Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur
Truth be told, the devil is in the details.
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Absolutely Daniel. MAR does not require volunteers either, and we also work our key volunteers a bit too much. But everyone knows someone, and we've found that if an expectation of more volunteers is set, we rise to the occasion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr V
a few cases where I stopped just short of begging for Robot Inspectors.
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I had to cross that line and beg at least once. But it worked
The real key to getting volunteers is treating them right.
1.
Food must be plentiful and high-quality. And volunteers must be assured they have the time to enjoy it. For a Friday night/Sat/Sun event, volunteers get 3* dinners, 2 lunches and 2 breakfasts. (*3rd, on Sunday, if you help break down the field). Plus soft drinks all day.
2.
Enlist students. A whole team of 20 kids can set up or break down a field pretty fast. The host school (almost every event is at a high school) and team has all their students volunteer, and other teams have a few kids volunteer for field reset and so on. And, kids need to know that after they leave High School, they'll probably want to volunteer at events, and this is great experience for when they want bigger roles, such as referee or Robot Inspector.
3.
Alumni love to volunteer, make it easy for them to do so.
4. Not every
mentor must be with the team all day every day. We went to an event where ALL the mentors stayed out of the pits the entire event. The kids loved it and did just fine. 3 hours as a Friday night RI is easy to do and helps tremendously.
Indeed, the devil is in the details. But one thing MAR made clear: There is no "they" - WE are MAR, all of us, together. Nobody else is going to do it.