April Showers and Other Beard Care Tips

Our April meeting was a low-key affair but still boasted double-digit attendance even if you don't count people that just walked through The Village while we were there (Dean) and people working that would have rather been sharing the conversation with us (Sarah, Curly).

We had hoped to get the directors from the B/CS Marathon and the Armadillo Dash to come out and share some of their insights with us as we think about planning a combination beard contest/run to benefit local charities such as Scotty's House. Unfortunately, neither was available for our meeting (Chris was just kicking off the 52-hour baseball game that would set a new world record and raise over $50K for Mercy Project).

What makes me happiest about even these smaller meetings is that we continue to see new faces and find new topics to explore. The primary topic of conversation at this meeting was grooming habits. There was general consensus that we aren't growing facial hair because we're lazy. While none of us seemed to buy in fully to the perspective endorsed by Jack Passion (I brought the inscribed copy of The Facial Hair Handbook I received as swag for supporting Kickstarter campaign for the Craft Beerds Book) that might include coloring ones beard--Cinnamon and sugar, indeed!--we are not slouches when it comes to care of the manly shag that adorns our faces.

We discussed cleaning and conditioning regimens (I use the botanical beard bar and Jenulence oil from Beard Care Products) as well as styling (Kenn uses Lucky Tiger Mustache Wax). The conversation also included great insight from Robert about the implication of wearing a beard in some professions. For example, as a welder he had to be fitted with a respirator for certain OSHA-regulated projects that required him either to be clean-shaven or to coat his beard in vaseline. It is amazing the kinds of sacrifices people will make!

One of those sacrifices was posing for a group photo with a group of young women leaving The Village who thought our "beard convention" was cool. Still looking for that photo to show up on our facebook page.

Till next time!

March Madness

The club keeps growing! Great to meet new folks and keep growing the whiskered community.

While I failed to write down any of Swann's important utterances, there is a lot of good stuff to report.

1. We voted to approve a club mission statement (thanks to Jordan's excellent word-smithing): "To unite beard and moustache enthusiasts and to promote facial hair through community improvement."
2. Having established that we are interested in community improvement, we started hatching plans for a combination November ABMC run and competition with an exhibition competition this Spring (madness, right!).

The ABMC proudly displays our Beard Tokens - photo courtesy: Jay Robinson

If you're asking yourself, "where was I during all this awesomeness?" Don't fear: we'll be meeting again next month, if not sooner. Be sure to check out the Facebook page for timely updates: http://www.facebook.com/AggielandBeardMoustacheClub

Beer & Beards are on the Agenda Tonight!

Howdy!

Thanks to everyone for your continued enthusiasm and interest! We've now had three meetings and at least a dozen people at each.

It was a little disappointing that none of our female members showed up this week, but we persevered and made some progress toward some semblance of organization. Thanks to Katie, we had an example constitution to look at and an important question to answer: what is our mission?

The most important things that we felt the ABMC should provide are: camaraderie, an opportunity to improve the image of facial hair, the opportunity to enjoy good beer, and to give back to the community. We guys hashed this out for the better part of two hours, moving outside when the loud music and glittery lights got to be too much. We were lucky enough to have an expert join up with us on Thursday night; Logan has actually had a class on mission statement writing and helped guide our discussion with his expertise. For the enjoyment and edification of those who weren't present, here are several proposed mission statements that were drafted. Check out the Facebook page for discussion and voting on these.

1. With beards and beer, we strive to improve (promote) the public image of facial hair and give back to the community.
2. To enjoy and promote facial hair while (through) giving back to (bettering) the community.
3. To unite beard and mustache enthusiasts and to promote facial hair through community improvement (bettering the community).

As promised, I also had some official ABMC swag for our charter members.

Kristy Petty (owner of The Village) also stopped by and talked with the group for a bit. Kristy is pleased that we've become a fixture each month and is considering some kind of member discount for our monthly meetings. Perhaps we can claim this by showing our Beard Tokens?

Jim performs some chemical magic and highlights (but does not light) his impressive beard in the process.

Second Meeting & Progress

ABMC club held its second meeting on January 10. Though slightly less well-attended, we were happy to see new faces!

In addition to a boisterous game of Settlers of Catan, we took a few minutes to revisit the business of the club. Jon brought the World Beard and Moustache Association definition of a club for review, and the group voted to pursue a club structure that would satisfy these requirements:

Definition of a Club

1. Minimum of ten registered members.
2. Executive board consisting of president, vice president and secretary/treasurer.
3. Established bylaws stating the purpose of the club, the executive structure, member descriptions including qualification, fees and meeting structures.
4. Regular meetings a minimum of four times per year.
5. Registration with the government where it is required, naming the board members and announcing changes in the president and bylaws.
6. Annual general meeting with election of officers.
7. Membership fee.

For a club to qualify as a member of the WBMA, that club must have been established for at least two years, submit a “club statement” and meet four of the seven items listed above.

 In particular, we decided that items 1-4 were eminently doable. We also decided to wait until the club was better established before considering the issue of dues.

Two members volunteered to draft bylaws for review at a future meeting, and we also decided that we should add a position of historian to the executive board structure.

We determined that our regular meeting should remain on the first Thursday of the month at The Village Cafe, but that we also wanted to meet more often to socialize, so the members will post these hangouts to the Facebook page as they are scheduled.

Beard Token. I Get It.

Given the great reaction to the Beard Token door prizes at our first meet & greet, I thought others might appreciate this reaction from The Doctor of Manliness (with apologies for reblogging the whole thing...it's just so succinct):

When I first heard of the existence of a Beard Token I knew I needed one.  What it symbolized needed no explaining. What it means is irrelevant to you if you don't already know. If you are one of the "Chosen", you know its meaning without being told. If you have to ask, you may never know. Men will understand.  The kind of Man who stands out in a snowstorm rubbing snow on his bare chest, laughing up at the sky just for the pure joy and amazement of being alive will understand. Bearded men who live life with the gusto of the vikings, they get it. The time of the Beard Token has arrived my friends.

See the original here.