Indiana First Districts and Actual active dates

[alephzer0]

Originally Posted by MechEng83

Members of teams can volunteer at any event they're at. Certain roles may be restricted based on age/ potential conflicts of interest.

can you please elaborate? what are the age restrictions?
(I'm sorry for the load of questions)

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by alephzer0

can you please elaborate? what are the age restrictions?
(I'm sorry for the load of questions)

Volunteers have to be at least 13 years of age. Any lead roles (lead queuer, LRI), judges, and some others (sorry I don't know all the specifics) need to be adults. Something like field reset, safety glasses monitor, or spare parts table can be manned by students.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by alephzer0

can you please elaborate? what are the age restrictions?
(I'm sorry for the load of questions)

Some roles require some level of maturity. For example, there's a reason that very few refs are high-school age; most are at least college-age. Same for inspectors and judges (at least where I've volunteered). There are a large number of reasons unrelated to technical ability, more social engineering than anything else.

However, a large number of roles (Spare Parts, Field Reset, Safety Glasses Attendant, and Awards Assistant come to mind readily) don't have those restrictions, primarily because all you really need is someone in a volunteer shirt who has some idea of what they're doing.


I've volunteered as Field Reset and Spare Parts (and Field Setup/Teardown) at events my team competed at while I was in high school.

[alephzer0]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the quick responses.

[alephzer0]

I do actually have a good amount of technical experience, and can be mature when the situation calls for it. I work pretty well with computers and stuff, and I learn quickly. I was thinking about doing something like scorekeeping; do you think that would work out?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by alephzer0

I do actually have a good amount of technical experience, and can be mature when the situation calls for it. I work pretty well with computers and stuff, and I learn quickly. I was thinking about doing something like scorekeeping; do you think that would work out?

Probably not.

It's not the technical ability in this case, it's the (assumed*) age. Scorekeeping is a very high-stress job, very great responsibility. The scorekeeper has the "field control panel" that tells the robots that the match is starting, somebody is getting bypassed, the foghorn needs to sound... AND they have to take input from the head ref about fouls/cards, the FTA on bypassing, etc. I want to say that's one of the positions that has to go to HQ for training; otherwise, the FTA or FTAA would be training you. For some reason, I can't pull up the description in VIMS, but the other half of that job title is "Field Power".

That said... If I was you, I'd volunteer for field setup, and specifically tell the FTA and Field Supervisor that you'd like to help on the electrical side whenever they start doing that, with the goal of eventually becoming a scorekeeper. They'll be able to help guide you a bit better. (I'm a ref and inspector, at two different events--but when I was in high school and college I tended to end up on setup/teardown.)



*Given that the question about volunteering at an event with/without the team, I'm assuming you're still in high school. I could be wrong.

[alephzer0]

Originally Posted by EricH

Probably not.

It's not the technical ability in this case, it's the (assumed*) age. Scorekeeping is a very high-stress job, very great responsibility. The scorekeeper has the "field control panel" that tells the robots that the match is starting, somebody is getting bypassed, the foghorn needs to sound... AND they have to take input from the head ref about fouls/cards, the FTA on bypassing, etc. I want to say that's one of the positions that has to go to HQ for training; otherwise, the FTA or FTAA would be training you. For some reason, I can't pull up the description in VIMS, but the other half of that job title is "Field Power".

That said... If I was you, I'd volunteer for field setup, and specifically tell the FTA and Field Supervisor that you'd like to help on the electrical side whenever they start doing that, with the goal of eventually becoming a scorekeeper. They'll be able to help guide you a bit better. (I'm a ref and inspector, at two different events--but when I was in high school and college I tended to end up on setup/teardown.)



*Given that the question about volunteering at an event with/without the team, I'm assuming you're still in high school. I could be wrong.

Thanks. You're right, I am in high school right now (I'm a junior).
I just was curious, particularly because I was not intending to do something physically intensive (my aversion to physical activity being what it is) like setting up the field, but I still wanted to volunteer.
I also was not aware of some of these things, so thank you for telling me.

[alephzer0]

Originally Posted by alephzer0

I do actually have a good amount of technical experience, and can be mature when the situation calls for it. I work pretty well with computers and stuff, and I learn quickly. I was thinking about doing something like scorekeeping; do you think that would work out?

One thing I forgot to mention: I have 2 years of experience running score systems for sporting events, if that makes a difference.