FIRST Who's Who for Rookies

[Mark McLeod]

I've started knocking together some FRC rookie workshop materials/info. and would like some other viewpoints.

• Communication - how and from whom a team gets FRC information
• Organization - the groups/people who impact a team
• Event Who's Who - the myriad sub-groups/people at a competition, where to go, who to see, and why

This material is intended to act first as a briefing and second as reference material, since some of it gets rather lengthy. This may just be scary to a rookie leader.

I've attached some primitive slides I'm using as a way of exploring ideas.
Each slide is further supported by brief descriptions of each entry, why they matter, and pertinent links if appropriate.

Thoughts?
Thanks.

[mesamb1]

This is a really awesome idea. it may be scary to see, but it has alot of good information for rookies. Looks good, just one or two thoughts
For FRC organization and FRC communication channels what about sponsors? Any machine shop/engineering company can be very helpful during build season with questions as well as important to organization. As a nit picky thing for me, have you though about putting a color behind the key competition people to show that their interpretation is final at the event.

[GaryVoshol]

Spell out the acronyms - rookies won't know an FTA from a CSA.

[Techhexium]

This is awesome, I think it's well organized, I like the use of the arrows, and some of the info is new to me. As reference material, I'm sure it will serve veteran teams well.

[Molten]

Is CD an "official FIRST source"? I know it is widely recognized, but didn't think it was official. If giving this information to rookies, I'd be sure to note during the presentation that any rulings found here are pure speculation and will not stand up to ref decisions.

[Techhexium]

I don't think CD is an "official FIRST source". I think anything enclosed in a blue shape is official as indicated by the legend, but I don't know what the blue curves denote, it probably categorizes competition staff and external channels.

[rsisk]

For the FRC Competition Event Who's Who, the Safety Adviser does not really fall under the Judge Adviser. Safety, WFA, Web site and Animation judges are a separate category of judges, not sure where they should go, under the volunteer coordinator would be my best guess. Dean's List judges would be under the Judge Advisor.

[Mark McLeod]

Adding Sponsors as a group I missed is a good suggestion.
Dean's List judges, too.
I've also since added Shipping and Crowd Control as well. More people teams should be aware of. I always feel sorry for the crowd control volunteers as sometimes getting the least respect from the crowd in the stands.

I think I'll create an additional category for the groups that don't directly interact with teams, such as the website & WFA judges.

I'll remove the confusing thin blue stripes from the first chart. The diagrams began as full wheels and degenerated into what you see. After the basic info's vetted I'll worry more about esthetic design. I need to decide on a more versatile drawing tool than PowerPoint.

For the Event Who's Who I may try an initial chart with just major categories to limit the frightening clutter, then go into detail in subsequent charts.

P.S.
I'll try to cover in subsequent pages who to go to for what: LRI/CSA are your technical starting points, Pit Admin for administrative issues, Judge Advisor if there are judging issues, who should the conspiracy theorists talk to (our LRI usually handles that too), etc. I can try to highlight them on the initial chart and I'll add your LRI training comments to the LRI job description Al. Does this training hold true across all Regional/District events?
Give me some more opinions on that.

As a side note, I tend to think some kind of event omnibudsman is necessary. That may be the LRI or it may be the help desk depending on the particular event staff. The people to talk to has varied widely between events I've attended as you'd expect with volunteers. Sometimes it's the LRI and sometimes they are only helpful if it's, say a mechanical speciality. The CSA is good if they have full systems experience, but I've run into rookie CSAs too. The trick with a volunteer acting as omnibudsman is that they need to be able to quickly identify the root issue and pass the problem on to specialists, so the omnibudsman quickly becomes available for the next team in line. I think of that as more how pit Administration or the help desk should assist. They should always be at their desk, something the LRI or CSA cannot be if they are out helping people.

A lot of problems I see going by at competition are the result of not knowing the right people to ask. It's great when you get help from the pit next door, but not so great when they don't refer you to the LRI or CSA or FTA or other Help Desk assistance that's available. At every event someone has the answer to any particular problem, but I've even seen inexperienced event staff getting tunnel vision trying to solve problems themselves without communicating the issue to those around them that may already have the answer. The key is to learn to keep asking everyone I suppose, but then how to identify the true expert a rookie's first time at an event?
For our local Regional I'll be able to name names and give contact information. I'll keep that as a separate chart so as to maintain the bulk of the presentation as generic.

Part of the presentation will address how many of these people are often available to help ahead of competition. The difficulty with rookies is getting them introduced and connected ahead of time. Of course, the other side of the coin is getting folks to recognize when they really need to ask for help ahead of time-sort of knowing what you don't know.

[Mark McLeod]

How about a simplification like this for the Event Who's Who?

The detailed sheet can be next, followed by why's and wherefore's for each job.
Probably should structure the others the same way by adding a following chart detailing the jobs under each category.

Have to figure out how to mention pre-event interactions without accidentally sending rookies looking for the Website Judges or thinking there's a Woodie Flowers Finalist interview.

P.S.
FIRST has a Decision Authority Matrix (attached one from 2006) and a simplified variation aimed at individual teams might be a useful way to present the information.

