[Ginger Power]

As a college student volunteering in Minnesota I feel the need to post. I don't personally have an issue with the document that the OP has linked. It doesn't (and didn't when I initially read it) push me away from volunteering.

Volunteer Experience: I've been a Robot Inspector for 2 years and I've inspected at 3 official events, soon to be 4, and 2 off-season events. I've also coordinated 30+ college volunteers at the Duluth Regionals earlier this year, and will be doing the same at Minneapolis.

Speaking for all of my volunteers, I can say they had a very positive experience at the Duluth Regionals. The consensous that I get is that basically all of them will be returning next year.

As college volunteers we served in many different volunteer roles: 4 CSA's, 4-5 Robot Inspectors, 3 Referees, a bunch of queuers including a Lead Queuer, and also people working the safety glasses station. There are some who wish to try different volunteer roles next year, and there are some who want to "level up" and become a Key Volunteer in their respective volunteer role. We are comfortable with the knowledge that we can't start at the top.

As for districts, I'd love to see them happen. I've been fairly vocal about that on this site. I'd love to see it happen soon. I think the only way for that to happen is to increase the transparency of the decision making process at MN FIRST, so people know who is making decisions, why they are making them, and more importantly, so the people making decisions can get educated feedback from the people and teams they are serving. Right now, I'd be willing to bet that over half the people involved with FIRST in the state of Minnesota couldn't tell you what a district is, and what the pros and cons for districts are. The general FIRST participant in Minnesota is very uneducated on the topics that we argue regularly, and that is a large part of the problem.

If there is transparency in the process, things will operate better.