ThinBlue I have one question, why do you want to add more team members? I had a team that was myself plus 5 other friends, we started out for fun then my wife and I decided to put thousands of dollars into the BBQ'n hobby that I loved ($5000 pit plus Jacks Old South Cooking School).

Once I got back from JoS cooking school we started practicing the methods he showed me, I started getting questioned by the other team members as to why I was doing the methods and told me it shouldn't be done like that. I said this is the way I was taught and what I paid money to learn we are going to do it this way. We had some dissagreements and I had to tell them that all of you can do the ancillaries and I will be in charge if the main categories. Needless to say we didn't place in the ancillaries and placed 2nd ribs and 4th shoulder, out of 30 teams for a total of $1000 prize money.

More team members mean more opinions, IMO stick with the members you have.

They were all good friends, I have cut my team down to my wife, kids (4 and 5 year old) and another friend and his fiancée and son. It is working out much better this way. My friend bought another pit and does our whole Hog category in MBN and we do the shoulders and ribs on mine. When we do IBCA we just compete together. We plan on doing KCBS in the future.

We have 4 team members that cook only KCBS events around Kansas City and a few others that "help" when they can. This is the limit for team members. Ever heard of the expression "too many chefs in the kitchen"? Stick with a small group IMHO.

On our team it is a friend, his wife, my wife, my 19 yo son(sometimes)....I wiould like to try one with just my wife and I and see how it goes, I think some things would be alot smoother. All KCBS.

We have 4 team members..my son and I and 2 good friends,we all have our own roll we play and we never deviate from our game plan..our team works like clockwork!

Great question, but I'm surprised at the responses.

You can always go to the path of least resistance and that is certainly competing by yourself. Hard to have a disagreement with yourself after all:-P

You can decide to get new people interested, but that can take a lot of time and they may get turned off. Or even decide to form their own team once "trained".

OR you can look at that person setup next to you at a comp. 3EyzBBQ is comprised of Mutha Chicken BBQ, Big Ugly's BBQ and some guy on the west coast (Thom I think :wink:). I have also had probably 10 others cook with me at any given comp. The reason's vary. Maybe one guy has more money than time, the other? more time than money, maybe one guy wants to learn, maybe..... you get the point. Look for the paths that cross and that can hold a team together. This isn't always easy, but man is it nice to have skilled people on your team.

Hope that helps :thumb:

Brian, like Smokesman said I saw your post on Facebook and any weekend we are not competing ourselves I would be glad to help out Thin Blue bbq if you want.

For the most part my team is just me. I do have 2 close friends that do help a lot with setup, transport etc. We tried running the team at first as a democracy but it just doesn't work. I wish my wife would get more involved with the cooking because she is very talented with flavors and how to fix a screw up.
My advice would be to have potential members hang out with you at a cook-off or two. Some people become royall jerks when they drink.

Thin,

Serious seems to be the key word in your post. Runners, dishwashers, and various hang around types are pretty easy to find. For the record, I have a teammate, he pays half of contest expenses, but our commitment levels are very different. I own all the equipment, do all the practicing and generally get all the headaches. I appreciate his support, but like everything, it comes at a cost. When you accept that support, you have a certain obligation to that person and their wishes. Our team has struggled this year, after enjoying modest(very modest) success in the past, and it has certainly put a strain on our relationship. I guess it depends on how much are you willing to compromise vs whatever benefit you feel an additional team member will bring to the table. I assure you there will be conflicts, a decision will have to be made, and no consensus can be reached......then what?

Just food for thought.

ML