Emilio Lopez

[Emilio]

Dear Roasters Guild Members,

I want to start by extending a thanks to the Roasters Guild for the nomination, and congratulations to each of the other candidates for your work and success. This is an honor, and I am proud to be considered a candidate.

A few of the things that, I believe, would make me a valuable contributor to the Council.

I have been an active and consistent member of the Roasters Guild since it’s origins, and have built and developed effective relationships with many of the other members. My experiences within the coffee industry are broad, from building and developing nurseries within our plantations that I help to manage; to creating custom coffees for roasters and baristas.

Living and working in El Salvador, I have been able to host Roaster Guild trips to origin, while contributing to a better understanding of the experiences and realities of producers, millers, and exporters, as well as the overall development of coffee throughout its production. My experiences can help to provide insight into different methods of processing and their effects on the overall quality of coffees.

I will continue to provide a source of research and experimentation, while developing and sharing the conclusions of those experiments, through different sources of publishing and media. I am also able to use these findings to contribute to the development of curriculum and materials for potentials classes and workshops within the Roaster’s Guild.

I intend to offer the resources and facilities of a farm, mill, laboratory, and roastery in El Salvador, to the use of future Roasters Guild trips to origin and experiments held by it members.

With many areas of experience within the industry, I believe that I can help to cast a vision for the future of the coffee industry, while providing the resources, ideas, and commitment, to help the Roasters Guild to continue with its goal of promoting the history, fundamentals, art, and science of coffee roasting.

Some of the projects I'm currently working on can be viewed on the following blog.

http://cuatromcafes.com/SingleOriginCof ... /Blog.html

Hope this information and effort is useful to the roasting community.

Sincerely,

[Marty G Curtis]

Hello Emilio

I have a couple questions for you, answer as many as you like.

If elected how can you help or recommend to make the roaster certification program stronger so employers are willing to give time for their roaster to attend or even reimburse them?

How can you help make the roaster certification program stronger and have more meaning to your fellow guild members?

Is there any one thing that you feel we the guild can do better and how will be able to help us achieve this?
Does the company you work for have a problem with you sharing your views about roasting or cupping process?

Thanks you for running and look forward to your answers

Marty G Curtis

[Scapistrant]

Congrats Emilio,

How can we encourage the use and development of the roasters guild forum? This is a powerful (and low cost tool) to help each other connect on tons of levels. Even I don't use the forum as much as I should. What are some ideas that you have?

RG membership/retreats can be expensive for some people (even though we all know they are excellent resources in the industry!), what would you recommend the guild doing to developing and sustaining more support?

Thanks!

[Emilio]

Hello Emilio

I have a couple questions for you, answer as many as you like.

If elected how can you help or recommend to make the roaster certification program stronger so employers are willing to give time for their roaster to attend or even reimburse them?

How can you help make the roaster certification program stronger and have more meaning to your fellow guild members?

Is there any one thing that you feel we the guild can do better and how will be able to help us achieve this?
Does the company you work for have a problem with you sharing your views about roasting or cupping process?

Thanks you for running and look forward to your answers

Marty G Curtis

Hey Marty, thanks for your questions. Here are some thoughts on the
topics you mentioned.

First, in regards to the roasters certification programs; I
personally will go through the certification program completely, putting it as a top priority
from now on. I have actually taken several different clases and exams that would be
credited toward the certification, but up to now I have not submitted them
for the certification program. More could be done to give that program meaning,
which in turn would encourage guild members to work towards completing the program.
Right now, the courses are available primarily within Roasters Guild / SCAA events, however,
I think if you broaden the reach of those courses, meaning, open them
up to non-guild members or specifically make certain courses
accessible online or oversees; I think you could reach a bigger audience, because
it wouldn't be something only available twice or three times a year.
Secondly, I think we have to make sure that someone completing the
certification program is fully equipped to handle employment at any
level of the roasting business; as well as offering a faster way of
completing the courses. Again, if the courses are only offered at
specific events, and therefore only take place 2 two to three times a
year, the certification may take someone as many as three years to
complete. I believe these things, in turn will give companies
incentive to fund or reimburse their workers for attending and
completing the certification.

As a first step towards some of these things, we are sending one of
our employees to the Guatemala’n Roasters Guild Certification Level 1
course at Anacafe; an event that I think could be replicated in some producing countries,
and it could be taught by certified Guild-Members, which also could motivate us to get certified.

Again, thank you so much for your question. Feel free to ask more.
Emilio

[Emilio]

Congrats Emilio,

How can we encourage the use and development of the roasters guild forum? This is a powerful (and low cost tool) to help each other connect on tons of levels. Even I don't use the forum as much as I should. What are some ideas that you have?

RG membership/retreats can be expensive for some people (even though we all know they are excellent resources in the industry!), what would you recommend the guild doing to developing and sustaining more support?

Thanks!

Thanks so much for your questions Scapistrant,

I think a more interactive forum would attract more people. If it
could include people posting videos, short clips, as well as course options
(Roaster's Guild Certification for example), you could attract more
people to the site, and see more traffic. There are already good roasting, cupping, or origin trip videos out there.
I think the forum would be a great place to share these sort of clips.
I also believe classes at the retreat should be recorded and share them with members of the RG that
are members of the forums... that way we would get more people on the
forums and that will also encourage some people on assisting from
watching how deep and well structured classes really get. I don't
believe anything can replace the Guild retreats and events, however,
making certain courses and lectures presented at them, available
through the forum could definitely generate traffic, as well as
gathering support from folks who may not be able to attend the events
directly. This would certainly give folks a sense of involvement
within the guild, that they may not feel, having not attending the
events; and perhaps could open up avenues for them to participate in a
way that they may not feel capable of.

Thanks for your questions, and feel free to ask more.
Emilio