ATTN: Contest organizers.

[scottyd]

Here are some options.

The organizers area can be set up as a 'joinable' forum in the competition forum. Joinable means its not seen by the general populaiton unless you became a member of the forum thru the user control panel.

I will assign a group leader to approve the join requests. To join, you have to be a Contest organizer or part of an organizers team. It is not an exclusive forum, but the goal is to give organizers a place to discuss things without to many cooks in the kitchen(pun intended). As things progress, we can make it so the general popiulation can read it(if they join), but only official organizers and their teams can post. This will give the general population insight into what it takes to organize a contest, but control the 'to many cooks in the kitchen' scenario.

A public area can also be made for folks to ask organizers questions, but I think that can be done in the general part of the competition forum. Its up to the folks that will use the forum of how we want to organize it.

Contest Specific Forum? : If a member of that forum asks for one, a sub forum can be set up within that forum for a specific contest. This is helpful if the organizers team is in different places and available at different times and they want a work area to work through timings, responsibilities, who did what, etc. It can be removed after the contest, or archived and left for review and lessons learned.

Seems like it may work. Not ready yet.. keep discussing.

Phil as I am not an Organizer, I am however on the planning team for the contest in our town. I think this would be a great help. Just my opinion. Scotty d

 

[BBQchef33]

Dallas, I know you're not calling me out and I don't mind a bit in the world telling you why I feel that there should be a closed part for organizers only. And you know me well enough to know that everything I do in the way of organizing is with the best interest of the cook in mind. I am a competitor as you know and I am in constant communication with other teams as you also know. I don't need to go to an organizer forum to know what the teams want and expect.

First let me tell you what my preconceived idea of this new forum is and what I expect to gain from it. My concept of the organizer forum is where I'm going to learn about which CBJ's, teams, sponsors and even reps are creating problems that could jeopardize the success of my event. These are all internal issues that the teams do not need to be aware of and can most likely be avoided all together with a heads up from other organizers.

I am not trying to keep the cook out of the loop but rather trying to foresee and prepare for any problems that might take away from their overall experience at my event. We had several major issues at Kettering last year that hopefully nobody outside of the committee knew about. We dealt with these issues quickly, quietly and effectively in order to minimize the impact they might have had on the overall event. These were not things that the teams needed to know about as they were all internal issues. If they would have gotten out of control, the teams and probably everyone else would have known about them and it would have had a direct effect on our success.

The other reason I voted for a closed forum was to crush Scottie's dreams.

BINGO.. you have said it eloquently and decisively. Much better than my rant below which i babbled out at 4am this morning. But i will post it anyway..

go get a beer or cup of coffe...


****************************

I’ve been reading every perspective and I knew some would see this as an ‘exclusive club’ type thing. That is why I posted the question publicly. To see the consensus. I have been down this road before, when our competition forum was created and a few felt it would fuel the ‘us and them’ mentality. I assure you all that is not the case and this is to further help those that are trying to get into organizing contests. This would not only benefit all the teams, but if it does work out, and encourages more people to organize NEW contests, in new areas, we have now made more competitors. Those that have never competed, to have a local contest that was not there last year to try it out. We are about the growth and promotion of BBQ. Not dividing.

Anyone who knows this forum, knows we are big on 2 things. Open flow of communication and helping each other out. Our charter is the promotion of BBQ. Backyard and Competition. I would not allow anything to happen that I feel would divide or hinder the growth of our craft. We have a few organizers here who have asked me for a place where they can tap each other’s resources and share knowledge. We also have new organizers looking to us for help. I see this as an opportunity to extended services provided by this forum all in an effort to help the overall picture. If we create or bring more organizsers here, we will have better insight and possibly input inot our own contests.

As I see this, my intention is to give our organizers:

• A comfortable work area while in the early stages of contest planning where knowledge is centralized and has easy access to experienced resources.
• A place to canvas teams for input out front, and then take it back to the work area.
• This will be a place to quietly work thru problems before they become real problems and enlist other organizers for help. Sometimes having the public involved too soon makes matters worse. Things need to be worked out before going public with half assed information.
• A place to rant and cry and freak out

I am hoping it will help organizers to improve communication among themselves, learn from each other mistakes and successes, work through problems quickly and quietly, and to help new organizers get things rolling. It will be for existing and experienced organizers AND those interested in organizing a contest. It is by all means a vehicle for new organizers to tap the knowledge and resources of experienced ones. This will not only let the new guy learn from others mistakes before making their own, but help experienced organizers get through problems faced mid stream. Maybe later, as we see how its going, this can be extended to ‘volunteers’. Teams or people who are interested in HELPING organizers get things going at local venues thru contacts and local area knowledge. I also think it should be open to the REPS also. What we are looking to avoid is open and superfluous chatter in the early stages when organizers are working under unknowns and restrictions that are not public knowledge and public input will just makes things difficult.

