Official Statement

To all our BBQ Family and Friends

   We wanted to give a brief update to help shed some light on rumblings in the BBQ world that seem to, at times, get turned into “Big Fish” stories.

   As most of you know, I (Randall Bowman) along with my entire family have personally and through our business interests in the BBQ industry, (First Club Marketing LLC, Deep South Smokers, The National BBQ Cup, Inc, as well as others) worked to better competition BBQ in just about any way we could. We have done this with cash donations, product donations, along with donations of our time, knowledge, and resources. It would be ridiculously hard to put a dollar figure on these over the past 15 years and we would do it again for all of you.

   First Club Marketing LLC was contracted by The Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) in January of 2019 to provide various services. This contract was voted on (and approved) two times by the KCBS Board of directors in January 2019 and for a third time (reaffirmed) by the KCBS Board and its newest board members in February 2019. 

First Club Marketing LLC is immensely proud of the extensive work and income we provided to KCBS, both while under contract and prior to the agreement. I (Randall Bowman) am enormously proud of the years of dedication and efforts personally given to KCBS to better the organization for all of those involved.

   During the contract between KCBS and First Club Marketing LLC, I Randall Bowman, representing First Club Marketing LLC made many attempts to re-negotiate the agreement and to make changes the new board felt KCBS needed. These attempts, in my opinion, included many simple solutions that enabled all parties to move forward cost effectively, productively, professionally, and better off for BBQ as whole. 

   We received an official termination notice of our contract from KCBS legal counsel on 11-1-19, prior to the completion of the contractual terms (11 months into the contract).

With the lack of communication to try to work through any differences and a termination letter sent from KCBS legal counsel, rather than any other attempt at communication, we felt we had no choice but to consult with a local KC counsel to protect our position. We, after retaining legal counsel, again attempted to reach out to KCBS to work through this situation amicably and we were met with no interest in even engaging in a single simple discussion. 

   We at that point, after having exhausted any “easy” avenue to work through the situation, (and because of the clauses in the agreement, the potential breach of that contract by KCBS and the potential monies owed to First Club Marketing LLC under that agreement), felt trapped between a rock and hard place on how to proceed. An early life lesson learned was communication solves a lot of problems, but you cannot make anyone, or any organization communicate if they choose not to.

   First Club Marketing LLC made one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and filed a breach of contract lawsuit to get the situation resolved.

We strive to be very professional and value our business and personal reputations. We never had any intention of releasing any type of public statement regarding this situation. We have watched KCBS legal counsel give public presentations on the situation. We have seen KCBS release some information (and in our opinion only some to paint the picture the way they want you to see it). We do not want to paint a picture at all, we want the legal system to make the decision at this time, based on the law and how it pertains to this contract. 

   We appreciate all of you and the support you have given to us over the years. We want you to know this, The Bowman family and all our business interests will be there to support you in every way we can in the future. We just want to work to get this all behind us and are saddened it has gotten to the point it is currently.

Respectfully

The Bowman Family 

UPDATE 5-6-2022 as posted on social media

Warning, long post. I guess since KCBS cannot just be honest and has decided to try to continue to twist the truth.  First off let's say, I was more than willing to talk, communicate and work past all at the time for no money at all. They made the choice to spend Hundreds and Hundreds of thousands of KCBS member dollars to NOT have to actually communicate and be professional. They wrongfully terminated a legally binding agreement and refused to communicate at all with my company, myself or my legal representation. They breached a contract that was very beneficial to them and their bottom line out of what many have viewed as a personal vendetta. They appear to be twisting the truth to try to save face to the membership. I filed a breach of contract civil suit in 12-2019 for only breach of contract. They retaliated by filing a civil suit against me personally and my company. They attempted to claim 16 different things that included, violation of a non-compete, violation of fiduciary duty, and others. I was NOT interested in Money and was tired of being the scape goat. We have always been upfront and honest with facts to all of the BBQ and business world. The Jury was only given a few things to decide. My breach of contract suit against them was decided in Summary judgement on legal facts. They lost my suit against them before the trial. The court decided almost all of their claims held no merit and were tossed before the Jury was given anything to decide. The jury was given damages to decide on the case I won along with their claim of a violation of fiduciary duty and breach of contract against my side. The JURY awarded us $39k on ours and them $7,001 on a difference in commission paid on an agreement signed in 2018 (despite what the agreement stated). The jury found in my favor on their claim of violation of fiduciary duty (this was the only one that truly mattered as the blame and dishonesty was crazy that they presented) So in summary. I WON the lawsuit I filed against them and 14 of the 16 claims they made never even got to a jury because they had no merit. DO NOT Believe the smoke and mirrors. We filed for prevailing party status as is required to attempt to have the other party pay the other parties attorney fees, they also filed, and the judge denied both those. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend my name, reputation and the reputations of 2018 board members that some seemed to have a personal vendetta against. We did in fact agree to NOT appeal as did KCBS. This was done because the JURY decided no one violated their fiduciary duty to KCBS while serving on the KCBS BOD. They now have posted a twisted half-truth to again (just like they have done since 2019) to continue to try to sway public opinion. feel free to go to www.firstclubmarketing.com to view a large bulk of actual court documents that show the facts and not just the few they posted to try to sway. I will post the actual judgement today on there as well. This is all very sad and could have been easily avoided with simple communication and honesty from their side. I decided not to appeal as this entire "Toxic" situation has been draining and very negative. The jury was presented evidence and facts. They decided this case. Not website posts from KCBS.