[ratdude747]

(Mods: I'm not 100% sure where this thread belongs: if you see a better place, please move it)

Here's a question I've had for a while and finally dare ask.

I've been an event volunteer for 3 and a half years now, having started in field reset in the fall of 2011. However, I more or less wanted to work my way up the roles so to speak; like say robot inspection or reffing (yes, even this year). While at offseason events I've moved up indeed, having been a ref at CAGE match for two years and BPRC for one, I've been stuck in field reset (mostly) for the past 3 years.

I can understand why for the past few. The first two I couldn't work out getting Thursday off. This year, I could only make it for Thursday at one event (the other I had an exam hard dated on Friday, so I ended up doing safety glasses on Saturday). Ok, one event I theoretically couldn't have, but for all I know there were more people qualified than could be assigned. I'm not mad or anything bad, just curious about something:

However, I did hear that in order to be a ref, you need to be "local" to the event. I couldn't find this anywhere in FIRST's documentation (nor could I find it mentioned anywhere on CD). I've also heard that in the case of one regional (I'm being intentionally vague), a head ref request wasn't approved due to this.

So, to those who know more about event planning and volunteer assignment, what I'd like to know is:

1. Is there really a rule about referees being local to the event?
2. If # is true, why is this so (again, just curious to know).
3. Besides the obvious case of the head referee, are there any other roles which have the same restriction/guideline?