Quote:
Originally Posted by rib runners
Just a thought......Since so many people want to eat and judge bbq at contest, why not charge judges to do this. It looks like many contest have no trouble filling their judging needs most of the time. Where else can a person do something this rewarding for not to much cost.
Considering what a cook has to lay out to do a contest, it seems right that judges would share some of the expense to put on a contest. 
Sams club has no trouble filling their judging needs! Also, new judges have a hard time getting to judge contest that have been established for a few years.
I will get off my soap box now and let the fires begin.
Life is Good when you can eat and run.
Ron Yater, KCBS member and judge since 1994. |
As both a CBJ in multiple sanctioning bodies, and a competitor who competes in different sanctioning bodies' competitions:
> Considering what a cook has to lay out to do a contest
With the exception of a few contests that are purely there to benefit a charity, most competitors compete for the chance to win trophies and money. I dont think the judge has that chance. For the judge 100% invested is lost (money wise).
> Where else can a person do something this rewarding for not to much cost.
Other than 2 or 3 competitions that I judge VERY local, the others I usually spend about $100 to judge, with a nights stay (sometimes 2), the eating out, the gas, etc. And this is all at a loss with no opportunity to regain any of the money back. I/we do this because we enjoy it, and we enjoy the comradere.
I offer as evidence what happened at a very prestigious contest that always draws over 100 teams each year, and these are BIG teams, as this is an MBN (was MIM) event. Big Pig Jig in 2005 and 2006 had so many judges come in that the judges were there only having to judge 1 event. So many, even judges complained. I know I did too, because I traveled about 170 miles to get 1 draw; on-site ribs, and of the 3 teams that I drew 2 of them pulled their entries, so literally I got to judge 1 rib.
The next year, 2007, they decided to charge judges $25 for the privilege. Frankly, I and apparently almost every judge that had been there for many years and help to make it as prestigious as it was decided that they didnt deserve the honor of our presence. They barely had a contest that year. No one that I know of went to judge that year...
They're back; no charge. Now they limit it to the first few hundred judges (MBN requires a LOT more judges than does the average blind-only competitions).
