KCBS October 2019 Board Agenda

Kansas City Barbeque Society
Board of Directors’ Meeting Agenda
October 9, 2019
Roll Call: 
Dennis Polson, Alan Sellers, Candy Weaver, Randy Bigler, David Qualls, Richard Fergola, Haymo Gutweniger, Myron Berry, Ralph Williams.
KCBS Office:  Carolyn Wells, Emily Detwiler, Kim Collier
Board pledge:
                Recognizing barbeque as America’s cuisine, the mission of the Kansas City Barbeque Society is to celebrate, teach, preserve and promote barbeque as a culinary technique, sport and art form.
                I accept my duties as a KCBS director to further the KCBS mission so that truth, justice, excellence in barbeque and the American way of life may be strengthened and preserved forever.
Membership Requests to Address the Board:   None
Minutes of Last Meeting
David Qualls: I move to accept minutes of the September 18, 2019 Regular Meeting
Financial Statements
Myron Berry:   Attached is the August 2019 financial report.  Please accept this report.
Contest Report – Kim Collier
Event_Name  Begin_Date  End_Date  City State
2nd Annual Qlathe BBQ Championship  3/13/2020 3/14/2020 Olathe KS
5th Black Forest Smoke & Wine Festival 7/18/2020 7/19/2020 Bad Bellingen  
6th BBQ Bulls Championship  5/2/2020 5/3/2020 Salzburg  
Beer,Fries & BBQ-The Winter Edition  11/30/2019 12/1/2019 Helshoven  
Bordertown BBQ Brawl 7/17/2020 7/18/2020 Sault Ste Marie MI
Brew'n'Q Invitational  5/22/2020 5/23/2020 Coalville, Leicestershire  
Brew'n'Q Open 5/23/2020 5/24/2020 Coalville, Leicestershire  
Downtown BBQ Showdown (BACKYARD ONLY) 5/29/2020 5/30/2020 Meridian MS
Eastern BBQ Contest 2020-Day 1 4/10/2020 4/11/2020 MEERBEKE  
Eastern BBQ Contest 2020-Day 2 4/11/2020 4/12/2020 MEERBEKE  
Farm Meat De Vaartse Hoeve" BBQ Contest " 9/12/2020 9/13/2020 Dongen  
Glowing Austria 2020 4/4/2020 4/5/2020 Wels  
I Love Barbecue & Music Festival  7/3/2020 7/5/2020 Lake Placid NY
KCBS International BBQ contest Vuur en Vlees 10/24/2020 10/25/2020 Liesselseweg, Deurne  
Kora Kare For Kids Ride-In and BBQ Competition  8/22/2020 8/23/2020 Hiram ME
Lakeland Pig Festival 1/24/2020 1/25/2020 Lakeland FL
Marietta River City BBQ 4/24/2020 4/25/2020 Marietta OH
Mission Q (Backyard Only) 11/22/2019 11/23/2019 Tuscumbia AL
Ozarks BBQ Fest 4/24/2020 4/25/2020 Springfiled MO
Shawnee Great Grillers State Championship 9/25/2020 9/26/2020 Shawnee KS
Smoke in the Spring 4/10/2020 4/11/2020 Osage City KS
Speed & Feed BBQ Cook-Off & Car Show 4/3/2020 4/4/2020 Darlington SC
The Best Dam BBQ Contest at Smithville Lake 4/10/2020 4/11/2020 Smithville MO
The Kansas City BBQ Competition  1/3/2020 1/4/2020 St.George UT
TN River BBQ Battle & Music Fest 3/27/2020 3/28/2020 Savannah TN
W.E.S.T. Winter Extreme South Tyrol BBQ Contest 1/18/2020 1/19/2020 Rein in Taufers BZ
Need Board Approval –None Submitted
Sanctioning Report:
Myron Berry:      SANCTIONING COMMITTEE MEETING OCT 1, 2019
Committee members in attendance were Candy Weaver, Randy Bigler, Haymo Gutweniger, Kim Collier and Myron Berry. Meeting began at 12:05 pm.
Kim reported that there were no conflicts of dates of contests at this time.
At last month’s Board of Directors meeting, an Organizers committee as an ad hoc committee under Sanctioning was approved. The committee is currently being formed as Randy is contacting a few organizers as possible committee members.
At our last committee meeting, we discussed adding a possible Pro-Am series. We continued this discussion today with the pros and cons of having another division. The general consensus was that at this time another sanctioned series would not be needed. Discussion followed about trying to promote the Guinea Pig contests. With the meats being provided at a Guinea Pig contest, the costs of cooks competing would be lower than a regular contest.
At our August meeting we looked at increasing the fee per team for a Master series for 2021 and we had discussed leaving the Master series sanctioning fee at $ 350 and increasing the fee per team. Last year’s Sanctioning committee raised the contest fee and fee per team for Backyard Series with the sanctioning fee raised from $200 to $250 and the fee per team raised from $5 to $8 that was effective January 1, 2019.  At today’s discussion on increasing fees for a Master series the committee believes a fee per team increase is needed as there has not been a fee increase in Master series contests in 10 years. The costs of contests have increased in the past several years and this would help to offset these additional costs. The committee recommends leaving the Master series sanctioning fee at $350 and increasing the fee per team from $12 to $15 to be effective January 2021.
 
