KCBS Board Meeting Agenda October 14, 2024

Kansas City Barbeque Society
Board of Directors Meeting Agenda
Monday October 14, 2024. 6:00pm CT
 
Membership Requests to Address the Board:   
  • None
 
Call to Order – Joel Fleetwood
 
Roll Call: 
Joel Fleetwood, Chiles Cridlin, Cliff Davis, Randy Todd, Jeanne Titus, Thomas Gearheart, Paul Buob, David Qualls, Chalie Brinza
KCBS Office:  Rod Gray
Absent: 
 
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
  • Sanctioning Committee
  • Judging Committee
  • Contest Representative Committee
  • Rules Committee
  • Foundation Committee
  • Nominating Committee
  • Workgroups:
    • Organizers Work Group
    • Backyard Work Group
    • Bylaws Work Group
    • Technology Workgroup
 
Discussion of any items removed from Consent Agenda:
 
Chief Executive Officer’s Report:
 
  • CEO Report attached.
  • The Board may take Actions based on Topics and Discussions from this report as New Business
 
 
Old Business:
 
  • None.
 
New Business: 
 
  • Discussion and Consideration of Resolution calling for an election to Amend the Bylaws of KCBS
  • Discussion and Consideration of Organizers Confirming Judges then turning them away at arrival
  • Discussion and Consideration of Moving the JCUP Program Mandatory Continuing Education
  • Discussion and Consideration of Rules Committee Report of finalized rule changes for 2025
  • Discussion and Consideration of Backyard Contest Changes
  • Discussion of October Membership Engagement Survey Results
 
Closed Session Agenda: 
Discussion of Legal, Financial, Personnel and Real Estate
 
  • Discussion of Financial Report and Budget
  • Discussion of Marketing and Events
  • Discussion of Contest Issue
  • Discussion of Contest Rep Actions
  • Discussion of Contest Rep Appointments.
  • Discussion of Office Lease
 
After Closed Session:
The Board may take any necessary actions including Motions on any or all matters discussed in closed session
 
 
Board Comments
 
Adjourn or Suspend
 
 
 
Attachments and Reports
Contest Report 
 
Giant National Barbecue Battle 6/21-22/2025 Washington, DC
Giant National Barbecue Battle (ONE MEAT RIBS) 6/21/2025 Washington, DC
Giant National Barbecue Battle (ONE MEAT CHICKEN) 6/21/2025 Washington, DC
Frog Alley Brew-B-Que Cookoff 6/21-22/2025 Schenectady, NY
BBQ Gives Back (Day 1) (Masters and Backyard) 3/21-22/2025 Urbanna, VA
BBQ Gives Back (Day 2) (Masters and Backyard) 3/22-23/2025 Urbanna, VA
BBQ Gives Back (ONE MEAT CHICKEN) 3/21/2025 Urbanna, VA
BBQ Gives Back (ONE MEAT RIBS) 3/21/2025 Urbanna, VA
Southern New England Barbecue Throwdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (DAY 1) 4/11-12/2025 Bristol, TN
Southern New England Barbecue Throwdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (DAY 2) 4/12-13/2025 Bristol, TN
Southern New England Barbecue Throwdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (ONE MEAT CHICKEN) 4/12/2025 Bristol, TN
Southern New England Barbecue Throwdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (ONE MEAT RIBS) 4/12/2025 Bristol, TN
Granite State BBQ Championship - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (DAY 1) 5/30-31/2025 Hancock, NH
Granite State BBQ Championship - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (DAY 2) 5/31-6/1/2025 Hancock, NH
Granite State BBQ Championship - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (ONE MEAT CHICKEN) 5/31/2025 Hancock, NH
Granite State BBQ Championship - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (ONE MEAT RIBS) 5/31/2025 Hancock, NH
Christmas on the River State Bar B Q Championship 12/6-7/2024 Demopolis, AL
Iowa State BBQ Championship 4/4-5/2025 Altoona, IA
September Fest 9/12-13/2025 Coldwater, MI
Vienna BBQ Days 10/19-20/2024 Austria
Vienna BBQ Days (ONE MEAT RIBS) 10/19/2024 Austria
Buds Blues and BBQ 9/12-13/2025 Columbia, MO
Cedar Fest BBQ Cookoff 3/28-29/2025 Cedar Park, TX
Smoke on the Ohio 9/12-13/2025 Mt. Vernon, IN
Bands and BBQ at the Point 9/12-13/2025 Carrollton, KY
8th Annual DuPont BBQ Competition 8/16-17/2025 Dupont, WA
Smokin' in the Pines 3/28-29/2025 Carthage, NC
Brighton Barbeque Bash 8/22-23/2025 Oshkosh, WI
Sweet & Smoky BBQ Competition 10/3-4/2025 Hinton, OK
Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES  (Day 1) 9/12-13/2025 Southwick, MA
Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES  (Day 2) 9/13-14/2025 Southwick, MA
Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (One Meat Ribs) 9/13/2025 Southwick, MA
Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (One Meat Chicken) 9/13/2025 Southwick, MA
Green Mountain BBQ Championship - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (DAY 1) 9/19-20/2025 Braintree, VT
Green Mountain BBQ Championship - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (DAY 2) 9/20-21/2025 Braintree, VT
Green Mountain BBQ Championship - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (One Meat Chicken) 9/20/2025 Braintree, VT
Green Mountain BBQ Championship - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (One Meat Ribs) 9/20/2025 Braintree, VT
Red White & Que - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 1) 10/24-25/2025 Jackson, NJ
Red White & Que - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) 10/25-26/2025 Jackson, NJ
Red White & Que - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (One Meat Chicken) 10/24/2025 Jackson, NJ
Red White & Que - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (One Meat Ribs) 10/25/2025 Jackson, NJ
SJV Winter Rub 1/24-25/2025 Omaha, NE
Bloomin' BBQ Music & Food Festival 5/16-17/2025 Sevierville, TN
Smokin' in the Valley 11/2-3/2024 Australia
Lakeland Pig Festival 1/24-25/2025 Lakeland, FL
Up in Smoke on the Square (BACKYARD ONLY) 8/22-23/2025 Lincoln, IL
Grillstock 9/12-13/2025 Moore, OK
Art of the Que (One Meat Ribs) 6/27/2025 Spencer, IA
Art of the Que (Masters & Backyard 1) 6/27-28/2025 Spencer, IA
Art of the Que (Backyard 2) 6/27-28/2025 Spencer, IA
 