[mesamb1]

If you are looking for software with more features to make the image in
Inkscape is an adobe illustrator kind of program(a favorite of mine for any kind of project)
http://inkscape.org
GIMP is more like photoshop.
http://www.gimp.org/
There is a little bit of a learning curve because they are free if you have not used them before, and since they are opensource if you use the right order of tools it may spontaneously crash so save often.
I like the new FIRST Competition Event chart. If you add the description when you show the chart, it basically is the FIRST flow chart. For any rookie who does have a Event management question pit admin would be able to point them to the correct person, and that is the only column your chart leaves out.
What do you think about putting a tab under pit administration for specialist. From my experience, pit admin is the best place to go to find a volunteer specialist who can help with a problem specific to your robot(or they can announce it to find another team with a helpful mentor).

P.S.
I generally recommend to rookies to use Pit admin as a omnibudsman of sorts. Even the rookies I have seen at pit admin are able to point you on the right flow chart path.

[EricH]

Mark, there's an IFI support reference in the middle column of that decision authority matrix. Might want to check on that.

Also, if you need it, a couple years back I started a reminder thread for who gets talked to for what at an event and how to identify them: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...?postid=707437

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

As a side note, I tend to think some kind of event omnibudsman is necessary. ... The trick with a volunteer acting as omnibudsman is that they need to be able to quickly identify the root issue and pass the problem on to specialists, so the omnibudsman quickly becomes available for the next team in line.

I agree with you about the ombudsman.

I played this role informally during the years I was Senior Mentor, at the Chesapeake Regional. Sometimes the event management would ask me to step in, sometimes the LRI, sometimes the venue contacts (USNA) and sometimes even the Judge Advisor.

But most of the questions came through Pit Admin. I would usually be able to answer them really quickly, or could pass them on to right the position/person. I had no official role listed in the regional planning guide but often felt like the expediter/traffic cop/head cheerleader.

Issues/questions ran the gamut. Crying students over an award not received, crying mentors who just couldn't make one more decision, angry mentors who feel like the event/volunteers/venue was not being fair, and a bijillion other examples. Pit admin often turfed the questions because they realized it wasn't theirs to answer. Often we were all getting up to speed together and the "where is" or "what time is" or "how does this work" questions would decrease as the day went on as the event got things nailed down.

There seemed to be less questions by rookies because they didn't know what they didn't know. The most time consuming issues came from the veterans.

Sometime it took a while to actually figure out what the issue was. People under stress may start at a place that isn't actually where the issues are. I remember numerous times taking a mentor back to a quiet area, giving them a cold drink and then trying to sort out the problem. Sometimes all they needed was a quiet space for a few minutes and the problem would seem like less of a problem and would solve itself. Sometimes people under stress just need someone to listen to them.

I know this will vary greatly between events, but the Senior Mentors are often a great resource for this type of role.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

I agree with you about the ombudsman.

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

As a side note, I tend to think some kind of event omnibudsman[sic] is necessary. ...

I think I had omnibus on the brain...

[Mark McLeod]

Here are some updates of the detailed charts.
The overview charts are still pretty much the same-same as the detailed ones without the sub-bullets.
They are still changing every time I look at them, but see what I may still be missing. The follow ups to these charts have detailed descriptions of each position and why you'd want to know them.

I was also playing with a one-pager crib sheet of who's important to know at competition. I'd add the personal descriptions you all suggested here as well. I don't want to list everyone here, thereby obscuring the most important people.
Something along the line of the following.

(loves?/hates?/Gah, you can't be serious!/drivel?)

---------

Critical People to Know at your Event

• FIRST Technical Advisor (FTA)-Field/robot issues
• FTA Assistant (FTAA) - same reason
• Lead Robot Inspector-robot doesn’t work and you blame the mechanics/electrical/pneumatic system, inspection, construction rules compliance
• Head Referee-game rules compliance, Match calls (see immediately-not later)
• Control System Advisor-robot doesn’t work and you blame the control system/radio/FMS.
• Pit Administration Supervisor-team support & help, first aid, registration, shipping
• Lead Team Queuer- will hunt down your team if they don’t show up at the field on time
• Spare Parts staff - just because things break.
• Machine Shop staff - just because things break

People you will meet at least once

• Game Announcer-proper pronunciation of team/robot name
• Judge Advisor-Chairman’s presentation scheduling, judging issues

People you might never meet but have reason to know

• Regional Director- she’s (or he’s) the boss
• Event Manager – from where’s my banner? to why are we playing this music?, plus harassment/discrimination/abuse/crime/security threat
• Lead Safety Advisor-report unsafe conditions, smoke, fire, sparks, hazardous spill
• Venue Safety-smoke & fire response, Fire Marshal
• Volunteer Coordinator-team members/parents volunteering to help an event report to this person

Finally, I've attached volunteer descriptions of just the event volunteers teams are likely to meet or need.
These were extracted from the Regional Committee Planning Guide and shortened just a little.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Mark,
This is a good start for rookies. If there were a way to show priority, the LRI is one person who is trained to help with pit and event problems. We have been training LRI's to meet with rookies daily at events to explain the day's tasks and flow. They need to know that the LRI will be available whenever the pit is open. Other than pit admin, they are the only one that is easily accessible during all hours. The majority make themselves available prior to events and often for pre-season and pre-ship events as well.