Ed joined the FBA in 2006 and has always been extremely dedicated to making the FBA the best organization that he can. He is a contest Lead Rep, a Master Judge and until recently was Chair of the IT Committee for several years. When our previous IT Chair left on short notice, without hesitation Ed took over that position as well as maintaining our website and continuously improved the overall processes. Without his unselfishness, the FBA would have struggled for a time.

Ed is one of the hardest working persons that I have met. He doesn't seek the spotlight and doesn't blow his own horn, he just performs. Ed spends countless hours of his own time after work planning for upcoming contests as a Lead Rep, managing judge selections for contests, keeping contest results updated and doing much more behind the scenes assisting with maintaining our website. He has had very few weekends off from the FBA as he continually volunteers to serve as Lead Rep at many of our contests due to our shortage of trained Lead Reps. As a Rep, I see all that he does to make each contest a success. Among all of this, Ed is, additionally, heading up a total revamp of our scoring system by leading a team of college programing students from Florida Polytechnic who were assigned this as their school project.

Ed works for the 9th Circuit Court of Florida as the IT Infrastructure Manager. Before that, he worked for Orange County BCC for 10 years in their IT department managing networks & systems and served on the Lake Conway Water and Navigation Control District Advisory Board for Orange County. Additionally, Ed served as co-chair of the Lake Eola Charter School IT Committee for 18 months.

Jim Elser served as a Director in 2015, Vice-President in 2016 and President in 2017. As a cook team

pitmaster, Jim and Sweet Smoke Q won the Professional Team of the Year award in 2014 and 2016. He,

also, has appeared on the television show, Barbecue Pitmasters.

Jim is one of the greatest ambassadors and supporters of the FBA. He is a great mentor to the other

cook teams and is always willing to give any advice and support that they might need. Jim has always

gone above board to promote the FBA at any opportunity that he gets.

Jim owns the company, Sweet Smoke Q, which manufactures drum smokers and sauces and rubs. In

additional to making his own outstanding product line, he makes sauces and rubs for other top cook

teams and companies. Jim currently makes the FBA Team of the Year trophies for both the Professional

and Backyard teams.

Steve has provided exceptional service to the FBA since 2006, in the capacities of President, Vice President, Board Member, Lead Representative, Rep Trainer, Judge Trainer and Master Judge. He stepped forward during FBA times of true crisis and imminent peril. As Vice President, Steve took over as President when the sitting President resigned under extreme pressure from the Board of Directors and membership, while abstaining from that vote. When Steve took over as President, there was $748 in the FBA Treasury, and several thousand dollars in debt. Steve led the FBA recovery to financial stability and formed a fully-functioning Board of Directors, forfeiting some dear friends along the way due to his insistence to always place the FBA well-being over personal desires. He was ultimately elected as President in his own right, then served again as Vice President and finally as a Board Member.

Steve is the longest serving Board Member in the history of the FBA. He wrote or rewrote almost all of the then-existing policy documents, as well as one major revision of the by-laws. He also trained approximately 150 new judges over the years, including special sessions for the 2014 FBA-sanctioned Black Gold BBQ Blowout in Hobbs, New Mexico. At least twice, he carried on with judges training in periods of blackout, i.e., no electricity.

Steve appeared twice on national television during the filming of BBQ Pit Wars while working in Rep capacity and was selected by American Queen Steamboat Company to be a guest lecturer aboard their live-aboard paddlewheel riverboats. His lecture topics were how to judge barbecue and his wacky journey through the world of competition barbecue.

Kevin and homebbq.com started with the FBA in 2003. He was secretary 2003-2004, and president in 2006-2007.

He always had the best interest of the FBA at the forefront and worked tirelessly to help it grow. He was also Team of the Year for an unequalled 5 years in a row, from 2003 - 2007. A number (if not all?) of those TOTY were won using a stickburner, cooking low and slow all night long.

Kevin introduced a line of rubs which many teams used and won with, and some still use them today. Kevin offered the first BBQ classes that I recall hearing about. Many took them including myself and I still use skills I learned with him to this day.

While he dominated the early years, he also helped others grow and improve during this time. He was a great ambassador and pioneer for the FBA and BBQ in general.

I feel he is very worthy of being inducted into the Florida BBQ Association Hall of Fame.