Evan Forbes Appreciation Post

You may not know the name Evan @Forbes, but you probably know his work.

Evan is serial volunteer who does things to make FRC easier and better for teams and his fellow volunteers.

Most recently, Evan developed FRC Queue. Already used at dozens (more?) of events in its first year, FRC Queue sends notifications to teams via text or Slack when it is their time to queue for a match. Evan saw a need in the community and built – with his own time and money – an extremely professional solution to a common problem. In its pilot year, Evan is personally funding the notifications through (and other costs associated with) the platform.

Perhaps you weren’t lucky enough to be at an event using FRC Queue (bug your PDP if so). But you’ve certainly seen the Divisions Notifier, a simple app that lets you know when divisions for champs are out (and has all kinds of other cool statistical and historical data). Again, designed by Evan, funded by Evan, and a solution that just works for a common pain point.

Many teams are fortunate to have benefited from Evan’s brilliant troubleshooting on the field. Evan is cool as a cucumber and, as one FTA put it “damn magical.” He’s the kind of volunteer who’s just there when you need him but not in your way when you don’t. He brings calm to the situation, all while being productive in reaching a resolution. He’s at six events this year, so lots of teams will see him, but if you don’t, be sure to check out his Five Fatal Mistakes: Why your robot is dead on the field which I guarantee will help your team’s reliability.

I’m sure he does lots of other things, too, but you’d never know it from his unassuming presence. Oh, and he’s this year’s Sacramento Regional Volunteer of the Year.

Congrats from the other end of California on the award, Evan, and thanks for all that you do for FIRST.

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I worked directly with Evan at the Midwest regional a couple of weeks ago. He was the event Field Supervisor. He’s very detail oriented and industrious as an ant(like most Field Supervisors tend to be actually) I gushed and gushed about his invention and encouraged teams to personally tell him whenever they complimented his app.

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Congrats Evan! FRC Queue is awesome. I’m looking forward to using it at NYC this year!

ps - you need an online tip jar to recoup some of the texting fees.

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yes! FRC Que is great! I have heard the complaint that if teams don’t have cell service in the pits, it does not reach them. But even if they do not, it can connect the Queueing team and pit admin. I have used it for two events in Michigan.

Frc queue was a game changer for us CSAs at NYC, the slack integration is awesome!

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Interacted with Evan at LVR and I agree @jaredhk

FRC Queue was great! Loved it at FLR and at Buckeye.

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