 
Financial Report
 
To be reviewed in closed session before publication.
 
Sanctioning Committee
 
No Report.
 
Judging Committee
 
October 2, 2024

Attending were: Cliff Davis, Chair; Randy Todd, Vice Chair; KCBS CEO Rod Gray (ex officio) and
members Jeanne Titus, Ron Keefover, Kelly Wilde, and Myron Berry.


CBJ Training PowerPoint - The updated CBJ training PowerPoint deck will be beta-tested at an upcoming class on October 12. Two CBJ Committee members will be at the October 12 training and can help monitor the success of the new slide show and report back. Any refinements or edits needed after the beta test will be completed and the final draft will be prepared. The CBJ Committee will notify the KCBS BOD when the new version is ready.
Judging Comment Cards-  Utilizing survey input from Cooks and Judges who participated in the 2024 KCBS World Invitational, the CBJ Committee created an updated version of the Comment Cards. Once the final version is ready to go press, the CBJ Committee will notify the KCBS BOD. 

Mandatory JCUP - Following a discussion of an email request sent to the BOD by a KCBS Member, that the JCUP training be mandatory and/or required to re-taken on a regular basis, the Committee decided that the training should not be mandatory. However, the CBJ Committee strongly encourages all CBJs to become JCUP certified. 

Mentoring for new CBJs - The CBJ Committee discussed an email request by a KCBS member that brand new judges, i.e. with five or fewer contests,  be mentored at contests by experienced judges. This needs further consideration, and no action was taken.

Waiver request. -  The CBJ Committee recommended against approving a waiver for a master judge candidate to not cook with a KCBS team to meet that MCBJ requirement.
 
Contest Representative Committee
 
The Contest Representative Committee met and discussed Reps in Training and the Reps who are ready for Board approval.
 
Rules Committee
 
Will give report under new business of Board Approval changes to be published for the 2025 Season
 
Foundation Committee
 
No meeting but we are on track to meet last years fund raising achievement.
 
Nominating Committee
 
This year several changes have been made within the nomination process. 
The Nominating committee surveyed board members and prioritized both professional skills desired and KCBS experience desired.
 
The committee has also updated the process documents around nominations. All members in good standing are eligible and there will be no reduction to the candidates.
The communications timeline was also modified to ensure candidates are notified of their status (elected/not-elected) prior to the public communication. 
 
The language previously used on the nomination communication published bullsheet was modified after discussion with legal. This resulted in removing the Requirement for an elected Director to serve on committees, as was the requirement that they must sign a code of conduct, changed to requested.
 
