FRC Blog - It Wasn’t Against the Rules

[Travis Hoffman]

There is a huge gap between expecting perfection (I do not) and expecting competence such that mistakes are minimized, learned from, and not repeated (I do).

I am seeing a LOT of repeated, glaring mistakes, with little being done to correct them. Quite a few mistakes are occurring in situations where FMS issues are irrelevant, when the action is occurring less than 10 feet directly in front of an individual.

Does the FMS system make it harder this year for a referee to do their job? Unquestionably.

Are some quality referees making more mistakes as a result of the above? Undoubtedly.

Are there sub-par referees out there who are unqualified for the role, either due to lack of skill or lack of preparation/training, whose mistakes are being magnified exponentially as a result of increased scrutiny upon this game? Undeniably.

I believe event staffs should prioritize "competition-critical" volunteer recruitment and training (and retention) over many other aspects of event planning; however, it seems many are burdened with the need to chase down enough sponsors for the event to even exist. It is unfortunate that anything so critical to the "team and spectator experience" could be an afterthought at any competition. One wonders if Manchester couldn't invest more to assist events in addressing this glaring need?

Also, for the if you don't like it, volunteer yourself crowd, I have a simple answer - NO. Volunteers are being stretched to and beyond their limits by a system in need of fundamental change. Dumping more volunteers into that system (especially johnny come lately's who are likely even more inexperienced and ill-prepared than those who signed up ahead of time) isn't going to solve anything. If you wish to direct your attention toward the people who could and should help fix the "competition experience" problem, affix your gaze toward Manchester, NH and collectively speak your minds.