Too Many Judges

Remember that the organizer has many more cards to play than the one hand a judge is dealt.

Running an event is complex with lots of moving parts and political implications in the community, and the organizer has to try to appease not only the cooks and judges but also the volunteers, sponsors and the press. Sometimes the best play is to put that non-CBJ on a table when he represents a big sponsor or powerful media outlet.

Certainly sometimes organizers make a less than optimum choice, but more often than not there is more to the situation than we realize looking from the outside in.

Civil War, there is truth to what you say. But I keep the contest at 100% CBJ's.

We use VIP judges for our Backyard contest and our Kids Q. Satisfies everybody.

Plus I bring a few extra CBJ's ( who know they are extra) for no shows or late cancellations. If they are not needed by me, they go to the Backyard and judge with the VIP's. The CBJ's also know about that before they come.

Not the only way to do it, but just my way of balancing a lot of complicated and political factors.

So Loco engr- here are a couple of insights into your situation from our side of things.
I just hope you have some happier times judging. Wishing you the best.

I'm pretty sure I know which contest you are speaking of. I emailed the organizer and was told "We can use you, I will email details on Monday". I never got an email, never got a reply to my followup email. At that point, I decided not to drive 2 1/2 hours on a maybe. I guess I was the missing CBJ.

Also, table assignments should never be 'go find a seat'.

MikeJ65 said:

Also, table assignments should never be 'go find a seat'.

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Don't know where you usually judge, but that is more common in the Southeast than actually having an assigned seat. Maybe with the new KCBScore system the organizers/REPs will try to even the tables other than just by experience if they even do that.

My general rule of thumb is if I don't get a response to email within 3 days I follow up with a phone call. Email is not a reliable service - many messages end up in a spam filter or simply disappear amid the junk mail and are never read. This is especially true when you send an unsolicited message to an address you have never communicated with before.

Short answer - call the office if you need to communicate with KCBS.

Gotta love VIP judges..... I personally hate them and wonder if several of them together are a reason for a low tables.

AZScott said:

Gotta love VIP judges..... I personally hate them and wonder if several of them together are a reason for a low tables.

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That's why I keep them to the ancillaries at my events.

I can appreciate the sentiment, however as long as we need sponsors to help cover the costs of putting on contests, VIP judges will be a necessary evil. Unless of course cook teams become willing to pay $800 entry fees to contests!