KCBS Board Meeting Agenda for 13 May 2025

Kansas City Barbeque Society
Board of Directors’ Meeting Agenda
Tuesday, May 13, 2025, 6:00 PM CST
 
Membership Requests to Address the Board:   

• None

Call to Order – Paul Buob

Roll Call: 
Chiles Cridlin, David Qualls, Donna Fong, Jeanne Titus, Luke Darnell, Lex Vanegas, Paul Buob, Randy Todd, Thomas Gearhart; 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:

• None

New Business: 

• Discussion of Resolution for the Annual Meeting (Rod Gray).
• Discussion of the Holladay Distillery renewal agreement (Rod Gray).
• Discussion of the Compart Family Farms agreement (Rod Gray).
• Discussion about the KCBS competition structure (2 meat and 4 meat) Working Group lead (Lex Vanegas).
• Discussion and update for providing a guidance letter to the American Royal and Jack Daniels about reducing the number of teams to be considered a qualifier from 25 to 20 (Lex Vanegas).
• Discussion and status of Hall of Fame trophies and rings (Lex Vanegas).

Closed Session Agenda: 
Discussion of legal, financial, personnel, and real estate.

• Update of CEO contract and evaluation (Lex Vanegas).
• KCBS Foundation scholarships (Chiles Cridlin).
• Discussion of financial report and budget to include 2025 budget for approval (Thomas Gearhart).
• Board consideration of member reinstatement request (Rod Gray).

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
Big Boy BBQ Bash (Day 1)	8/8-9/2025	Australia
Big Boy BBQ Bash (Day 2)	8/9-10/2025	Australia
Big Boy BBQ Bash October	10/25-26/2025	Australia
Rock Lane Presents Grills Gone Wild	10/3-4/2025	Branson, MO
The Downtown BBQ Showdown	4/17-18/2026	Lake City, FL
Big Creek BBQ Bash (BACKYARD ONLY)	10/3-4/2025	Pleasant Hill, MO
California State Fair BBQ Contest (ONE MEAT RIBS)	7/12/2025	Sacramento, CA
La Belle MO Show Me BBQ Showdown	10/3-4/2025	La Belle, MO
Auburn Rib Cookoff (ONE MEAT RIBS)	8/23/20258	Auburn, CA
Code 3 Spices - Smokin' on Main	7/26-27/2025	Collinsville, IL
Summer Grillin' BBQ Festival	9/12-14/2025	Canada
Big Smoke Bonnyville	9/6-7/2025	Canada
Smoke in the Orchard, Powered by Sunpoke	8/8-9/2025	Canada
St. Joseph County Fair Backyard BBQ Bash (Backyard Only)	6/28/2025	South Bend, IN
Grills Gone Wild	2/6-7/2025	Davenport, FL

Financial Report
To be reviewed in closed session before publication.
 
Sanctioning Committee
No report for this period.
 
Judging Committee

• Attendees: Donna Fong, Chair, Randy Todd, Co-chair, Myron Berry, Joe DeBella, Cliff Brockman, Ron Keefover, Bryan Stewart, and Mark Tuttle
• Not in attendance: Jeanne Titus, Advisory Rep, Paul Buob, ex officio, President, KCBS, and Rod Gray, ex officio, KCBS CEO
• The Rules subcommittee discussed updating judging forms and the progress that has been made. A discussion began on the recent Rep advisory to remove forks from all boxes except pork. Members of committee have heard from judges at recent contests that they disagree with the advisory. The CBJ committee was also unanimous in its dissent with the advisory.
• The Training subcommittee is evaluating regional differences in JCUP trained judges who are available to judge contests, or lack thereof. Further refinement of the study is ongoing. Suggestions were made as to how to address areas in the country where there are not enough judges. One suggestion was a hybrid class (online/in-person).
• The Award subcommittee is evaluating the criteria and the nomination process for Outstanding CBJs and for the Hall of Fame.

Contest Representative Committee

• Discussed past actions:
  • Update of Rep Manual and Rep Advisory
  • Rep Town Halls
• Discussed the procedure for SDF files, how long after a contest that scores should be posted, and of turn-in table procedures and where box numbers should be changed.
  • Possibly sending out a survey for all reps to respond to.
• Discussed the judge coordinator role. Discussion included:
  • Should it be formalized with training?
  • Added to the Organizer Manual?
  • All Judges should have their KCBS members card available (print or digital when checking in.
  • Requested more information be added to the KCBS judge selection page (phone number, email address).
• Bullets 2 and 3 are great training/survey opportunities.
• Discussed the need to re-look at the 50 team rule for reps. There may be a need for some contests that need more than 2 reps when the team total is less than 50.

