An open question for the tournament organizers and div officers in New Jersey

[500gms]

I hope all of you show up on Sat. to fence, to direct? but more importantly to see the Facility. We are very proud of the fact that there is finally a club in NJ that has the room to hold big regional events (like the Steve Sobel), div events and little sat afternoon events without breaking up our coaches training schedule.

NJFA is a 501c3 non profit. None of the management are in this for the money, we run the club, try to build fencers and pay the bills, that's all.
all of these summer events are meant to intro the facility to area fencers and to make enough to pay the directors (we ALWAYS pay our directors and pay them well)
club management believes that the best way to learn the sport when fencing competitively is to do so with competent officials. As the summer wanes many of our club members and our new members will develop nights and weekends when certain weapons are highlighted and the free fencing will be fierce. So, come on Sat. Observe the NJ tournament committee meeting, fence if you like but, most importantly introduce yourself to Frank and other members of the club.

[KD5MDK]

Beef. Vinegar has no place in cooking beef, but beef has plenty of place in BBQ.

[keropie]

Beef is only considered BBQ by people who are not rightly part of the United States, but rather part of the Republic of Texas Back heathen!

(For those of you unaware, and thus likely not actually from the US, there are many regional varities of BBQ, and each of us knows that his version is right. But most of us agree that making hotdogs, hamburgers, etc. is a cookout. At least most of us with sense. And Eastern NC BBQ is the best (and that would be the slow cooked pork in vinegar))

^^

[RITFencing]

(For those of you unaware, and thus likely not actually from the US, there are many regional varities of BBQ, and each of us knows that his version is right. But most of us agree that making hotdogs, hamburgers, etc. is a cookout. At least most of us with sense. And Eastern NC BBQ is the best (and that would be the slow cooked pork in vinegar))

^^

Interestingly, you are describing the kind of pork loin I cooked at my BBQ last weekend, though I should have used a marinade with more vinegar; I went too southwestern on it. When I took the sauce I made (sweet and spicy with cherries) and added some frank's red hot (yes, I know it's cheating, but vinegar and cayenne peppers and just a great taste) to it, it made a very satisfactory pulled pork sauce. Which was good, because the pork was just falling apart. We were using a plastic fork to cut people's portions, so the pulling wasn't really hard. My roommate (who has spend a good deal of time in south carolina) told me that without embelishment, it was the best pulled pork he had ever had in the northeast. Which would probably make it par for the Carolinas.

Ok, enough bragging about my food prep skills.

[oiuyt]

Damn Northerners >< BBQ <> hotdogs OR hamburgers OR s'mores

That was actually why I included the list of what was being offered. Glad my work didn't go in vain or unnoticed. :)

-B

[oiuyt]

I hope all of you show up on Sat. to fence, to direct? but more importantly to see the Facility.

The problem is that it's ~2 hours from my house, ~$20 in gas, plus another ~$8-10 in tolls. To attend a division meeting for a division to which I do not belong. I would like to attend, but it's a non-trivial endeavor that would consume a significant portion of my day.

Another $30-50 for a 4-5 person event isn't much additional incentive, no matter how much of it goes to the referee. :) Not to mention the fencing starts at 8:30 and the meeting starts at 9, which would likely pose a problem with paying full attention to both.

-B

[Mauler]

I am not aware of the level of appropriateness of the use of bacon to hilight a BBQ experience, but at least from end-user perspective, it was a delight and a great account retention strategy.

Granted the initial BBQ experience was quite buggy (still have bite marks on my legs), and there was an issue of low supply of stock (although not in pork stock) at initial release. However, the design team's strategy to introduce bacon-mod along with the release greatly enhanced the chances of garnering favorable (and flavorful) review as well as greatly encouraging end-user community activities.

Furthermore, in a genre-busting move, Team RIT-Q released a free, stand-alone mod completely based on bacon theme when it was discovered that market reaction, demand and enthusiasm overwhelmed the projected response of the initial release. With no future release/development publicly announced, this highly adventurous decision masterfully appeased to the appetite of the hard-core niche market.

On the next issue.....

Mauler goes Top-Gun.

Headed to San Diego, CA this weekend for sunshine refereeing action, Mauler will sample local cuisine. Yellow cards, quesadillas, oh my!

[RITFencing]

Mauler, I believe you're forgetting the desert expansion pack released later that night.

EDIT: It's true, though; intial production was not enough to meet continuing market demands. We got off to a slow start after our release, which led management to believe that current stock would be enough. Thankfully, our design team was able to recoup these losses with a few last minute additions to both the team and the production resources.

