without that first morning cup. Imagine that for a minute. We may not be on the front lines saving lives but what we do is critical. Our industry may have taken its punches over the last few months but what I see and hear out in the ether is that our industry is moving forward, we can only come back stronger. What we do and how we do it may change, but there will always be a call for specialty coffee professionals and service techs to support and hold down the fort.
Daily, I am amazed at the altruism of people reaching out to support fellow industry members, working together and standing together during these times. I’m proud to see our industry face the future with bravery and certainty rather than floundering. I’m proud to be a member of the Specialty Coffee industry and I look forward to a strong future.