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INTRODUCTION Organizing a BBQ cookoff can be very frustrating unless you have some good resources you can fall back on. If you don't have access to these resources, then exceptional foresight is a must! Probably the best resource is the Kansas City BBQ Society (800-963-KCBS). If you are in an area where another sanctioning body would better suit your event, much, but not all of the information contained here will be of help to you. Many BBQ organizations are affiliated with the KCBS. Most sanctioning bodies are different in some respect. That is... until it comes to the American Royal National BBQ Championship. Then it's all KCBS! Also, contrary to an article in the October '99 issue of the KCBS Bullsheet, a BBQ contest does not need a professional event coordinator to make your event bigger and more exciting. For one, most BBQ cookoffs do not have a budget that will permit the fees of a professional event coordinator. If an event does have that type of money in their budget, chances are they have adequate sponsorship lined up, which means they do not need a professional event coordinator. And two, there are very talented and energetic people in every community that are willing to help with events of this nature. It's up to you to find them! It CAN be done! Since 1996, I have coordinated the Roots Festival BBQ Cookoff/East Central KS State BBQ Championship, the cookoff's first year of KCBS sanctioning. In 1999, I became an associate director for the American Royal International Barbecue Sauce, Rub, and Baste Contest held annually at the American Royal International BBQ Cookoff in Kansas City. My intention with this web page is to provide you with details in coordinating a BBQ cookoff and also provide other ideas that you may or may not want to incorporate in your cookoff. I will also give details about each year of my cookoff in order to provide a comparison on growth from year to year. Granted, it's not the Royal. But ya gotta start somewhere! CONCEPT Determine when you want to have the cookoff and start the sanctioning process one year prior to that date. There are more and more cookoffs every year. The earlier you attain sanctioning, the better off you will be. It will give the sanctioning body plenty of time to assign representatives to cover your event. Prior to sanctioning, there are steps that need to be taken. Define your categories, prize money, trophies, ribbons, plaques, etc. Most sanctioning bodies require you to guarantee your prize money. This means obtaining sponsors up front. Approach sponsors that have an interest in the field of BBQ or grilling or in livestock agriculture. Approach sponsors early enough they have time to work you into their fiscal budget. Get a location! The more shade the better. Most teams have canopies they set up, but a few do not. Lake campsites are a great alternative! Optimally, most BBQ teams love to have water and electricity. These are not always available and most can get by without electricity. But water is a must! If you have a central location for water that is accessible to all BBQ teams, that will usually suffice. If the water is a further distance for some teams than others, get a golf cart or similar vehicle that you can use to assist them. Also, plan on providing grease barrels (plastic), hot ash barrels (metal), and sinks with adequate drainage. Mop sinks with custom made wooden legs work wonders. You need a sink at every water location. Go to some cookoffs! This is a pre-sanctioning requirement if you live within a certain distance of a cookoff already sanctioned by your sanctioning body. It will be very helpful. Ask the contest representatives to let you "tag" along. Have them explain what they are doing and why they are doing it, but be sure to let them do their work at hand, too. Take a video camera with you to the cookoff and plenty of film and batteries. Film all you can think of and then film some more. Film everything from judges tent, beer garden (if applicable), restroom facilities, sinks, barrels for ashes, trophies, etc. Stay for the awards ceremony, too. Take plenty of notes. After you have been to some cookoffs, then it's time to request sanctioning. Provide an outline of how your proposed cookoff will be run. Tell them when it will be, where, how many teams you propose having, entry fees, prize money, other prizes, and anything else you think will remotely be important to your cookoff. Provide pictures of your location, if possible. AFTER SANCTIONING OK, you've received sanctioning. The first thing to do now is apply with your state Governor's office to receive a proclamation for a state championship BBQ cookoff!. This is VERY important in that all grand champion teams from a state championship BBQ cookoff are automatically eligible for the American Royal National BBQ Championship held each October in Kansas City, MO. They are also eligible to be in the drawing pool for the Jack Daniels World Championship BBQ Cookoff held each November in Lynchburg, TN. This goes for each state championship, by any recognized sanctioning body, in any state and/or country. Additionally, if you do not receive a proclamation, as long as your cookoff has 50 or more entries, it will be considered a qualifier for the American Royal. Now is also time to start getting your rules, entry forms, and advertising in order. If you know how to create internet web pages, this is an advantage. If not, your internet service provider can probably hook you up with a web page for a nominal fee. On a tight budget my