2008 Ohio Smoked Meat & BBQ Festival is set to go!!!

[beardjp]

Finally the 12th Annual Official Ohio Smoked Meat and Barbecue Festival - State Championship is scheduled for October 17 - 18, 2008, at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio.

The entry fee is $200 with the following categories;
Chicken
Ribs
Pork (Shoulder/Butt)
Brisket
Dessert
For further information you can contact Carl Franz (franz_c@hocking.edu)or Tom Lambrecht (lambrecht_t@hocking.edu)
(740) 753-3531

I can also email you an electronic version of the entry form, if you Email me at (beardjp@yahoo.com).

It would be great to have a big turnout for this event even with short notice. Maybe this year we can convince the organizers that early notification is the key.

 

[Kloset BBQR]

Good luck with that! I see your from Nelsonville. Are you affiliated with the contest? If so do you know anthing about the payouts, total prize money. The contest desperatly needs a website. If one has been developed please post a link to it. That should help get the word out as well.

I hope the contest is a huge success. If your in need of a 25th team to make it a qualifier, please let me know.

 

[Bbq Bubba]

Same weekend as Libertyville Ill. AGAIN!
These short notices are gonna kill this contest again this year, although i would rather come to Ohio (shorter drive and nicer site)
Get some info on purses soon please, i may be persuaded!

 

[beardjp]

We are not affiliated with the contest, but we have been hounding the organizers to get things in gear. They do not have a website for info yet. Erik Hoover from Cockeye BBQ has offered space for a website, but the organizers have not yet moved on it. We just want to get things kicked up again, any help is appreciated.

 

[beardjp]

I'll do my best to get some prize information.

 

[Kloset BBQR]

Just reading your posts I'm having flashbacks to last year when we were desperately hitting all the BBQ forum boards trying to save Nelsonville. We were able to rally some support and got a few additional teams to sign up at the last minute. We understood that there were a lot of problems last year, even some deliberate sabatoge of the event. We talked to Joe Steele last year offering help and support for the contest and although he was appreciative he would not accept our help. We even talked to the other two Ohio contest organizer to try and get an Ohio Triple Crown awarded to the contestant with the highest cumalive points of the three contests. Jim Ferguson and Jim Emig thought it was a great idea. Nelsonville stood to be the biggest beneficiary of the idea, since they were the last contest and yet the only one of the three that said no were the Nelsonville folks.

The awards ceremony last year was a joke. One of the members of this board had his First place trophy broken accidentally by the oranizers before it was awarded. To date it has never been replace. Those finishing lower than first received ribbons that looked like something you got at Chucky Cheese. No mention of the contest on the ribbon, no mention of the category. Mine was just a white ribbon that said Third Place.

Last year was the time to try and rally the contest. We love the event, the site, the people are good people but they are terrible organizers. Before this contest can succeed there has to be someone at the top that will take this contest over and start planning for next years contest a year in advance. I hate to sound negative but I do this out of the love I have for what used to be The Ohio BBQ Championship. Maybe the Grinstead Brothers were right when they said that this contest has to fail before it can succeed. I'm beginning to understand now what they meant.

Like I said I'll be there in a minute if your in need of a 25th team but it looks like the same old same old with Nelsonville. They need help and they are turning it down and waiting for the last minute for a bail out. There are two many contests out there now that are much better organized and run then for the cooks to be treated this way.

I got your email about a Friday night meeting to discuss the contest. If the organizers are willing to abdicate their authority to a volunteer committee dedicated to saving the contest I believe that there may still be time to save the contest. But they have to do this today!

Again best of luck with the contest. If you need help in anyway PM me. You also have my permission to show this response to the current organizers whoever they may be this year. I know that they are probably not the same as those in prior years and hopefully they will not take offense to these comments.

Dallas

 

[Bbq Bubba]

Gotta agree with ya Dallas, i remember you busted your azz last year trying to gain support for this event and kudos for that.
I can also post this event on the Great Lakes BBQ Assoc. website to help gain some momentum, but like D said, the organizers need to act like they really want this to happen!

 

[beardjp]

I will pass this on to the organizers. I know exactly where you are coming from especially with the ribbons. My team and I are working our hardest to get them together without jeopardizing our competition standing. We will push on!!!

 

[Kloset BBQR]

Gotta agree with ya Dallas, i remember you busted your azz last year trying to gain support for this event and kudos for that.
I can also post this event on the Great Lakes BBQ Assoc. website to help gain some momentum, but like D said, the organizers need to act like they really want this to happen!

That would be great if you could do that Bubba! Thanks for the help.

Dallas

 

[Kloset BBQR]

I will pass this on to the organizers. I know exactly where you are coming from especially with the ribbons. My team and I are working our hardest to get them together without jeopardizing our competition standing. We will push on!!!

Thanks for taking this the way it was intended and hopefully you can explain to the organizers that none of the comments were made in a malicious manner. We want to see this contest succeed. Best of luck to you and don't feel like your alone in this.

Aren't you guys the team with the ambulance?

Maybe we can get Branen Kinney to come up from Tennessee for the entertainment. Smoker Song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KXkaTpjzO8

 

[beardjp]

We don't actually have an ambulance, but I am sure ther was one that stopped at our site. My team is made of police, firefighters and paramedics.

