My best friend since 7th grade passed away yesterday January 11th, she was a past great pepper and good chili cook and known by almost all older chili cooks. Her services are as follows:
Judy Dike
Burks-Walker-Tippit Funeral Home
215 W. Front
Tyler, Texas 75701
Visitation at Funeral Home is 5:30 pm til 7:00 pm at the funeral home.
Services will be at the funeral home at 10:00 a.m. at the funeral home chapel.
Judy is survived by husband, Lyndon and two daughters and many grandchildren .
NOTE: The letter below is from Jim Ezell who is our Sponsorship Chairman. He works a great number of hours trying to find companies to sponsor CASI. He does a great job and has brought many new sponsors on board for CASI. This letter is in regards to the Woodbridge marketing promotion and contest that is for CASI members who reside in Texas. It has been sent to all of the Great Peppers.
From Jim Ezell:
I realize the Woodbridge promotion has set off a national outcry by the CASI membership. I am very sorry for how I have handled this as it was certainly not my intent to alienate any CASI member. I accept all responsibility for it and will face whatever consequences the membership wishes to charge me with. The CASI BOD should not be hanged with my rope.
CASI has long been criticized for its absence of advertising and public relations. The details of the Woodbridge Chili Cookoff Judge Contest were not put in the Terlingua Trails to publicize the contest or offend anyone. The campaign was published in the Trails by me in an effort to
show CASI members that sponsors were carrying out valuable promotions on CASI’s behalf. If anyone read my column, they would have seen the mention of several items being promoted around the country.
This particular promotion originated in the Dallas, TX marketing office of Woodbridge.
They have been pushing for a cooperative ad campaign with CASI for the last three years and have done one with Renfro Foods. The Woodbridge people made the contacts with the Texas Beef Council and Bruce Foods to secure support and then came to CASI for participation. This promotion is being sold into Texas supermarkets in the beef aisle to promote Woodbridge, Mexene, The Texas Beef Council and CASI. It is being sold by the marketing reps of Woodbridge in that territory using their funds. The instant coupon on the display is redeemable for $2.00 off on a ground meat purchase. CASI is not marketing, selling, redeeming or bearing any of the cost of this promotion. The prize outlay will be deducted from sponsor funds provided by Woodbridge. We have already received a $10,000.00 check from Woodbridge for this year and we do allow offsets for any promotion benefiting CASI. Gold sponsors are entitled to use our relationship to promote their products and this is a long standing policy. We are furnishing a link only on our website that forwards entries to the sweepstakes company that Woodbridge hired to manage the contest. Nobody outside the grocery store aisles where this promotion is sold in even knows it exists other than my attempt to show CASI members in the Trails. I questioned the Texas only participation and was given the answer that this funding and promotion is being handled out of that market and any other Woodbridge marketing areas could do likewise. I am attempting to work with the new national director in San Francisco to achieve this.
Again, this is not a CASI promotion for Texas only. It is a local Woodbridge marketing campaign that touts their connection to CASI and sends the winner to the Woodbridge CASI California Championship. The thing that most disturbs me is that the membership is willing to jump to the conclusion that I favor Texas and would intentionally do anything to undermine the years of effort I have put forth. If that is the case I need to do something else. I have spent seventeen years working to raise funds for CASI. Please do not read some ulterior or sinister motive into this. It does not exist.
I hope this in some small way explains a very complex situation and puts it behind us.
Sponsorship has grown to be a very important factor in the survival and prosperity of our organization. I have to deal with many intricate situations to fund and further our cause and in this case I misstepped. Please accept my sincere apology.
Thank you
Jim Ezell CASI Sponsorship chair and resident leper
NOTE:
If you have something that you would like to see in the February Terlingua Trails, please send it to Dana Plocheck as soon as possible. The closeout date is January 15, 2012 which is Sunday.
Sunday is also the deadline for people to send me information that they want on the Winter Board of Director's Workshop and Meeting. REMEMBER: That meeting will be held next Saturday, January 21,2012 at the Irving Elks in Irving, Texas. It will start at 8:00 AM. All CASI members are welcomed and encouraged to attend this meeting.
It's Friday at last!! Have a great weekend and if you are cooking chili, I hope you come in 2nd right after me!!!