first year as a coordinator, it was more practical and economical to design the entry form and rules and regulations myself. With permission from the sanctioning body, I included their rules and regulations in my cookoff's rulebook. This meant typing them word for word. This was BY FAR the best thing I could have done. I became intimately familiar with all rules and regulations for the BBQ teams and learned exactly what it is the judges would be looking for. I'm not sure how many coordinators have gone to this trouble, but I feel all the more knowledgeable for doing so. I then added rules that were pertinent to my cookoff. You must be aware of any city ordinances or codes that may affect your cookoff. There are a couple ways to approach entry forms. You can contact your sanctioning body and request a mailing list for all teams in a specific area you specify and then mail it to them. You can have an entry form inserted in your sanctioning body's monthly newsletter. The best thing I've found is to frequent a couple of BBQ cookoffs each year and pass out as many entry forms as you can. Unless you live in an area with many BBQ teams, local newspaper advertisements are not practical and are far more cost prohibitive. Definitely buy advertising space in your sanctioning body's newsletter. In the case of KCBS, it's the Bullsheet. If you have the capability to design your own entry form, there is money to be saved and it will do the job! Be sure to include categories, space size, prize money, location, entry fee, and date of cookoff. Include space for the chief cook to provide team name, chief cooks name, address, day and evening phones, and size of RV (if applicable). It is also a good idea to include the standard waiver of liability at the bottom of the entry form for the chief cook to sign. Copies of a waiver can be obtained from most existing cookoff's entry forms and virtually all of them are the same. Mention if extra space is available and what it will cost. Also, be sure to write an article about your upcoming cookoff and have it published in your sanctioning body's newsletter. One other thing about entry forms. List all the pertinent information you can on it. Use legal size paper and make it so you can form your own envelopes by tri-folding the paper. This will save cost on envelopes and if you do it right, will save you typing up mailing labels, too. 3 - 4 MONTHS PRIOR TO COOKOFF Pay deposit to sanctioning committee. Order your judging tent. Put out requests for judges. If you don't have the time for finding judges, assign a judging coordinator. Finding judges can be accomplished a number of ways. Some cable TV companies offer a channel for advertising. Put an ad on for "Free BBQ". Design posters and request select businesses in your community post them in their window. Have your local newspaper write a small article about the cookoff and request anyone interested in judging contact you or your judging coordinator. Be selective about who you accept, usually no one under 18, and make sure their intent is to be judgmental and they are not just there to fill up on BBQ. Also, try a stay away from restaurant owners. They think because they're in the food biz, they know it all! Not so!! And let husband/wife teams know they will be at separate tables. This is so they don't "unknowingly" give hidden signals that something is "good" or "bad". Try and get as many certified BBQ judges as possible! Your sanctioning body should be able to supply you with a list of certified BBQ judges in which you may send a mailer direct to them. It would be optimal to have all CBJs; however, the general public does like to participate. For small town cookoffs, I recommend leaving a certain percentage of spaces open for the general public. Try and interest them in taking a certified BBQ class. Costs for the classes are fairly economical. Remember, there will be judges that don't show on the day of the cookoff, so get extras! Tell them the first X amount to sign in will be judges, and tell them why you do it this way! One other thing... if you are going to provide music entertainment during the cookoff, book the group(s) now. 2 MONTHS PRIOR TO COOKOFF Get your volunteers that will help you the days of and the day prior to the cookoff. You will need a few GOOD, DEPENDABLE hands to help assist you. Depending on the size of the cookoff, you will need volunteers to help check in and place the cookers. On judging day, you will need volunteers to check-in meat containers. The more volunteers you have assisting, the less work everyone has to do and therefore, the MORE FUN everybody will have! You may be tempted to bypass additional charges of having the judging tent delivered and set up for you. Take heed! PAY the extra money and have the rental company set the tent up for you! And consider renting all of your tables and chairs from the same rental company. Now is also the time to secure the items needed by the judges. Water coolers, bottled water, cups, crackers, judging containers, napkins, #2 lead pencils, toothpicks, bread trays, tables, chairs, trash cans and trash bags. You can typically get all of these items donated. You will also need to contact an ice company to get an ice trailer. Locate your water supplies! Get enough garden hose to reach from the supply to the sink. Determine where your drainage is going! BBQ teams do not appreciate having to stand in puddles of water. Order your trophies and ribbons. Coordinate for a public address system. This will come in very handy! If you have music entertainment booked for the cookoff, you can probably use the P.A. system on stage during the awards ceremony. 