How do I help my area move to districts?

[IronicDeadBird]

I'm not surprised that there are a lot of people upset with what position they got as a volunteer. In the end though someone is always going be upset because there are only a limited number of positions.
However a few of the details where volunteers are being left in the dark with information is rather troubling...

[Ilovepineapples]

Originally Posted by Collin Fultz

I am very confused. I feel like I asked a fairly easy question to answer. The answer will help form my answer to the original question.

Perhaps I was asking too much from an account that uses a fake name?

Collin, I apologize if I caused you any confusion. Each paragraph is an individual account from a different volunteer, if you have additional questions or clarifications feel free to PM me.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Ilovepineapples

Collin, I apologize if I caused you any confusion. Each paragraph is an individual account from a different volunteer, if you have additional questions or clarifications feel free to PM me.

Ok now I'm with Collin and a little confused...

[thegnat05]

Originally Posted by bkahl

Here's what was off-putting to me.

As a college student, I am unbelievably lucky to live 2 blocks from an FRC team. However, not every student has that opportunity. Their only lasting connection to FIRST may be volunteering.

I can attest to this. I go to college in Western Kentucky and there are 0 active FIRST teams anywhere in my area, much less a competition. By happenstance I will be in town for North Star this year and was very excited as this will be my only contribution to FIRST this year. After reading all of the volunteer positions my top request was to be a judge assistant. I did FRC all 4 years of high school and was the head captain of my team. I know the in's and out's of the awards given and figured this would be the perfect entry-level position. I eventually got assigned flags (MC assistant) which I am more than happy to do and completely understand that the judge assistant roll might have already been filled by someone who has done it in the past. However, it would be nice upfront to be told that first year volunteers/college students can only apply for certain positions. Advertising a role as "no prior volunteer experience needed" when you want someone with experience to do it seems misleading to me.

Originally Posted by Ilovepineapples

Volunteer #1: I am a volunteer who has been trained in a key position and served as a diligent volunteer spending hundreds of dollars in hotel costs who is now told I can only run safety glasses and the practice field. Without anyone telling me what changed or why I can't serve in my key position.

Volunteer #2: I'm an alumni that can run and coordinate a district event when I'm at college but when I travel home I can only run safety glasses.

Volunteer #3: I'm a graduate from a FRC team in Minnesota who has volunteered as field reset for four years after graduating but still isn't given any other field position no matter how many times I ask.

Volunteer #4: I'm a volunteer who registered to help queue but I'm told there are not any positions available, followed by an email to coaches the next day requesting more queuers to volunteer.

Volunteer #5: I am a volunteer who has been a robot inspector since graduating high school 6 years ago. In Minnesota I have expressed interest in FTAing, CSAing and score keeping but have never been assigned. I then am offered spots as a FTA or CSA in other areas around the United States.

Volunteer #6: As a student, I was spoken to about my social media posts, as they were showing MN FIRST in a bad light and told to delete what I posted. Now I've only been offered spots as Field Reset.

This is a small sampling of volunteer stories from the Minnesota Regionals.

Call me a drama queen but these are all deeply saddening. No one should ever feel demoted, degraded, or left out in an activity that is suppose to be for everyone. As a volunteer you are essentially giving a piece of yourself to FIRST. There are a million other things these people, especially college kids, could be doing on the weekends but they are choosing to donate their time and efforts (and in some cases money) to FRC. The fact that there are so many of these stories depicting negative volunteer experiences breaks my heart. I hope things change soon and/or they let the public know what we can do to help.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Maybe this thread is trolling, but I honestly do not see the document in a negative light. Basically, I see it as setting reasonable expectations for volunteers.

Face it: You're not going to be a LRI the first or second year you volunteer, particularly if you are under 21. But be an RI for 2 years, shadow the LRI one year, and then speak to your LRI and VC and see what they can do. If that's what you want, you can do it.

For all who are complaining: Tell us your experience volunteering and if you have volunteered in VIMS (for what/where/when?) and not been asked to attend.

I am not as twitchy about anonymous user accounts, but please understand that it is highly frowned upon, and not a sign of courage. You want change, stand up and name yourself.

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I don't see anything disturbing or off-putting about that document. It seems quite reasonable to me. It basically says not to think that you "deserve" a Key Volunteer position before you've demonstrated yourself, and suggests how you can go about doing that. Unless there's something else that people are being told beyond what it says, I do not understand why anyone would be upset by it.

Are...are you guys serious?

Don and Alan, I respect you guys tremendously, but I fail to see how you don't think this document would leave a sour taste in the mouths of young mentors and COLLEGE GRADS.

This document explains so much about why mentors in MN are always telling me that the key issue in MN not going to districts is a lack of good volunteers. Even more experienced mentors have brought up this issue.

If you're going to call out someone because of their age, I can do the same thing and say that older mentors can't see as well, or maybe they can't hear as well. The age has nothing to do with the volunteer experience, but if we're going to use age, why not say ridiculous things?

It's like a 50 year old versus a 22 year old interviewing for the same job, neither of them have experience in it, but the 22 year old is told that they're just not going to be good at the job because of their age.

By the way - this is one of the few times I don't give a crap about a fake account. This document is real, that is literally all that matters. Stop giving the OP crap for not posting real names because clearly Minnesota is a little screwed up and they would probably be ripped apart within their community for raising this issue.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Ilovepineapples

...

There are lots of ways to help your area move to districts.