Meeting adjourned at 12:44pm.
 
 
Marketing Company Report- First Club Marketing:
 
The following report is for the month of September and includes the KCBS, social media outlets performance. This report reflects the dates as requested by the KCBS Board of Directors
 
The GAC tour for 2019 is already well underway, we have submitted all documents for and to the Brand Partners most every Brand Partner agreement with KCBS requires monthly or bi-annually impact reports be generated and sent as well as making sure deliverables are completed on behalf of KCBS for each partner.
FCM is in full 2020 sales mode for the GAC tour as well as additional customized programs to expand on current partnerships as well as bring in new ones.
 
GACT has been a successful “Flagship” program for KCBS for 12 years. This program has always been completely sold and profitable in all 12 years of its existence. All conversations in pushing forward for 2020 show great potential and FCM is very confident that year 13 will follow in the footsteps of the past two years under our guidance and be another near record, or record-breaking year for brand partner buy ins.
 
This report is a brief summarization of the full report submitted to Carolyn Wells the KCBS Executive Director, Emily Detwiler the KCBS C.E O. and the SM-MS Committee as directed by the KCBS BOD. Much more detailed information is contained in that full report.
 
First Club Marketing Report for
KCBS Marketing/Social Media KCBS September 2019
(Web Stats for 9/1/19 – 9/30/19)
Total page views for Dates:                          150,953 (August)               184.487 (September)                 33,534+
 
Total Unique Users for Dates:                 35,304 (August)                             35,228 (September)                      
 
 
 
 
Time per Visit: 4m-23s    

 
Great American Cookout Tour
2019 Schedule is much larger reach than in any previous years. In 2018 the event reach was roughly 1.7m event         attendees, 2019 is a projected 2.9m. The first 17 event stops are completed with 3 remaining
 
The National Turkey Federation's Turkey Smoke
The five events have been completed and received a great reception by the BBQ teams, the last round for 2019 was in Salisbury, NC on 9-20-19 at the Tilley Harley- Davidson Biker Blues BBQ Rally and BBQ Classic
 
Cabo Wabo Tequila, CABORITA
We have completed 16 of the 26 rounds and all have gone very smoothly with fabulous response and support
 
Tito’s Vodka (Brisket Program)
       We have completed 5 or 10 events with added Prize purse funds to the Beef Brisket category winners
 
Print Media Potential Reach for KCBS                       45,149,121              48,352,193         203,072                                                                                         .45%+
 
 
As of 8-28-19             As of 8-27-19                                     Difference
 
  • Twitter Followers:
17,489 17,618 129 .7%+
  • Twitter Impressions:
68,853 64,361 -4,492 6.5%-
  • Twitter Potential Reach
661,542 612,114 -49,428 7.5%-
  • Instagram Followers:
12,753 14,027 1,274 10%+
  • Instagram Impressions
369,800 143,511 -226,289 61.2%-
  • Facebook total Likes:
86,604 86,950 346 .4%+
  • Total Audience:
116,846 118,950 2,104    1.8%+
  • Facebook Impressions:
784,481 487,183 -297,298 37.9%-
  • Facebook Post Clicks:
25,388 18,631 -6,757 26.6%-
  • Facebook Reactions:
8,777 5,570 -3,207 36.5%-
  • Facebook Engagements
37,169 25,376 -11,793 31.7%-
 
