Regarding Members-Only Wine Event at Ray's Boathouse July 29th - Important Changes

Dear FWWS member,

Following our announcement of the Ray's event and blog posting, we were contacted by Captain Jennifer Skoda of the Washington State Liquor Control Board in regard to the $50 table fee we set for the event. She has indicated that this fee is an illegal extension of money from distributors (you) to a retailer (FWWS, who will be selling your wines at the wine store). Rather than trying to create a complicated work-around we have decided to concentrate our efforts on passage of initiative 1100 which would eliminate these silly "money's worth" restrictions from the statutes.

The Good News for you is that registration for the event will now be free to all member wineries. At the present time, we still have a few spaces available but we suggest you register immediately as the fee elimination should make entry even more attractive. As part of the reason for the table fee was for place-holding, please do not register for the event and reserve a space if you are not committed to being there.

One final note, many of you had agreed to provide a volunteer in lieu of your registration fee. We still need the help so please let us know if elimination of the fee will change your willingness to bring help. We will be contacting you soon with details on ticket sales so we can start advertising the event.

Thank you.

The Board