Dissatisfaction Brewing About Ommegang’s Handling of Volunteers

By MONICA CALZOLARI
COOPERSTOWN

Several local charitable organizations have expressed disappointment regarding Brewery Ommegang’s handling of volunteers this year.

According to Stacie Haynes, executive director of the Susquehanna Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the SQSPCA and other not-for-profits depend on fundraising and donations to accomplish their missions. Haynes explained that being asked by Ommegang officials to help pour beer at their summer concerts has been a great opportunity to raise money for the shelter and have fun while helping a local business. Other not-for-profit organizations were also invited to help, in return for tips.

In 2023, Ommegang invited Cooperstown Rotarians to help pour beer at one of its concerts.

“We saw it as a public service. We received $2,008.00 and some cents in 2023,” said Bill Waller, Rotary Club of Cooperstown president. So, this summer, when Ommegang asked the Rotary Club to help check IDs for the Cake concert on June 22, the Rotarians gladly agreed. Checking IDs means asking to see a person’s driver’s license and putting an arm band on them to indicate whether they are of drinking age. About 25 Rotarians volunteered at the Cake concert.

The verbal agreement between the Rotary Club of Cooperstown secretary and Ommegang was that Rotary would split the tips with the volunteers from Friends of the Feral 50/50 that night. But that is not what happened.

According to Waller, Friends of the Feral took all the tips home with them, then called Waller and said, “We have your money.” When Waller drove to Oneonta, Friends of the Feral representatives handed him a check for $500.00 made out, incorrectly, to the Oneonta Rotary Club. Waller said he was shocked at the amount of the check, and he found it odd that 50 percent of the tips came to exactly $500.00, given the size of the crowd. There was never any discussion of a percentage based on how many volunteers worked the event, he said. He had to drive to the credit union and have the check made out to the Cooperstown club.

Tom Russo, a former Rotary Club of Cooperstown president, was one of those volunteers.

“We did not pour beer at the Cake concert this summer, but instead were told we would be collecting tickets and checking IDs,” he wrote. “We were also told we would be splitting the beer tips evenly with a feral cat rescue group from Oneonta. They would be doing the pouring. We were told that Ommegang staff would take charge of the money and count it. That didn’t happen. The cat group took all the money with them. They claimed that they were told they got two-thirds of the tips, not half. We had to rely on their count and go to Oneonta to pick up our reduced share. We feel we were lied to and taken advantage of by Ommegang and will not be ‘volunteering’ again.”
SQSPCA officials also noticed changes.

“The SQSPCA has been pouring beer at Brewery Ommegang concerts since at least 2016,” recalled Haynes. The agreement was verbal, never in writing. In 2019, the shelter earned $4,469.00 in tips, pouring beer at the Deaf Cab for Cutie concert. Last year, $3,200.00 in beer tips from the Modest Mouse show was split between the SQSPCA and the Angel Network of Cooperstown.

“In the past, we never checked IDs or took tickets. Volunteers came, poured beer and we got all the tips,” Haynes said.

This year, when SQSPCA volunteers arrived on September 20 to pour beer for the Rainbow Kitten Surprise concert, they were asked to check IDs. Haynes declined, knowing full well that concert-goers do not make donations for getting checked into concerts. Instead of pouring beer at the September concert, SQSPCA staff and volunteers helped move the poured beer and hand it to customers as a way to expedite the lines.

“We showed up in our SQSPCA T-shirts and with donation buckets labeled SQSPCA, and asked the crowd to be generous, saying all proceeds were going to the SQSPCA,” Haynes said.

When the buckets were getting full, a staff member attempted to empty one—as they had always done at previous shows—and was told that the tips belonged to the Ommegang staff.

Paul Puglia is a frequent SQSPCA volunteer.

“I’m writing this e-mail about a concern I have with just recently volunteering for the SQSPCA. I volunteer for the shelter to help them when Ommegang has concerts. This last concert, the shelter did not receive any tips from volunteering. It’s to my understanding that when we volunteer, all tips will go to the shelter. If the shelter is not getting the money for my and everybody else’s hard work and time, why am I volunteering? This will be the last time I am going to volunteer for any Ommegang concerts,” Puglia said in an e-mail on October 24.

And, from an anonymous volunteer, on October 18, “I volunteered at a concert recently at Ommegang for the SPCA. Those of us who volunteered were all shocked to hear that the SPCA was not receiving the tips collected that evening, but instead would get an amount deemed fair by Ommegang later. This is not how it has worked in the past. When I asked the Susquehanna SPCA how much they ended up receiving, they said that no money has been received so far. We are incredibly disappointed in this.”

Haynes was promised a contribution of $1,000.00 to the shelter in recognition of its volunteers’ service to Ommegang at that concert.

When asked by phone to comment on this situation, Gary Buell, general manager of Ommegang’s Tap House since April 2023, appeared to be dumbfounded.

“We have a great relationship with the SQSPCA. I don’t know where this is coming from. We recently named a beer for a dog named Mojo, and 10 percent of all proceeds will go to the shelter.”

Buell is referring to the shelter’s “Fur-tual Reality Dog Show, conducted online from August 19 through September 25, wherein “The winner will have their dog’s photo on a can (or bottle) of Brewery Ommegang’s experimental beer, which can be purchased at Brewery Ommegang the month of October. 10% of these beer sales will go back to the Susquehanna SPCA.”

“As of November 19, we have not received the $1,000.00 check for the September 20 concert,” Haynes said, but she is “confident they will provide us with the $1,000.00 in recognition of the hard work of our volunteers.”

Buell said cutting checks takes time due to the paperwork involved.

While the SQSPCA volunteers remain disgruntled, Haynes confirmed that the experimental beer component of the virtual dog show is moving ahead as planned, and she looks forward to “continuing our partnership with Ommegang.”

“This is not a professional way to conduct business,” Puglia said. “I have heard they [Ommegang] have changed management and unfortunately people don’t see the big picture of helping each other out, but what I see is only greed. I do many things for the shelter, but this one is for the books.”

Waller concurred. “As president of the Cooperstown Rotary Club, I was very disappointed at the result. It soured our relationship. I’d like to preserve a good relationship with Ommegang. They have been very supportive of our community for years.”

Waller added that the Cooperstown Rotary Club has held its last two annual dinner meetings at Ommegang and were very pleased with the service. Unfortunately, the Rotarians from this 100-year-old service organization are not pleased with the way the concert volunteer effort was handled.

Buell had this to say regarding the Cake concert: “I wish somebody from the Rotary had mentioned something to me so I could have addressed it. This is the first I am hearing about it. Dan Smalls, who booked CAKE, was in charge of the ticketing. That was not even Ommegang’s responsibility.”

Clearly, money is a touchy subject. Verbal agreements can lead to miscommunication and unspoken expectations.

“Written agreements between all parties, moving forward, will go a long way toward righting any perceived wrongs,” Haynes said.