 
Social Media / Member Liaison Committee: *Note- This Committee is charged with communication, education, marketing and membership issues. 
Alan Sellers:
Committee Report our phone call meeting on Oct 7th conference call:  SM-MScommittee@kcbs.us Sept 9th 2019 chat, Monday, at 4:00 pm Kansas City time:
 Karrin Murphy , Randall Bowman, Emily Detwiler, Richard Fergola,  Alan Sellers,
 (Marketing), (Social Media), (Member Services).
Notes from our committee discussion:
Membership Counts.
We are currently 17,414 Members Down 93 from last month.
New Members: 260 this month, down 39
Re-New Members: 816 this month, up 65
Non-Renew: 378 this month, down 124
Lifetime: 1923 this month, up 13
International Members: 2166 this month, down 41
Countries represented: 41 this month, up 1
Sammye has been approving all request for the members to join the official Facebook page. “Official Judges Facebook Group” new Members approved in the last 28 days 78.
Total membership on this Facebook group in 1,251.
The ambassador program going forward has many questions to be resolved.
Management report from FCM sent in under a different email.
International Committee:
Wayne Lohman:
Summer 2019 has been a very busy time for the KCBS International Board of Managers with trips to Mexico, Finland, Costa Rica, Northern Ireland, and Poland.  83 BBQ events scheduled for this year in the 41 countries where we have KCBS membership.  International growth for the past 9 years is beyond our expectations.
Summer air travel is difficult for the IBOM in that we fly standby to keep the trips affortable for new organizers who have difficulty in getting sponsorship for their events.  Sponsors are reluctant to commit funds to an event that is new in their country and most have never seen or heard of a BBQ contest.
Northern Ireland Foods was an excellent sponsor for us at the largest festival in N. Ireland, Celtic Smoke at Dalriada.  This festival took place at Glenarm Castle which is located a few miles from Belfast and the filming site of The Game of Thrones.  Michael Duffy, contest organizer and Christine Cousins of NI Foods worked tirelessly putting this first-time event together that included both a CBJ Class and Contest.  It was the intentions of the organizers to keep the first-year contest manageable with only 10 teams, from 5 countries, including the US.  Plans are already underway for 2020 event to include more sponsors from NI Foods.
Our last trip of the Summer brought us to Poland with the opportunity to visit different areas of the Country with events in both Gdansk and Warsaw.  Grzegorz Kazubski and his staff did an outstanding job arranging our tours, classes, sponsorship meetings, and a very unusual contest site for our second 2 Polish events. 
While in Gdansk we met with representatives of Amberfest, a large beer festival held at the city soccer stadium and possible site for a BBQ contest and beer pairing in 2020.  The following day, we were treated to a wonderful dinner of Polish Sausages and local regional dishes, an evening harbor boat ride and a guided tour through the City and War Museum.
Our CBJ Class in Warsaw, held at the Bellotto Hotel, a 4-star boutique hotel which turned their kitchen and staff over to us.  Our first class brought KCBS 38 new judges, mainly team members and professional chefs who compete.  We thought we might have the opportunity to work with the US Embassy in Warsaw but due to a visit by the While House, all discussions were dropped for this visit.
The contest site was in Julinek, Poland, at a former winter circus retreat that housed circus animals and performers.  Initially, we were to judge in individual tiger cages, but it would have been too difficult to get the entries to the judges.  Our CBJ class consisted of 28 judges from Poland and Lithuania.  This made a total of 66 new members from this trip, one of which was a Life-time Member!
23 teams competed in this first contest from 8 different countries.  It’s surprising to us to see teams from surrounding countries compete where gasoline prices are in excess of $5 a gallon.
The awards ceremony was held in a Big Circus Tent setting with flashing lights, loud music and billowing smoke greeting the winners of each category and overall.  It was a circus setting for the BBQ Awards, unlike anything we have ever done.
While in Poland we discussed new contests opportunities in Portugal and Lithuania.  We have already received an invitation to work with the US Embassy Public Affairs Officer in Lithuania for several events they would like a partnership with us.  Our contact in Portugal works for Weber-Stephens and wants us to work with major retail stores throughout the country.  Weber Cooking Academy’s are very popular throughout Europe and ideal for our BBQ classes.
2019 has been the busiest year for the Board of Managers to date.  Our last trip of the year will be in Brazil.  KCBS has sanctioned the Brazilian National Cookoff in Sao Paulo for November.  There will be a judging class prior to the contest.
We already have 6 trips scheduled for 2020 in Panama, Lithuania, Mexico, Finland Nova Scotia, and N. Ireland.  Nova Scotia has already sanctioned their contest Atlantic Canada Championship BBQ Festival in mid-August.  This event will also include a CBJ Class.
3 of those trips involve work with the US Embassy’s which always gives us other opportunities beside classes and contests.  We have ongoing discussions with 2 countries in South America and Japan and South Korea.
CBJ Committee Report:
Dennis Polson:    KCBS CBJ Committee Meeting
                                                            September 30, 2019 7:30 pm
 
