Minutes from the PNWBA Board of Directors Meeting

Date: February 24, 2024

Prepared by: Diane Mee, PNWBA Board Secretary

Roll Call:

13 of 15 Members present for a quorum.

The President called the meeting held in person, to order at 8:30am.

Discussions

Introduction of Members

Members of the board introduced themselves and gave some background on how long they have been involved with the PNWBA, why they became a member of the board, and what they would like to accomplish during their term.

Approve Minutes – Diane

A motion was made to approve the minutes from the January 31, 2024, meeting. The motion was made by Sheldon K. and Jane B. seconded the motion. The motion was voted on and approved.

Diane will post the minutes to the forum for the membership.

Financial – Lance

Lance presented the financial statements and explained the procedures around the various aspects of the treasurer duties, including how Wild Apricot works, B&O taxes, the Feed the Troops restricted fund, and 1099 year end reporting. 

Eric M. moved to approve the financial report, and Robert seconded the motion. The motion was voted on and approved.

Committee Reports:

By-Laws Committee

The By-Laws committee has been working on clarifying the term limits language in the by-laws, so that members of the board conform to the term limits specified in the by-laws.  They have completed much of the work and will submit a final draft of the revisions soon. They are also working on four other items to correct.

Elections Committee

Lance continues to get Sheldon up to speed on the elections process, so that we have two people trained on the procedures.

Nominations Committee

Talking to potential candidates at the end of the year to take over positions for board members who have reached their term limits.

Membership Committee

Working on the question of “What does my membership get me?” and “Why should I become a member?”  Ideas discussed included discounts for members, and what perks we could establish, including early registration for classes and competitions.

PR Committee

What can we do to reach out to the communities of the PNW to get our name out there? How are we using our current social media platforms to reach the masses and what else do we need for content?

We should consider adding new team biographies on Facebook. Talk up the value add of the PNWBA. Possibly the slogan, “PNWBA is People.”

Website Committee

 Lance was going to look at possible ways to view on events "who" was signed up without having to sign-in and "dig" for this information in the events.

Judging Committee

The committee reported that there is one head judge currently in training, and one that is going to start training in March.

 Lance discussed HJ scoring and how judges are monitored at a contest, as well as how comment cards are reviewed before being given to the teams.

The Head Judging committee also put forward a request to raise the compensation for a head judge from $50 to $100 per event.  Eric made a motion to approve this request, William seconded the motion, and it was voted on and approved.

The group also discussed reimbursing head judges in training for their travel and accommodation expenses while still training.  The head judging committee will revise their proposal based on suggestions by the group and submit it at a future meeting.

Competition Rules Committee

Diane quickly discussed the minor clarifications and clean up the “2023” date references that are on the currently posted competition rules.  The changes were forwarded to Jane who will have Stacia update the document so it can be posted for 2024.

Newsletter Committee

Committee meeting to be set after a layout is created. Possible for Jason Aqui to help create the format? Bill will work with Jason.

Events Committee

Bill is creating a checklist of what needs to be done by the event reps, so that the events go smoothly.

Sampling, and the requirements of contest organizers was discussed, along with possibly creating a “meat pool” so that teams could sell their meat to a common booth run by an organization/charity and get paid by the pound of meat that they contribute.  Also discussed was developing a standardized framework for sampling at events, and revising the sanctioning application. 

Event Approvals and Updates

Enumclaw’s sanctioning application was reviewed, and Eric made a motion to approve the application. Lance seconded the motion.  The motion was voted on and approved.

Pendelton’s one day event in May was reviewed.  The organizer is supplying the entrants with three racks of baby back ribs.  The other 2 meats, tri-tip, and chicken will be the responsibility of the individual teams.  The organizer still wants the teams to sample out tri-tip to the public in order to raise money for their scholarship fund.  Eric made a motion to approve the application. Sheldon seconded the motion.  The motion was voted on and approved.

Spring Fair – there will be a judging class on Friday between 2:30-8:00pm, cooking demos at 1:00pm. 

Announcements:
The next board meeting will be held on March 27^th, via Google meet.

A motion to adjourn the meeting was made at 5:30. The motion was voted on and approved, and the meeting was adjourned.