Terrible Volunteer Experience

[1986titans]

I think I know who the OP is referring to because my dad and I had a bit of difficulty getting safety glasses Saturday morning as spectators.

[JohnSchneider]

Originally Posted by 1986titans

I think I know who the OP is referring to because my dad and I had a bit of difficulty getting safety glasses Saturday morning as spectators.

Sounds about right. At one point I overheard a parent adult asking to borrow a pair from a different admin and the answer was "Not while she's around".

[wireties]

Wow John, sorry to hear about this. As much work as you put into 3310 this year it is a crime to be treated this way and even worse to endure the mentor comments.

FRC Team 1296 had a couple college mentors this year. And, for the first time, we had several new young fresh graduate mentors that were former members of the team. Speaking for the 1296 gray-haired mentors, college-aged/young mentors are awesome!! The mixture of older conservative engineers with the energy, innovation and skill-sets of the younger mentors made this year my favorite so far!

Brush it off - this lady was an anomaly in FIRST.

[Bryan Herbst]

Though I won't say that the volunteer acted appropriately on any level, I will say this-

FIRST cannot really screen for this type of thing. They do ask for references when a volunteer signs up in VIMS, and they do have the right to refuse to allow someone to volunteer if there are complaints, but they cannot give interviews or re-screen every volunteer every year. That would be a herculean task.

Second, as Libby informed the OP, there are appropriate channels to address these concerns. Any of the light blue shirted people at champs are the volunteer coordinators (at regionals, not sure of their champs title), and can assist you. If you can't find one of them, the pit admin staff should be more than willing to help.

I have seen one or two volunteers who act inappropriately, whether it is because they are just having a bad day, or whether they simply don't respect a certain person for some reason. The volunteer coordinators are always just as disappointed with these situations as you are, and will most certainly sit down with the volunteer to discuss the situation.

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by Tanis

Though I won't say that the volunteer acted appropriately on any level, I will say this-

FIRST cannot really screen for this type of thing. They do ask for references when a volunteer signs up in VIMS, and they do have the right to refuse to allow someone to volunteer if there are complaints, but they cannot give interviews or re-screen every volunteer every year. That would be a herculean task.

Second, as Libby informed the OP, there are appropriate channels to address these concerns. Any of the light blue shirted people at champs are the volunteer coordinators (at regionals, not sure of their champs title), and can assist you. If you can't find one of them, the pit admin staff should be more than willing to help.

I have seen one or two volunteers who act inappropriately, whether it is because they are just having a bad day, or whether they simply don't respect a certain person for some reason. The volunteer coordinators are always just as disappointed with these situations as you are, and will most certainly sit down with the volunteer to discuss the situation.

Great advice.
There were HUNDREDS of volunteers at the Championship who worked hard and did a good job. Each team member probably came in contact with at least 100 volunteers in the course of their time at the Championship.

At any FIRST event, the way to deal with a volunteer who is acting inappropriately is to contact the volunteer coordinator. There is a chain of command for dealing with issues. You can locate the volunteer coordinator assigned (usually only one at a regional, but numerous ones divided by area at the Championship) by starting at pit admin.

98% of the event volunteers, if properly trained, do a great job. There will always be exceptions because dealing with people can be messy. They come in with various baggage including not understanding what the job actually is, or could just be having a really bad day. Sometimes people want to volunteer, but they are not right for the job they are assigned. Sometimes volunteers are reassigned to a job they would prefer not to be doing.

[blayde5]

I too had an encounter with this lady. Myself and one of the students both had gotten chewed out for simply forgetting our safety glasses in the pits. Furthermore, she also lectured the student for 10 minutes and proceeded to complain how she was blocking traffic (even though she was talking to her at the time)

Obviously this is one of the few isolated incidents but because of her interactions with many of the event's guests, something should have been done about it.

My biggest concern is the difference of treatment depending on the volunteers. If you're not going to lend them out to non-spectators, then don't for the entire weekend. Keep some consistency. Another problem is that we don't really know who to contact about volunteer issues and I think FIRST should clarify this for at least the mentors.

Aside from all of this, I'm happy to say that many of the volunteers always had a smile on their faces and even though you could tell when they were stressed, many of them found a way to exhibit the spirit of FIRST so bravo to them.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by Issuesinbliss

The point of not dispensing the glasses was to prevent running out which would prevent others from accessing the Pits. Perhaps the leaders at St Louis could post reminders that safety glasses are mandatory prior to the event or perhaps a team could set up either safety glass sales and/or rentals at the door: can you say fundraiser!!!!!!!

So the solution to the problem is to prevent people from accessing the pits in order to prevent people from preventing people from accessing the pits? Okay, then.

How do you determine who's "worthy" of the coveted safety glasses?

And, seriously? Charging people to rent them? You realize teams paid $5000 in registration to be there. Not to mention their hotel, travel, and food costs. Want to really turn people off to FIRST?

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by Alexa Stott

So the solution to the problem is to prevent people from accessing the pits in order to prevent people from preventing people from accessing the pits? Okay, then.

How do you determine who's "worthy" of the coveted safety glasses?

And, seriously? Charging people to rent them? You realize teams paid $5000 in registration to be there. Not to mention their hotel, travel, and food costs. Want to really turn people off to FIRST?

