Team mate responsibilities

Rob,

Let me take a stab at this. We are all capable of cooking but we break up the responsibilities as follows. Michele is by far the best chef. She has developed most of our rubs and sauces. She concocts our rubs and sauces for use during the contests. My brother has the best knife skills by far so his job is trimming all the meat and getting it ready for cooking. My sister-in-law is the most creative so she takes care of the turn-in boxes. I am your classic insomniac so I cook the meat and tend the smoker with my nephew who is our runner and pitmaster in training. We never sleep during a competition, we are both too wound up. My other nephew is our webmaster as he is a junior at Sacred Heart University and a computer Science Major. I also keep an overall eye on everything and try to help the others where I can. I guess we try to capitolize on each each others strengths but we all feel comfortable pitching in to help during any phase of the cook. It all seems to work out well.

Last year, I was the head cook, so it was my final decision mostly. My wife has done presentation for our comps.

This year, we're trying something different. I'm in charge of ribs and brisket, and my teammate is in charge of chicken and pork. We try to agree on rubs beforehand, and methods, but ultimately, we're individually in charge of different meats. I'll do anything butt, too. For fire watching, we take turns, cleaning up, too. If we have helpers, they're a huge help for doing parts of all of the above. I also do the time planning to make sure things are on at the right times. My wife will be in charge of all presentation still.

Then I'm hiring locals for breakdown.. I wish! What an idea, though... If you're putting on a comp, try to get a local church's teens or a high school to volunteer kids to help with breakdown... As a team I'd be glad to donate $20 or so for the help.

its my job to drink all the coors lite
its barfly's job to drink all the Sam sdams

Right now, I'm doing all the trimming, seasoning and cooking. My wife does clean up, building turn-in boxes, helping taste and select samples to turn in and takes care of Taylor working on her Kids Q when there is one. The guy I have who isn't available til later in the summer does a lot of the stuff my wife does. I have a difficult time "letting go" of duties... :roll:

Jeff, I am the same way, gotta have a hand in everything. I have since added 1 team member, his responsibilities include watching the pit while I am in the john, and all of the presentation duties. He is quickly becoming a huge asset. We have only done 1 contest together, but have practiced on multiple occasions, he now has the "bug".

Coming up on two years as a team, Tim and I just do what needs to be done. If he comes up with a BFI (new flavor, new knife, etc.) we usually run it out to it's conclusion. We share the prep work and reach agreement on trimming, etc. without too much stress.

Tim is our hyper-critical judge while I tend to lean to "Well, we farked that up but it's still edible". :-D

Due to outside influences (Jack's Old South, Dr. BBQ, and HomeBBQ) we have blended and changed our techniques and flavors, and they are still developing. Either one of us could "run" the show and come up with some pretty good eats.

I usually tend the Kingfisher since I spend a lot more time cooking on it. When we used multiple cookers we each tended the one(s) we were most familiar with - ie. Tim handled the Bandera and I handled the WSM(s).

We both prep, we both clean up, we both prep boxes, etc. We got away from purely defined roles a long time ago. I think we have a pretty good team relationship even though we are both old farts.

What Chad said.:lol:

I think a good team brings together and uses the interests, skills, and knowlege of the team members in what-ever management form that takes.

TIM

I think I might have convinced my son to do a small contest with me. Gotta raise some funds now. Should be a lot of fun.

Amen if I could cook with Chris Lilly or Ray Lampe or Jim Minnon
I will be takin notes and shooting pictures lol