Last week I was speaking with Stephanie Eads-Paul, director of operations for Seufert Winery (in Dayton, Oregon), about a social media seminar targeted to the Oregon wine industry that the Tasting Room Managers Network is putting on this Monday, April 11.

I wasn’t familiar with the Tasting Room Managers Network (TRMN), but it sounded interesting, so I asked Stephanie for more information. Launched three years ago, the TRMW was set in place primarily by Mich Nelson when she decided that Oregon needed a professional networking group to share information, ideas and best practices

According to their mission statement, “TRMN members represent not only their individual wineries and vineyards, but help promote the unique viticultural and winemaking practices of the entire Oregon wine industry through education and hospitality.”

Stephanie said she was a part of the very first meeting and has been involved in the group every step of the way. She said Mich and others in the group requested that people volunteer as the steering committee. Mich Nelson, Katie McClellan, Dave Walker, Steve Guy, Andrew Turner and Stephanie volunteered and then organized and hosted their first Tasting Room Associates Training Seminar on April 7, 2009.

“At that point we found that it was going to be necessary to make the group more formal by going through the process of forming a 501c6,” Stephanie wrote to me. “The steering committee became the first board. We host 6 meetings a year (every other month) focusing the current challenges, sales and marketing, technology, compliance, industry partners, wine and vineyard education etc."

This past December, the TRMN had their first real elections and its first elected board is now currently serving. The network relies on the memberships comprised of wine industry professionals as well as local businesses that interact with the wine industry (restaurants, hotels, B&Bs, event planners, florists, caterers and more) "for their input to help shape growth," Stephanie said.

Sounds like a great resource for the Oregon wine industry and by the looks of the agenda, their upcoming full-day event on social media this Monday looks like it will be good, too. Check out the details on our Winebusiness.com events page. If anyone is attending, send us a comment next week and let us know how it went.