Hello all MOODY QUES!!!!

We are gearing up for 2014 Memphis in May BBQ, honoring Panama. Based on our recent board meeting, this year is setting up to be our best year yet. Below you will find some announcements and team member deadlines.

Tent: We are honored and extremely grateful that Brent Long and Holiday Flowers will once again sponsor us. I am looking forward to another creative and exciting tent façade. We intend to purchase the same size tent space and tent structure with a second story.

WordPress: Due to the phenomenal success of WordPress, the company has grown to a size where sponsoring and participating in BBQ Fest is simply not feasible. We are extremely grateful for their support through the years. Without WordPress, Moody Ques would never have existed.

Sponsors: In lieu of WordPress, we are meeting with several potential sponsors. We will have updates as soon as the sponsors are locked down.

Team Members: Due to our success last year and new interest, we are limiting the number of team member spots. Please email me or Clay as soon as possible to let us know if you are joining us again this year.  We will wait until February 1^st to hear back from existing members before offering spots to new members. In addition, we are raising our dues this year.  While other teams have raised dues over the past years, we have kept the original dues from the prior team. Individual dues will now be $300 and married couples or established couples are $450. Payment will be due byMarch 15, 2014. However, to hold your spot, please let us know if you intend to join as soon as possible.

Load-In / Load-Out: We need members to participate in load in and/or load out. Those who participate in either load will be invited to a Post BBQ Fest organizational meeting to share ideas and discuss the team. The Post Meeting will be, of course, provide alcohol and food. In addition, the members participating in the load in and/or load out will be guaranteed a membership spot for 2015.   Depending on our remaining budget, we may be able to offer those participating members a discount on dues.

Food: Ah, yes, food!  We are happy to report that Chef David Scott Walker will once again be our Pit Master. He is planning to bring in several experienced chefs to help as sous’ chefs. The additional kitchen help will facilitate a more consistent menu. We will circulate a team member menu in the future so that you are better able to plan your BBQ fest days.

Blind Bear: We are delighted that Blind Bear is continuing with its sponsorship. The bar was amazing last year thanks to Blind Bear.

Please forward any additional questions you may have.

We’re back for 2013! Our application has already been accepted for Memphis in May. We’re still competing in shoulder, and we have the same size space as last year. Here’s what you need to know.

First of all, we have a new cookteam this year. You may remember a team next door. Many of our members went over and tried their food, and it was delicious. They came over and said, “You like our food, we like your party. Want to team up for 2013?” So we did. One thing you may have noticed was all the trophies in their booth. They are an experienced team who knows how to win, and they will be completely responsible for managing our kitchen this year. We have them committed to prepare two full meals a day, plus snacks, every day. They will get the food out in a timely fashion so that we all have a chance to enjoy our food before the park closes.

WordPress will be back as our main sponsor. WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world. It powers this site, a couple of team members’ blogs, and about 20% of the rest of the Web. If you need a website engine that makes it easy to publish content without knowing programming, WordPress is what you need. Get it for free to install on your own server at wordpress.org, or have them host your site for free on wordpress.com. Matt Mullenweg and the crew have made a generous contribution to our 2013 team, and have rented a house nearby so they have a place to meet and work on projects. They are a blast to hang out with and without a doubt we have the best sponsor of any team at BBQ Fest.

The Blind Bear will run the bar this year. The Blind Bear is a great little speakeasy on the Main Street Mall, with delicious food (pepper jack mac & cheese!), cold beer, wine, and mixed drinks. Other teams brag they have well-known professional bartenders, and this year we have an answer – we have Jamie, Jeannette, and Colin, owners of the Bear. It doesn’t get much better than that. If for some reason they can’t be there to bartend, their employees will handle it. With last year’s next-door team completely in charge of the kitchen and the Blind Bear completely in charge of the bar, all we have to do is throw a party. We know how to do that!

There’s been a slight change in team leadership. Moody will still serve as president for the purposes of legal paperwork, but she’s stepping away from day-to-day operations. Vice-president Clay will assume day-to-day responsibility. Most questions should be addressed to him, and he’s monitoring the email account at moodyques@gmail.com. Treasurer Frank will continue to do an accurate and transparent job managing the team’s money. He sent out a 2012 balance sheet in early March. if you’re a team member and didn’t get it, email us and we’ll send it to you. Of course our inspirational leader and father figure Win will be back doing the things he does so well.

