Memphis in May Folding?

Their website is still accepting requests for sanctioning.

Maybe so, but they're sending out the letter.

I heard that they're handing over the sanctioning to someone else?

Will be interesting to follow.

Maybe NOW I know why I'm seeing more MIM teams coming to KCBS contests here in OK.

I remember a couple years ago that they sent a letter out to all of us judges to join the MBA and send in dues and we would get a newsletter and feel good about pork?

I guess it was largely ignored.

This is the first year ,of 30 ?,the Big Pig Jig is charging to judge.

They always provide more than the judges can handle,so it might be ok.

We're taking a busman's holiday to go judge it.

Lots of friends and neat things to see.

The Memphis fee is just one of many reasons we don't do memphis-itself,or The Best of the Best in Douglas,Ga.

I know that it has become so expensive to cook MIM that Fl has gone from an MIM state to maybe one a year.

This was posted on Basso's forum,and I can't make any claims about it.

Posted by Smoke Shack on September 06, 2007 at 06:41:35:

In Reply to: Heard a Rumor about MIM? posted by Tarheel on September 05, 2007 at 20:39:55:

The only real change at the moment is the Memphis In May association (i.e. the folks in Memphis) have decided to NOT continue with sanctioning other contests, and have turned that over to a different group. From recent letters I've received, and from discussions with other MIM cooks, the association will continue to be run in much the same manner as before in terms of judging procedures and such. I'm sure changes will be made (I hope so, anyway), as MIM had really gone downhill lately in terms of contest support, marketing, etc. They did hire a woman to help market events, but (from my understanding) gave her almost no support.

The group that's taken over the SCN are dedicated bbq people with a genuine interest in making MIM a stronger, so that's a step in the right direction. For the near future, contests will continue as scheduled. I believe that Memphis will also continue to invite the winners from the SCN contests to cook in Memphis.

Question for me is what this will do to the Memphis contest. It's always been about the best MIM team out there, and now they've said they'll open it up to other teams "across the country" ... wonder if it'll be something like the Best of the Best in Douglas, where they invite the top 10 teams from different sanctioning organizations? If they do that, wonder what format would be used? MIM has always been about pork and pork only; wonder if the Memphis contest will continue in that vein?

Oh, and they've changed the name to the Memphis Barbecue Network (MBN) I believe ...

The MIM Festival Committee did not want to staff a sanctioning group for contests. They approached a group of Reps to start a new sanctioning body (MBN). The only folks who will notice any change from this will be the contest organizers who are hopefully getting better support. There will be no change in the format of the MIM WCBCC or MBN contests. The MIM folks are looking at offering spots to top cooks from other sanctioning bodies, but this will not be an invitational.