Terrible Volunteer Experience

At every regional I've ever been to (so far 2 different ones, so not a wide variety), the safety glasses people do three things:

1) Hand out safety glasses to anyone who needs them (they shove them in your face)

2) Enforce safety like they were getting paid for it (and they were volunteers)

3) Give people (teams and visitors) safety advice and dafety memorabilia given by a local team.


Never once have I found an unpleasant safety glasses distributor , so this is a shock. I don't know where FIRST gets their volunteers for championships, but it seems like they may need to do a bit more screening than normal (maybe have FIRST alum do the jobs that involve human-interaction. If anyone we know more about what's going on). Our CA regional-level safety glasses distributors are great people, and the people at champs should be 10 times that.

I'm sorry that you had to go through that. While champs can be stressful, I see nothing stress-inducing about handing out safety glasses.

Of course we don't know the whole story (maybe she found out her team lost a match), so we can't make accusations that this person isn't fit to volunteer. I do think, however, that FIRST should be more careful as to who they have volunteering where.

Just my opinions.

[AlecMataloni]

A Safety Patrol member chewed us out for using lead solder at North Star. It was totally unnecessary. Sometimes these people need to just focus on the really unsafe practices (things involving poor use of power/hand tools or potential electrocution, etc) instead of telling us why shooting a soft foam ball into a labcoat supported by 2 mentors and a student (all wearing safety glasses) in our pit is somehow unsafe (this happened at Midwest).

I understand that those volunteers are just trying to prevent injuries, but sometimes they pick the wrong things to start an argument about.

[ttldomination]

The whole thing about a college mentor not being a real mentor is a whole different argument, but will say that the safety glasses people tend to be a little bit on the intense side.

A particularly frazzling scenario at the Peachtree Regional was each morning, I was stopped by a particularly enthusiastic volunteer would stop me and a group of students at the front and stand next to us to make sure we didn't pass. Ultimately, this caused us to send text messages and calls to other members on the team to ferry us some side shields. I can only imagine the headache at worlds.

I don't know what's being told to the safety glasses inspectors at the front, but surely there must be a way to relay the importance while not coming across as rude or insensitive.

- Sunny G.

[elemental]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

A particularly frazzling scenario at the Peachtree Regional was each morning, I was stopped by a particularly enthusiastic volunteer would stop me and a group of students at the front and stand next to us to make sure we didn't pass. Ultimately, this caused us to send text messages and calls to other members on the team to ferry us some side shields. I can only imagine the headache at worlds.

I don't know what's being told to the safety glasses inspectors at the front, but surely there must be a way to relay the importance while not coming across as rude or insensitive.

I was a safety glasses volunteer at Peachtree. We were told not to give out safety glasses to teams. No exceptions. The volunteer co-ordinator was not particularly happy with us when we did make exceptions. There were some times when I really wanted to help but I didn't want to risk doing something "wrong".

[MrTechCenter]

Originally Posted by elemental

I was a safety glasses volunteer at Peachtree. We were told not to give out safety glasses to teams. No exceptions. The volunteer co-ordinator was not particularly happy with us when we did make exceptions. There were some times when I really wanted to help but I didn't want to risk doing something "wrong".

I was a safety glasses attendant last year at Sacramento. It was just me and my friend, no adults except for this one nice lady who periodically came to check how many glasses we had and then make announcements to pit admin and try to find more accordingly. We were supposed to sub-in for the two girls who were working there for a couple hours (they never came back), and the only rules they told us is "Make sure nobody walks in without safety glasses, make sure nobody walks out WITH them."

[1986titans]

I think I know who the OP is referring to because my dad and I had a bit of difficulty getting safety glasses Saturday morning as spectators.

[JohnSchneider]

Originally Posted by 1986titans

I think I know who the OP is referring to because my dad and I had a bit of difficulty getting safety glasses Saturday morning as spectators.

Sounds about right. At one point I overheard a parent adult asking to borrow a pair from a different admin and the answer was "Not while she's around".

[wireties]

Wow John, sorry to hear about this. As much work as you put into 3310 this year it is a crime to be treated this way and even worse to endure the mentor comments.

FRC Team 1296 had a couple college mentors this year. And, for the first time, we had several new young fresh graduate mentors that were former members of the team. Speaking for the 1296 gray-haired mentors, college-aged/young mentors are awesome!! The mixture of older conservative engineers with the energy, innovation and skill-sets of the younger mentors made this year my favorite so far!

