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Unread 04-04-2005, 12:15
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AmyPrib AmyPrib is offline
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Re: Regional-specific rules, etc., and do the referees read the rules?

Quote:
Originally Posted by DukesAZ
I have always been a little bothered by the fact that many refs/inspectors/judges are active members of FIRST teams and in many cases teams that are attending the particular regional that they are volunteering at. On several occasions, I have even seen volunteers throw on a team t-shirt and walk with a team when they win an award! How can you have any faith in their impartiality when you see stuff like that?
Well - you have faith. You expect that those members (usually adult team mentors) exhibit GP, and can step aside when it comes to being partial to their team. In some cases, if they have to ref/inspect/judge their own team, they may be harder on their own team.
As stated, many refs will step aside if their team is competing, or they will simply not be "in charge" of reffing their robot, or they will not enter into discussion about a judgement call on their team.
Inspectors - there's usually more than one inspector, so they will allow another to inspect their teams robot.
Judges - the judges judge different awards, and these people are typically chosen by the planning committee for specific reasons. I would say that there are few cases where judges are directly related to any particular team competing there. And even so, in most cases, the judge will not say anything regarding their team, so as to not have bias. i.e. If a team submits Chairman's at a regional, then that judge won't be in charge of that award, they'll be in charge of another one with a different group of judges. There's enough judges to make those decisions, so you shouldn't expect that one person to have biased the entire juding panel.

You have to trust these people. They're upstanding people - Most dont' even want to be in a position that has conflict of interest, so they will do what they can to remove themselves from it (without having to remove themselves from that volunteer position). It's typical for team members to volunteer at regionals that their team is competing because it makes sense. They are there already, and regionals need the volunteers. While at times there may be conflict of interest, you have to expect that they will avoid the conflict however they can. If they don't, then either we start losing a large number of volunteers, or we have a big issue with biased results.... neither is good, and I don't see either happening.

I had a volunteer shirt on at Boilermaker - because I was on the planning committee and volunteering where I could. I threw on my team shirt after matches and during awards - I see no problem with it, same as I don't see any problem with other volunteers doing it. If you think you see some violation of impartiality, then you could talk to somebody about it, but you better have solid grounds to stand on.
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Co-Chair Boilermaker Regional Planning Committee 2004-2011
2008 St. Louis Regional Finalists and Engineering Inspiration Award
2007 St. Louis Regional Champions - Thanks 1444 & 829! / St. Louis and Boilermaker Quality Award
2006 Boilermaker Chairman's Award
Referee - IRI - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
2005 Midwest Regional - Semifinalist, Engineering Inspiration Award, and Safety Award / Boilermaker Regional - Judges Award
2004 Midwest Regional Champions - Thanks 269 and 930! / IRI Runner-Up - Thanks to 234 and 447!!!
2004 Championship: Archimedes Finalist - Thanks 716 and 1272!
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Last edited by AmyPrib : 04-04-2005 at 12:22.