This is very much an outsiders point of view and may not therefore be entirely accurate however: As far as I can tell a) ACTA is or was (as mentioned in prev posts) an assoc for large roasters...They have however in the past 3 years or so been trying to drum up membership with a broader spectrum of the COFFEE (roasting) industry; b) AASCA is or was an assoc set up to kind of mirror the SCAA set up. My view (however naive) of this is that it is an assoc for the CAFE industry, the cafe wannabees (no offence intended, meaning people wanting to go into a cafe and have not yet done so), and the small specialty roaster wannabees (see prev explanation re meaning of "wannabee"). Seems to me in a theoretical sense the two should be amalgamated into one set up catering for all as per John's suggestion above, and presumably trying to do such a thing is how one assoc became 2 in the first place. Che? There is one slight problem (for me) in all this. I am not in the business of supporting any association that wants to sell itself by training and consulting to new members to teach them to go into competition with the existing members. You know, like having "roasting workshops". I have seen enough "cottage industry" roasters where coffee growers decide to buy a roaster and do their own. And as a consequence, isn't it lovely to see potentially good coffee ruined by totally bad roasting, and particularly by mimicking the american tradition of burning everything in site. I would rather see an association plugging away trying to get the various members from differing angles within the entire coffee industry, to go into partnerships together in the pursuit of excellence (good coffee), and this not necessarily achieved by taking money from people that should instead be encouraged to do their own job properly, rather than by encouraging them to go into areas where they have little or no knowledge and experience. And therefore, any growers out there wishing to look into a partnership (of sorts) where they do an excellent job of growing and processing, and my company will do an excellent job of roasting / blending / packaging etc,their green coffee can apply right here. I promise my company will not buy a coffee plantation, or attend any association workshops on the correct techniques for growing coffee plants! Cheers, FC. (non political in practice, not volunteeting to do anything).
