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Originally Posted by JYang
Oh huhhh.... there was a page/document a while ago that said MC's are not allowed to be students (graduate students included).... now I have no clue where that page went
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I know at one point that was a rule, but it is no longer. In Mid-Atlantic, for example, both Katie and Kelsey Stevens (MC & GA respectively) are college students. Zach Orr in Michigan. James Spencer, out in Canada, is a graduate student. I'm sure you can find other examples all over the world, but those are just the few I have in my head right now.
No person under 13 years of age may volunteer (at all.) I believe if you're under 16 you're generally assigned with your parent in a role where both people can work together.
As a volunteer coordinator, I make sure to put minors and younger students in 'flexible' roles (field reset, safety glass, pit admin support, etc) since these are not event-critical and can be swapped in for other people.
For bigger roles (MC/GA/Ref/Inspector), it's greatly advised that these people be adults, and beyond that I go by maturity level. If you're 19 and can handle yourself in the role, then you've got it. If you're 45 and can't treat a student with respect - sorry, you're out. It's not about your status as a student, but about how you can handle the role.
In the words of Jess: VC'd!
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Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery
With regards to volunteers, having teams commit volunteers helps with a lot of positions (field reset, queue, etc), but it's the judges and trained positions that usually present the shortages. Avoiding overworking the finite supply of qualified FTAs, scorekeepers (yes, that's already an existing position), field supervisors, etc. is diffult during the first couple years of a district system. You often see the same field crew at many MAR districts, even if their positions have been shuffled around a bit.
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This is a big challenge in MAR (the only district I have experience with, so that's where I'm speaking from). The nice thing is, MAR has 8 (9?) offseasons now where people interested in new volunteer roles they may not have tried out before can get involved. I know at MidKnight Mayhem, we're training new FTAAs, Field Supervisors, Scorekeepers, and Refs. Can't speak for any other events, but our hope is to get people with experience in those roles so that by the time the season comes around they'll be another person to throw into those rotations.
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Originally Posted by Steven Donow
I find that the "smaller atmosphere factor" while isn't necessarily harmful, is something that often gets overestimated when discussing districts;I personally don't mind it/don't see much of a difference, but I've heard just as much of the opposite.
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My advice to new districts: Don't lose the energy, the flash or the 'show' of a big regional. The quote from Zondag's paper clearly rings true in MI, just from seeing their events on a webcast. In my head, I think it's really important to put effort forth to maintain that atmosphere, because if there's not an active move towards maintaining the excitement (and don't forget, the FIRST branding!), the district events just end up looking like off-seasons. And why would I pay $2500 + travel for an offseason?
Other advice: Make sure your events are evenly spread out. In MAR, the team I work with is set pretty closely to the population center of teams, and yet we have to drive an hour or more to any of our district events (2+ hours for DCMP). I can't speak for our neighboring teams, but this is a pretty stressful thing on our budget. In fact, since going to districts 1923 has spent about as much money on hotels/buses/other transport in one season than we did from 2006-2010. Part of that is from team growth (30 > 100+ students), and part of that is because we need a bus and a hotel for each of our events now rather than -maybe- once per year. It's tough on us.
Oops. I'd intended for this to be a quick post. Turned into a brain dump. Sorry all!
