Petition to start things that inform, inspire, educate and de-confuse the public

[EricH]

Phase 1: Do not reserve seats exclusively for team members. If there's an empty seat, it's open, we'll move stuff as needed. (BTW, whoever put up those "We don't save seats, come sit down" signs at the entrances to the center section of L.A. seating, I want to thank you--regardless of if you're on my team or not.)

Phase 2: Wait for "uninitiated person(s)" to sit down and watch a couple of matches. (Works best if there's clear guidance to seating.)

Phase 3: Slide someone up next to them and ask if they want some explanation of what's going on/how this all works. Now that they've seen a couple of matches, they have a little bit of context to process anything you tell them. Bonus for providing pit escort, etc. Act as a "bonus" play-by-play announcer for the next match or two, to explain what sort of X, Y, and Z the teams are doing, how they designed their robots, what a team is, what different things mean... Basically, anything they want to know, at whatever level they need to know it at.

[GreyingJay]

^ I like this. Train everyone in your team to be able to do this. This sets a tone of friendliness and professionalism that will surely impress any spectator, and is a great exercise in communication skills, being friendly and outgoing, and overcoming any shyness for your team members. Also it trains people to be on the lookout for others -- who is new? who is confused? who can I help? All good skills to have as fellow human beings.

I would propose to have greeters at the entrances to the arenas that would hand out programs to newbies and give them a quick spiel of what they're about to walk into. They can simply wave through anyone in a team shirt, but newcomers, and those with younger kids, would be easy to spot and say "welcome" to.

Whenever I go somewhere "strange" I always feel like this is weird, this isn't "my" place, I don't know what's going on, should I really go in there... To have someone acknowledge my presence and say "welcome, come on in, let me explain what's going on" is always reassuring and helpful.