Rules Committee
No report for this period.
 
Finance Committee
To be discussed in Closed Session.
 
Foundation Committee

• Timeline for application reviews.
  • Plan to have applications to committee members by 4/9/2025 (complete).
  • Committee member reviews to be completed and returned by 4/23/2025 (Complete).
  • Final group review to be competed at the regular 4/28/2025 Foundation meeting, present to the KCBS BOD on 5/12/2025 (complete).

• Items are pouring in. We have had a tremendous response
• We are receiving items already.
• Items for this year’s Pop-Up Shop to discuss:
  • The public component, not just selling to Judges this year.
  • We have six volunteers, but we may need 8 to 10 depending on who is judging during those times.

• Ole Hickory Pits has committed to the Foundation Sweepstakes for 2025!!
• The W9 for last year’s winner has been received. Expecting the KCBS office to provide 1099 for tax year 2025 to the winner.
• Time to start the process for NY filing and obtaining the bond.
• 2025 proposed dates will be July 1 through October 31st, Draw on the 5th and announcing at the AR if possible. E-mail to non-winners go out on NOV 10th.

• Provide a copy of the Codicil to the BOD for review and approval.
  • This may have already been provided to the BOD.
• Write an explanation of what a Codicil is and how to create one with sample language and place template as DOCX to put on website, downloadable.
• Create a campaign for educating members (Bullsheet, email campaign, Social Media)?

Nominating Committee
No report for this period.

Technology Working Group
The committee met to discuss, get an update, and discuss the RFP for additional technological improvements for KCBS.

• KCBScore
  • Add Overall Ranking to Teams Detail sheet.
  • Add Invoice capability
  • Saving points during certain steps in the process (e.g., after setting up the contest, after category scores are entered) and creating a “BACK” button to go back to a saved point if issues arise.

Hall of Fame Committee
No report for this period.
 
Organizer Working Group

• The Organizer Workgroup generally meets on the 4th Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm Central. 
• The workgroup has resumed its work on the Organizer Guide for 4 meat and 1 meat contests for Organizers for release later this year (Julie Poe).
• The workgroup will host its first KCBS Organizer Townhall Zoom meeting on May 27th at 5pm Central, aimed at supporting organizers. Please email dfong@kcbs.us for a link. The workgroup discussed the Organizer Hall of Fame nomination history, criteria and process.
• Joe Osbrink is leading the effort on developing a mentorship program for organizers. Associated with this discussion were the responses from an organizer survey that went out in April 2024 which was very helpful in shaping that program and for general outreach/support development.

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 less than two weeks before the KCBS staff travels to Lebanon, Tennessee, for the World Invitational, our sights are firmly on final preparation.  The deadline for entering the events was extended to May 12, and a push is being made to inform cook teams of the many ways to compete for over $80,000 in prize money.  The office is finally back to full staff. Please welcome Becka Simmons to KCBS.  She has hit the ground running and should be up to speed soon.  With the majority of the BOD attending the World Invitational, it will be a good chance to meet her in person.

World Invitational:
Compart Family Farms is partnering with us for the Friday Rib One Meat contest.  They will add $1,000 to the existing $2,000 prize pool, bringing the total to $3,000, paying 10 places.  Compart Family Farms is furnishing a custom-made ring for the winner, plus a case of their ribs for first and second place.  As an added incentive, there is an additional $500 bounty for the winner who turns in Compart Family Farm ribs.

Total teams signed up to compete as of 5/9/25 - 120 teams
Breakdown by event:

• Wells Cup and Masters Invitational - 65 teams
• Wells Cup and Backyard Invitational - 20 teams
• Master Invitational only - 0 teams
• Backyard Invitational only - 12 teams
• Wells Cup only - 14 teams
• One Meat Series, Chicken - 38 teams
• One Meat Series, Ribs - 40 teams
• Anything Molasses - 25 teams
• Dessert - 20 teams
• Cocktail - 28 teams

Youth Que - 17

• 10 & Under -11
• 11 - 16 - 6

Membership:
The May 9, 2025, membership count snapshot reflects 15,305, down 33 from the 15,338 members reported on April 4th, 2025. Postcards continue to go out to expired members.
 Contests: CBJ & Table Captain Classes:  Marketing & Communications:

• Bullsheet: The email open rate for the March and April issues of The Bullsheet is currently 22% and 28%.