It is not meant to replace open discussion in the competition forum, and if it goes down that path, moderators will request the conversation go outside to the public areas. The intention is to give them a place to work, and utilize the expertise and experience of other organizers for common and specific issues and challenges.

Lets face it, they need a place to work quietly. Some things are better handled quietly, quickly and decisively and NOT PUBLICLY. It is meant to give the organizers a place to do their jobs. Jobs they would normally do offline without having easy access to the help of other organizers. This is place they can go to for help for specific problems, or for ideas to face new challenges that others already experienced. I have seen it many times in this forum and others, that an organizer needs a place to discuss things without fear of being hammered for glib decisions, when final ones have not even been made. How many times have we seen contests announced publicly too early, and as things change the organizer gets their arse reamed out by half the planet.

This concept area is just the quiet private office to collect their thoughts and possibly have those helping out utilize the forum. No organizer, is going to publicly engage their organizing team in our public Competition forum and say, Joe, what is the status of the generators and water? Or BillyBob, has the governor proclamation come in yet,? And who is taking care of getting the porta potties? Arlie in TN, can help Joe out with a better portapottie company in KY, Merl can point out issues with the generator company Arlie is using.. etc… it is a cross reference and sharing of knowledge. I see discussions along the lines of contest security, sanitation, electric, water, volunteers, how to get support at the venues, costs associated with all of the above, etc.. these are things that all have to be put in place before even thinking of inviting anyone. From this back office discussion, they now have an easy path to say, “lets ask outside!” and now yes, thru a simple post or poll, we, the cooks and teams may be able to help and offer constructive input. But now, the organizers are not enlisting us for that. Having central location for both sides of the organizing table may help them work things out, AND INVOLVE US.

This is an expansion opportunity to allow all of us access to the other side of contests, many of us(teams), knows what it is like from the judging table, but are clueless from the organizers perspective. Attracting organizers, giving them a work area where they are comfortable, and at the same time access to us(the teams), may encourage them to get us more involved in our own contests.

I hope this clears up our perspective on what this can be. As you can see, it is not meant to separate, divide, or isolate. And if it does, it goes away. This may even already be in place somewhere else and we are not aware of it. Its not a new idea, I know that. From our perspective here, it is meant to help our organizers, to attract more organizers, give us more contests, and access to more information.

Sorry for the long rant, and scattered thoughts, but IMHO, I think this can work out and the more I thought about it, see it as a pretty good idea.

 

[BBQchef33]

Phil as I am not an Organizer, I am however on the planning team for the contest in our town. I think this would be a great help. Just my opinion. Scotty d

As I stated earlier. If there is a planning team, a subforum can be set up for a specific contest(open only to the planning team members and its appointees) That team can use that forum to take notes, communicate, create checklists, and status back and forth to each other. I have set them up for a few contests for their 'planning teams'. They are great help for all the team members to keep each other up to speed on what got done, what was a problem and what was completed. its like one big scratch pad. And it can be used form one year to the next to not repeat mistakes.

 

[Pork Avenue BBQ]

As someone that has organized contests, and served for two years on the FBA Board and Chairman of the Contest Committee( worked with all new contests to help get them up and running) I can say that it should be a private area just so the participants can talk freely about all aspects of a contest.

Open to organizers and those wanting to organize contests. There could be questions asked of this group from the members and questions asked from group to members.

I would like to sign up to share ideas.

Walt

 

[Yakfishingfool]

OK, I retract my employer reference, but truly like the play reference. Keep it private. Scott

 

[smoke-n-my-i's]

Ok, here I go.... I will not post a lot of the replies and add to them.

Here is my opinion for what it is worth.

I tried to organize a non-sanctioned practice event last year.... I had a lot of teams interested, but they did not come for various reasons. We ended up in the end with 3 teams including myself. I did not want to cook because I was trying to organize the event... conflict of interest or whatever you want to call it. The other two teams told me to come on and cook anyway.

I again am trying it this year... so far, it isn't going well.

I would like to see a private area, just for the mere fact to ask what does and what does not work for and organizer. Does the average cook team know? ? ? Why should things of this nature be in the open.... or for their discussion?

I agree with a private and open area. Yes, double posting maybe. Or have the real non-cook related stuff in the private area, and the more open stuff available for general discussion. And then a place for the cook's to ask questions for make comments about items at a comp that went well or not so good. This would be kinda of mess maybe at first, but I think it would work out rather well and be a very useful tool for both the organizer as well as the cook teams.

