How do we recruit new cooks to the KCBS

moocow said:
What if there was some bonus money available to the winner if they were a KCBS member. It would need to be paid by the KCBS and not the orginizer of corse. Lets say the winner gets a $100 bonus but 3 new people joined the kCBS for a shot of the bonus so the KCBS just made there money back and got three new members. This may not make sence at some smaller contests but at the royal for instance it could be hundreds in bonus money and lead to a lot of new members. I know its not exactly the same thing but there sure was a lot of people using Kingsford Comp. at the royal to try to double there money. Or maybe its not winning based but a drawling by the KCBS reps of every KCBS team at the event, That way you don't even have to be a good cook the be eligible to win the bonus. You just have to be a member to be eligible. What do you guys think?
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Might end up like Nascar, you get paid by the decals you have on your smoker, a guy finishing 10 makes more money than the 7th place guy cause he has more decals
 
Diva said:
The 'concept' was basically derived from KCBS ...
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As much as I normally agree with you Steph, I think I have to disagree with this a little bit. Not the knee-jerk reaction part, I'm with you there... but the idea's beginnings in general.

I was a member of the KCBS Research and Development Committee a coupla years back, and I believe the concept stemmed from there; trying to bring about more member benefits. As a matter of fact, the committee specifically discussed NEBS and its policy.

There are events in the NorthEast that give NEBS members a discounted entry fee. It has ALWAYS been considered one of the 'benefits' of being a NEBS member.

This 'new concept', had it been brought forward in a different light, as a BENEFIT (instead of 'non-members pay more and the organizer gets to do the work')... I think it may have been received much better.
 
Gene01 said:
We are already working on a lifetime membership as a matter of fact... it was a topic at the last board meeting.... may happen real soon
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Cool idea, Gene. Even a multi-year membership would be nice.
 
What about KCBS discounting their fee relative to the amount of KCBS teams?

Set up a fee schedule with the normal fee expected for sanctioning and for each existing KCBS member team get x amount off. For each team the organizer gets to join KCBS due to the event they could offer y amount off. This gives the organizer a reason to sign teams up rather then forcing them to do so.

This does, in a way, bring in more cooks. Although KCBS isn't bringing in people off their couch they are increasing membership.
 
What about a one time free KCBS membership when you enter your first contest. After a year of receiving the Bullsheet and other perks they would probably renew.
 
moocow said:
What about a one time free KCBS membership when you enter your first contest. After a year of receiving the Bullsheet and other perks they would probably renew.
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I think improving the Bullsheet would go a long way towards getting new people. I think it has gotten better with the some of the articles, but page after page of board notes and names of new members isn't the most exciting read. I would think that with all of the bloggers that are competitors we could easily fill those pages with something more interesting and appealing to the general public
 
Skip said:
What about KCBS discounting their fee relative to the amount of KCBS teams?

Set up a fee schedule with the normal fee expected for sanctioning and for each existing KCBS member team get x amount off. For each team the organizer gets to join KCBS due to the event they could offer y amount off. This gives the organizer a reason to sign teams up rather then forcing them to do so.

This does, in a way, bring in more cooks. Although KCBS isn't bringing in people off their couch they are increasing membership.
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or offer organizers incentives to increase membership by offering them a discounted or recruiter rate to sign people up. The NRA does this for its recruiters and I believe so do numerous veterans organizations. Once again, this is not necessarily going to recruit new cooks but will increase membership.
I think the best way to recruit new people is to provide excellent service and have a clear cut benefit to being a member.
 
Muzzlebrake said:
I think improving the Bullsheet would go a long way towards getting new people. I think it has gotten better with the some of the articles, but page after page of board notes and names of new members isn't the most exciting read. I would think that with all of the bloggers that are competitors we could easily fill those pages with something more interesting and appealing to the general public
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Agree!
 
Diva said:
The 'concept' was basically derived from KCBS not being able to charge the extra funds themselves due to their tax status.....correct????/QUOTE]

No biggie Michelle, we can't all agree on everything. My point was that KCBS cannot make it mandatory that every team be a member of KCBS in order to cook in KCBS contests due to their tax status.

The way it was "introduced" was about as good as they way they're introducing reducing the bonus points for TOY.

Have a Happy Holiday! Hugs to Gary and the kids!
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Diva said:
Diva said:
The 'concept' was basically derived from KCBS not being able to charge the extra funds themselves due to their tax status.....correct????/QUOTE]

No biggie Michelle, we can't all agree on everything. My point was that KCBS cannot make it mandatory that every team be a member of KCBS in order to cook in KCBS contests due to their tax status.

The way it was "introduced" was about as good as they way they're introducing reducing the bonus points for TOY.

Have a Happy Holiday! Hugs to Gary and the kids!
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Stephanie,
Just to let you know the roll out was by MMA for the discount for KCBS members. They did not present it the way it was supposed to be. As Michelle said it was to be a "benefit" based on the way NEBS and a few other organizations do it. That is the reason we still have contests on the East doing the discount for KCBS members. Those organizers understood the concept.

A lot of research went into the reduction of bonus points for TOY and without all of the facts I do think you are bashing something good. Obviously it is something personal and I really don't know why.
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LindaM said:
Diva said:
Stephanie,
Just to let you know the roll out was by MMA for the discount for KCBS members. They did not present it the way it was supposed to be. As Michelle said it was to be a "benefit" based on the way NEBS and a few other organizations do it. That is the reason we still have contests on the East doing the discount for KCBS members. Those organizers understood the concept.

