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Unread 05-07-2016, 07:10
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jpetito
AKA: Joe Petito
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Re: California District Proposal

Quote:
Originally Posted by RoboMom View Post
One of the keys to making the volunteer piece work is not just having more volunteers - but putting the attention and recognition into have good Volunteer Coordinators. This role is just as important as most of the key technical roles. It starts earlier than most of the technical roles. It takes a diplomat who is good with people, being able to facilitate, mediate and organize and making the volunteer feel valued no matter what the position. It starts way before most of the other positions and lasts after the other positions. It takes the whole planning committee to help with recruitment - both within the existing community of FIRSTers as well as reaching out to new people. And all the VC's in a District need to be able to communicate with each other unless you have a system full of silos.
Hi RoboMom--

We tend manytimes to pass over the Volunteer coordinator as a Key Role. As we sit in our dark rooms dashing off our geeky perceptions, it's the VC's, able to make the human connection between people that pull it all together. It's like the drummer and the sound guy before and after the gig- they've got the most gear and have to do the most planning, and come early and stay late, and there's little acknowledgment for how they make the pretty people on the stage look and sound pretty.

Connect this to Ali A's comment on being Too Cool, and the willingness of so many on the Left Coast who let others stoop to the Hard Jobs. Going from the Regional to the District will make for grubby competition between consortiums of teams or organizations to locate venues, and timing of events to avoid conflicting needs for finding the hard-to-locate lead positions. We don't want that drama between personalities and between venues--it distracts us from our focus as an educational organization. As is, we're facing two off-season events in our area that will siphon off teams, making neither event successful.

We existed with a silo system because it works/worked. Going to Districts will mean, as you've suggested, a means for Volunteer C's to communicate state-wide so as not to rob one another of skilled people. ErichH has outlined the numbers of skilled people clearly, I think, and the difficulties of keeping their skilled volunteerism, not throwing it onto the bonfire of our perceptions.

Joe Petito
Veteran, USMC

PS- On Ali's point of being Too Cool: we are a geeky lot; let CD not become a substitute for real relationships.
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