Illinois BBQ Society

I had the pleasure to chat with the GLBBQA Guys early on
Being open beyond Michigan was my primary encouragement

Great Lakes is off to a fine start sure would seem wise to hook up
Nothing says there can't be Illinois centric points races and social events
Maybe every state could have a ToY with a Larger GLBBQA Champion
LOADS of possibilities in this area

ThomEmery said:

I had the pleasure to chat with the GLBBQA Guys early on
Being open beyond Michigan was my primary encouragement

Great Lakes is off to a fine start sure would seem wise to hook up
Nothing says there can't be Illinois centric points races and social events
Maybe every state could have a ToY with a Larger GLBBQA Champion
LOADS of possibilities in this area

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Well, that's a thought Thom. Have one big GLBBQA champion and then individual state TOY also. Probably not any more work for either one of us. I tried to get a hold of Mike last night a couple of times but was unable to talk to him. I will try again today or this weekend.

Ralph,
PM sent.

rweller said:

Your right, it probably would help the great lakes region but there are a whole lot of teams from Illinois that are not in the Great Lakes region. JMO

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It is all up for interpretation whether anybody thinks they belong or not. I hear teams say similar things about why join KCBS, because they are so far away from Kansas.

In it's hayday the ILBBQS was very strong, with lots of members, helping a lot of contests in the state. The biggest problem with the entire organization was me. It outgrew being a one horse show and I simply couldn't give it the attention it deserved.

Ralph, or any of you interested, I would be happy to talk with you about building it back up to what it once was. Please give me a call anytime. My number is 6 1 8 4 0 7 3 3 0 0.

I admit that I have dropped the ball on this opportunity, but before the association completely fades away, I would like to see someone else drive it to uber-success. Don't worry, I am ready to completely and totally step away from the project, so hanging the proverbial "Under New Ownership" sign may be a benefit.

For the right person and/or groups interested in taking it over, the name, website (domain name), pertinent files, and Facebook page, are all easily transferred. Let me know!

Because I don't visit the bbq blogs like I once did, please call with any questions, suggestions or ideas.

Thanks all!

Thanks Jim for your input.

I'm working out it. Its taking more time than I want but it can only go so fast. I just hope we can have everything in place in the next month. At least what we need to get up and running. My biggest problem so far has been getting team information so I can send them information. I have sent an email to KCBS hoping they can help me.

Thanks for all that have responded. I will try to keep everyon posted on here.

Thanks to the Brethern forum for allowing me to do this on here. I won't forget Ron and moderators.

rweller said:

Well, that's a thought Thom. Have one big GLBBQA champion and then individual state TOY also. Probably not any more work for either one of us. I tried to get a hold of Mike last night a couple of times but was unable to talk to him. I will try again today or this weekend.

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Hi Ralph,

I will call you back tonight, last weekend was the GLBBQA Annual Meeting and I was working on that most of the weekend, and my daughter is up from Georgia visiting.

Spydermike72 said:

Hi Ralph,

I will call you back tonight, last weekend was the GLBBQA Annual Meeting and I was working on that most of the weekend, and my daughter is up from Georgia visiting.

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Ok Mike, not a problem. I thought maybe I was calling the work # and not getting it until later.

WOW, I thought I would get a lot more response on this. Other than the guys/teams on here and a few local comp teams I know I have had basically NO response.
I have sent out about 50 mailings/emails just to notify Illinois teams of what I'm looking to do and like I said, pretty much nothing. I did not send to the guys that have responded on here.
Maybe I need to take a year and talk to teams as I go to comps this Spring/summer/fall. Explain what I'm wanting to do and see if that works and try again next year. I will probably be at 12-15 contest through out the season. What do you guys think?

Thanks
Ralph

Ralph,
We are here if you need us, please feel free to fire away at any ideas or questions.

Thanks

I know there are a LOT of Southern IL BBQ teams that dont frequent the boards at all. From my standpoint there is a lot of communication between teams via email or phone call or text etc. I think that a presence at some of the contests announcing what you are trying to do and whats involved with the Association would be the way to go. I would make sure you have all of your ducks in a row as to what the membership includes, costs, benefits etc. are all lined out first, then just start hitting the contests and let people know about it. IMHO its going to take more than a month to get it going. This is the start of the cooking season and the start of summer and people just dont have the time that they do in the winter. I'm definitely interested. I was a member of the old ILBBQS and thought Jim did a pretty good job with it. Good luck and please keep me updated. If I can be of any assistance please let me know. I organized the Mt. Vernon, IL cook for about 6 years and have a lot of the Southern IL team contact information (for as current as it may be).

Troy Heitmeyer
Smokin' T's BBQ
troy@cmacsoft.com

sprinter said:

I know there are a LOT of Southern IL BBQ teams that dont frequent the boards at all. From my standpoint there is a lot of communication between teams via email or phone call or text etc. I think that a presence at some of the contests announcing what you are trying to do and whats involved with the Association would be the way to go. I would make sure you have all of your ducks in a row as to what the membership includes, costs, benefits etc. are all lined out first, then just start hitting the contests and let people know about it. IMHO its going to take more than a month to get it going. This is the start of the cooking season and the start of summer and people just dont have the time that they do in the winter. I'm definitely interested. I was a member of the old ILBBQS and thought Jim did a pretty good job with it. Good luck and please keep me updated. If I can be of any assistance please let me know. I organized the Mt. Vernon, IL cook for about 6 years and have a lot of the Southern IL team contact information (for as current as it may be).

Troy Heitmeyer
Smokin' T's BBQ
troy@cmacsoft.com

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Thanks Troy, I think your right. I was planning on hitting a lot of the contest since I judge anyway. I have contacted all of the organizer that held contest last year and got team contact information from three of them. So I do have a lot of contact information. I think I need to slow down a bit and try to get everything organized and then maybe this fall/winter try to have a organazational meeting at that time.
I'll be talking to youi guys this summer. If you have any questions or comment for me have them ready or just let me know now.