On the yahoo list the last few days there has been discussion about CBBQA as
a children's charity. The following is my response to that issue that I had
Lee post for me since I was at work and could not post directly to the list.

I have been reading all the comments and excellent points everyone has to
offer. I wanted to give some information of where we are at and going in
this whole charity issue. Everyone has legitimate questions and we are about
BBQ. I hope this helps and does not add more fuel, it is meant to help and
go forward with the issue. With that said read on, sorry it is so long
but....

The California Barbecue Association has filed with the IRS the paperwork to
become a 501(c)(3) non profit corporation. It has also filed with the State
of California to become a non profit corporation in the state of California.
This has cost the association over a $1000 in legal fees. The original
Southern California BBQ Association was going to be filed with the IRS and
that paperwork was never completed. The board decided to start fresh with a
clean brand new filing and call the association California BBQ Association.
Legally this was much easier and cleaner to do and less expensive due to
fines and penalties.

I have spent the last six months working with the attorneys getting all the
paperwork together and filed and we are now waiting for the IRS to process
the paperwork and give us our status.

Last February at the Q-fest the association had its annual membership
meeting. This whole question was brought up and it was talked about and
voted on by those members present. The association voted to go forth with
the children's charity status instead of a social club.

In the process of filing for this status I had to come up with a forecast
for the next two years for the corporation and in that we will give $500 per
year to a charity of our choosing in California. I as president have not
push the "charity giving" issue for this year because we are not a 501(c)
(3) and the board has been busy laying the ground work for this and the
growth of membership in years to come. Next year (2004) I will be pushing
hard for more charity work involving bbq. I have via email talked with many
people about what can be done for charities--ask Pam Gram, Meredith Bentley,
Del King and others.

I believe we can have the IRS status, the California Corporation and do BBQ
all at the same time. John pointed out many of the advantages of being a
501 and corporation and I agree with them. Folks, this is a club but it is
also a legal entity and growing. Yes it started out with a handful of BBQ
lovers and many are not around now but we now have over 100 members and
things change. If someone wants a social club go for it but for this
association we are currently a not-for-profit corporation.

If the general membership in the future decides to change this to a social
club then we do that but without any of the funds we currently have. All the
funds in CBBQA would have to be given to a not-for-profit charity. We as a
social club would be starting from scratch and with nothing but a name and
website and the possibility of paying back taxes and penalties.

The "Children's Charity" thing I got hung up on too last year but I got over
it when the membership voted on it and accepted it. I then turned my energy
to making it happen with BBQ and brainstormed how to incorporate the two.
Let's brainstorm on how we can help a charity raise money.

We can cook and get meat spongers to provides all the food while the charity
sells tickets to a dinner. Bam, they just raise $2,000 or more. What if we
cooked on a Saturday for the entire staff as a thank you for the hard work
they do all year at the charity. Or what if we cooked and raised funds for a
new BBQ so they could bbq hamburgers for the kids after school. We have a
BBQ cooking class and all the leftover food goes for the lunches the next
week. We have a contest and we have a raffle for a BBQ that CBBQA buys and
the raffle money goes to the charity. We create a BBQ cookbook and all the
funds go to charities. Shall I go on? These and others are all viable ideas
but we need PEOPLE to make them happen.

Thanks you,

Jeff Jones
President of CBBQA
925-639-7436