Annual Chapter Meeting Summary

Howdy all,

I feel we had a very successful and productive meeting this past Saturday. Thanks to Jack for taking pictures during the event. I'll try to recap the meeting without getting too lengthy.

First, let me get the elections out of the way. By a majority vote of those in attendance, the following members were elected to office.

Ranes Carter ~ Director
Carol Hokanson ~ Assistant Director
Debbie Hair ~ Secretary / Treasurer

I would like to thank Scott Clawson and the past officers for doing such a great job of organizing and starting the Storm Mountain Chapter. I hope we will all offer our support to Scott Clawson in his new role of IDOS Vice President. And, I want to thank Carol and Debbie for 'volunteering' for the positions for this year.

Now that the politics are out of the way, I'll detail the rest of the meeting… in no particular order.

I would like to welcome the newest chapter members, Del and Brenda Atikinson. The Atikinsons have offered their yard for a DOG event in a couple of months. And, welcome to Mark Hansen. I'm sure we will be hearing more from Mark in the near future. His passion for cooking is impressive. I've been trying to get Mark to visit with us at a DOG for months!

At some point, I mentioned that I would like to have most of the DOG events and cook-offs planned for the year. This will allow chapter members to plan accordingly… but more importantly, we can offer this information to visitors to our cook-offs and DOG events. While a visitor is showing interest in Dutch Oven cooking, we can hand them a flyer that details upcoming DOGs, demos, and cook-offs… and links to websites. These can made available at DOG events, cook-offs, the WCCO, the Spring Convention, the Camp Chef DOG, etc, etc, etc. Let's all support each other by advertising all of our events.

On the calendar page of the Storm Mountain website, I have a list of upcoming events. Here is a quick list of DOG events that are in the works:

* Feb 16 ~ with Oquirrh Mountain
* Mar ~ I wouldn't mind having a DOG a week before World's (8 Mar) to give teams a chance to practice. I would really like to hear from everyone if they like this idea. Otherwise we could have a DOG on 22 or 29 Mar.
* Apr ~ The Atkinsons joined our chapter on Saturday. They have offered their home for the April DOG. The 26th might be the better date with hopes of warm weather.
* May ~ Pretty much wide open right now. I welcome any suggestions. Might be a good time for a breakfast DOG or a camping trip?
* June ~ 21 June in Lehi, a week before the Lehi cook-off
* July ~ Sort of wide open, but there will be cook-offs and holidays to plan around.
* Aug ~ August is packed with cook-offs. We might skip this month.
* Sep ~ Annual FEKA DOG… combined event with geocachers.
* Oct ~ Currently wide open
* Nov ~ Last Chance Chapter cook-off and DOG to nominate a team for the 2009 WCCO.
* Dec ~ Only if enough people will voice an interest

As you can see, the year is pretty much booked with DOG events. I would really appreciate someone planning an event for March, May, July, and October. Maybe the Atikinsons might be willing to switch April another month if needed? I wouldn't mind a month or two with two events if needed (like community events, etc). I would really like a camping DOG at some point. If we use a campground that is near, we could have a night event and those that can't stay could go home. And we could have a breakfast event the next morning? Just ideas...

While discussing DOG events, I mentioned the fact that Storm Mountain doesn't charge a fee to be a member, but you should be active with IDOS. Because we don't charge a fee, we have to rely on other ways of making money. I suggested a 'kitty jar' to be available at DOG events for those that would like to donate during the events. In the past, we have sold cook-books, spices, and dutch oven related items during events. And, we had raffles during our DOGs. We made $80 for the chapter this Saturday. Thanks to Scott and Jack for donating a keg roaster, a 14 inch DO, and 5 DO lids. Congrats to the winners. Donations for raffles are always welcome.

I also suggested that we should have a cooking fund raiser or two. One suggestion in the past was to have a offer a Thanksgiving Dinner. An additional option is to have demos during the day that details the preparation of a Thanksgiving meal… to be concluded by having the meal. One idea is to have a set price per person to sit through any of the demos they would like, then have dinner. As an example, someone could demo making a scratch bread. While that rises, someone could demo a turkey in an UTR. This could be followed by a dessert demo, or finishing the scratch bread, etc. Once all the demo'd foods are done, we serve the food to the 'students'. Of course, there are other options. If anyone is motivated to take on this task, I would really appreciate it. I have yet to do a demo and would prefer one of you pros to take this one.

