Minutes for 27Jan 2010

Minutes for 27 Jan 2010 Meeting of Magically Piclicious VI

In attendance (in order from Danny going clockwise in the room):
P. Daniel Riederer
McNeil “Dad” Wells
Ben “New Guy”
Jen O’Bryan
Richard Wiggs
Stephen Wiggs
Johnny Reynolds
Dave Mekeel
Jack
Chris Niederer
John Stephany
Dan Gorline

I was drinking Stella (thanks Danny!). I know Stephany was drinking Bud Heavy and Dan High Life b/c I got them beers at some point. Chris was drinking Red Stripe which he brought along w/ Cool Ranch Doritos. Mekeel was drinking vodka and some kind of red Crystal Lite; he called it a “flour and sugar free diet”, but I call it an excuse to drink vodka on a Wednesday night. I don’t remember what everyone else was drinking.

The meeting was amorphous and filled with interruptions by McNeil as always, but here’s what happened, in no particular order:

1) Several former members (some of them longstanding) are leaving the team, either temporarily or permanently, for a variety of reasons. We will be sad to see you guys go. There has therefore been a shift in power, which has shaken out as follows:

a. Danny Riederer – de facto president. His duties will include being the Godfather of our group, supplying the beer and location for our meetings, and generally telling us what to do.

b. John Stephany – VP in charge of the roster and storage of our team equipment. There was some kind of convoluted story involving his condo downtown, some storage space, and a dead hooker, which means that our team “stuff” that has resided at E’s house up until now will now go into Stephany’s storage place downtown. We are going to subsidize the monthly fee w/ some team funds, to the tune of not very much (details were fuzzy). This will be better in the long run for several reasons, including but not limited to closer access to the park and not taking up E’s entire attic and garage.

c. Jen O’Bryan – Secretary/Treasurer. Will keep up with minutes (as you see) and the cash. I am now the “McNeil” of the group, but better looking. You should give/mail me any moneys you owe at any time. Receipts available upon request, for the low low price of a case of beer.

d. Jack Koban – Head Chef. Need I say more? He’s promised us a Top 20 finish, btw.

e. Dave Mekeel – Soux Chef. In other words, Jack’s Bitch.

f. Ashley Saucier – Presentation Coordinator. She will be in charge of our tent space for the presentation to the in-person judging. God help you if you track dirt in the tent after she’s picked it up.

g. Dan Gorline – Sergeant-at-arms (aka Team Bitch), he will be available during the day to do things that those of us w/ day jobs can’t get done. He claims he’s throwing boxes at FedEx, but I think he’s really stripping on the side.

2) Dues is $300. Everyone who has not paid needs to. Checks should be made out to Magically Piglicious and sent to me (Jen O’Bryan) at 2231 Madison Ave, Memphis, 38104. This needs to be done soon, certainly by the next meeting, which will be in about a month. You can just give me the checks at the meeting if you don’t like to use the USPS.

3) Membership is open. The rule for new members is: if they are your friend(s), you like them, and they can pay the dues, they can be members. An acceptable member would be your co-worker. An unacceptable member would be a friend of your co-worker that you don’t know but you heard was cool. It would also be nice if they can actually participate in team activities (meetings, set-up, cooking, tear down), but cold hard cash is always appreciated. Membership will include one 3-day wrist band (with the option to purchase additional @ a discount), some number of family tickets for Wednesday night (again, w/ option to buy more), one or two t-shirts (depending on if you are a “couple”), food all weekend at the fest, and all the freaking beer you can stand. If you know of someone who wants to be a team member, have them get in touch w/ John Stephany by the end of next week (john.stephany@gmail.com). Also, everyone who is a current member will need to email Stephany confirming his or her continued membership. This also needs to be done by the end of next week. The reason we need the numbers is that so we can set the budget. All you guys need to remember is more members = more beer.

4) The application will be sent in shortly. The “Big Hog” package is something we will pay for later, after we have gotten accepted (I spoke w/ MIM today about that). A big thank you to everyone who already paid so we could send in our application, and to our VP for fronting the difference.

5) Jack is getting a line on a smoker I think? Not too sure on this one. If anyone has a smoker, or knows a guy with a smoker, post to the blog or comment on this thread. Another idea we kicked around was purchasing a smoker to use from year to year; that will likely depend on what kind of budget we have.

6) We are not going to approach Pete and Jenny about cooking for us this year. Jack and the Daves did such a good job last year, that we didn’t see what the benefit would be to spend all the money on getting P&J up here – the hotel costs alone were almost two members’ worth of dues. If Pete contacts us about cooking, I don’t know if we decided exactly about what we would say, but it would be something along the lines of “come if you want but Jack is in charge of cooking and we aren’t paying for your hotel”.

7) We are entering in ribs, beans, and sauce.


The next meeting will be in late February. Items to be resolved @ that meeting: setting the budget; setting up teams and committees for the various jobs that will need to be done during the event; possibly starting on the menu (though this will likely get pushed to April’s meeting). I’d like to throw out here a suggestion that we have the meeting on a Saturday afternoon and have our cooks cook up the extra ribs from last year that McNeil has in his deep freezer. This will allow the cooks to practice together and try out some different techniques. We could do this later in the season if desired, or not at all if you guys are against eating good food.


Please post any questions or comments in the “comments” section. You can also email any team questions to the new team email magicallypiglicious@gmail.com If anyone wants author privileges for this blog, email me and I will add you. At some point I may make this blog private so only team members can view it; that was a suggestion made last night in case we start posting team info we don’t want our adoring fans to know. I can do this at anytime, you guys just let me know.


Yours in the Cooler,
JenO