I actually took off every single lodge day for almost a year and dedicated it to cookin. Went back to grad school after I sold my business a couple of years back and so I was very fortunate to have a window where I could arrange my schedule like that, even with maintaining some of the clients I took with me. So I'd get up every Thursday morning, do the shopping and the cooking and have done with it.
I'll still be cooking from time to time for the lodge throughout the years though, no doubt - most of the guys who come through the line won't be able to do what I did. So my plan is to cook the meat on the weekend then oven it the day of and see how that goes. Giant cans of green beans, corn, or whatever from Sams does just fine if the meat is good and plentiful I find.
Brisket ought to reheat pretty well too I'd think, same with pulled pork, but I haven't yet experimented in doing so.
There are a number of lodges that I've attended that I think would benefit from meeting on Saturdays rather than a weekday, in my opinion, so that talented working age men could move through the line passed the steward roles without having to arrange their lives around it. I can think of one prominent lodge here in Texas in particular where there are a pile of substantive men from attorneys to architects that are stuck fulfilling the non line positions because they just can't make time during the week with their schedule to cook, but that is a whole can of worms and I'm sure there are solid reasons why the system works. But I will say I've noticed it as being an issue, mostly because I've been doing it this year and those guys asked how I managed it so many times.
Some lodges I've noticed seem to start the line in reality at junior deacon and the steward roles seem to be revolving, like secretary, treasurer, tiler etc - but again in my opinion, I think that is a bit of a loss. This year gave me the opportunity to do a lot of plain, old fashioned talking to people, meeting them, and flat out becoming well regarded by the men of the lodge on a personal level. And then there is the whole humility factor too which goodness knows I could use heavy does of :001_cool:
I honestly think that the simple things, like offering to get a plate for the brothers who aren't ultra mobile and that sort of thing did more for how my lodge thought the food I put out tasted than anything that was in the recipe. In fact I know so...because if they see you are going out of your way, then they want to like the chow...and if you want to like the chow, you like the chow