Ramblings......

The below comments are from Bob Coats; he asked me to post this on my blog:


Southwest Open

Everything you have heard about the SWO is true. The event went off without problems.

The cooks came from many states. Indiana, Illinois Kansas, Louisiana, Texas and we even had one cook from far away OKLAHOMA.

It is unbelievable that were more TICC Winners cooking than were cooking from the State of Oklahoma, where the event was held.

This is the second year in a row that the SWO was the largest CASI event in the State of Oklahoma. Where are the Oklahoma cooks?? It’s not like they did not know where the event was held. The Oklahoma State Championship in September was held at the same location as this years SWO.

Support for this CASI event seems to be in short supply. Without support from surrounding states, the Oklahoma State would probably be just another 30 cook event.

The NOB Pod is to be congratulated for its outstanding leadership in the production of the Southwest Open. Great job folks, Doris and I are looking forward to being there next year.

Congratulations to Kyle Adams, the 2011 Southwest Open Champion, and all of the cooks that placed.

Bob Coats


I really have/had no idea how many Oklahoma cooks were there. I was at the far end of the RV Park with little contact from the outside world!!!

Last night I sauteed greens and baby bell peppers together. Very quick, healthy and delicious. I also lost 2.8 lbs last week! Woo Hoo!!! Very excited and proud of myself. I need to get my butt in gear, though. I'm supposed to be taking 10,000 steps a day and that is kind of hard to accomplish. Does walking around Walmart count?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Has anyone announced that they're running for the CASI Board of Directors? I keep asking this question even though I know the answer. I'm disappointed, but at the same time, I'm not really surprised. I was talking to someone earlier and one of the comments made to me was "either the membership steps up and people run, or they're going to have themselves to blame when TICC sucks and their points aren't recorded properly." Okay, this person has a point. With our current structure, the directors do have to come from the membership. Maybe that's the problem. I feel as though the membership is so over the Board that they're like, "Hell No." I also hear so many people say that blaming the membership is typical of the Board - it's never their fault. So, the next conversation centered around the assumption that the only way the membership will be happy is if the Board does everything they wan them to do. I'm sure there are a lot of cooks out there that think that; believe it or not, I'm not one of them. You can't run anything well if you're constantly doing everything that everyone wants you to do. However, I feel like some of the suggestions that do make sense have come from a majority of the membership and they are constantly ignored. I mean, why can't we pay an advertising or PR firm to get our name out there? Why can't CASI establish a yearly budget and allot for advertising and membership drives? I still maintain that the best thing for CASI is to get the membership out of the drivers seat. Get a consulting/PR firm to help run this organization and get all of the personal agendas OUT! I've said this for so long - if CASI wants to be this nationally known charitable organization, then the membership is going to have to let people from the outside come in, assess our situation, and help guide us. As long as we have chili cooks running CASI, nothing will change. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be any involvement by the cooks - not at all. But I don't believe the current structure is helping CASI at all. I don't see things growing and improving. If they were, people would want to run for the Board. At the same time, there's nothing wrong with keeping things the way that they are - but advertise yourself as such. Stop pretending and be upfront about the fact that we're a group of people that like to get together, cook chili, drink beer, have really great potlucks and give the money we do make to charity. There is a big difference between being a charitable organization and being a group of people who like to have a good time and give your proceeds to charity. I give to charity; that doesn't make me a charitable organization. Or does it? I do have three kids......

I'm not trying to be a bitch, really. I'm not even trying to be critical of the Board. You don't see me running, do you? I'm just making observations and sharing a few opinions. I think that running CASI should be a full time job and so many of the volunteers who do fill the director's positions have jobs and lives...there's only so many hours in the day. What I don't understand is the motivation behind the decision to continue running this ourselves. If we can become a bigger and more efficiently run organization, what's the harm? The membership can continue to be on the boat and guide the ship. Let's just get some captains that can tend to us full time and let it be their job instead of their hobby that they have too much of their personal lives invested in. Does that make sense? Until then, we've got to rely on ourselves to keep running CASI....so if any of you out there are considering running for the Board, we need you to step up and do it.

I guess that's enough for today. I can't really go off like I used to, so it makes for somewhat boring blog posts, I'm sure. Oh well...I know I'll be able to find something to get on my soapbox about that won't offend my target audience. I think tomorrow I'll gripe about my husband's ex wife and cousin (not the same person....LOL) Eeeww...that would be really, really disturbing on so many levels.

Keepin it real....Ellis Co. Style,

Kelly