[Swan217]

As a follow up and lengthier explanation:

The above letter was passed around the offices in Manchester and resulted in the FIRST Volunteer Coordinator (Dennis Howland) calling me and having an hour long productive discussion. I reinforced my VIMS concerns and thankfully, a new version of VIMS is tentatively scheduled to be rolled out that should address some of my concerns. I also reinforced my support for the volunteer passport system (Yay!).

Dennis confirmed to me that the final decision at the Regional level lies with the volunteer coordinator, and that regional board members are not supposed to have any influence over the decision making process. This is not the case in Michigan, however. We agreed on this and agreed to work with the MI people to resolve this issue. Unfortunately, I just had a prearranged conversation with the MI Volunteer Coordinator who informed me that the Michigan board was refusing to talk with me, refused to tell me what vile, despicable act I performed to deserve being blacklisted, and was further restricting my volunteering to Robot Inspector only.

He further told me that the reason I was being restricted was because the Michigan board has set up new "qualifications" in order to be permitted to volunteer in Michigan. My refereeing, DJing, announcing, and MCing experience were apparently not enough to "qualify" me to be permitted to volunteer in Michigan. This is the part that is completely unacceptable. When power-mad bureaucrats are choosing who is allowed to volunteer and who isn't, and nobody is willing to stand up for the volunteers, somebody has to spread the word.

I have no illusions about what I'm doing. I'm perfectly aware that by posting this information on Chief Delphi, I'm pretty much signing my death warrant as far as volunteering in Michigan is concerned. But if getting the information out forces National FIRST to crack down on this insanity and Michigan is forced to permit volunteers that don't suck up to their power structure, then I'm willing to martyr myself for that end.