Michigan Barbecue Association

I received this letter from Hayden Powers yesterday. Hayden is from Holland, Michigan. Hayden and some other Michigan barbecue enthusiasts (including yours truly) are interested in forming a Michigan Barbecue Association to promote barbecue in the state.

Michigan can support many, many more barbecue contests than it's current rate of travel for KCBS events. At last year's Taste of Grand Rapids event, there were more than 60 teams in attendence. This year there are a total of three Michigan contests on the schedule: Dundee, Grand Rapids and Mears. I'd like to see that number grow steadily over the next few years.

The text of Hayden's letter is included below. If you'd like more information regarding the proposed association, please contact me and I'll put you in contact with Hayden.

MICHIGAN STATE BARBECUE ASSOCIATION

This letter is announcing the intent to form the Michigan State Barbecue Association. We are contacting you because we believe you may be interested in joining this association.

The association will be comprised of folks like yourself who share a common interest in barbecue. It really doesn’t matter whether you are a competition BBQ team, restaurant owner, caterer, event coordinator or backyard BBQ’er, we want you to join us and help promote barbecue in this state and other surrounding Great Lakes states.

At the present time we are sending out this letter and asking that you complete the contact section below and return via mail or email to the address provided. The next step will be to arrange for a brief centrally located first meeting with interested parties. At that time we will begin discussing forming our association and establishing by-laws and mission statement. There will also be a general election for officers to run the association.

If you are interested please complete the contact information below and return to either the email address or street address provided. We will be in touch with you soon.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Hayden Powers

Having a local association to help promote bbq in the state would be a great asset to contest organizers, the business community, potential corporate sponsors, and bbq contestants collectively.

I urge you to show your support for this proposed new bbq association.