Present: Dennis Polson, Chair; Ralph Williams, Co-chair; Linda Polson, Recording Secretary; Becky Johnson, Carl Parrish, Maxine Kilgore, Alan Rothrock, Marge Plummer, Candy Weaver, KCBS President; Carolyn Wells, KCBS Executive Director; and Emily Detwiler, KCBS CEO.
Dennis opened the meeting & gave a report on Cook's sign-up initiative for Frank Gonzales, explaining that we have a list of 87 teams in 32 states who have signed up.  Dennis also stated that he has been contacted by several judges for cooks contact information.
Dennis reported that the Organizer survey remains in the queue with Park Road.
He also reported that the BOD gave approval for CBJ awards at the annual banquet. Dennis said that 3 nominations have been submitted to date and urged committee members to submit nomination applications to Ralph & Linda by October 31st so the committee can review & make selection(s) by November 30th. Emily said that time line will give ample time to order trophies, etc.
The CBJ meeting at annual meeting in January was discussed at length.  Dennis reached out to Park Road & IO team about giving presentations & is also waiting to hear from Randy about schedule for free Table Captain's Class.  Carolyn will follow up with Duluth Trading about apparel.  The committee discussed providing a 2020 pin to attendees & having a 5-10 minute session on the Ambassador program.  Frank suggested having a short session, possibly a video about how important judges are to the lifeblood of KCBS; Emily said that it is feasible to do that for the CBJ meeting at banquet, as well as other social media venues.
Dennis has received several questions/concerns about errors in the MCBJ test & practice test and requested that committee members review both documents & send input to him so corrections can be made.
The meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm with next meeting scheduled for October 28th at 7:30 CDT.
Rep Committee
Randy Bigler:  A short Rep Meeting will be held at the Banquet on Saturday morning. 
 Technology Committee
David Qualls: Various modifications continue to be implemented for the Website including the default view for event searches.
Discussion and planning is underway for a table performance report to be on the website alongside the results for contests.

The Tech Committee is currently discussing the contents of a  Request For Proposals, (RFP) for a seating program to better utilize data accumulated.
 
Event Committee:  *Note: Event Committee is charged with Banquet, Invitational, Team of Year, and Great American Cookout  
Randy Bigler:      Event Committee Meeting
Banquet - Menu tasting at the Argosy went well. 
TOY - Updated Trophies being looked at.
Invitational Meetings planned in locations in Nashville on 24 October for Emily Detweiler, Candy Weaver and Myron Berry
Rules Committee
Candy Weaver:  Rules Committee will offer a motion to approve the 2020 Rules Brochure.
Nominating Committee
Dennis Polson:  As of 10-7-19 there have been 3 candidates nominated.
Philanthropy Committee Report
Myron Berry:      The Gary Wells Sportsman Award and the Carolyn Wells Ambassador Award applications are available online at kcbs.us under the Philanthropy Tab. Deadline to file applications is December 1, 2019. The awards will be presented at the January KCBS banquet.
Audit Committee Report
Myron Berry:       Audit is still in Progress.
Bylaws Committee Report
David Qualls: No Report this month.

Old Business   None

New Business
Discussion and possible Motion to approve the 2020 Rules Brochure.
Discussion and possible Motion to ratify President Weaver’s creation of an ad-hoc Strategy Committee and the nomination of Haymo Gutweniger as Chairman and Ralph Williams as Co-Chairman.
Discussion and possible Motion of proposed changes to Sanctioning Agreement and changes and addition of Prize letter guarantee.
Discussion and possible Motion of proposed Mandated Formula for the number of Judging tables used in a Master Series Sanctioned Contest based on team counts on the day of judging.
Discussion and possible Motion of proposed Mandated criteria for allowing participation of non-certified KCBS Judges at Sanctioned Master Series Contests.
 
 
 
Closed Session Agenda:
Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director Reports
Discussion of Financial Reports
Discussion of Instructors for 2020
Discussion of Subcontractor and Employee Policies
After Closed Session:
The Board may take any necessary actions including Motions on any or all matters discussed in closed session
Adjourn or Suspend