Volunteers -- Solutions/Ideas

[Ken Patton]

Now that there is some discussion/feedback on the Michigan tournament structure - thanks for bringing it to the people AND asking for input Dave! - what are we gonna do about it?

A lot of legitimate, and potentially serious, issues have been raised and will likely continue in Dave's thread. Hopefully the people "defending" the new structure take it for what it is: constructive discussion. But now that we are going to be required to do this, we could also get some discussion going on solutions and ideas for improvements. I for one am thankful that competing in FRC has prepared us teams for collaboratively working together to make things better.

So please post your ideas and proposals for solutions. Identify the problem, but focus on the solution. Unlike the Michigan tournament schedule, this thread is open to all teams worldwide .


Problem: The increased number of tournaments is going to require a lot more volunteers in order to have quality events running smoothly, which is required for these events to be FIRST-like.

Idea for Solution: We need to do a better job of "bundling" volunteers for events. One way to do this is to have teams, rather than individuals, volunteer. If teams in Michigan can find out what the tournament schedule is, and have some assurance that they will be able to get into the tournaments that they want, they can also plan to set aside a weekend to volunteer at one of the district events when they are not competing. If the organizers of these events see a couple of teams coming forward for each District Event, it will greatly simplify their lives - they can focus on placing knowledgeable/"trained" people in the right spots instead of just scraping up warm untrained bodies.

What it will take to succeed: Get the events time/place nailed down. Publish the schedule. Identify the volunteer coordinators. Make it easy for a group to volunteer (sign up and logistics). Do this well in advance so people can prepare and get trained. Be ready for some team to drop out if they have to compete that weekend because of scheduling snafu's.

What teams can do: Please consider doing this - it is a great teambuilding exercise and might be almost as good as a regional in terms of the team coming together as one unit. It is not expensive if you can stay at home.

Ken