This weekend the team leaders of the Moody Ques BBQ team got together to discuss plans for 2014. If you’re a team member, you should have received an email this morning at whatever email address you registered with the team. Here’s a summary:
We need those who were paid team members in 2013 to get in touch with Moody or Clay and let us know if you’re in for 2014 as soon as possible. (If you don’t know how to get in touch with them, email me and I’ll forward.) We don’t need dues paid quite yet but we need to know who is committed to being back on the team. On February 1 the team leaders will look at the responses and determine if we need to add more members.
WordPress, which has been our main sponsor since the founding of the Moody Ques two years ago, has experienced incredible growth. As a result, a BBQ festival is no longer a venue where the company can hold an annual meeting. Therefore, we are parting ways with WordPress on the best of terms, and we thank them for all they did to help our team start up. We are working out other sponsorships to make up for the financial contribution WordPress gave us in past years.
A lot of things worked well last year, and we’re going to keep doing them. We had a large, open, two-story structure last year that won Best Booth. Brent from Holliday Flowers is back this year to help with the design. We expect to have a similar booth layout as last year. The honored country is Panama and we plan to come up with a design that will win first place for the second year in a row. No, we are not building a damn canal down the middle of the booth, in case you were wondering.
The Blind Bear is back to run the bar again this year. They did an excellent job in 2013 and we are pleased to renew that partnership.
Also back is Chef David Scott Walker as pitmaster. He did a fine job making sure everyone was well fed in 2013, and it’s going to be better this year. He’s bringing in several sous chefs from New York to assist with the cooking. We plan to have set menus for each day, published on the team website and social media, to help you better plan your BBQ Fest experience.
We are raising our dues slightly this year, to $300 for individuals and $450 for couples (couples must be established real-life couples and can’t be just two random people joining together to save money). Even with the increase, our team dues are still inexpensive compared to what many BBQ teams charge.
There’s a new opportunity for team members this year. Members who participate in load-in or load-out will be invited to a special post-BBQ Fest organizational meeting to share ideas and discuss the team. Food and alcohol will be provided at this meeting. In addition, team members participating in load-in and/or load-out will be guaranteed a spot on the team for 2015. Load-in usually happens the Saturday before BBQ Fest (weather permitting) and load-out is Sunday, the day after BBQ Fest ends.
There was also some budgetary stuff in the email, which I will leave out here since this is a public forum. Check your email if you’re interested.
Once again, 2013 team members please let Moody or Clay know ASAP if you’re in or out. I am excited and truly believe we built the groundwork last year for a BBQ team that will be successful for a long, long time.