Members have had two communications: an eblast (email), and in the Bullsheet. We are revising the candidate questions to include specifics on the Board's Desired Skills.
 
To date we have 5 candidates. The questions will be sent out on the 20th of October with an October 31st deadline ( and picture). 
 
  • Votes will be cast via the Voting Booth on kcbs.us. 
  • The election voting shall begin December 26, 2024 and continue through January 9, 2025 11:59pm CST. 
  • The Nominating Committee notifies ALL candidates of the Election results on or before January 11, 2025 so ALL candidates know the status prior to the public announcement.
 
 
Organizer Work Group
No Report for this period
 
Marketing Work Group
No Report for this period
 
Backyard Work Group
No Report for this period.
 
Bylaws Work Group

October 8th, 2024
Participants: David Quals, Chiles Cridlin
 
Proposed Bylaw Revision Update: 
Revision five has been delivered to the BOD for their review and discussion at October’s BOD meeting.  Every proposed change has been reviewed by legal counsel that was obtained by the KCBS office.  The following documents have been distributed:
  • KCBS-Bylaws-2024 Proposed Changes-as of 2024-10-8-Post_Legal_Review_Edits_V5
  • KCBS-Bylaws-2024 Proposed Changes-as of 2024-10-8-Legal_Review_No_Tracked_Changes_V5
Legal Opinion Received
As part of the Bylaw revision process, KCBS has received an “opinion of counsel” regarding previous Nomination Committee actions that removed otherwise qualified candidates from the ballot.  The summary of this legal opinion is as follows: 
President and Nominating Committee Chairman’s Interpretation of 7.03. As I understand from the information provided, at some point in the past the President and Chairman of the Nominating Committee decided that for a candidate’s name to be presented on the Nominating Committee Ballot that person must receive unanimous approval from the members of the Nominating Committee. This action was outside of any authority provided by the Bylaws to the President and the Committee Chairman. As such, it was invalid. However, since it was done without presenting the matter to the Board for its approval, the opportunity to raise a point of order was completely negated. Each organization decides for itself the meaning of its bylaws. RONR (12 ed.) 56:68 1), p. 557. The Board alone would have to decide the meaning of the language of 7.03. If the Board would determine that one member of a committee is to have a veto over the actions of the committee, then the Bylaws would have to be amended. In the absence of such an amendment, the ordinary rules of procedure under Roberts would apply, actions of a committee are to be decided a majority. Requiring unanimous agreement for committee actions is totally unacceptable to a efficient and responsible operation of an organization.
Effect of Past Invalid Actions.
The past invalid actions addressed above, unfortunately cannot be undone. There is no remedy under the bylaw, short of some disciplinary action against the persons who carried out what amounts to illegal (in a parliamentary, not criminal sense) actions. However, those actions taken denying a basic right of membership to at least one, and apparently more members, however, do not set a precedent for future conduct.

Technology Work Group
No Report for this period
 
CEO Report
 
 
Key Highlights:
October is traditionally a busy month for KCBS, and this year is no different.  The lease for the new office space has been executed.  Staff is taking bids for the move, assessing what items will be taken, repurposed, or discarded.  With 38 years of accumulated information, this is no small task.  We’re making progress on the Annual Awards Banquet, the KCBS Hall of Fame, and the 2025 World Invitational.  There will be 18 inductees in the 2025 Hall of Fame.  Promotion for that is ongoing and we’re working on the awards for the HOF, Team of the Year, Wells awards, and Outstanding CBJs.  We’ve received several nominations for the Gary Wells Sportsmanship and Carolyn Wells Ambassador awards.



The American Royal occurs at the end of the month. We’re working closely with the American Royal in preparation for their November 1-3 contest.  The first team list spreadsheet has been received.  We’re taking a different approach, correctly team names now to reduce the amount of work necessary to process the results, so they are posted as official in a timely manner.  Biweekly meetings between KCBS, American Royal, and Contest Reps to finalize logistics. Final laptop preparation complete and necessary supplies purchased. Marketing efforts include a KCBS booth for member registration and CBJ promotion, and merch sales, as well as ½ page KCBS member and CBJ class promotional flyers for all Teams, sponsors, and party attendees. Photo booth with KCBS step and repeat for social media engagement. Marketing team will interview Hall of Fame inductees for promotional purposes. 



