Minutes from 3/18/2020 Call-In PNWBA Board of Directors Meeting

Prepared by: Steve Rubin, PNWBA Board Secretary

Roll Call:

Jane Biehl - President – Present
Chris Kelly - Vice President – Present
Lance Rasmussen - Treasurer – Present
Steve Rubin - Secretary – Present
Jason Bauer - Board Member – Present
Glenn Elliott – President Emeritus – Present
Gregg Fujino - Board Member – Present
Dale Groestema - Board Member – Present
John Lim Hing – Board Member – Present
James Jones - Board Member – Present
Pat Maddock - Board Member – Present
Eric Mendel - Board Member – Present
Bill Stock - Board Member – Present
Paul Wenger - Board Member – Present
Loralee Williams - Board Member – Present

15 of 15 members present for a quorum.

The President called the meeting to order at 6:35 pm.

Agenda

Approve minutes
Motion to approve the Minutes from the February phone-in meeting was passed with changes from the board’s prior email discussion. Steve will post the amended February Minutes to the forum for the membership.

Treasurer's Report/Update – Lance/Paul
We’ll see the Q1 statement at the April meeting.

Event Committee – Bill
A proposed event near the Columbia River event may not happen this year.

Pasco – Is having its board meeting on 4/3 and is expected to cancel. They asked to pencil in 6/6 (old Chelan weekend.)

Keiser – still in discussion. They are waiting for the board to approve the new limited services event sanctioning.

Per Glenn, we need to reschedule events if at all possible to keep our sanctioning with the Jack and KCBS.

Any new sanctioning applications? – None outstanding.

Update Spring Fair – Pat
Official announcement today that the Spring Fair has been canceled. Per Pat, might entertain the BBQ playoffs at a later event or possibly the State Fair in September? Possibly – they will see if they can somehow accommodate us for the State Fair. Pat thinks that there will be some sort of meeting to discuss. Possibly at another festival n the summer. Pat is encouraged by their attitude to reschedule. Ribbons – already ordered and shipped. Not asking the Fair to pay ½ at this point. Per Chris – perhaps the weekend of 9/18-20 might be feasible as it interferes with the least other events (Benton currently 9/11-12).

Update April in April – Lance
Anthony and Christene will not Head Judge the April in April. Last Friday, he said that April event will be postponed due to the virus and border concerns. We have not committed funds to the April event from PNWBA and haven’t been asked at this point.

Spring Fair and if canceled how refunds will affect us – Lance
Turns out that we pay the merchant fee when someone uses their credit card to buy we are charged the same exact fee for a refund. One option could be to apply fees to PNWBA membership. Another option, instead of asking for a refund to apply back to the credit card, we could just send a check. A possibility is for people to apply those fees to feed the troops. However, Paul believes that we can’t take donations. Paul had submitted an application to the state several months ago but never received a response. Lance will send out a copy of a proposed letter to the teams to the board for review.

Canadian Festival of Chili and BBQ / Keiser, OR – discussion
Wayne has announced a new date for the event (8/21-23) which creates a possible conflict with an event in Keiser, OR, that has been known to the board and in negotiations since mid-January but had not yet been announced. After a good discussion, the board decided to recommend that Wayne move his event to the following weekend to avoid the conflict. Jane will reach out to Wayne; Eric will reach out to Dale and Mike about the Keiser event.

Whistler
None of us have heard from Whistler yet. Rusty and John have been checking and have not heard from Joshua at this point. Jane hasn’t heard from his backup folks. Vail has shut down their resorts due to COVID. It is typical that we haven’t heard back from them at this point in the year. Several of us have sent messages and not received responses at this point. They have been with us for a long time. Jane will try to reach out to others at the organization,

Eric asked if we’ve heard from Oak Harbor – no not yet per Board Rep.

Head Judge updates - Steve
Request to publish HJ assignments in Minutes and the Board of Directors forum.

Here are the upcoming head judge assignments as of 3/18//19:

BBQ in April for April
Langley, BC
4/4 – Event Cancelled
Last Year: Christene & Anthony James TBD this year

Spring Fair BBQ Playoffs
Puyallup Fairgrounds
4/17 - 4/19 Event Cancelled
Assigned: Mike Marcum and Steve Rubin

Smoke n Fire
Pasco, WA
4/24-4/25 – Event Cancelled
NEW EVENT:
Assigned: Steve Rubin and Lance Rasmussen

Canadian Festival of Chili and BBQ
Langley, BC
5/2- 5/3 – Event to be rescheduled possibly to 8/22-23
Assigned: Steve Rubin & Lance Rasmussen (subject to change based on Keiser, OR event)

Grillfest
Burlington
5/30
NEW EVENT:
Assigned: Lance Rasmussen and Mike Marcum

Bottles Brews Barbeques
Prosser, WA
6/12- 6/13
Assigned: Steve Rubin and Mike Marcum

Canadian National Championships
Whistler, BC
8/1 - 8/2
Assigned: Steve Rubin and Jane Biehl

Oak Harbor Pig Fest
Oak Harbor, WA
8/8 - 8/9
Assigned: Chris Kelly, Mike Marcum

Oregon Bacon Championships
Salem, OR
8/22-23
Assigned: Steve Rubin and Jane Biehl

Benton City DAZE 2019
Benton City, WA
9/11-9/12
Assigned: Steve Rubin and Lance Rasmussen

New Head Judge:
Per electronic discussion, the Head Judge Committee recommended the Board approve Lance Rasmussen as an official PNWBA Head Judge. The motion passed. Congratulations Lance!

Feed the Troops Spokane:
Request from Leroy for a $2,500 donation for their feed the troops event. The amount has ranged from $1,500 to $3,000 for the last several years. The donation money comes from dedicated funds for Feed the Troops so it doesn’t impact the PNWBA’s Financials. They have asked to hold the event on July 18th. Motion Passed to donate up to $2,500. Per Pat, we should help spread the word to get volunteers.

Update on the status of Edmonds storage unit - Lance
No real movement since the last board meeting. Needs time and manpower to deal with it. Per Bill, we should try to set a date for the end of April. Probably 1 hour on each end if we have 5-6 people max.

Update regarding cooking & judging class – Eric
The Cooking and Judging classes in Pasco have been officially canceled. We’re hoping to reschedule. The firehouse will be used as a temporary site for the COVID-19 response.

Update on Rib Rally trophies
Because of Redmond and Spring Fair events being canceled, Jane was going to give them to the winners personally. However, now she will mail them.

A motion to adjourn the meeting was passed and the meeting was adjourned at 7:58 PM.

The next board meeting will be a phone meeting on April 15 at 6:30 PM.