Regional-specific rules, etc., and do the referees read the rules?

[Cory]

Originally Posted by DukesAZ

I have always been a little bothered by the fact that many refs/inspectors/judges are active members of FIRST teams and in many cases teams that are attending the particular regional that they are volunteering at. On several occasions, I have even seen volunteers throw on a team t-shirt and walk with a team when they win an award! How can you have any faith in their impartiality when you see stuff like that?

There's nothing wrong with that. What kind of bias can a field attendant have? Or a Queing volunteer?

I can see your concern with regards to referees, but I don't agree with it. I'd say that in excess of 99% of the time, a referee at their own team's event does not hold any bias towards them.

As Amy said, you just have to trust people.

I refereed two events at which my former team was competing, and not once was there a conflict of interests. If there were to be a difficult call involving them, I would gladly stay out of any discussion between referees to avoid influencing anyone else, or even myself.