Work on the consumer-friendly portion of the World Invitational continues, coined BBQ Village. Randy Todd, Mike Smoot, Eric Cantrell, and I, met with the James E Ward Agricultural Center staff to discuss details. It was an important meeting, and helped all visualize the layout for the event and gave insight into the logistics of this undertaking. We also met with David Hale who books the music for the fairgrounds. He is a wealth of information and will be an asset to this endeavor.  



September was a productive month for several longstanding KCBS projects and priorities including the Hall of Fame, the Awards Banquet, and the World Invitational, both contest and public-facing events.


 
  • Hall of Fame inductee roll-out on social and digital media
  • Hall of Fame inductee press release; 
  • Hall of Fame potential sponsors identified and outreach efforts underway
  • Hall of Fame trophy design creation and review underway; researching vendors for quality and pricing
  • Awards Banquet registration event created (registration will open later this month)
  • World Invitational BBQ Village: major components determined and first draft of schedule created
  • World Invitational BBQ Village webpage live
  • VIP BBQ Experience discussions underway with Holladay for 2025 WI ancillary and VIP craft cocktail 
  • World Invitational Team registration event created
  • World Invitational adding 4 ancillaries (one-meat ribs, one-meat chicken, anything butt, and dessert)



The final of four KCBS hosted CBJ classes was held last month at the American Royal.  A couple weekends ago, I traveled to Fargo North, Dakota for the first KCBS sanctioned contest in the state since 2009.  Hosted by Scheel’s Home & Hardware, and in it’s 13th year, this was a well organized and run event.  There were 48 teams registered, and a 30 team waitlist.  There were 13 states represented plus Canada and Switzerland.  They have confirmed they will renew their event for 2025 and want to consider a CBJ class prior to the event.  



We continue to prep for a November KCBS CBJ & CTC class in central Oklahoma sponsored by Westlake Hardware and taught by CBJ Instructor Ralph Williams.  Contest renewals for 2025 are picking up, and KCBS is receiving requests for CBJ classes.  



Membership: Audrey
The October 9th, 2024, membership count snapshot reflects 15,619 members, down 78 from the 15,697 reported on September 6th, 2024. We are continuing to send postcards to expired members and dropped members. We recently discovered that certain email accounts were blocked by AT&T around September 19th which affected renewal emails being sent to members. AT&T removed this block on October 3rd. 
 
Contests:
308 Contests Completed in 2024
348 Contests Scheduled for 2024 (calendar year)  
 
 53 Contests Canceled for 2024
 
CBJ & Table Captain Classes:
40 CBJ Classes Scheduled for 2024
22 TC Classes Scheduled for 2024
 
Partnerships Discussions: 
Sponsor Updates:
  • National Hardware Show: contract sent regarding demo in 2025, KCBS booth space
  • Weber: working with Weber on the NHS demo above and building foundation for future partnerships
  • Holladay: Discussion of contract renewal and expansion for 2025
  • Q39: renewing sponsorship for 2025 and determining dates for the CBJ classes sponsored by Q39 and hosted at the AR 
  • Westlake Ace Hardware and KCBS sponsored a Veterans Appreciation dinner and demo with the Veterans Community Project cooked and led by Todd Johns
  • Westlake Ace Hardware: expansion of current scope of work to align with Westlake’s needs
    • Adding 3 demos and building out a 2025 contract
    • Regional CBJ class sponsored by Westlake Ace Hardware hosted at the Chamber of Commerce, Moore, OK 11/16–Registration at 16
  • Johnson County Community College and Continuing Ed: discussions continue for the development of KCBS Pitmaster program 
 
 
Marketing & Communications: 
  • Bullsheet:  The email open rate for the October issue of The Bullsheet was 27%
    • November’s issue will feature on  American Royal delaying publication date to Nov. 4th
  • Board: 
    • Board of Director Nominations, Wells Awards, Outstanding CBJ Award
      • all nominations underway
    • Monthly Experience Survey
      • distributed 10/7
    • CTO final eblast end of the month
  • American Royal: Merch and KCBS Registration booth promoting CBJ classes; plans to capture content for future promotional efforts
 
Social Media:
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. Marketing priorities include reviewing social media performance and identifying creative strategies to increase engagement. Efforts underway to capture footage at high-profile events (like the American Royal) for future use on social and digital assets. 
 
Social Media Growth: 
  • Total Audience, as of 10/4/2024: 126,015 total followers
Facebook 88 new followers  111.2K Reach 
Instagram 62 new followers 17.9k  Reach 
Twitter 98 new followers -


 
  • Our most reached for September: 2025 KCBS Hall of Fame Inductees Announcement 
  •  
    • 14.1k reach, 250 likes, 83 comments and 41 shares