I like the idea of a "safetly glasses store" for people who want their own but don't own a pair, but there should still be a booth for lending them out day to day, the same way as it is now

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by Gregor01

I like the idea of a "safetly glasses store" for people who want their own but don't own a pair, but there should still be a booth for lending them out day to day, the same way as it is now

Not a horrible idea, since, most people who fall under the forgotten/broken/lost safety glasses category will likely need a new pair.

[Gray Adams]

Originally Posted by Gregor01

I like the idea of a "safetly glasses store" for people who want their own but don't own a pair, but there should still be a booth for lending them out day to day, the same way as it is now

Someone should just start putting sponsor logos all over them and hand them out. They already do this with water bottles that nobody wants (so many Platt bottles at SVR...), so why not with safety glasses that everyone needs and wants?

[JosephC]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

Someone should just start putting sponsor logos all over them and hand them out. They already do this with water bottles that nobody wants (so many Platt bottles at SVR...), so why not with safety glasses that everyone needs and wants?

I remember receiving a free pair of Andy Mark safety glasses at Worlds. Although for the life of me i can't remember how I got them, or where I got them.

[Gray Adams]

Originally Posted by JosephC

I remember receiving a free pair of Andy Mark safety glasses at Worlds. Although for the life of me i can't remember how I got them, or where I got them.

I couldn't find them, though I didn't look very carefully.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

Someone should just start putting sponsor logos all over them and hand them out. They already do this with water bottles that nobody wants (so many Platt bottles at SVR...), so why not with safety glasses that everyone needs and wants?

Originally Posted by JosephC

I remember receiving a free pair of Andy Mark safety glasses at Worlds. Although for the life of me i can't remember how I got them, or where I got them.

Yep, we gave out 1500 AndyMark safety glasses at the Championships. We will do this again next year. How we distribute them may or may not change, but this year we handed them out at our booth.

I agree that the volunteers are instructed to act certain ways, be cheerful, and abide by GP. I was a volunteer inspector on Wednesday and Thursday, and we were told how to act and inspect very clearly. I trust that other areas (safety glasses hander-outers, etc.) were well informed how to act. This volunteer should have been asked to leave her duties.

Maybe Volunteer Coordinators can hand pick a few undercover auditors who do things that have historically raise the ire of these over-zealous volunteers to see how things are handled. In this case, it would be good to have an auditor try to enter different doors into the pits without safety glasses and then see how they are addressed if they give similar excuses for not having glasses as said in this thread. Heck, since we are giving out a few thousand dollars worth of safety glasses, I might try this myself (hide safety glasses, hide name badge, see what happens).

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

[JaneYoung]

Having been one of the volunteers that has helped run safety glasses tables at past events, I can tell you that there are some guidelines that go with them. These are a couple of the guidelines that I was given:

1. the safety glasses are for guests and visitors, they are not for teams
2. everyone must sign the safety glasses out and sign them back in

To varying degrees, I was told that teams should bring their own glasses and should 'know better', serving as role models of responsibility. I have also been told that the safety glasses station is one that comes with gate keeping responsibilities.

Reading through some of the commentary, I can see that the volunteer was following those guidelines. To kick it up a further notch, the safety glasses volunteers were probably told that teams should know the importance of having their own safety glasses by the time they get to Championship level.

The message is correct. The messenger needs some work in the area of interacting with others and in conducting herself in a professional manner.

Regarding the age/mentor confusion... I have confused ages before, not correctly assessing the age of the student: junior high, high school, and/or college. It has made me feel like a total dork and, when that has happened, I have apologized. Sometimes, an apology is not enough but it is always a good start.

I'm sorry that happened but do follow the correct procedure in following up with your complaint. And, if you get a chance, think about the positive interactions that you had at the Championship. I hope there were many that far outweighed the rudeness of the safety glasses volunteer.

A side comment - there were a couple of safety glasses stations that were located in very cramped quarters and, in my mind, were a little dangerous for the people that were running those stations. The teams, moving as a large enthusiastic crowd, could have easily run them over but for the tables that served as a protective border between the volunteers and the crowd. If I had been assigned to one of those cramped stations and blocked in by the crowds, I would have asked to have been reassigned or I would have stepped down from that station and explained my reasoning to the VC. That's an .02 from my perspective.

Jane

[Adam Freeman]

I will say that while 99% of the volunteers at Champs were completely respectful, courteous, and cheerful...but, I did find myself sometimes longing for the next time I could play in Michigan again.

There were times where the pokey stick guy was basically a sleep. Which I can understand that it has to be the most boring job ever, but that's not really acceptable. On Thursday balls that flew out of the field we not quickly chased down and returned to the field. Now, most of these things are very very small, but it just showed that many of these volunteers had very little experience with this game. As the weekend moved towards eliminations, things started getting better, so atleast there was continuous improvement.

But, there was one person that really bothered me. I believe it was the Field reset lead on Archimedes. It started during practice on Thursday when he was trying to get a penalty called on us for grappling the bridge. I guess this is fine, but I would prefer my penalties get called by a referee. He also was constantly rushing my drive team to get the robot setup. I know there is a schedule, but this is also a competition. We are trying to do some advanced things in Hybrid modes, and they don't work unless the robot gets setup correctly...which takes a little bit of time. Usually the field hasn't even connected before we are done with setup.

There is no place in FIRST for rude volunteers. Especially being rude to the students. Volunteers might not get paid to be there...but neither do we, actually we have to pay (a lot) to be there.

I would prefer that the volunteers on Einstein understand that all of us down on the floor are interested in seeing the matches too.

Overall my teams interactions with the volunteers were positive, at that's all that matters.