To All Georgia Barbecue Association Members

Subject: The election of officers for the 2013-2015 cook season. This IS a two year term.

Nominations will begin June 10, 2013. Any member in good standing can be nominated for the office of President, Vice-President or Secretary. You must first ask the person you nominate if they are willing to accept your nomination.
After they agree then you will contact Pam Nelms at gabbqassoc@gmail.com and make your nomination. Nominations will close at midnight on June 31, 2013.

Voting will begin on July 8, 2013. You will go to the Georgia Barbecue Association web site at www.bbqga.com On the front page click on the link: “GBA Elections” and follow the instructions. Your ballot will REQUIRE that you enter your GBA member #, so have it handy. Use of the membership # is to insure only one vote per member is cast. To maintain confidentiality of the vote, only two people will have access to the ballots. Voting will end on August 5th 2013.

The new officers will be notified around August 12th so they can begin preparations to take office at The Georgia Barbecue Association State Championship, The ComSouth Hambone Jam, in Ft Valley Georgia on September, 6th & 7th, 2013.

There are several things to remember:
If you are a member of a cook team, you can not cook with that team for the duration of your office. If you are a judge, you can not judge for the duration of your office.

The office of President and Vice-President will require fielding many inquires about cooking competitions. It requires you to visit locations for potential new contests and speak to event organizers and/or sponsors.

The President or Vice President will determine if a new location has a site suitable to host a GBA contest. ie: do they have adequate water, electricity etc.

Other duties include organizing schedules so that you don’t schedule too many events in a month or in conflict to other association’s events that may hurt your schedule.

The President will assign Lead Reps and supporting staff in a manner that is in the best interest of the GBA and the event.

It is important that your elected officers are in attendance at all sanctioned GBA events whenever possible.

This is not all of the demands of these offices, but these are some of the more important ones and should be carefully considered when making or accepting a nomination.

If any one has any questions regarding the election process or and duties of the officers, please do not hesitate to give me a call @ 478-731-0145.

Harry Faircloth, President
The Georgia Barbecue Association, where
It’s All About The Taste!

A message from President Harry Faircloth

Greetings

We are just winding up our 2011-2012 cook year, what a trip. We cooked in places we’ve never cooked before.  We had new cook teams that had never cooked with us before.  We had new judges that had never judged with us or anywhere else before.  Our Team-of-the-Year has come down to the wire and the winner will be announced in Ft Valley Georgiaon September 8^th at ComSouth HamboneJam.

It has been my pleasure to serve as your President for this past year.  On behalf of Jimmy Nelms, your Vice-President and Pam Nelms your Secretary/Treasurer and myself Thank-You for all of your support along the way.  It has been quite a ride.

Our membership has steadily grown with new cook teams and new judges joining us. We have added new events and seen some of our older venues reach new highs in the number of teams cooking.  I do believe we are having some of the most unique trophies we have ever seen and I think Blackshear, Georgia gets credit for this.

We have started our nominating and voting process for your officers for the 2012-2013 cook year.  Nominations will continue thru the end of July with voting during the month of August.

We are preparing for a better year next year and each of you can participate in this new year’s experience.  Cook teams DO NOT forget you get DOUBLE points for cooking the ComSouth Hambone Jam so no cooker wants to miss this event.

I am looking forward to this next year just to see the new heights we climb to and each of you can join the ride so “ALL-ABOARD”  the train is at the station!

From President Harry Faircloth

Congratulations to Bethel Smokers on the GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP and to Reserve Champs Smokin’ 42 BBQ at  THE PIGS and WINGS in Perry Gerorgia

To all of you that participated in this past week-ends “Pigs and Wings” contest in Perry Georgia,  Thank you for making Audrey’s event such a success.  Last count we had 58 cook teams from Georgia, Florida, Alabama and I understand South Carolina.  WOW!

The weather tried not to cooperate but you BBQ”ers didn’t let it stand in your way.  I saw a lot of cooperation between cook teams helping out with tarps, helping with ideas and suggestions to some of the newer cook teams.  All of you owe yourself a hand.

We had some newly trained judges that did a super job,  It looks like Pam & Jimmy Nelms and Mr Kay Saville did a good job at the last training class.

If any of you that participated as a judge or cook team have comments or suggestions that would help the GBA do a better job or if you have any comments about the event that would help “Pigs and Wings” do a better job please e-mail me at hlfcloth@bellsouth.net.

I do believe that Audrey and Danny have thrown down the gaunlet to everyone that “Pigs and Wings” are not to be taken lightly.  Thanks to everyone that helped out and to all of the sponsors I believe you got your money’s worth.

Harry Faircloth