Free BBQ Sanctioning
Free BBQ offers two levels of sanctioning, and both operate on the simple idea that judges enter their own scores on their mobile phone once the round is complete. This does three things:
- It removes the pressure from contest officials to accurately enter literally hundreds of score sheets in a limited timeframe.
- It eliminates data entry errors because the judge is entering their score and confirming it themself, rather than an official trying to decipher other people's handwriting. There's no middle-man to muck up your pizza order.
- Scores are instantly saved to a relational database and can be cross-checked by the judges that entered them after the event. The transparency in our score data makes it impossible to tamper with results, intentionally or unintentionally. Trust in our system is a big deal to us.
Judges with technology issues can still hand their score sheet to an official for manual data entry, but the fewer we have to enter the better!
Competition resources including score sheets, feedback sheets, and judging mats can be purchased from our recommended printers, but buying them isn't mandatory, you can download our templates and print your own.
Informal Free BBQ Sanctioning
Informal sanctioning is web-based, so it can only be utilised in a location with reasonable mobile phone coverage. But yes, if you're running a competition to raise money for charity, or you'd just like to run a competition with half a dozen mates in your backyard, it's absolutely free to use our system.
You will still need someone with the basic skills to run a Free BBQ competition, that role is an Informal Official. Organisers must locate a qualified Free BBQ Informal Official, or nominate their own local representative to complete our Informal Official training (online and free).
We strongly advise against attempting to use this option for large festivals, a glut of mobile phones from the punters at a festival regularly takes down mobile data availability from the telcos.
Apply for Informal Free BBQ Competition SanctioningFormal Free BBQ Sanctioning
Formal sanctioning provides a number of advantages over informal sanctioning.
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Your competition will be eligible for championship points
This will attract more competitors to your competition. -
An experienced professional(s) will run your competition
Formal Officials only become qualified once they have experience in judging, competing, and officiating competitions. They're very useful people! -
Use of the Free BBQ wifi data entry system
Your Formal Official will bring the IT hardware for your judges to join a local wifi network and enter their scores, which eliminates telco issues.
Promoters simply need to secure a commitment from any qualified Free BBQ Formal Official(s) to oversee their competition, and you will need one official per 30 teams. The application process also involves ensuring a standby official can make a commitment to sanction your competition incase an official needs to pull out due to illness or family emergency.
Free BBQ allows Formal Officials to accept modest remuneration for performing their services, but there is no fee from Free BBQ. This is direct contract/invoice between the promoter and the official - Free BBQ doesn't doesn't get involved, we're just a proverbial bulletin board. So promoters are working with local people, performing local services, in their local currency. If you're unable to secure a local official, Formal Officials that need to travel may also request reasonable expenses (with receipts provided), which includes the big ticket items, but not things like meals. These include:
- Airfares
- Accommodation - if not provided by the promoter, a room at a house is fine.
- A cheap hire car - if the competition is more than a 100km drive.
This marketplace-style system for officials is designed to give the promoter complete control over who they choose to work with, and so officials that do a great job are genuinely sought after for their professional contribution to the Free BBQ community.
Promoters themselves ARE NOT permitted to be the official for formally sanctioned competitions. The reason is simply that promoters are constantly called away during the competition period, the official must be able to provide their undivided attention.