Have hat and ready to throw it into the BBQ ring!

Over the past several months I have had a chance to experience a great deal in life. One of those moments occurred days after cooking at KCBS contest at the Cass County Fairgrounds in Weeping Water, Nebraska. On August 25th at age 34 I suffered a massive heart attack that should have killed me right then and there. While in the ICU in a Des Moines, Iowa hospital I had some time to think about the thing I like in life, the things I love in life, and the things I do in life because I feel obligated, and those things that I have just always done.

Of all the things in life that I love including my family, friends, and my church, I realized that barbeque and the barbeque family I have known for the last 12 years ranks right up there and the fact that the family and friends that I love and adore enjoy the barbeque life opened my eyes to becoming a leader on the KCBS board.

I wouldn't wish my unfortunate health issues on anyone but, an eye opener is an eye opener. The fact that my eight year old Carson loves to barbeque as much, if not more than I do made me decide that now is the time to run for the KCBS Board of Directors.

The past and current board members have done a great job in building on many of the points of the KCBS mission statement but I feel that I can be an amazing voice in building on the KCBS mission statement, and I know I can bring personalized knowledge and attention to the teaching and preservation points in the mission statement that are going to be so very critical to the future members of the KCBS like my eight year old son Carson, my barbequing 4 year old nephew Peyton, and my teammate's newborn son Brock.

I believe that through some new efforts that I would like to champion through KCBS that the organization could grow the membership base every year for generations to come. I also believe that the teaching aspect of barbeque is an important facet of maintaining interest in barbeque. Just a few years back NASCAR was the hottest show on earth, growing leaps and bounds and things couldn't have been better. Just a few years later NASCAR has hit the proverbial brick wall and there are empty seats, shortened race seasons, teams disappearing, and drivers going from racing on Sundays to selling used cars Monday through Saturday. I don't want to see anything like what NASCAR has had happen to them happen to KCBS.

The economy can be blamed for a lot of things including the incidental spending by the general public, reduced spending by barbeque teams and contest organizers.

For most competition teams like the one I am a part of, we realize breaking even is a great thing and coming out ahead is even better. We continue to compete because WE LOVE BARBEQUE!

The reason I bring up the socioeconomic conditions is that, if we (barbeque lovers) don't find new and innovative ways to overcome these adversities barbeque as we know it could change for the worse. I believe that my addition to the KCBS Board of Directors would be a great way of attacking these issues proactively instead of waiting for them to happen and then having to react which is also much more stressful and typically very costly.

I also want to address remedial education for current judges, member benefits, and meeting transparency. You can hear about these issues in my announcement video at the end of this column.

Finally, over the next three and a half months I would like to get to know as many KCBS members as possible and would appreciate any, and all of your questions, comments, and KCBS platform ideas and I will respond to each of you in a timely manner.

For up to date information and answers to others comments please visit my candidacy Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BJ-Hoffman-for-KCBS-Board-of-Directors/289380814423633
I look forward to getting to know you all better and hope I can earn your votes!

Respectfully,

-- BJ Hoffman

Going green can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. What could it mean to BBQ? It may mean that six judges all car pool to a contest to judge. It may mean using E-85 fuel in your truck to pull your trailer to the next contest. It may mean separating and sorting your trash from recyclable items at the next competition.

This past weekend I travelled to Omaha, Nebraska for the River City Roundup Barbeque Contest to compete with my team, Butler Center BBQ. Upon arrival, K.C.B.S. representatives Ron and Dena Milhous brought our turn-in boxes to us. The boxes were handed to me and there was something strange, no it wasn't Ron's firm handshake. It was this weird turn-in box. It was some paper derived box with a wax or plastic type of coating on the inside surface.

At the cooks meeting event organizer extraordinaire Tom Manhart explained that the Aksarben River City Rodeo and Stock Show BBQ Contest had taken steps to become "green" and reduce the carbon footprint. At first I was concerned that vegetarians had taken over but then thought about the other "green". He explained that the turn-in clam shells were different and asked for input regarding them. The big difference is the fact that they were not polystyrene.
I stored the containers safely and went about getting our cookers set up. After a great potluck hosted by Woodward BBQ I returned to our trailer to build our boxes. I retrieved one to start working on and realized after close examination that this box building marathon would be very tedious.

The outside of the box was paper based and appeared to be very absorbent. This became a huge issue as there a significant amount of liquids in a mobile kitchen when preparing meat for competition and having an isolated box building area in an 18 foot trailer isn't feasible. I decided to test the bottom of my "Anything on a Stick" turn-in box with some water about the size of a dime. Wow, the container absorbed the water and started to peel away with next to no pressure.

I ended up delaying the box building until all meat prep was complete and I could remove all the moisture from the work area. My next concern was storage of our boxes after building them. I decided to roll the dice and place them in a cooler with ice packs covered with towels.

The next day when we were getting ready for turn-ins I removed my first box and you could feel a spongy, damp, unstable container. The garnish in our boxes gave off enough moisture along with the condensation in the cooler compromised the integrity of the containers. Long story short, Butler Center BBQ crossed the Missouri River back into Iowa with an 8th place overall and got to have some great fellowship with friends.

I can't say the boxes hurt us, but I can't say I liked the moisture wicking materials they were made from. While polystyrene may not be good for the planet I believe that BBQ competitors could be better stewards of our planet and make a much larger and a more positive impact on the environment by other means than the use of this style of paper based turn- in boxes.

Due to the fact that this was Butler Center BBQ's last competition for the season I will have plenty of weekends to work with former Vice President Al Gore to solve this global warming and carbon foot print thing.

I would love to hear from other readers about how K.C.B.S. competitions and those competing can become better stewards of the environment without compromising the competition.

-- BJ Hoffman