KCBS Board meeting Quick Notes Aug 14, 2023
Kansas City Barbeque SocietyBoard of Directors’ Meeting QUICK NOTES
Monday August 14, 2023. 6:00pm CT
Membership Requests to Address the Board:
- None
Call to Order
Roll Call:
Stan Dobosenski, Joel Fleetwood, Chiles Cridlin, Cliff Davis, Nancy Goldsmith, Jeanne Titus, Ralph Williams, Charlie Brinza, Randy Todd
KCBS Office: Rod Gray
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.
Consent Agenda:
Notice concerning Committee Reports. Some committees do not meet monthly, If a report is presented, it will be included as an attachment to the Agenda.
- Minutes of previous BOD meeting
- Contest Report
- Financial Report
- Sanctioning Committee
- Judging Committee
- Contest Representative Committee
- Rules Committee
- Foundation Committee
- Finance Committee
- Nominating Committee
- Workgroups:
- Organizers Work Group
- Backyard Work Group
Motion to approve consent agenda items not removed by Goldsmith, second by Cridlin – passed.
Discussion of any items removed from Consent Agenda:
- Motion to remove Foundation Committee report by Goldsmith, second by Cridlin - passed
- Motion to remove Nominating Committee report by Goldsmith, second by Cridlin - passed
Chief Executive Officer’s Report:
- CEO Report attached
Old Business:
- None.
New Business:
- No voting matters presenting in advance.
Closed Session Agenda:
Discussion of Legal, Financial, Personnel and Real Estate
- Marketing discussion (Gray)
- Marketing opportunity (Brinza)
Motion to move to Closed session by Brinza, second by Titus – passed at 6:45
After Closed Session:
The Board may take any necessary actions including Motions on any or all matters discussed in closed session
Open session resumed at 7:30 with no items carried over for discussion or vote.
Adjourn or Suspend
Motion to adjourn by Cridlin, second by Fleetwood – passed at 7:31
Attachments and Reports
Contest Report
|
Financial Report
No report filed.
Sanctioning Committee
Aug 1, 2023
- Decision by board to allow email approval of sanctioning applications
- Louisville, KY contest (attached application)
Reps have been assigned and has spoken with the organizer, who has also pulled
in help from other experienced people.
Request for BOD votes emailed in advance of meeting.
- Discussion of proposed changes to backyard eligibility, from BY workgroup as well as Rules
Judging Committee
July 26, 2023
Cliff Davis, CBJ Committee Chair
Present in addition to the chair were committee members
Myron Berry, Florence, AL
Randy Todd, Cookeville, TN
Jeanne Titus, St. Louis, MO
Ron Keefover, Topeka, KS
Rod Gray, CEO of KCBS, ex-officio
Kelly Wilde, Louisburg, KS, was traveling and unavailable to attend.
CBJ of the Year Award- Discussion of the selection process, review of timeline, and assignment of subcommittee members who will select the recipient.
JCUP - Committee discussion of the possibility of various scenarios requiring JCUP to establish or maintain CBJ status. Further discussion is needed.
Contest Representative Committee
Tuesday July 25, 2023
In attendance: Bob McKee, Ralph Williams, Rod Gray, David McAllister, John Scharffbillig, Debby Gage, Jonathan Williams, Mike Winter, Dave Druetzler and Stan Dobosenski
Discussion of Table Population changes. Judges and teams feel that judging 7 entries is too many to judge all entries fairly. The Reps in attendance were assigned a task to gather information to bring to the August 29th committee meeting. This information will be brought to the Board of Directors in September.
Rules Committee
Meeting date: July 25, 2023
Chairperson Charlie Brinza started the meeting by stating there was a new directive for the committee’s efforts this month. The Backyard workgroup requested the Rules committee look at a proposed change to the distinction between Master and Backyard teams and write potential rule changes that would accompany these changes.