I say, go for it..... public and private. It can be modified and tweaked later, right? Subgroups, etc.....

So, when is the target date?

Bill

 

[ThomEmery]

I have 8 to 12 contests going this year
entry fees ranging from $40. to $550
Prize money from 0 to $40,000


An example Arlie and I talk 3 to 4 times a week
He always want to know where I am causing trouble
We share ideas and it is been beneficial

 

[BBQchef33]

Its in place.

Members can join from the 'Group Memberships' option in your userCP. As folks join, I will appoint a moderator and group leader.

 

[ThomEmery]

Request in

 

[Hot Golden Gal]

I am a contest coordinator, this is our 3rd year in a town of 800 people. Trust me all the info,suggestions were great and after going from 5 teams the first year to 22 the second and then this will be our First State Championship, I am always looking for ideas and help. Something that helped me was going to other events and meeting other people. I then networked with them and they ended up driving to our event and volunteering. Now I look forward to their event this year to help them and in return they are coming back to help me. I felt like without my KCBS rep, his connections, all the cookers and just their kindness and honesty, we would not be where we are today.

 

[motoeric]

Request is in.

Eric

 

[AZBarbeque]

I organize cook-offs here in Arizona and I think this is a great idea. I'm going to submit my request now.

Great idea..

 

[Ashmont]

I think it should remain open. Who else has more experience with contests? Organizers or contests? I can guarantee you that Ihave helped more contests get on the right track and that is because of my experience at contests. I do not see what the cons could be to want to exclude people? Are our views wrong? I mean, we would be the one's cooking it right?

Scottie

Scottie I think that a private area is a great idea for the reason of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. I dont think many cooks care what radio system the contest volunteers are using or where to go to get the best deals on T-shirts or where to get ice bags. As an organizer I would ask questions that would pertain more towards the cooks in the comp area and the private area for the other stuff.

There was a thread last week talking about organizers that do not communicate in a timely matter or update the contest website. It all about time and how much we have.I am sure you know that organizing a contest is a 40 week+ job. Most organizers have 40 week jobs. Cutting out clutter helps get the job done easier and faster. As an organizer I value everyones opinion including yours. Just my two cents..... Thanks

 

[Jacked UP BBQ]

Scottie I think that a private area is a great idea for the reason of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. I dont think many cooks care what radio system the contest volunteers are using or where to go to get the best deals on T-shirts or where to get ice bags. As an organizer I would ask questions that would pertain more towards the cooks in the comp area and the private area for the other stuff.

There was a thread last week talking about organizers that do not communicate in a timely matter or update the contest website. It all about time and how much we have.I am sure you know that organizing a contest is a 40 week+ job. Most organizers have 40 week jobs. Cutting out clutter helps get the job done easier and faster. As an organizer I value everyones opinion including yours. Just my two cents..... Thanks

They may not care about the systems that the volunteers use, but they may know where to get the best deal.

 

[Scottie]

yeah, I was also able to get a beer distributor, BBQ vendors, health permits, for my local contest, but I am just a lowly cook... As some people also have friends in high places...

 

[BBQchef33]

yeah, I was also able to get a beer distributor, BBQ vendors, health permits, for my local contest, but I am just a lowly cook... As some people also have friends in high places...

They may not care about the systems that the volunteers use, but they may know where to get the best deal.

Agreed!! Theses are the issues I brought up earlier.. the teams and the locals folk will have contacts, and logistic information that offisite organizers dont and can make the difference between having and not having. Thats the stuff where the teams and local folks can help and the need to keep us in the loop.

 

[Rolling Smoke]

Guess I'm missing something here but if it's open to anybody and everybody, I don't see any need in creating a new group as we already have an open forum where questions and answers can be posted.

 

[Ulcer Acres]

After reading this long thread it seems like to me there are some organizers wanting to hide stuff from the cooking teams. If that is the case I think several teams would have second thoughts about going to a contest that is trying to hide something. I know I would. If they have a secret club to trade secrets then what next, god only knows.

 

[Rolling Smoke]

I can only speak for myself Mr. Acres but the main reason I'm in favor of a private area is so I can talk about you with other organizers. :lol:

 

[HoDeDo]

Folks I think you are missing the point. There are lots of forums here. There is a news and politics forum, beer brewing forum, gaming forum, I'm sure there are dark dungeons for the mods....

This would be just one more forum. for organizers to subscribe to. Just like News and Politics. It will have a set of rules for it, and expectations - just like every other sub-group around here.

For example, I come here to stay away from Politics, so I dont subscribe to that section of the site. Doesnt mean it isnt great.

It has nothing to do with folks hiding anything, or doing anything behind folks backs. It is all about having a place where individuals with like goals can work together and collaborate.