KCBS Board Meeting Agenda for 11 March 2025

 
Membership Requests to Address the Board:   

• None

Call to Order – Paul Buob

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

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
• Technology Committee
• Foundation Committee
• Nominating Committee
• Hall of Fame Committee
• Working Groups:
  • Organizers Working Group
    • Membership Subcommittee
  • Backyard Working Group
  • Sponsorship Working Group
  • World Invitational Working Group

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 a motion to reconsider or rescind the previous action concerning the change of the qualifying periods of the Team of the Year passed at the February 2025 Board Meeting.

New Business: 

• Discussion and consideration on funding scholarships per the Foundation Committee.
• Discussion and consideration of the max number of committees or groups a member may participate in.
• Discussion and disposition of the additional $100 on the contest invoice.
• Discussion and consideration of Monthly Board meetings video being recorded and kept on the KCBS in perpetuity.
• Discussion and consideration to move the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Annual Awards Banquet to February 20 & 21, 2026 and hold it at the Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza (same location as 2025).
• Discussion and consideration to move the February 2026 Board Retreat and Board Meeting to February 19 & 20, 2026 and schedule in mid to late February going forward.
• Discussion and consideration of the MMA Creative’s WFC Ring of Fire entry for the KCBS World Invitational winner.
• Discuss and consider approving payouts for the Friday categories at the 2025 KCBS World Invitational.
• Discussion of future CBJ class in Australia.
• Discussion and consideration of a double Backyard Series contest on the same day for the Art of Que in Spencer, IA.
• Discussion and status of Hall of Fame trophies and rings.
• Discussion of the 2 meat and 4 meat events survey.

Closed Session Agenda: 

Discussion of Legal, Financial, Personnel and Real Estate

• Discussion of Financial Report and Budget.

After Closed Session:
The Board may take any necessary actions including Motions on any or all matters discussed in closed session

Strategic Planning Session to be Conducted by the Board of Directors (Date TBD)

Board Comments

Adjourn or Suspend
  Contest Report

Contest	Date	Location
K.S. Que (BACKYARD ONLY)	7/12/2025	Kennett Square, PA
Masters BBQ Challenge CR	3/14-15/2025	Costa Rica
Downtown Jonesboro BBQ Festival	9/26-27/2025	Jonesboro, AR
Gold Country Casino Resort BrewFest & State BBQ Championship	5/16-17/2025	Oroville, CA
Carnivore Carnival (COMPETITOR SERIES)	10/3-4/2025	Platte City, MO
The Great Atlantic BBQ Competition	7/19-20/2025	Canada
Scottsboro BBQ Festival	10/10-11/2025	Scottsboro, AL
Spencerville Smoke Ring	9/27-28/2025	Canada
World Championship Hot Wings Contest & Festival (COMPETITORS SERIES)	4/25-26/2025	Memphis, TN
11th Annual Slab-O-Rama BBQ Challenge	1/16/17/2026	Bullhead City, AZ
The Beltway BBQ Showdown	5/31-6/1/2025	Upper Marlboro, MD
Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle	8/23-24/2025	Canada
MN Masters BBQ	8/22-23/2025	Pierz, MN
Balloons and Barbeque	10/17-18/2025	Poteau, OK
Shawnee Great Grillers	9/26-27/2025	Shawnee, KS
Patriot Day of Remembrance BBQ Contest	9/13/2025	Webb City, MO
Pigs & Peaches	8/15-16/2025	Kennesaw, GA
Plant City Pig Jam	11/22-23/2025	Plant City, FL
Pitmaster's NorUt KCBS BBQ Championship	5/2-3/2025	Ogden, UT
Red White & Q	10/3-4/2025	Henryetta, OK
The Loudoun Rotary BBQ Classic (BACKYARD ONLY)	5/30-31/2025	Leesbug, VA

 
 
Financial Report
To be reviewed in closed session before publication.
 
Sanctioning Committee
No report for this period.
 
Judging Committee
The Judging Committee is proud to welcome its 2025 members:

• Donna Fong, Chair (Alameda, California)
• Randy Todd, Co-chair (Cookeville, Tennessee)
• Jeanne Titus, Advisory Rep (Melbourne, Florida)
• Rod Gray, Ex-Officio (Overland Park, Missouri)
• Paul Buob, Ex-Officio (Chillicothe, Illinois)
• Myron Berry (Florence, Alabama)
• Cliff Brockman (Akron, Ohio)
• Joe DeBella (Henrico, Virginia)
• Ron Keefover (Topeka, Kansas)
• Bryan Stewart (Charlotte, North Carolina)
• Mark Tuttle (Boise, Idaho)

 
The Judging Committee will meet on the 4th Wednesday of each month at 6pm Central. Committee assignments are for a duration of 1 year, ending in December. The committee will resume its work on updating the CBJ Instructional PowerPoint for release later this year.
 
