My title of the thread came to me as follows:
When the apron incident first happened, there were two people who complained. Two. Both of these were head cooks of perennial TOTY teams and carried a lot of weight with the board. I don't doubt that the two reps, one rep in training, and contest promoter on the BOD had their own say, and I won't argue that over the course of the next 72 hours there wasn't at least one other person who contacted the board, if for no other reason than the thread on this forum getting people riled up. One of the predominant reasons given for the punishment of my teammate and me was that the wearing of the apron to awards "hurt the brand and product" of the KCBS, so a severe punishment was levied to try to ensure that it never happened again.
There are now descriptions of the rep incident which go into more and different detail which was originally published on the BOD notes. Maybe I read things incorrectly, or maybe the notes were not taken very accurately, but the way I read the original notes was that two tables were short judges, and some how fake score cards were produced. Then, as I read the original notes, the process for "missing" score cards was introduced after the fake score cards were discovered, and those score cards, not the fake ones, were used as the official scores. If that is not what happened, then I would personally like to understand better the meaning behind the official notes. The whole thing wouldn't quite make sense to me either. I don't expect to get any answers to that, but the things coming out now, just don't seem to line up with what was originally reported.
As I said, the reason for my original post and title was based in the "harm" my former teammate caused KCBS when he wore that apron. How severe was that harm relative to that caused by scoring issues, whether they were outright cheating and making up of scores, or committing a snafu and inadvertently hosing 12 teams? How many people have quit KCBS or their competitions because of what my former teammate did? How many would have quit if we had been punished less severely? How many have quit because of the scoring issues? TOTY was mentioned because I believe that had the people complaining about my partner's actions not been the two individuals that they are, the punishment would not have been as severe. Members of the BOD may disagree, but the fact is, we will never know. I apologize if the title of this thread doesn't make much sense to you, but it did to me. At the time it was written in a "WTF" moment, and was not intended to spark a 16 page (and counting) thread. I hope that at least helps you connect the dots and understand.
I was called a malcontent, and a picture was painted of me as some one who has consistently caused problems. Over a four year period of time, I competed in roughly 25 competitions, most of which were KCBS events. Over all that time and all those events, I remember one where I got angry at an organizer who lied to me and prevented me from leaving an event until the morning after awards, and another two years later where that same organizer harassed me while I was trying to build a turn in box. Aside from those two incidents, I am not aware of having any issues at any event, KCBS or otherwise. I have also had respectful dialog with the BOD in the past over other issues.
If you are referring to the posts I make here on the BBQ Brethren, many members of the KCBS BOD have repeatedly said that this is not an official communications medium with the KCBS. Even still, the majority of my "malcontent" behaviour it seems was encouraging people to not feel obligated to join the KCBS because they compete. My stance is, and has been for some time, that competitors pay the KCBS a fee to participate in events, and telling competitors who aren't members that they don't support the organization is hogwash. My teammate was a member of KCBS during last BBQ season, and I have been a member of KCBS for multiple years, but each time, I seem to get financially abused, and I respectfully choose to not continue that abuse. For the record, I never said I wasn’t a member, but a former member of the BOD violated my trust and “outed” me on it. Indeed, I once suggested that every team be required to have a KCBS member, but was told by a member of the BOD that it would violate the not for profit status of KCBS. In my opinion, if the KCBS wants to keep that NPO status, they should respect the requirements of it, and not try to guilt extort membership fees out of people. They should earn them. If you disagree, that is your prerogative.
None of this is to excuse what my teammate did. I will defend my character in this thread with the truth. If you believe that the relative punishments for the two incidents make sense (and indeed, it appears that you do), I won't harass or insult you over that opinion. Please remember though that painting a picture of my with a broad brush is fair to no one.
Thank you,
dmp
:becky:
