Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

Over the past three years, I've been an emcee (2005 Capital Clash), a game announcer (ditto), a real-time scorekeeper (2004/2005 Championship), a field disassembler (Manchester Kickoff 2005), a robot inspector (Florida 2006), and a field resetter (ditto).

Ask anyone who saw the mentor rounds in Washington, I can't emcee for the life of me. Game announcing is probably my strong suit, as it's both fun and comes pretty naturally for me. RTS is fun, but irrelevant this year. Field disassembly...eh, it wasn't horrible. Inspector was fun, what with being able to get up close and personal with other robots of varying levels of competitiveness, but sometimes it gets really frustrating when you can't make heads or tails of a wiring setup hidden deep in the bowels of some odd part of the robot. Field reset was also reasonably fun, provided you didn't get run over by the kids carrying the robots.

All told, I'd love to do game announcer again. But failing that, I'd be game for inspector or reset.

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

My thoughts exactly. I wish I had more times at regionals to really check out the other robots.

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

I did field reset at NASA/VCU this year. I loved it. When I wasn't chasing stray balls I got to watch all the matches up close. I was amazed how many pounds of robot parts get left on the field.

I heartily recommend volunteering. I had great fun and got a real education about how much work goes into staging a FIRST competition.

If you have time at a competition, stop and thank some of the people wearing the crew shirts. They are working very hard to make sure the competition goes as smoothly as possible.

Greg

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

I'm not sure that you could pay me enough to be a referee. They get yelled at, argued with, and all that they try to do is their job to the best of their ablility. I mean, heck, it's a volunteer job and you never hear people say "man, that was some awesome reffing," but more often than not, "those (beep) ref's don't have a (beep) idea what the (beep) they're talking about!" Talk about a thankless job!

I think that MC'ing or play-by-play would be fun. Seems like the kind of high energy thing that could keep my attention.

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

I wont lie to ya...the announcer or emcee position is a pretty sweet deal, even if it drives you into the pit of exhaustion. However...if you really want to get to know the in's and out's of how this competition works, scorekeeper is the place for you. It is a difficult job (especially this year at times) but when all is said and done, you walk away with a knowledge of exactly how everything kinda goes together. Its pretty amazing when you walk into a competition as a student...things seem like they just magically go together. Once you are behind the scenes you realize "WOW, there really is alot of really hard work and coordination that goes into making this happen!". I have had the pleasure as announcer of working alongside of dozens of different scorekeepers in my time. They all pulled together a great appreciation for FIRST and what it takes to make this stuff happen. Meli can attest to this...she got to experience all the high points and low points of the job, but I assure you she's dying to jump right back in! Great job Meli, and to all the other scorekeepers around...cheers to you! I dont envy your job, but I sure do respect it.

-Andy

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

Alright lets see... I started volunteering for FIRST since 2003. I was the MC 2003, 2004, 2005 FLL local tournaments and FLL states for Florida. I also was a MC at Mayhem @ the Museum. This year I was a game announcer at Florida Regional. I love getting the crowd going. I like my job and I take it seriously.

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

I loved being an announcer/emcee at the Robot Rodeo. If I could only find a way to keep my voice past noon on Thursday I'd volunteer to do it at a regional.

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

I've been a robot inspector since 2003. I tried reffing at last PARC and I could never ref a regional.

I hate to hand out penalties. At least when I tell a team they have to change something to pass inspection, I can help them change it. If I give them a penalty there is nothing I can do for them. I am still willing to ref off-season.

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

I'm all for being an inspector. I also wouldn't mind reffing. However I can't get away from work anymore and now that we're competing at the Championship I won't have a chance to try either this year.

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

I've been volunteering since my senior year of high school (2000-2001). -Started off with FLL field reset that year
-Moved to FRC team queuing for the 2002 Philly and 2003 Richmond regionals
-Event assistant at 2003 Philly regional
-2004 Richmond regional was team queuing some, but a lot of what I like to call running around making sure everything runs smoothly work
-2004 and 2005 (and 2006) Philly regional was/is assistant to the regional coordinators (job invented for me), which is basically a combination of setup, take down, talking to VIPs, running around making sure everything runs smoothly, answering questions, and just generally having fun :)

There's a few more FLL tournaments in there, judging for the ones here in PA and field manager for one in Richmond.

I love my job, even if it is VERY tiring. It's my run-around and always look like I know what I'm doing thing ;)

I highly recommend volunteering, it's a very different perspective from being a team member or even a mentor, very eye-opening, and rewarding, IMHO!

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

After doing all kinds of odd jobs at the West Michigan Robotics Competition, I volunteered at the first West Michigan Regional in 2001. I helped with field set up. inspected on Thursday, did some general crowd control, and spent time just hanging out on the rest of the weekend.

I had a lot of fun working and talking with the great bunch of people from FIRST. Inspection was interesting, but I think in some respects the rules might be worse for inspectors now. We had a lot of walk in visitors from a teacher's conference in the same building, so I got to explain about FIRST a few hundred times... Wearing that crew shirt makes you a target for lots of questions, making it much easier to meet new people.

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

Definitely emcee or game announcer. I love having the opportunity to act like a maniacal person for weekends at a time :)

In the past I've done field reset and real-time scoring.

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

I found out this weekend that field reset might be too tiring of a job for me. But I really enjoyed it. I loved being up close next to the field, talking to teams, and being able to enjoy the competition without worrying about my robot.

I would like to be a ref next year. It seems like a lot of pressure and you'd get blamed for everything if a team is unhappy. But it seems fun.

I could never do mcing or announcing. I'm not able to process what six bots and six humans are doing at the same time and say it all without sounding weird.
I'd like to be a scorekeeper, that sounds good too.

But no matter what, I'm definately going to keep volunteering. Free food, free shirt, being close to the action, and making everything possible is the best.

Re: If you were a volunteer...
 

I consider that a volunteer ......