Terrible Volunteer Experience

[ttldomination]

The whole thing about a college mentor not being a real mentor is a whole different argument, but will say that the safety glasses people tend to be a little bit on the intense side.

A particularly frazzling scenario at the Peachtree Regional was each morning, I was stopped by a particularly enthusiastic volunteer would stop me and a group of students at the front and stand next to us to make sure we didn't pass. Ultimately, this caused us to send text messages and calls to other members on the team to ferry us some side shields. I can only imagine the headache at worlds.

I don't know what's being told to the safety glasses inspectors at the front, but surely there must be a way to relay the importance while not coming across as rude or insensitive.

- Sunny G.

[elemental]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

A particularly frazzling scenario at the Peachtree Regional was each morning, I was stopped by a particularly enthusiastic volunteer would stop me and a group of students at the front and stand next to us to make sure we didn't pass. Ultimately, this caused us to send text messages and calls to other members on the team to ferry us some side shields. I can only imagine the headache at worlds.

I don't know what's being told to the safety glasses inspectors at the front, but surely there must be a way to relay the importance while not coming across as rude or insensitive.

I was a safety glasses volunteer at Peachtree. We were told not to give out safety glasses to teams. No exceptions. The volunteer co-ordinator was not particularly happy with us when we did make exceptions. There were some times when I really wanted to help but I didn't want to risk doing something "wrong".

[MrTechCenter]

Originally Posted by elemental

I was a safety glasses volunteer at Peachtree. We were told not to give out safety glasses to teams. No exceptions. The volunteer co-ordinator was not particularly happy with us when we did make exceptions. There were some times when I really wanted to help but I didn't want to risk doing something "wrong".

I was a safety glasses attendant last year at Sacramento. It was just me and my friend, no adults except for this one nice lady who periodically came to check how many glasses we had and then make announcements to pit admin and try to find more accordingly. We were supposed to sub-in for the two girls who were working there for a couple hours (they never came back), and the only rules they told us is "Make sure nobody walks in without safety glasses, make sure nobody walks out WITH them."

[FrankJ]

I understand the need to not supplying safety glasses to teams who should have their own. But how about this? Get some UGLY safety glasses. Attach a large object on a cable to them. They can be two minute loaners to allow someone get to the pits to get their own.

No excuse for rudeness but, with as many volunteers need to run an event the size of championships you are bound to get a few bad ones. Be glad she was handing out safety glasses & not inspecting robots. Speaking of Einstein. "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Couldn't you use a different entrance?

[Walter Deitzler]

I know that there was a problem with a volunteer and all, but there were also multiple doors. While this kind of behavior is inexcusable, I would have just left and gone to one of the other doors, to see if one of the other volunteers would have given me a pair.

[dricks]

I was a volunteer at the Championship this year. Unfortunately when you have as many people as you had volunteering you are bound to have one or two that may not be as courteous as they should be. Any time you get this mainy people together, there will be something happen that someone doesn't like. Over all I beleive FIRST does a better job than most in running an event of this scope.

[Akash Rastogi]

Unfortunately, I had the same experience as the OP after I had left my goggles at a restaurant in order to make it back in time for a match. When I got to the door I realized I forgot them and asked to borrow a pair for 2 minutes while I went back to the pits to grab one of the many spares I keep in my bookbag. After she refused and was quite rude about it, even after I explained I had spares and would bring the glasses right back and had a match in 5 minutes, I was told to call someone for a spare from the pits. After I stood there calling people without answer in front of her, she still refused, everyone was out of the pit to see the match and its pretty hard to notice your phone ringing in there, even on vibrate. There were also many students and mentors who didn't have service in the pits/dome. I told her I would have gladly signed out a pair for 2 minutes and forfeit my wallet or even my coach pin to her to borrow a pair, but nope, she did not budge. Thankfully, a student from another team who overheard was nice enough to lend me glasses for a minute while I got my own. I thanked the volunteer anyway, and went on my way.

I understand that a volunteer cannot make exceptions otherwise everyone will ask, but why be so rude? Other than this person, I had no issues with other volunteers. I usually hate ragging on volunteers because they are all wonderful people, but this was just too frustrating.