VIENNA — Dooly County Chamber/BIG PIG JIG® is offering a Memphis Barbecue Network (MBN) barbecue judging seminar for barbecue enthusiasts on Friday, Nov. 6, from 8 a.m. to 1p.m. at the Family Resource Center on 9th Street here.

The purpose of the seminar is to instruct judges in the mechanics of judging a Memphis Barbecue Network Sanctioned barbecue contest. 

All network sanctioned contests are provided with lists of trained and certified judges for use in their contests. Barbecue teams prefer trained/certified judges. Most sanctioned contests, including the Georgia State Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in Vienna, are rapidly working toward using 100% trained/certified judges. 

Trained/certified judges are invited to judge at many events all across the country.

Topics that will be covered at the seminar include the Memphis Barbecue judging process and rules, official meat categories, the scoring process, blind, on-site and final judging. 

Participants will sample barbecue during simulated judging exercises by barbecue teams. 

After becoming a Memphis Barbecue Network trained judge, individuals may gain certification by judging each official meat category (whole hog, shoulder and rib) and at least one on-site and one blind at at a least 2 sanctioned contests.

The judging seminar cost is $60 which includes all materials and is limited to the first 50 registrants. All candidates completing the course will be able to judge at the BIG PIG JIG® on Saturday, Nov. 7!

Deadline to register is Friday, Oct. 23, 2009. Interested persons may register online at www.bigpigjig.com or contact the event organizer Rhonda Lamb-Heath at 229-268-8275 or email bigpigjig@sowega.net.