One of them isn't using a bogus CD account to create a passive aggressive thread that has a superficially laudable intention, but is actually used to winge about not getting to what you want to do, and to attempt to "turn someone in".

Sit down with whoever you need to meet with and talk.
- Ask them to write down any complaints they (or anyone else) have about you (use actual paper).
- You write down any complaints you have about them (and about anyone they represent).
- Bring those lists to your meeting.
- Do not show them to each other, but instead tear them up in front of each other and toss them into the trash.
- Get down to work.
- Start with small, short assignments.
- After establishing a good rapport with each other, after successfully completing (together) the several small assignments, and after becoming a team instead of adversaries; start working (together) on bigger, longer-term projects.

Nothing will get better so long as people are glaring at each other (or sniping at each other on CD) instead of talking to each other.

Along the way, younger folks (like college students) might be surprised to notice (when they participate in the nitty-gritty, stupifyingly boring, detailed planning necessary to prepare for and implement something like an FRC District) that the District implementation plans extend past their expected graduation dates.

If Minnesota college students today are like Kentucky college students were, they scatter to the four corners of the Earth after they graduate. That isn't something that can be ignored by anyone involved in putting a sustainable District organization in place.

Blake

[Lil' Lavery]

This thread is asking how to help move an area to the district format.

The content of this thread is mostly hearsay and bickering regarding the wording of a letter. Very little productive dialogue has taken place.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

This thread is asking how to help move an area to the district format.

The content of this thread is mostly hearsay and bickering regarding the wording of a letter. Very little productive dialogue has taken place.

...Referring to a letter that was sent out isn't hearsay though...

[Pauline Tasci]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

This thread is asking how to help move an area to the district format.

The content of this thread is mostly hearsay and bickering regarding the wording of a letter. Very little productive dialogue has taken place.

The reason this thread was started was this account is claiming they can not have the proper key volunteers fill district roles in Minnesota because college students are not allowed to take these roles on. These students are the basis of many great district regions, like FiM, where most of their FTA's are college students, or like Canada, where a lot of refs are college aged, and all other district regions (NE, PNW, ect)

I think you should take a look at Rahul's post (Knufire) on this thread for a better understanding of the whole situation before claiming this thread is counterproductive.

This thread is literally pointing out a key problem into why a region can not change to districts.

[MikLast]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

By the way - this is one of the few times I don't give a crap about a fake account. This document is real, that is literally all that matters. Stop giving the OP crap for not posting real names because clearly Minnesota is a little screwed up and they would probably be ripped apart within their community for raising this issue.

If anything i read about MN is true, I would also be using a fake account. Too much drama to associate myself with that could blow up in your face.

[Ginger Power]

As a college student volunteering in Minnesota I feel the need to post. I don't personally have an issue with the document that the OP has linked. It doesn't (and didn't when I initially read it) push me away from volunteering.

Volunteer Experience: I've been a Robot Inspector for 2 years and I've inspected at 3 official events, soon to be 4, and 2 off-season events. I've also coordinated 30+ college volunteers at the Duluth Regionals earlier this year, and will be doing the same at Minneapolis.

Speaking for all of my volunteers, I can say they had a very positive experience at the Duluth Regionals. The consensous that I get is that basically all of them will be returning next year.

As college volunteers we served in many different volunteer roles: 4 CSA's, 4-5 Robot Inspectors, 3 Referees, a bunch of queuers including a Lead Queuer, and also people working the safety glasses station. There are some who wish to try different volunteer roles next year, and there are some who want to "level up" and become a Key Volunteer in their respective volunteer role. We are comfortable with the knowledge that we can't start at the top.

As for districts, I'd love to see them happen. I've been fairly vocal about that on this site. I'd love to see it happen soon. I think the only way for that to happen is to increase the transparency of the decision making process at MN FIRST, so people know who is making decisions, why they are making them, and more importantly, so the people making decisions can get educated feedback from the people and teams they are serving. Right now, I'd be willing to bet that over half the people involved with FIRST in the state of Minnesota couldn't tell you what a district is, and what the pros and cons for districts are. The general FIRST participant in Minnesota is very uneducated on the topics that we argue regularly, and that is a large part of the problem.

If there is transparency in the process, things will operate better.

[PayneTrain]

this is just a placeholder for a lazy and pontificating post about the status quo being just fine and the current scenario being incapable of setting off any alarm bells in the heads of any properly enlightened person, please move along

[Knufire]

Originally Posted by Ginger Power

As college volunteers we served in many different volunteer roles: 4 CSA's, 4-5 Robot Inspectors, 3 Referees, a bunch of queuers including a Lead Queuer, and also people working the safety glasses station.

How many of these volunteers were part of Bison Robotics (North Dakota State University) versus GOFIRST (University of Minnesota)?

[bkahl]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

This thread is asking how to help move an area to the district format.

The content of this thread is mostly hearsay and bickering regarding the wording of a letter. Very little productive dialogue has taken place.

Dude, your post was probably the least productive of them all.

The thread is discussing potential issues holding back MN FIRST from districts, exactly what the OP wanted. What else do you want to make this more productive?

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by Knufire

How many of these volunteers were part of Bison Robotics (North Dakota State University) versus GOFIRST (University of Minnesota)?

All of the volunteers that I coordinated were from Bison Robotics, as I am the Service Coordinator for Bison Robotics. There were also a couple of members of GOFIRST at the events, but I had nothing to do with that.