At some point, we discussed upcoming cook-offs. I mentioned that hosting a cook-off can be a little stressful. I suggested that chapter members that aren't into competing could offer their support by helping with the cook-offs. I can think of eight to ten cook-offs that are held by members of Storm Mountain. And, I am sure there are other cook-offs that might not mind a helping hand. I think it would be great to have chapter members doing demos during a cook-off… or having members help set up and break down… or having members operate an information and/or merchandise booth. This will promote our chapter, which will promote IDOS, and help raise funds for the chapter. And, it will help our chapter members get to know each other better. I know everyone can't help all the time, but if most could help with just one event, it would really help those in charge of the events.

For those hosting cook-offs (Debbie, Todd, Bill, Scott, Thayns), I would really appreciate updated information as soon as you have it. I really want to keep my information current and correct. And for any of you that do demos, let me know so I can get it posted and advertised on the calendar.

Another subject was supporting IDOS and Region 4. I think it would be awesome to have chapter members at the World Championship Cook-Off in March in different positions. In the past, they have needed people to help with starting charcoal and with being cook's aids for the competing teams. I am planning on being there all four days as a cook's aid. I think we could help sell the cook-books or help with staffing the break room or help in an information booth or any other things that need to be done.

The same thing goes for the Spring Convention. It would be great if we could help with demos, or The Taste of Dutch, or the Youth Cook-Off, or crowd control, or an information booth, or anything that needs to be done. For those that have items for sale, you could be a vendor for the event.

Another possibility is supporting the Camp Chef DOG this June! They might be in need of volunteers.

It would be nice to be able to tell IDOS we have members that are willing to do what needs to be done to help support these events.

This lead into another topic of support. Debbie Hair cooked for the Ronald McDonald house a few weeks ago. I thought this was awesome and I applaud her for making this effort! I suggested we get involved with more community projects. It would be nice to offer food to a street cleaning crew (like at a Cache In Trash Out geocaching event), or maybe for community building projects, or for a family center, or any other areas that would appreciate our efforts. I know there were Dutch Oven cooks that fed the rescue crews in Price last year, as an example.

Finally, I talked about a new idea for the chapter. Right now, we have a chapter website, a chapter photo page, and a blog site (that is nothing more than my bulk emails). This last week, in the Yahoo group, there was a discussion on Cee Dub's newest episode of cooking a prime rib in Rock Salt. There have been a few people detail this process in both forums… especially Dave from California… but it was nice to see a video of how simple the process is. So… long story short… I created a Storm Mountain account on YouTube. I did a quick search of Dutch Oven videos and added those as favorites for now. I even found an interview with Wil Ward and Jan Smith from the 2008 WCCO. You can see Jack Wallace walking around in the background.

My goal is to video chapter members doing random tasks and posting those to YouTube. These videos will be edited to be five to eight minutes long. Some ideas for videos are how to season a Dutch Oven (it's talked about, but a video would be nice), how to save a rusted Dutch Oven (Jack?), how to store your Dutch Ovens, how to make a Prime Rib in rock salt, how to make bread or braid bread, how to make a turkey in an UTR (Bill?), how to make other things in an UTR, how to start and maintain coals, the use of a windscreen and dutch oven tables… and on, and on, and on. It would be really nice to have chapter members that are good at a particular dish to demo that dish for these videos. And it would be very nice to have many different members offer these demos. There are many people out there that are scared to try a Dutch Oven because they don't understand just how easy it can be. Maybe one person could do the cooking while another talks for the camera? Offering a recipe is one thing… offering a video that details the process is so much better. Another idea is to take digital images during the process to post with recipes. A step by step guide with pictures. Ideas for videos are welcome, volunteers to demo for the video are much appreciated.

There were other conversations during the meeting, but that is a pretty good summary of the chapter related events. For those that didn't make it, I sure would appreciate any input about any of the topics that you would like to share.

On that note, I would like to mention the IDOS forums. For those that haven't visited in a while, there are a couple of new forums… the Recipe Forum and the Regions Forum. The Recipe Forums have different topics to make posting and finding recipes easier. The Regions Forum has the Regions broken down. Under the Regions Forum is a Region 4 topic. Feel free to use this area to openly discuss chapter related events.

I really hope that many of you can make it to the combined event in February. I think it will be really great to get to know our neighboring chapter better. I hope to do more combined events in the future.

To the IDOS officials reading this, please consider this the minutes from our annual meeting.

To all those that read this far... thanks! I have to be honest and let you know that I spent longer on this email than the meeting itself!

Many thanks,

Ranes
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