Conversation started regarding the proposed changes and after a bit of time, it was determined that the process to write rules to fully support the proposed changes could not be completed in time for the 2024 contest year. It was decided that an interim change would make more sense, while the full vision of the wholesale change could be clarified by the Backyard workgroup and the resulting rules changes. The issues and questions the Rules committee have regarding the full proposal are documented and will be picked up once the interim solution is formalized.
Three changes to the current Backyard Rules were documented and sent to the Backyard workgroup for their review. Once the Rules committee and this group agree, these changes will be presented to the full Board of Directors for inclusion in the 2024 Backyard Rules. In addition to the three rules changes, two other recommendations were passed to the Backyard workgroup for their consideration. The Rules committee plans to present the interim changes to the full BOD for the September meeting to allow time for edits and approval for final vote in the Board’s October meeting.
Finance Committee
August 2023 KCBS Finance Committee meeting.
The KCBS Finance Committee met August 7th, 2023. Present were Stan Dobosenski, President, Joel Fleetwood, Vice President, Rod Gray, Chief Executive Officer, Randy Todd, Finance Chair.
No report.
The next KCBS Finance committee will be 6pm CDT Wednesday, September 6th due to the Monday, September 4th Labor Day holiday. I will send you our committee meeting report as soon as the meeting adjourns.
Foundation Committee
The committee met on 7/24/23
1. World Invitational
- Pop-Up shop will be open Fri – Sun starting at 8am. Shop will accept credit cards for merchandise and raffle tickets but cash is preferred to minimize charges.
- The 50/50 raffle tickets will be cash only.
2. Smoker Sweepstakes
- Sweepstakes site goes live on August 1st !!
- Watch website, Bullsheet, and social media for details.
Nominating Committee
July 17, 2023
The Nominating Committee met at 6:00 pm. Members present were Cliff David, Jeff Kreske and
Ralph Williams. Absent, Candy Weaver.
We reviewed the process as to how an individual could be nominated. Once the nomination is
received, each nominee will be contacted to verify their acceptance of the nomination. At the
close of the nominating time period, all nominees will be sent the questions for them to respond
with their respective answers. The committee will review the responses and make their
recommendations for those candidates who will be placed on the ballot for possible election to
the KCBS Board of Directors.
There being no further business, we adjourned at 6:45 pm.
BOD meeting comments:
There was concern raised regarding selecting candidates to be placed on the ballot. An emphasis is that the process must be open with any selection criteria being published in advance. Legal representation on the committee will be present for the process. There is concern that there must be a reasonable limit to the number of candidates on a ballot and that the skill sets needed on the board be the determining factor in selection. These points were emphasized by the professional KCBS hired for BOD and CEO training.
Organizer Work Group
No notes submitted.
Backyard Work Group
7/20/2023
Continue discussion of definition of a Backyard team, with end goal of sending something to Rules committee to be written up and sent back to this committee to potentially send to board
- Do we make changes?
- Option to move back down after 1 GC/RGC
- No restrictions in moving between series
- Tracking GC/RGC points
- Sent to rules committee to bring up a proposal
- Discussion of possible survey discussed last month
- Chiles reviewed previous survey and results
- Discussion of possible questions for new survey
- Deciding factors to cook
- Sub-committee of BY cooks going to form questions for a survey
August 2023
Key Highlights: The 5th Annual World Invitational is this week. KCBS continues to make strides in social media outreach, Bullsheet improvement, and partnership activity. The bulk of our efforts have been concentrated on the event this weekend. We’re also working on planning the Annual Awards Banquet to be held on January 13th, 2024 at Harrah’s Casino in Kansas City, Missouri, and preparing for the American Royal World Series of Barbecue.
Membership:
The August 8, 2023, membership snapshot reflects 16,111, up 31 members from 16,080 reported on July 3, 2023. Update note: Second consecutive month of growth.
