If you were a volunteer...

[George1902]

I loved being an announcer/emcee at the Robot Rodeo. If I could only find a way to keep my voice past noon on Thursday I'd volunteer to do it at a regional.

[The Lucas]

I've been a robot inspector since 2003. I tried reffing at last PARC and I could never ref a regional.

I hate to hand out penalties. At least when I tell a team they have to change something to pass inspection, I can help them change it. If I give them a penalty there is nothing I can do for them. I am still willing to ref off-season.

[Peter Matteson]

I'm all for being an inspector. I also wouldn't mind reffing. However I can't get away from work anymore and now that we're competing at the Championship I won't have a chance to try either this year.

[melitami]

I've been volunteering since my senior year of high school (2000-2001). -Started off with FLL field reset that year
-Moved to FRC team queuing for the 2002 Philly and 2003 Richmond regionals
-Event assistant at 2003 Philly regional
-2004 Richmond regional was team queuing some, but a lot of what I like to call running around making sure everything runs smoothly work
-2004 and 2005 (and 2006) Philly regional was/is assistant to the regional coordinators (job invented for me), which is basically a combination of setup, take down, talking to VIPs, running around making sure everything runs smoothly, answering questions, and just generally having fun

There's a few more FLL tournaments in there, judging for the ones here in PA and field manager for one in Richmond.

I love my job, even if it is VERY tiring. It's my run-around and always look like I know what I'm doing thing

I highly recommend volunteering, it's a very different perspective from being a team member or even a mentor, very eye-opening, and rewarding, IMHO!

[Mark Pierce]

After doing all kinds of odd jobs at the West Michigan Robotics Competition, I volunteered at the first West Michigan Regional in 2001. I helped with field set up. inspected on Thursday, did some general crowd control, and spent time just hanging out on the rest of the weekend.

I had a lot of fun working and talking with the great bunch of people from FIRST. Inspection was interesting, but I think in some respects the rules might be worse for inspectors now. We had a lot of walk in visitors from a teacher's conference in the same building, so I got to explain about FIRST a few hundred times... Wearing that crew shirt makes you a target for lots of questions, making it much easier to meet new people.

[DCA Fan]

Definitely emcee or game announcer. I love having the opportunity to act like a maniacal person for weekends at a time

In the past I've done field reset and real-time scoring.