[Mauler]

Mauler, I believe you're forgetting the desert expansion pack released later that night.

I haven't been commenting on the dessert section because despite great enthusiasm, I'm not much of an expert in that genre. As a novice dessert end-user, nevetheless, I very much appreciated the upgradability (as well as downgradability) of the said expansion pack. Repetitive novice-setting (minus advanced ingredients) gameplay was quite enjoyable.

[RITFencing]

I hope all of you show up on Sat. to fence, to direct?

I sent you a pm about this; is there an opening for any referees, and is there any idea what sort of pay scale one might expect?

[counter riposte]

Mauler, I believe you're forgetting the desert expansion pack released later that night.

Sorry buddy, I tried reping you for the desert, but it won't let me.... The desert rocked though.

[oiuyt]

Damn Northerners >< BBQ <> hotdogs OR hamburgers OR s'mores

Heh. The following is from a FRED-generated announcement of the event that just went out:

We have heard that some folk don't consider hot dogs, hamburgers and s'mores to be "BBQ." Well, the NY Times restaurant critic has said that one of the finest BBQ pits in NJ (yes, NJ but they do compare it to the south), if not the finest, is the RUB Hut, located 5 minutes away from Medeo. No promises but just maybe we're also get some take out from there as well.

Medeo is fully air conditioned and is located two buildings away from Absolute Fencing Gear, 5 minutes away from RUB, and has easy access from the NJ Turnpike (Exit 10 to 287), I287, I78 and NJ 22. For directions, go to www.medeofencing.com.

Enjoy some hot food and fencing in a cool venue.

Guess someone from Medeo's been reading this thread. :)

-B

[RITFencing]

Which is funny considering that their head coach never so much as reutrned my email regarding refereeing there... Ah well, it was onyl yesterday I sent it out, maybe he hasn't checked yet.

[KD5MDK]

I wonder whether they would require a USFA membership to preregister* for the Open Mixed BBQ Eating event.

*topicality!

[Mauler]

Guess someone from Medeo's been reading this thread.

Major kudos for keeping a tab on the critics and customer base!

[Mauler]

I wonder whether they would require a USFA membership to preregister* for the Open Mixed BBQ Eating event.

I don't know about USFA membership... but if they wish to be covered for any mishaps for the venue, competitors, spectators and/or sponsors, they should definitely require the mebership of:

The Association of Independent Competitive Eaters (AICE)

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

And yes, it is good business sense. That doesn't make it ethical. Look at the sort of price gouging that goes on before hurricanes strike. 6 dollars for a gallon of gas? By this reasoning, it's fine, because people will pay it. That doesn't make it right.

I realize that a hurricane is a rather extreme example. But there's such a thing as a reasonable price, and these tournaments are really beginning to excede it.

Bold emphasis mine.

[THREADJACK]
6 bucks? Over here, gas price is about 7 dollars/gallon, ordinary price. You do not know how good you have it.
[\THREADJACK]


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[jeff]

Re the threadjack topic: Peter, how much of that is cost of gas, and how much of that is tax/fee/tariff? There's a big hike in gas cost going from New Jersey to New York, and it's largely governmental in nature (NY people often drive across the bridge or tunnel to NJ buy cheaper gas, which surely is self-defeating in environmental terms!)

Regarding the cost fencingin NJ: I brought it up as promised, but it did not get a lot of play in the meeting. Perhaps it was (a) because the room was already frustrated with slow progress of other contentions items, or (b) because it provoked an immediate "it costs so much because of expenses A, B, C, and ... Z". I didnt want to derail the whole meeting for this, but it didn't get much in the way of traction. I quickly made a suggestion that transparency of costs and comparison with other divisions in the region would be helpful to prevent the impression of gouging. This topic was swallowed by the larger one of "outsourced" events, in which the division doesn't operate events (Quals and a few others are exceptions), but the clubs do, subject only to being "division sanctioned" according to standards set out in a "memo of understanding" document (which I will post to web as soon as I get a copy), and to scheduling to avoid fratricidal conflicts. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this - I'm uneasy at the notion but trying to be open-minded.

[RITFencing]

Jeff,

Any news from the div meeting this morning?

[jeff]

See above - 2nd paragraph. The entire topic of entry fees and 'value for money' didn't have any traction. There were other controversies swirling. Reminds me why I'm happy to be only the web-lackey.