2 WEEKS PRIOR TO COOKOFF Confirm everything! Confirm your assistants and volunteers, judges, ice trailer, judges tent and tables and chairs. Pick up your judging supplies, i.e. crackers, entry containers, napkins, cups, pencils, bottled water, etc. Now is the time to number your entry containers. It is a good idea to talk the numbering system over with your sanctioning representative prior to doing this. Pick up your trophies and/or ribbons. If there are any mistakes, this will allow plenty time for corrections. THE DAY PRIOR TO COOKOFF Set up the sinks, water hoses, grease barrels and ash barrels, and the judging tent. Get a few cans of temporary paint (orange) and measure and mark off the contestants spaces. Also, the ribbons should be placed in order in reference to how they will be awarded. Generally, chicken is the first category, pork ribs second, pork shoulder (Boston butt) third, and beef brisket fourth. If you're giving ribbons down to fifth place, you need the fifth place chicken on top, fourth place next, third place next, and second place on bottom. Do the same for all categories. Any categories additional to those four required by the KCBS shall be awarded first. Set your PA system up now! THE FIRST DAY OF COOKOFF Various jobs to be accomplished the first day of the cookoff will be team check-in, team placement, meat inspection, and ice/water delivery and sales. Ice and/or water delivery will be an on-going task during the cookoff. When the other duties are completed, it's a good idea to have someone periodically checking with the cookers to make sure everything is OK! Be ambassadors; happy cookers will come back next year! Happy cookers also offer you beer and BBQ! The cooks meeting will happen this evening, usually in the judging tent at 7 or 8pm. Be sure to schedule your cooks meeting during band breaks, if you provide entertainment. Hand out entry trays at this time. A lot of the cooks do not like to attend the cooks meeting; this is a way to insure they do! THE SECOND DAY OF COOKOFF Rope off your judges tent. Get some oak stakes, about three foot lengths, and block off the judging tent with caution tape wrapped around each stake. This is the kind of tape the police use to block of crime scenes. Do this so the public will not be right next to the judges while they are doing their job. If your judges tent is large enough, you may be able to wrap the caution tape around the tent ropes, as opposed to using oak stakes. Get your trophies and/or ribbons set up for display. The cookers like to see what they have a chance of winning. Set up a table in the judging tent for the judges to check-in. Get the judges tent in order. Please consider using a separate table for left-overs. All entries are required to have six pieces of meat in the container. Most teams will put more than what is required. It helps on the appearance. These "left-over" pieces can work for you. Let your volunteers know there will be a few left-overs available and they will probably want to help you out again next year! Fill up the water coolers with water AND ice. You may also want to consider using bottled water. It would alleviate the use of cups and you don't have to worry about filling up water containers. If you do use water containers, be sure to check them periodically as they will empty fast! Have one table for the pencils, napkins, crackers, water, cups, etc. When the sanctioning body representatives bring the judging plates and slips, they will help you to set up the tables for the first judging category. Have plenty of trash cans/bags ready and have extra turn-in trays for the judges to put left-over BBQ in. Get your prize money checks in order. Not all BBQ teams have their own bank account so be sure to make the check out to the chief cook. During the awards ceremony, start off with thanking your sponsors and volunteers. If not for these people, you wouldn't be able to accomplish the fantastic cookoff you just pulled off! And don't forget, be certain to clean up after the cookoff is over! There's NO BETTER WAY to say thank you to the landowner for letting you use their facilities! Roots Festival BBQ Cookoff - Year 1 - 1996 Sponsors for this year consisted of 5 BBQ restaurants, each giving $100 apiece. Entry fees were $30 for each category, and $5 each additional category. The entry fee for the backyard category was $15. All categories had to be entered to be eligible for the top prize. No additional spaces were available. There were 12 teams in this cookoff. Prize money was set at $300 for grand champion and $200 for reserve grand champion. No prize money was given to any individual category. Trophies were given to first place in each category, ribbons to 2nd through 5th places, each category, and a walnut plaque to grand champion and reserve grand champion. The four categories, as required by KCBS, were chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder/butt, and brisket. There was also a backyard category, anything goes. There were 12 teams entered in the sanctioned part of the contest and only 2 teams entered the backyard category. First place for the backyard category received a plaque. A homemade judging tent was used, approximately 16' x 28' in size. The size of this cookoff did not require additional help. Roots Festival BBQ Cookoff - Year 2 - 1997 No specific sponsors were secured for the BBQ contest. Money was raised for the festival as a whole. The primary funds needed up front were for advertising in the Bullsheet ($128) and postage. Entry forms were passed out at the Lenexa KS State BBQ Cookoff that featured 161 teams; it was held 2 months prior to the Roots Fest BBQ Cookoff. Entry fees were $65 total. Extra spaces were available for $10 each. A total of 14 extra spaces were sold. There were 27 teams in this cookoff. Prize money for grand champion was $350 for grand champion, $250 for reserve, and $50 first place, each category. Additionally, a whiskey barrel smoker, donated by The BBQ SHACK, was awarded to the grand champion. Sanctioning fees increased to $325 due to more teams. Only the four required categories existed. There was no backyard category due to lack of interest the previous year. Plaques were given to grand and reserve champions, trophies to first place, each category, and ribbons to 2nd through 5th places, each category. The same homemade judging tent was used as in year 1. I had one assistant helping to place BBQrs when they arrived. Roots Festival BBQ Cookoff / East Central Kansas State BBQ Championship - Year 3 - 1998 Again, no specific sponsors were secured for the BBQ cookoff. A proclamation for a state championship cookoff was requested and received from the Governor of Kansas. Entry fees increased to the average $100 fee charged by most cookoffs. Entry forms were again passed out at Lenexa which had 161 entries. The only mailings were to entries from the previous year and to those who inquired via telephone. Spaces were 20' wide x 30' long. No additional space was available. There was room for 41 BBQ teams, with 41 teams signing up and 40 teams showing up. Four main categories existed. The only costs additional to the 1997 cookoff was that of a rented judges tent. Costs for sanctioning, trophies, and advertising stayed relatively the same. I had three assistants to help place BBQ teams upon arrival. One sponsor also supplied a John Deere Gator that was a tremendous help! I suggest all cookoffs have access to a gator. Early in the year, it was decided to raffle a BBQ pit as a fund-raiser for the cookoff. Unless your organization has the manpower to support dispersing raffle tickets for donations and can get a smoker donated, I suggest thinking about doing this real hard. In our attempt, not all tickets were dispersed, primarily due to manpower issues, and the smoker was not donated. Roots Festival BBQ Cookoff / East Central Kansas State BBQ Championship - Year 4 - 1999 Four months before the date of the cookoff, a 20'x40' judges tent, 18 six foot tables, and 90 folding chairs were on order from the rental company. Total cost included setup of the tent. We had 54 teams enter this year so we needed 54 judges, plus 9 table captains for 63 total. All judges were signed up 2 months before the cookoff. The festival pretty much pays for itself at this point. Entry fees remain at $100. Prize money is now at $1000 to Grand Champ; $500 to Reserve GC; $250 to 1st place, each category; $100 to 2nd place, each category. I also added another prize - a three foot trophy for Best BBQ in the County. It was a tactic to try and lure more local teams to the competition. A message about getting sponsors Try to find some sponsors that can contribute something you really need, in addition to cash! Go to a print shop and see if they can provide any type-setting or copies that you may need. They may even help to design your flyers or brochures. If you need lumber for anything, see if a lumber yard will donate what you need. If you know of a sign shop, see if they will donate a few signs. Most major sponsors want the capability to write-off a substantial donation. For this, you will need to gain 501(C)(3) status. A message about judges I have come to the conclusion that BBQ teams like to have as many CBJ's (certified BBQ judges) as possible. I personally like a mix of CBJs and the general public. It will do your organization good to have the backing of the general public. They will support you if you include them! I have also learned you want to do all you can do to insure those judges show for you on the day of judging. It took me four years to attain this goal and it didn't come easy. Try and use judges from previous years; judges you know will be there for you. If you have some that don't show, make sure your check-in time for judging is early enough it gives you a chance to go through the crowd and fill your spots. Have alternates available that know up front that they are just that and they won't be used unless someone does not show. It doesn't do you any good to have someone show up, expecting to judge, and you tell them "not unless so and so doesn't show". The main thing about judges is to have a list and have them sign in when they check in. Name tags are good too. This will let you know who does not show up and you know who to go to again the next year! The above information is based on coordinating a BBQ cookoff sanctioned by the Kansas City BBQ Society. All coordinators do things differently and have access to various resources. It is meant to be a general guideline of how I coordinated a BBQ cookoff, the Roots Festival BBQ Cookoff/East Central Kansas State BBQ Championship, over the last four years. If you are a cookoff coordinator and have ideas to share, please let me know via email . If you are thinking about starting a cookoff and just have questions, please feel free to email me with them. I'll be glad to help out! This page last updated June 9, 2002 aka Shake aka The PitMaster Member of The BBQ FORUM since 1996 Copyright © 1997 - 2009 The BBQ SHACK.
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