KCBS Board Meeting Agenda February 21, 2025

 
Membership Requests to Address the Board:   

• None

 
Call to Order – Rod Gray, CEO
 
Roll Call: 
Chiles Cridlin, Randy Todd, Jeanne Titus, Thomas Gearheart, Paul Buob, David Qualls, Luke Darnell, Donna Fong, Lex Vanegas 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.
 
Declaration of Quorum
 
Election of Board President
 
Election of Officers
Vice-President
Treasurer
Secretary
 
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:
 

• Discussion and Consideration of three requests of Teams Backyard Status

 
 
New Business: 
 

• Discussion and Consideration of Board Review of IRS Required Conflict of Interest Statements and Declaration of findings.
• Discussion and Consideration of Continuing the Audio Recording of Board Meetings for 2025
• Discussion and Consideration of Establishing the Dates and Time of the Monthly Board Meetings
• Discussion and Consideration of three requests of Teams Backyard Status
• Discussion and Consideration of new CBJ PowerPoint Presentation
• Discussion and Consideration of Ending the 2025 Team of the Year on December 31, 2025 and use the Calendar Year going forward.
• Discussion and Consideration of a Personally Identifiable Information Agreement of Membership Data.

 
Closed Session Agenda: 
Discussion of Legal, Financial, Personnel and Real Estate
 

• Review of Potential National Hardware Show Contract
• 2024 Year End Financial reports
• 2025 Budgets
• World Invitational Update including Budget and Friday Night Prize Purses
• 2025 May BBQ Month Promotions
• Personnel Reports and Discussions
• Discussion of Member Communications on Code of Conduct

 
 
Board to Recess No Later than 5:00pm CT
 
Board Scheduled to Reconvene on 2/22/25 at 9:00am CT
 
After Closed Session:
The Board may take any necessary actions including Motions on any or all matters discussed in closed session
 
Announcement and Ratification of Committee and Workgroup Appointments
 
Strategic Planning Session to be Conducted by the Board of Directors
 
 
Adjourn or Suspend
 
 
 
Financial Report
 
To be reviewed in closed session before publication.
 
Sanctioning Committee
 
 
Judging Committee
 
No January meeting.
 
Contest Representative Committee
 
No January meeting. 
 
Rules Committee
 
No January meeting. 
 
Finance Committee
 
To be discussed in Closed Session
 
Foundation Committee
 
No January meeting.
 
Nominating Committee
 
Conducted Annual and January Special Elections and announced results.
 
Organizer Work Group
No January meeting.
 
Backyard Work Group
No January meeting.
 
CEO Report
Key Highlights:
With the Annual Election, Special Election, Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, and Annual Awards Banquet squarely in the rearview mirror, we turn our full focus on 2025 and the 7th Annual KCBS World Invitational.  We’ve been slowly getting unpacked and put away at the office.  There were over 80 Bankers Boxes of documents to file alone.  We’re down to hanging pictures and making things look like home.
 
We’ll begin bi-weekly staff meetings for the World Invitational and monthly meetings with the Contest Representatives for this event.  There are currently weekly meetings for the Barbeque Village, the public facing side of the event.   Hard to believe it’s only three months away.  We have 48 teams signed up as of the writing of this piece. 
 
The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Annual Awards Banquet received much positive feedback.  The HOF mixer was well attended, with over 100 people.  Considering the weather, that was a great number.  Folks enjoyed the shuttle service.  Annella Kelso organized an “after” party, which by all accounts was a smashing success.  Annella even organized a raffle with some amazing prizes from associated vendors.  Oh, and Annella ran a tab for KCBS members.  This all happened in the hotel lobby, and everyone had a good time.  Snake River Farms also donated the proteins for Saturday’s dinner.  Gold Grade Top Round and Premium boneless pork loins were served to the guests. There were several comments about the quality of the meal.  We inducted 17 new Hall of Fame Inductees, each speaking about their KCBS knowledge and experience.  After, during the Annual Awards Banquet, nearly 150 awards and $50,000 were awarded to the top teams and distinguished individuals recognized for their service.   The Saturday evening ceremony ran a bit longer than the guests desired, but overall, things went off without a hitch.  The ballroom was nice, we weren’t crowded, and the sound and lighting added to the experience.  if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.
 
I want to thank everyone who helped make the breakout sessions interesting and enjoyable.  So many people moderated or sat on a panel, making this year’s topics informative and entertaining.  Far too many people to thank here, but you know who you are, and we appreciate your effort. 
 
Membership:
The February 14th, 2024,  membership count snapshot reflects 15,410, up 15 from the 15,395 members reported on December 6th, 2024. We are continuing to send postcards to expired members. Our CBJ class scheduled for March 1st is full with 47 members attending from 14 states. We gained 26 new KCBS members through this class registration.
 
Contests:
10 Contests Completed in 2025                  
299 Contests Scheduled for 2025 (calendar year)  
 32 New Contests Scheduled for 2025
   6 Contests Canceled for 2025   
 
Note:  There are nine contests with applications submitted without payment or we’ve yet to assign Contest Representatives.  Additionally, there are currently 60 contests that have yet to submit for renewal.
 
CBJ & Table Captain Classes:
15 CBJ Classes Scheduled for 2024
12 TC Classes Scheduled for 2024
 
Marketing & Communications:

• Bullsheet: The email open rate for the February issue of The Bullsheet has a current open rate of 28.34%.
• Board:
  • Monthly Experience Survey
    • distributed 2/06
• Other Marketing/Social Media Updates:
  • We’ve continued to promote the World Invitational registration and links to apply for judging.
  • Scholarship Foundation posts have been posted for the upcoming deadline of March 31st.

 
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.
 
Social Media Growth:
 

Facebook	0 new followers	109.9K Reach
Instagram	74 new followers	34.4k  Reach
Twitter	28 new followers	-

 

• Our most reached for January: Kick-off post before Annual Awards Banquet – January 11th
  • 9.6k reach, 147 likes, 1 comments, 5 shares and 15.9k views