We are going with a simpler design for the booth this year. We are still going to build a two-story structure, but it will be much less elaborate than last year so that team members spend less time building and more time having fun. Brent from Holliday Flowers, our sponsor and booth designer last year, won’t be back this year as a designer, but he’s heard what we plan on doing and likes it. This year’s honored country is Sweden and Clay is working on some neat ideas for booth decoration.

We’re also simplifying the door. We’ll have off-duty MPD back guarding the door during peak hours, because that definitely worked well last year. However, we’re simplifying the system of getting guests in, going back to paper wristbands for the guests and rubber wristbands to identify who is a team member.

Returning members from 2012 – how to renew: Membership is $250 for individuals this year, $350 for couples. The best way to pay is the PayPal link on the right sidebar of the Moody Ques home page.. There’s a slight surcharge to cover PayPal’s handling fees. The couples amount reads “married couple.” You don’t actually have to be married, but you do have to be a real-life couple to get the rate. If you don’t want to pay via PayPal, email moodyques@gmail.com and ask where to send a check. The check should be made out to The Moody Ques.

Not a returning team member from 2012, but interested in joining or sponsoring? You can email us and ask about joining, or you can talk to one of us when you see us out and express your interest. We’ve already added one new team member who not only brings a lot to the table – he brings the table. We’d be interested in talking to others who feel they’d be a good fit.

That’s what’s going on. We hope to have you back on the team with us this year. Any questions, email moodyques@gmail.com. We’ll provide updates as it gets closer to showtime.

The board of directors has set April 5 as the deadline for paying team dues. Dues paid after that date will incur a $25 late fee for single memberships and a $50 late fee for couples memberships.

If you are planning on paying after April 5, please let Moody or Clay know in advance so they can finalize the orders of team items.

From Moody Ques president Allison Moody:

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait until BBQ Fest this year. I wanted to give you guys an update on the status of The Moody Ques, Inc. and the plans for this year’s event.

We are truly excited and grateful to have WordPress as our sponsor. We would not be able to accomplish any of our plans for the tent this year without the generosity and contributions from WordPress. Our other main sponsor is Holliday Flowers. We also have the Double J Saloon sponsoring us and volunteering as the Pit Master. We are also currently considering a sponsorship from the Blind Bear.

For the tent, Brent Long is in charge of the structure and design. Brent is in the works of creating a custom, 2-story structure that will be built, installed at the festival, and removed by a third party. We may still need volunteers to assist Brent before, during, and after the event.

For food, we have selected the owners and chef at Double J Saloon: Jeff Stamm, John Harris, and downtown legend Demitrie Phillips (former Chef of Stella and Bardog). For the daily food, we are excited and honored to have Lauren Parton back with us, cooking for the team members.

For the busy Thursday and Friday nights at the tent, we are planning to have professional bartenders serving drinks and off-duty MPD working security at the door to make sure every team member gets to enjoy the tent.

As far as the organization, this year we created a C Corporation, “The Moody Ques, Inc.” and opened a separate corporate account. The corporation itself is organizing the BBQ fest and all funds will be tracked through the corporate account. Frank Howell is the treasurer and will maintain the books for the company. The following are the officers and directors of The Moody Ques, Inc.: Allison Moody (President), Clay Thompson (Vice President/Secretary), Frank Howell (Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer), Win Bonner (Chief Communications Officer), and last, but not least, Brent Long (Chief Design Officer).

Team Member Dues: This year the team member dues are $250 per person. There is a married couple’s discount, which is $350. The website is up and running, www.moodyques.com, and there is a Paypal link on the site. We will add more content and information to the website soon. Invited members can pay the membership dues through the paypal link (with a small fee) or by check, made out to “The Moody Ques, Inc.” (You must be invited in order to join the team.) We have not set a deadline for the dues, but would like to have it all by the beginning of April. When you pay the dues, please send an email to moodyques@gmail.com, and include the date you submitted your payment and your T-shirt size.

If anyone has any questions, please contact any of the officers and directors listed above or email the team’s gmail account. We will send out more emails in the coming weeks and would like to have a team meeting soon to open the floor up to ideas on the day-to-day organization of the tent.