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The AWS is built upon a foundation of more deal and discount. We have done more than
than 170 local chapters, where our members 10 of these and they have been very succes-
meet regularly to taste wine and learn about sful. We will probably continue to do them
wine. Covid put an end to that. But what we even after the threat of covid passes. This has
saw was some chapters using the free version been a great help to the industry because they
of Zoom, and we saw others using tiny bottles sell wine and connect with consumers. The
to divide wine for tasting in advance and dis-
tributed it effectively. As you can imagine, the
cost of wine for each individual to purchase
would be very high.
The national organization, seeing some
chapters doing this, purchased an enterpri-
se version of Zoom that included 10 licenses
and we offered those licenses to any chapter
or group of members. Also, the AWS agreed to
purchase on behalf of chapters, as many as 8
small bottles for each of members. About two
dozen chapters picked up these bottles.
Another way we kept our members connec-
ted is through a private, secure social network
that we run on our website. It looks very much
like Facebook. We call it AWS Online Com-
munities. This helped people to interact with
other members.
We also teamed with wineries and wine
groups in the industry to offer national virtu-
al tasting – usually through Zoom. We have
had hundreds of members take advantage of
these and the industry partners appreciate it.
Of course, participants have to purchase the
wine, but the producer usually offers a special
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