Scotch Group

A few months ago, I assumed the role of Organizer for the Baltimore Scotch Sippers group on Meetup.  Aside from the membership fees for meetup, I thought it would be a fairly easy thing to organize and I was mostly right until this weekend.  We had an event on Thursday that went a little off the rails due to the antics of one attendee.  This person also caused a problem at our tasting in January, the same problem.

My attendee (let's call him/her "H") purchased a bottle from the bar that was holding the tasting.  It was sold at a discounted price as a special courtesy to our group.  H decided to open the bottle at the bar and offer shots to other attendees.  It was pointed out that this was not only illegal, in accordance with Baltimore City Laws, but also incredibly rude.  H did not care. 

Fast forward to Thursday, H arrives late.  In an attempt to catch up with everyone else, H reaches across the bar and pours his/her own drink.  The owner of the bar sees this and calls H out on it, reminding him/her about January in the process.  A verbal warning was issued and everyone moved on.  I started to distance myself from H as I was completely embarrassed to have him/her associated with our group.  About a half an hour later, I see the owner of the bar take a bottle away from H and return cash.

Apparently, H had purchased yet another bottle and proceeded to open it and offer shots to other patrons.  After the warning, the bar owner had no choice but to return the cost of the bottle (less the cost of the shots) and ask H to leave.  I felt that the owner was incredibly calm during the exchange and I had mad respect for him.  H, of course, feels that he/she has been targeted by the owner and has no concept of what he/she has done. 

So today, I have had to clean up some nasty messages on our meetup page and send out an e-mail to all of our members detailing what happened on Thursday and setting guidelines for future tastings.  I did not want to air all of H's personal business in front of the group, but he/she started accusing the bar and the owner of over charging and being crooked.  H told everyone to check their credit card statements and I had to address that in an equally public forum. 

The owner of that bar has been nothing but helpful to me and the group.  He has provided a free meeting space for us and sets up affordable tastings.  I know that it's a mutually beneficial relationship, but he doesn't have to do half of the things he does.  I really had to take a deep breath and wait to respond to H's messages because I consider the owner of the bar to be a friend.  I don't do well when I see that people are being unjustly treated and I do even worse when that person is a friend.