Contests:
212 Contests Completed in 2023 (calendar year)
221 Contests Completed in 2023 Season (November 1, 2022 – October 31, 2023)
379 Contests Scheduled for 2023 (calendar year)
388 Contests Scheduled for 2023 Season (November 1, 2022 – October 31, 2023)
29 Contests Canceled for 2023
9 Contest Postponed in 2023
CBJ & Table Captain Classes:
33 CBJ Classes Scheduled for 2023
17 TC Classes Scheduled for 2023
2023 KCBS World Invitational:
- 110 teams competing
- The judge selection and confirmation process has been more difficult than anticipated. The staff feels good about what has been accomplished.
- Trophy Sponsors: BBQers Delight, US Soy, BBQ Spot
- Awards: Holladay, National Turkey Federation, US Soy
- Event: Holladay, Omaha Steaks, Westlake Ace Hardware
Gray:
- Staff was busy resolving small issues and received no complaints throughout the weekend
- 110 teams participated in the competitions
- The major sponsors expressed their happiness with the event.
- KCBS received no discounts from the facility.
- Asked about timing of the event as she received comments that August was not ideal.
- Future dates are not set.
- Dobosenski stated he received a lot of positive comments on the smoothness of the event, the location and the timing.
- Noted the energy at the contest was positive
- Ask why the Masters contest winner did not get an auto entry into The Jack Daniels Invitational
- This was petitioned by KCBS but not granted for this year.
As I understand it, the Board will discuss this topic during this month’s meeting. For that reason, there is no update.
Marketing & Communications:
- Banquet: Save-the Date announcement went live on social media in July; August Bullsheet covered 2024 Annual Awards; customized packages to incentivize early registration and table sponsorships; event registration live on ______.
- Bullsheet: The email open rate for the August Bullsheet 55.14% (July Bullsheet was 48%).
- CBJ Class: 34 registrants/10 Q39 hosting a Certified Barbeque Judge Class at the American Royal in September, featuring Q39 as the cook and Westlake Hardware as the event sponsor.
- (September 12th 6-8 PM) Incentivizing Membership Board Retreat: strategy session to incentivize membership, business affiliates, and to develop a robust membership perks program. Please send ideas, questions, data requests, etc. to Rhiannon in advance of the meeting.
- Website: Marketing is prioritizing an auto-renewal membership option for dropped members. Long-term projects include overhaul of landing page, membership page, Foundation, recipes, mobile app development.
- Food Export United States (FEUS): webinar scheduled for September to support sauce, rubs, and fuel business owners who seek to become export-read
- Board Content:
- Nomination Committee: article and promotional material published in the Bullsheet and on website; scheduling social media promotions; Voting Booth will be set up for BoD Nomination and Election by Rhiannon.
- Foundation: article and promotional materials for Scholarship and Raffle on social media, Bullsheet, and website; announcement of Anne Laurer Scholarship fund forthcoming. Rhiannon designing new Donor Recognition and Scholarship pages.
- Hall of Fame: initial design of banner approved.
We continue to leverage social media to drive member conversion, promote the KCBS brand, showcase our sponsors and events, and provide value to our members through fun and educational content.
Social Media Growth:
- All platforms saw continued growth and increased engagement
- Total Audience, as of 8/7/2023: 122,612 total followers
- KCBS gained 421 new followers across social media platforms within the month, with the biggest increase coming from Instagram and Facebook. That is 66 more followers than the previous month.
| 77,980 followers [Up from the 77,803 followers on 7.3.2023] | 177 new followers | 46 posts, reaching 257.9k accounts | |
| 23,914 [Up from the 23,782 Followers on 7.3.2023] | 132 new followers | 32 posts, 41.5k accounts reached | |
| 20,718 [Up from the 20,606 Followers on 7.3.2023] | 112 new followers | 12 tweets |
- BOD meeting note:
- Facebook followers exceeded the 78k threshold during the Invitational weekend
- Our most reached post of the month: KCBS July Contest Facebook post.
- 19.1k accounts reached, and 231 reactions (likes, comments and shares).