A lot of research went into the reduction of bonus points for TOY and without all of the facts I do think you are bashing something good. Obviously it is something personal and I really don't know why.
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No, nothing personal about it.
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LindaM said:
Diva said:
Stephanie,
Just to let you know the roll out was by MMA for the discount for KCBS members. They did not present it the way it was supposed to be. As Michelle said it was to be a "benefit" based on the way NEBS and a few other organizations do it. That is the reason we still have contests on the East doing the discount for KCBS members. Those organizers understood the concept.

A lot of research went into the reduction of bonus points for TOY and without all of the facts I do think you are bashing something good. Obviously it is something personal and I really don't know why.
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Linda,

Will there be a disclosure of the research and rational related to the TOY change? After all I've read, I still think it has no real affect.
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Instead of entry fee's, why not make "premium" on the winnings. If a competition was going to award 1500 for GC anyway, call that the KCBS GC, the GC for a non KCBS team would be 1250. This doesn't take away from the host of the show as far as lsoing money at entry fee's and it doesn't take away from the GC if a KCBS team wins, but rather, it bespeaks a value to having the KCBS affiliation. The darn GC, non-KCBS team could have joined for 50 bucks and made 250 extra, too bad, maybe next time they will join. I would do this down through all the cash prizes...meaning a discounted win amount for non-KCBS teams. This cost's nothing to the host or to the KCBS, and is easy to solve once scores are in. This would only occur at KCBS sanctioned events of course. Scott
 
Forgot to add, that at the competition would be a way to collect dues and sign people up to be a KCBS member. "let's see, I think I have a chance of winning, I'm not KCBS, it's a 250 dollar difference, and only 50 bucks to join. I'm joining for the shot at 250" Scott
 
Personally, I like the bonus KCBS added money idea. It's worked well for IBCA. A carrot always works better than a stick and the discounted entry for KCBS members was a stick to the organizers. Only way that would work is if KCBS discounted event sanctioning fee based on number of KCBS member teams were competing. This would not be too difficult to implement, but teams would have to be identified by member number rather than names.

The hardest thing with added money though, would be how to determine which contests get the added money. Some events are full with waiting lists so a new team is not going to be able to get in to compete there. Some contests are going away because they can't get enough teams. You don't want to not reward successful contests just because they can't get new teams in the contest, while rewarding contests that aren't successfully attracting teams. I don't have an answer to this. IBCA does it by way of the regional "Pits" but I don't know how the added money contest is chosen from all the contests in that region.

In recruiting new contest cooks, I think it's organizers that do that by putting on local events. I know our local organizer was who first got me to cook a contest and I was hooked after that very first time. KCBS has a great membership recruiting plan with the CBJ program. One way or another there's got to be a way to recruit cooks as members too. I wish we knew how many of those 11,000 teams were members??? Is there a benefit for organizers to be members?
 
Great idea, but here is the math.
KCBC charges $35 to be a member.
The Bullsheet cost a little over $20 of membership dues per year.

Sanctioning:
KCBC charges $12.00 per team.
From that KCBS pays for all cost of supplies, shipping and cost.
Did I mention administrative cost of running an office?

KCBS is a bargain, but does not make huge money from contest or teams.

Now someone will ask about the $150.00 fee per rep. Yes KCBS does charge that to the organizer, as well but that sum, is paid in full to the contest rep. And yes, Contest Reps are probably overpaid for a weekend of work for $150.00. (Going to $175.00 in 2010) (just kidding about over paid.)

Just thought the math would help in this discussion.
Merl
 
Merl, why would the Bullsheet cost that much? I would think that most of the BS costs would be covered via advertising dollars earned.
 
Merl said:
Great idea, but here is the math.
KCBC charges $35 to be a member.
The Bullsheet cost a little over $20 of membership dues per year.

Sanctioning:
KCBC charges $12.00 per team.
From that KCBS pays for all cost of supplies, shipping and cost.
Did I mention administrative cost of running an office?

KCBS is a bargain, but does not make huge money from contest or teams.

Now someone will ask about the $150.00 fee per rep. Yes KCBS does charge that to the organizer, as well but that sum, is paid in full to the contest rep. And yes, Contest Reps are probably overpaid for a weekend of work for $150.00. (Going to $175.00 in 2010) (just kidding about over paid.)

Just thought the math would help in this discussion.
Merl
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The BS would seem a poor investment
Move the whole thing online

The Western States Pit will use our 2009 money to pay for year end trophies
 
Diva said:
The 'concept' was basically derived from KCBS not being able to charge the extra funds themselves due to their tax status.....correct??? [SNIP]
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It is a common misperception that non-profit organization means no-revenues. The bottom line for non-profits is that they return as much of their revenues as possible as benefits for their constituents. Many non-profits do have funds left over at the end of their tax period and they do pay a premium tax rate on those 'excess funds' - so the incentive to return the money in benefits to the members they serve is great.

But the bottom line is that what a non-profit charges (or generates) is not restricted by their taxation status. That may be more restricted by their charter . . . but not their tax status.

Diva said:
Sooooo, since KCBS couldn't charge the funds and DEMAND that any team cooking a KCBS sanctioned contest WITHOUT being a member doesn't pan with the tax man, they decided to 'put it on the organizers'. Personally, the knee jerk reactions are a bit tiresome. How about the Board get off their respective asses and actually do something productive THEMSELVES instead of trying to pass the buck?
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It's up to the organization's charters and rules - not the tax man. I agree that the BOD needs to accept their responsibility of growing the organization, but the bottom line of the KCBS charter is to promote BBQ and fun. I think the KCBS has done a good job of at least that.
 
Candy - Merl can jump in and give an accurate answer..... but I believe those 11,000 teams are just each contests teams added up.... not 11,000 individual teams. I think if you cull the data, it ends up at about 4700 teams vs. 11,000.
 
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