Ask and You Shall Receive.....

Sooo....I sent Janice Miller and Renee Moore an email asking them WHY we have a Regional Referee rule if certain people are going to circumvent the rule and either appoint their own referee, or ask a Director to assign one for them. The answer was suprisingly obvious...and not so obvious depending on how you read the rule. If you read the rules, they clearly state that a cook off sponsor or promotor must notify the RR in the region they would like to hold their cook off to make sure a referee is available or contact the ED to appoint one for them. Did you catch that? When I read that, I interpret it as though I should contact the RR in the area about my cook off. I think the majority of us do. Do you know how other people read it? They read it as though they can contact the ED and get a referee appointed and bypass the RR and Pod in that area. In fact, the rules don't even require a cook off promoter or sponsor to do this before they schedule a cook off.

So herein lies the dilemma...and the issue I have with this rule. People who bypass the RR and the Pod of an area to hold a cook off are DOING NOTHING WRONG. In fact, they can wait until two days before that cook off before they contact the ED for a referee. Is that how 90% of us do it? Hell no...but the 10 % who do are doing nothing wrong. So really, this isn't a CASI official problem...it's an apathetic membership problem. Until we make enough of a fuss and propose and pass a rule change, this will continue to go on.

This pisses me off. Not at Renee or Janice - they are simply following and enforcing the rule as it is currently written. They can't help it that there are people out there who look for the loophole in order to do things their way and without following the rules they way they are meant to be followed. I was told, and I believe this to be the absolute truth, that it is not random promoters or charities going about it in this manner. It's chili cooks using the "or" in the rule to get out of dealing with people in areas they don't know, don't like, or don't want running their cook offs....

That's so unbelievably PATHETIC...and CHILDISH...and TRUE.

So where do we go from here? I guess I don't get to shoot off my indignant, self righteous email to a certain someone about her cook off this year. I just get to take the high road and know that in another year a rule change can be submitted (AND PASSED) and we can all go back to acting like adults. Calling people you don't know...actually communicating with people openly in an effort to work together and follow the proper protocol...and have cook offs with less bullshit and tension because SOMEONE didn't follow the rules.

I strongly encourage anyone with a complaint or question to email the ED and bring the issue to her attention. I certainly did not get the answer I wanted, but I got an answer and I understand better the pickle CASI has gotten itself into by not having clearly defined rules. I am not going to stop demanding to be heard. This may be the first and only civil email conversation I have with a Director about a rule I think is complete bullshit. Who knows - it could be the first of many productive conversations I have with a CASI Director. But as I've said, and will keep saying, how do you know unless you bring it to their attention.

I know what I'm going to hear: "We've been telling them, they won't listen." Then you know what, keep telling them. Keep being the squeaky wheel. If you feel strongly about something, don't give up. Don't be the only one voicing the concern. Get people involved; send an email from your Pod, with everyone included on the email. Keep the attention focused on the issues at hand. And then if it doesn't work, vote them out. That's right - get them out of there. Stop voting for people who aren't doing the job YOU want them to do.

Again, I am not promoting an all out mutiny....please don't get me in any trouble here.

But you've got to know what I mean, right? This is our organization, too. Our money, our time, our chili....we have a right to question the things we disagree with and provide solutions to the problems we see affecting CASI.

Enough about this subject and on to other, less serious items:

Gingerbread House CCO this weekend in Waxahachie. Three days to get your points. Mathematically, you could come to our cook off on Friday with no points and leave Sunday qualified. Seriously.

I made cheese enchiladas and my delicious mexican rice tonight. I'll post the rice recipe tomorrow. The cheese enchiladas are pretty damn easy, I'll include the directions for the enchiladas, too.

Paige's fish, Popper, died yesterday. After an already traumatic day, I chose not to tell her the fish died. I went to Wal Mart today and got one a replacement "Popper". She couldn't tell the difference and everyone was happy.

I'm off to make liquor and wine baskets. Sex and the City is on and no matter how many times I've seen it, I watch it whenever it's on. Those purses, my God. I love purses...LOVE them.

Good night everyone. Have a warm evening :)