Most Unlikely Places You've Found FRC People

[Gravity]

In a desolate Trader Joe's in Georgia.

[Trevor1523]

Not really unexpected but in 2015 1523 played frisbee with some students from 4481 under the St. Louis arch (which was really awesome).

I've also got a good friend on Team 79 in Tampa, and we have met up before. We actually talked about the thought of "what if we see a guy wearing a 118 shirt!"

[Moskowapplepi]

About three miles down trail from mount washington, i met a mentor for a georgia team. Blanking on their name

[IKE]

While actually a very "likely" place, I am often happy to see all of the familiar FRC people at Maker Faire Detroit.

[BenjiSG]

At video game tournaments, at an MIT tour, and even behind the counter of a Chipotle! Also not FRC, but I met someone from FTC while taking a summer college class.

[TechWaffle]

I found someone that worked for FIRST at Burger King in the airport, a few days after Worlds.

[natejo99]

I met another FIRSTer from Michigan when I was in line for the shuttle bus at Kennedy Space Center.

[Jessi Kaestle]

At an interview!

FIRST is a considerable portion of my resume so it was no secret I was involved. Turns out the person who is the peer lead to the department I support had been at a competition I was volunteering at and we had engaged in small talk. Not sure if FIRST had anything to do with it but I got the job, so it all worked out in the end

Another example isn't exactly meeting someone in FIRST but I was at a multi-day music fest and got to talking to someone about FIRST and now I am working with him to possibly start a team at the school he teaches at.

[Andrew Remmers]

I work at The Hulk at Islands of Adventure, I see an FRC Person every so often.

[The_BEVR]

Not unlike many on here, I have run into quite a few at Boy Scout camp.

[Sperkowsky]

I forgot this story when I first posted but I just remembered it. A few weeks before Champs last year I found I member of 5016 I knew at a random pizza place in his town(a town that probably has 20 pizza places) . Until that day I had never gone there and was only there because a few of my gymnastics friends live in the town. Definitely a surprise seeing someone I knew there.

[logank013]

An old one: On the way to a competition (I don't remember which one), we stopped at a rest stop with many restraints in it. We ran into a lot of members from 1501 there.

Yesterday: I was wearing a 234 shirt and went to my orthodontist appointment. As I was leaving, a lady told me "good luck this year in robotics".

[Jon Stratis]

I can think of two incidents that really apply:

1. At an interview. I have my volunteer stuff listed on my resume, and it turns out the manager had a son on one of the local area teams. Gave us a chance to talk FIRST for a bit, and I did end up getting the job

2. Airport TSA officer. I was going through security with that darned LRI vest, and got pulled aside... turns out I had, at some point that weekend, stuck a potentiometer in one of the pockets. And of course, having a "switch" as the first lady called it, along with all the other stuff I keep in there, was suspicious. after about 15 minutes (I had the distinct impression someone in a backroom somewhere was running a background check on me), she introduced me to one of her "friends" to talk to - he must have been 7 feet tall and was built like a tank. So I started explaining everything all over again, and he interrupted me with "Oh, you're with FIRST? we can get this taken care of". I got to go on my way pretty quickly after that!

[P.J.]

The most unlikely encounters I've had have all revolved around people recognizing me and coming up and talking to me, not necessarily at any one specific place. It always throws me off because a lot of times I've never met them before, they just recognize me as "the tall FRC ref with the beard."

This is what happens when you volunteer in a very visible position 10+ times a year in Michigan...

[Mark Holschuh]

I've met several at Boy Scout camps.

Recently my wife and I met some mentors from Michigan with their wives at Disney World. It seems that I'm not the only mentor who needs to bribe their wives with vacations before they sign up to mentor FRC for another year...