Free BBQ Officials
So you're interested in becoming a Free BBQ Official. You're a legend. I hope you enjoy a beer, we do.
The first step to becoming a Free BBQ Official is to become a Free BBQ Judge first.
Free BBQ genuinely welcomes officials from other sanctioning organisations, as an open project we don't ask for exclusivity.
Informal Official
The Informal Official certification is the entry level to our system. All you need to do is pass the Informal Official exam online.
We encourage people to think of Informal Officials as the awesome network of volunteers that form the backbone of FreeBBQ. Informal Officials can:
- Run FreeBBQ Informal Competitions
- Act as Adjudicators in Formal Competitions.
Formal Official
The Formal Officials in Free BBQ are a team of experienced BBQ professionals that know how to have a good time, but also know when it's time to put on the poker face and get down to serious sanctioning business.
To become a FreeBBQ Formal Official you must:
- Pass the Formal Official exam online.
- Assist in the judging tent a minimum of 3 times. So you know how to get it done.
- Judge a minimum of 3 times. So you know the shennanigans to expect from judges.
- Compete at least once. So you know what it's like to have your heart broken.
Free BBQ recognizes experience in other sanctioning bodies for judging and competing, your experience doesn't explicitly have to be at Free BBQ competitions.
The not-so-fine-print
Becoming a competition official is a big responsibility.
- In practice the base sanctioning remuneration for Formal Officials doesn't totally cover your expenses or your time, this isn't a profit-making enterprise. Like any sport, officials are genuinely in it for the love of their sport and their community, competition BBQ is no different.
- You cannot socialize with competitors from 3am on game day until the competition announcements are completed. You'll either be asleep or run off your feet anyway so there's no big loss here. But we really dislike the idea that officials and judges can't have a great time with the competitors the night before, we're fun loving people too! So if you'd like to walk the pit yard and have some beers around some fire pits, we encourage you to do so. Enjoy yourself, and for your own benefit don't just sit in one tent "showing favouritism to one team", spread yourself around.
- Our free-speech policy applies to officials as well, I (Scott) get really frustrated with organisations with a "shoosh" culture. You will not be persecuted in Free BBQ for professionally expressing an opinion. BUT DON'T BE A TOOL, your Official status can and will be revoked if you're found to be conducting yourself poorly.
- If you become a Formal Official, there's about $300AU worth of IT hardware that you can either buy for yourself or buy and share with other officials in your region. Nothing that won't fit in an express post airbag.