That is one of the main reasons we are so behind keeping the Nelsonville event going. We have a hard time scheduling our times off to attend any other events so far, except for Nelsonville. Even this year the team will be short because of people on duty.

We will keep pushing hard on everything.

 

[Kloset BBQR]

Maybe they can help you get the rib trophy that they promised you last year Mike!

 

[Kloset BBQR]

I agree but I think there are new people in charge now and I'm betting that they don't even know about it! It would be a nice gesture to correct a wrong that was done to you.

 

[beardjp]

There are new people in charge. But it is still being run by the "Inn at Hocking College". I passed on Dallas's full comments yesterday, word for word. It was late in the day and I have not heard anything else yet.

I am getting my entry form ready now, and keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Bbq Bubba]

[quote="Bbq Bubba":3gh4zs6m]Gotta agree with ya Dallas, i remember you busted your azz last year trying to gain support for this event and kudos for that.
I can also post this event on the Great Lakes BBQ Assoc. website to help gain some momentum, but like D said, the organizers need to act like they really want this to happen!

Bubba, there was several of us busting our butts to make it happen last year and like Dallas, I too am having flashbacks of the last minute push last year to rally the teams. While we didn't make the qualifier status, we did show the organizers that there was still interest in the event. Speaking for myself, I thought we showed them enough to make them more proactive this year but apparently not.[/quote:3gh4zs6m]

Very true Jim, and kudos to you also.
I'm looking to help by posting a link on out website, but i'm guessing there isin't one yet, or will there NOT be one?

 

[Kloset BBQR]

[quote="Kloset BBQR":1uvjwf4t]The awards ceremony last year was a joke. One of the members of this board had his First place trophy broken accidentally by the oranizers before it was awarded. To date it has never been replace. Those finishing lower than first received ribbons that looked like something you got at Chucky Cheese. No mention of the contest on the ribbon, no mention of the category. Mine was just a white ribbon that said Third Place.

Not to take anything away from Mike's trophy or the ribbons but the biggest oversight that was made last year was the fact that Old Dave won reserve and got nothing more than his name called. No check, no trophy and no ribbon.[/quote:1uvjwf4t]

Jim, yesterday was the first that I had heard of how Old Dave was treated when I was cc'd on the email that Dave sent to the Nelsonville organizers. I guess normally these rules violations should have been reported by the KCBS Reps but that is a whole different story as well and I won't rehash it here. I don't know how many places were paid out. I know I did not get a payout for third place ribs so at most all that was paid out was the top 2 in each category and Grand Champion.

It makes me mad that they would think that those who were treated so poorly last year would give them a second chance this year. My guess is you will soon see a cancelled status on Nelsonville on the KCBS website and that is a tragedy but sends out a warning to contest organizers that cooks will not be treated in this manner. They are not the only game in town anymore!

 

[beardjp]

Wow, I guess I was blinded last year when we won a couple of categories and did not realize some of the other things that went on. I can't blame anyone for being mad at the event.

Carl Franz and Tom Lambrecht are the ones incharge this year. Mainly Carl Franz from the Hotel. I have been trying since january to get someone moving, and I must agree it is disheartening.

Maybe like someone said in an earlier post, "This event will need to fail before it gets big". I can assure you that the local community away from the college will support this event. As a matter of fact I am going to contact the chamber of commerce and fill them in on some of the information. I beleive I wil also contact the one sponsor, Rocky Boots and let them know. I don't know what I can do for this year, but maybe I can get things rolling towards something in 2009. Damm all this stuff makes me mad!!!

 

[Woodman1]

I have received two phone messages from the Inn at Hocking College asking for my reservation and I haven't done the contest in two years. Hell, I'd do it, but my band is playing that night and that is GUARANTEED money!

 

[Kloset BBQR]

Wow, I guess I was blinded last year when we won a couple of categories and did not realize some of the other things that went on. I can't blame anyone for being mad at the event.

Carl Franz and Tom Lambrecht are the ones incharge this year. Mainly Carl Franz from the Hotel. I have been trying since january to get someone moving, and I must agree it is disheartening.

Maybe like someone said in an earlier post, "This event will need to fail before it gets big". I can assure you that the local community away from the college will support this event. As a matter of fact I am going to contact the chamber of commerce and fill them in on some of the information. I beleive I wil also contact the one sponsor, Rocky Boots and let them know. I don't know what I can do for this year, but maybe I can get things rolling towards something in 2009. Damm all this stuff makes me mad!!!

Is Rocky Boots still a sponsor? I heard last year that they withdrew their sponsorship at the last minute and that is part of the reason why the contest had financial difficulties last year. It would be an encouraging sign to hear that they are sponsoring the event this year! If you could get comfirmation on that we'd appreciate it.

 

[beardjp]

Rocky Boots is on the entry form as sponsor along with The Inn at Hocking College. I was just about to send a message to the guy in charge at the Rocky Boots Store and see if he was aware of the problems. I just finished a long Email to the Nelsonville and Athens Chambers of Commerce, trying to make them aware of the problems. I don't know if it will do any good this year but we can start on next year.

Maybe there needs to be a take over of the event and get the organization away from the Inn and College. I will keep everyone posted.