[cadandcookies]

I'll agree with you on a couple of things-- many accusations against referees are needlessly personal and nonconstructive, and refs, like all the other volunteers that make our competitions possible, deserve our respect.

However, I don't think that this means issues with refereeing should stay between teams and the volunteer coordinator or internal to teams. Many issues that appear to be the fault of referees really trace their roots to combining the jobs of scoring and refereeing into one job when it really, for the sake of everyone involved, should be two. FIRST has never seemed to recognize this except for in years where it was impossible/impractical to do automated scoring (2015), so I think people are more that within their rights to continue to point out issues with reffing and suggest solutions to the issues of inconsistent or incorrect reffing.

And yeah, part of this is stemming from the fact that I've been on both sides of wrong calls. Pointing them out and learning from them can be constructive even if it isn't particularly so in most cases.

So yes, thank you to all the refs and other volunteers in stressful roles. I've filled a much larger variety of roles in FTC than in FRC (where I've only been field reset), but one of those has included being a referee, and I think it's completely illogical for me (in such a public-facing role) to expect my decisions to be out of the public light.

When I volunteer, I am putting myself in a position to be responsible for helping teams have a good, fair experience at the tournament. When I screw up, I appreciate someone letting me know so I can correct my behavior in the future. Many screw-ups are caught on the spot, but some slip through and only come to light online.

At the end of the day, I'm volunteering to improves teams' experiences at their regionals. Yeah, some people are a little rough when they don't feel you contributed to that, but that doesn't mean you should ignore them. As my leadership instructor told me: "Ya gotta listen for the song beneath the word."

I haven't refereed in FRC (I have in FTC, but I feel like that's a bit of a different ball game), but none of the complaining on CD dissuades me from putting on the stripes. I fully anticipate that one day, probably sooner rather than later, I'll find myself a zebra and will probably blow a call. When that happens, I full expect my fellow volunteers will let me know and I'll do my best to avoid making the same mistake twice. After that point, well, Chief Delphi is going to be Chief Delphi.