[RBChallenger]

Hey all,
Been a while but I have a new smoker build getting rolling and am itching to start entering some contests. Seems there is all kinds of good info about all the fun I missed last year, but is anything coming up this year? I am aware of the KCBS events, but I was hoping to find some local stuff like the BCS from last year or Summer BBQ Series, etc. Anything going on with a few hours of Tucson like that? Thanks ahead of time!!!

[Mike P in Tucson]

Sorry, but it seems like Mike Reiman has pretty much abandoned this webvite.  And it is also pretty much obvious that he will not be working to put on any contests.  It seems like this website will fairly soon slide into oblivion,

And that is sad, because Mike was the only one who showed any interest in putting on events in Tucson.  So I guess antything BBQ in Arizona will only be in the Phoenix area or north.

[Mark]

Michael developed this club so that it belongs to all of us. But I don't blame him for not wanting to spin his wheels while carpetbaggers exploit all the hard work he has put into building AZ Barbecue. Got a suggestion for any event? Post it up and see what develops. Summertime is the perfect time to enjoy all things BBQ including exploring the plethora of new BBQ joints together. You may not accrue almighty points doing it, but you'll have a lot of fun and meet some terrific people. Borrowing a line from the Reimann family's real estate business...that's the Reimann way.

[Crash]

Obviously, I don't know all the details but I truly doubt that Mike has "abandoned" AZBBQ.  I suspect that he has just stepped aside for a bit to refocus and clear his head.

I have no doubt he'll be back with some cool plans for all ya'll.

[RBChallenger]

I had got the impression that there wasn't much going on here now adays, I agree its a shame. Too bad... wish I would have taken advantage of the group earlier.

[bbqphx.com]

Summer is typically a busy time for realtors so I would try and cut Mike a little slack.
Personally I am thankful for all the promoters-putting on an event is quite an undertaking.  Obviously as competitors we have a certain viewpoint but keep in mind nobody puts on a contest out of the goodness of their heart.  These festivals are designed to make money and with 110 degree temperatures getting the public out in droves to some parking lot would not be very realistic.  You're either going to have to go up north or wait until Autumn.

[jimj]

Michael developed this club so that it belongs to all of us. But I don't blame him for not wanting to spin his wheels while carpetbaggers exploit all the hard work he has put into building AZ Barbecue. Got a suggestion for any event? Post it up and see what develops. Summertime is the perfect time to enjoy all things BBQ including exploring the plethora of new BBQ joints together. You may not accrue almighty points doing it, but you'll have a lot of fun and meet some terrific people. Borrowing a line from the Reimann family's real estate business...that's the Reimann way.

Mike did create this for everyone and it went very well and was really fun for a number of years.  I won't go into what went wrong here   but it's my understanding he's decided to slow it down and instead focus on small events and try to bring the "fun" back to bbq.
 
Being that he's got 2 business' to deal with (Real Estate and catering/vending) and being that it's the busy season for R.E. and the work involved finding/booking vending events, then add in all that's happened to him and the fact that he can't even VEND at a BBQ event without people coming after him I'd be shocked if he bothered with any bbq events ever again. I know I'd be deeply offended,hurt and just plain ticked off if it were me.

As someone who really enjoyed going to/working at BBQ events I'd say that the group that wanted AZBBQ gone pretty much got their wish and the result is a total lack of local (ish) "fun" events.  If all you want is an event where you toss your meat on the smoker and wait to see if you get any money, well, there's certainly a few of those types of events around but nothing like the fun factory that was AZBBQ.
Maybe things will change over time, who knows but for now it is what it is.

Say what you will, nobody can deny Mike definitely put on FUN events.

[Mike Allison]

All of this being said, there's nothing stopping us from throwing together a fun little event.  Unlikely we'd get a big prize fund, but getting a check with your call isn't where the fun is at for us.

[AzQer]

OK Guys I hear ya. I have been really busy with the restaurant, BUT. I say we do some fun ones down here it will take a little work but what do you say, we do a few single meat contest down here again. BUT lets make it fun, With the cost of trophy's and things that make it expensive its hard to do. Being a native of Tucson I am all about giving back with that being said I sure would like to do some charity stuff with BBQ. I know Mike Allison has a group from Raytheon and there are still some of us that are not into it for all the points. I have access to the venue Being the Hog Pit smokehouse and If any of you have any pull with a trophy company. we can get a few of us together and come up with something. Contact me and lets get this going.
As for Mike giving up I can assure you that is not the case. I am in contact with Mike all the time believe me we are not forgotten he is just very busy. Beside like what was stated this is our site its up to us to keep it going. The purpose of this site was never to be a contest driven site its supposed to be anything that can be grilled or Q'd so do be scared post up lets get back to making AzBBQ fun and the place to be.

[Mike (AZBarbeque)]

Hey all, great to see the enthusiam on here.

Trust me, I have not abandoned the site or BBQ here in AZ. 

The past few weeks I have actually been burning up the miles meeting with many different groups who are wanting to put on events.

We are very close to finalizing several of them and should be announcing them very shortly.

Unfortunately the Summer Series did not materialize this year due to lack of commitment from sponsors, but we have more sponsors and advertisers in the works and you should start to see some of them appear on the site here very shortly as well.

We are also going to be looking for some additional Club Ambassadors to help run the site while I am off running my other businesses.

Keep the faith everyone, things are still good here at AZBarbeque and we are excited for what the future holds.

[Mike P in Tucson]

Hey Mike,

It's great to see you here again and even greater that there will be some fun events coming up.

[Mark]

Great news. Thanks for the update, Michael.

[millie]

Hey Mike
So good to hear you are still here.
It's not quite the same without your daily comments! LOL
I know I dont get out to to many events, but I am on the site daily.
Welcome back.

[BBQCZAR]

Good to hear Mike,looking forward to some events and contests,you have always done more for BBQ in Arzizona than anyone else and we're looking forward to many upcoming events 

[jimj]

Glad to see that you're still in the game Mike!
With all that's gone on last weekend with KCBS reps/BOD creating judges out of thin air as in Ghost,not living,not real etc (I know,can you believe it? ) I'd surely hope people would really think about doing other sanctioning bodies events that do not have an integrity issue before doing another KCBS event.
BCS,IBCA,PNWBA etc don't have issues such as this and never have to my knowledge.
Just something to think about.