Brush it off - this lady was an anomaly in FIRST.

[Bryan Herbst]

Though I won't say that the volunteer acted appropriately on any level, I will say this-

FIRST cannot really screen for this type of thing. They do ask for references when a volunteer signs up in VIMS, and they do have the right to refuse to allow someone to volunteer if there are complaints, but they cannot give interviews or re-screen every volunteer every year. That would be a herculean task.

Second, as Libby informed the OP, there are appropriate channels to address these concerns. Any of the light blue shirted people at champs are the volunteer coordinators (at regionals, not sure of their champs title), and can assist you. If you can't find one of them, the pit admin staff should be more than willing to help.

I have seen one or two volunteers who act inappropriately, whether it is because they are just having a bad day, or whether they simply don't respect a certain person for some reason. The volunteer coordinators are always just as disappointed with these situations as you are, and will most certainly sit down with the volunteer to discuss the situation.

[blayde5]

I too had an encounter with this lady. Myself and one of the students both had gotten chewed out for simply forgetting our safety glasses in the pits. Furthermore, she also lectured the student for 10 minutes and proceeded to complain how she was blocking traffic (even though she was talking to her at the time)

Obviously this is one of the few isolated incidents but because of her interactions with many of the event's guests, something should have been done about it.

My biggest concern is the difference of treatment depending on the volunteers. If you're not going to lend them out to non-spectators, then don't for the entire weekend. Keep some consistency. Another problem is that we don't really know who to contact about volunteer issues and I think FIRST should clarify this for at least the mentors.

Aside from all of this, I'm happy to say that many of the volunteers always had a smile on their faces and even though you could tell when they were stressed, many of them found a way to exhibit the spirit of FIRST so bravo to them.

[Issuesinbliss]

No one should yell or insult anyone either a volunteer to attendee or attendee to a volunteer. The point of not dispensing the glasses was to prevent running out which would prevent others from accessing the Pits. Perhaps the leaders at St Louis could post reminders that safety glasses are mandatory prior to the event or perhaps a team could set up either safety glass sales and/or rentals at the door: can you say fundraiser!!!!!!!

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by animenerdjohn

B) Because nothing was done to try and fix the situation (But I guess that was the theme this year).

Is that really necessary?!

Check your reputation dots- I put an email address you can contact to address those volunteer concerns. I hope it helps.

As a volunteer coordinator for a regional, I know I wouldn't want any of those attitudes representing my event. It's entirely possible your message was never passed up to the proper authority.

[JohnSchneider]

Originally Posted by Libby K

Is that really necessary?!

Check your reputation dots- I put an email address you can contact to address those volunteer concerns. I hope it helps.

As a volunteer coordinator for a regional, I know I wouldn't want any of those attitudes representing my event. It's entirely possible your message was never passed up to the proper authority.

(We had a bad experience with the FTA so I'm still a little bitter about that, sorry)

I appreciate it. The man who told me they had received several complaints seemed to have some sort of authority but maybe not.

[SteveGPage]

Originally Posted by animenerdjohn

From what I was told by one of the people I reported her to, the had apparently received lots of complaints. That is bad because

A) that means she encountered lots of people.
B) Because nothing was done to try and fix the situation (But I guess that was the theme this year).

I met her as well. She wasn't that gracious to older mentors as well. I had left my glasses in the stands, and was trying to get something to eat, when I got a call from one my of the students in the pit. They needed to ask me a quick question about something. I explained this to her, and said I needed a pair of glasses for two minutes. She said it was up to each mentor to have their own and that I should go back and get mine. I said that the student had a rather urgent question, and that returning to get them would take about 10 - 15 minutes at least. She said, "Fine, but I better see them back here right away, and you better have your own the next time."

[jblay]

It seems like there are quite a few volunteers who don't understand the spirit of FIRST. It is important that the people supervising them make sure that this is understood.

Originally Posted by animenerdjohn

B) Because nothing was done to try and fix the situation (But I guess that was the theme this year).

I don't think there is anything wrong with saying something like this. Anyone and everyone in FIRST has earned the right to complain. There is no reason the field issues should not have been addressed before championship just like there was no reason for this volunteer to not understand their job. I understand that perfection can never be achieved but seeking perfection will lead to excellence, this year had a feel of being satisfied with good enough and people are frustrated with that. (Vince Lombardi paraphrased).