[Paul Copioli]

Off season competitions and connections are the key. I was the MC at IRI last Summer mostly because those crazy Indiana people took a chance on me. I had never been an MC or announcer for any type of FIRST event until IRI. I then did California games and Ford Sweet Repeat last fall. My very first ever annoncing job was at the Great Lakes Regional this year, because of a recommendation by Dave Verbrugge(connections). I also ended up being the MC at the Detroit Regional based on my IRI debut and worked with Steve W.

What I found is once you MC or announce at a Regional event and are good at it, you will then get asked to more events than you are able to do.

To add to what Steve said; announcing is much harder work for me than being MC. It took me several days to recover (voice, mostly) from Great Lakes.

To directly answer your question: find out who the volunteer coordinator is for the Regional in your area and see if you can be an MC or announcer.

-Paul