Contest Representative Committee
Finalized committee members, scheduled March meeting for 10 March.
 
Rules Committee
No report for this period.
 
Finance Committee
To be discussed in Closed Session.

Technology Committee
The chair met with individual members to get background information and previous actions and is setting a meeting for March 18, 2025, to happen every 3^rd Tuesday of each month at 6:00 PM CST.
 
Foundation Committee
The Foundation Committee is submitting a proposal to rectify funding for scholarships that will create a lasting permanently developed plan in order to proceed perpetually with our scholarships and a base of funding that can be reliable and budgeted.

In past pre-COVID years, KCBS provided funding for the scholarships in which a spreadsheet is attached to show those amounts. During COVID there were not enough funds out of operating to give any meaningful scholarships and the scholarship committee was then tasked with the duties of raising their own revenues.

This has put KCBS in a precarious position of having to depend on volunteers to further their mission statement and qualify not only for their nonprofit status as KCBS but also especially the 501 (C) (3) status of the KCBS Foundation.

The new members may not realize that the Kansas City BBQ society foundation is a sole member LLC established under 501 (C) (3) status that is controlled by the KCBS Board of Directors.

What we offer is a resolution that provides for a funding mechanism without minimums but establishes a percentage of the members’ dues to be allocated in earmarked directly for scholarships and not be used for any operations.

This method of funding creates revenue earmarked but does not establish a minimum nor a maximum dollar amount, the percentage offered whose revenues would ebb and flow as membership numbers increase or decrease as an earmarked directed allocation that precedes any operation expenses or other programs or promotions to be budgeted by KCBS.

We believe that this is the most prudent method of funding our scholarship program in furthering our mission statements from the past methods of depending on volunteers and supplemental income to help further the educations of our younger generation.

We request that you approve this resolution to create this funding mechanism and securing the future of the KCBS foundation and scholarship funds for future generations to come.
 
Nominating Committee
Conducted Special Elections and announced results.
 
Hall of Fame Committee
No report for this period.
 
Organizer Working Group
The Organizer Working Group is proud to welcome its 2025 members:

• Donna Fong, Chair (Alameda, California)
• Chiles Cridlin, Co-chair (Henrico, Virginia)
• Julie Poe, Advisory Rep (Sacramento, California)
• Nick Owensby (Wadsworth, Ohio)
• Jim Palmer (Riverside, California)
• Kathy Trainor (Taunton, Massachusetts)
• Laurie Tweten (Onalaska, Wisconsin)
• Christie Vanover (Henderson, Nevada)

The Organizer Working Group will meet on the 4^th Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm Central. Working group assignments are for a duration of 1 year, ending in December.
The working group expects to resume its work on releasing the Organizer Guide for 4 meat and 1 meat contests and a People’s Choice Guide for Organizers for release later this year.
The working group will initiate a program inviting KCBS organizers to a new series of Townhall Zoom meetings, aimed at supporting organizers.
 
Membership Subcommittee
No report for this period.
 
Backyard Working Group
No report for this period.
 
Sponsorship Working Group
No report for this period.
 
World Invitational Working Group
No report for this period.
 
CEO Report
Key Highlights:
With only two weeks having passed since the last board meeting, this report is abbreviated.

We are moving full steam ahead on the World Invitational. I am in talks with two ancillary category sponsors who should bring interest and excitement to the Friday, May 23rd turn-ins. A Kid’s Que protein sponsor has committed to providing proteins for this event, along with the grill and charcoal sponsors.

Agenda items from the office include determining the 2026 dates for the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Annual Awards banquet and including the Annual Board Retreat during that weekend of activities.  This could reduce travel and expenses for our members of the board.

The American Royal has announced their dates for 2025. The dates are November 6 - 9. Here is to hoping the Kansas City weather will cooperate. Rep meetings for this event will start in the next couple of months.

The first American Royal Certified Barbeque Judge class is in the books. Q39 graciously supplied the pitmaster, proteins, and staff to create the boxes for this large class. All told, 17 unique states were represented, which was a successful class.

Membership:
The March 7th, 2025, membership count snapshot reflects 15,424, up 14 from the 15,410 members reported on February 14th, 2025. Our postcard reminder program to expired members continues. Our March 1st CBJ class was a success, with 59 members attending from 17 states, split between 50 CBJ class participants and 27 CTC class participants. We gained 33 new KCBS members through this class registration.

Contests:  The breakdown for the new contests is as follows: And one contest back that had not been held since 2019: Smoking on the Rez (4/4-5/2025) Ridgeland, MS

International Contests sanctioned in 2025 so far:
CBJ & Table Captain Classes: 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	4 new followers	59.1K Reach
Instagram	85 new followers	18K Reach
Twitter	25 new followers	-

 

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

One Meat Championships on Friday at the 2025 KCBS World Invitational: