Many of us have spent the past few days airing grievances about the inspection process and discussing negative volunteer experiences that have stuck with us for years. While I think there’s a lot of productive discussion that has stemmed from this about how to improve volunteer processes, I wanted to start a thread specifically to point out the best volunteer experiences you’ve ever had. These are the volunteers whose events you always want to go to because you know how much better the event will be due to this person’s presence in their role.
Who is this rockstar volunteer, and what was their volunteer role?
What did they do so excellently that made your experience so positive?
How can future volunteers be better instructed to be more like this volunteer?
I’ve put my personal example below.
I'll start off with my own example. As a drive coach, one of the volunteers I indirectly interact with the most are referees, and I'm sure most drive coaches have bad referee stories, but when I look to a model referee, my favorite has to be Jeremy Koletar. In my experiences, Jeremy makes great calls, is always considering how his calls will affect the match and the teams, and has always been happy to talk to students about what he observes in a match and listens to any questions or concerns the students have. He's the only ref my past drivers have felt comfortable talking with.
I’m not the most familiar with ref training, but I do know that if every referee was as kind and friendly with students, and as considerate of the impacts of their calls as Jeremy, we’d have much fewer “nightmare ref” stories.
Unfortunately I do not know this volunteers name, but my team had a great experience with him at the 2019 FIM district champs event. He was running the simple practice field near our pit, making sure teams were getting fair access and such. There were times when we had to wait to get on the field, and he was super fun to have conversations with. On the first day of competition we really needed to be on the field, but opening ceremonies were happening so we were not allowed. He made sure we were at the entrance to the field waiting so we could get on as soon as opening ceremonies ended. He was also a great sport when we came to the field late on the last day of competition because we “just needed to run into some stuff”. We were testing our intake to make sure it did not leave our frame perimeter when playing defense, he was happy to let us run into the hab, and said it was his favorite request he had all day.
The year I was a drive coach with 2667, the head ref at our only event (North Star Regional) was absolutely fantastic to work with. We had a very short student who needed a stepstool to see things, and she was super accommodating of that and gave us no hassle about it, way less than I was expecting based on prior experiences at that event. I don’t remember what her name is, but thank you.
One that stands out to me is Chris Roadfeldt at the Gitchi Gummi Get-Together offseason event in 2019. I don’t remember the exact issue we were having with our robot but it was enough to keep us from participating in more than a few matches. Without a number of our experienced electrical members there we were having a hard time figuring out what our issue was. Chris spent probably over an hour with us diagnosing and solving the issue. This absolutely helped turn around the event experience for the many younger members of the team at that offseason.
Over the past 15 years i have had many interactions with different ref crews. our team and my personal interactions with her have always been steller. in an environment like eliminations where everyone’s stress is at the max she makes sure every team understands all intricacies of the playoffs. she explains things extremely well and communicates the logic behind decisions and has the patience to discuss any issues that may arise from a purely logical approach to the rules(something i rarely find outside the state of georgia).
Jim Wright is one of the LRI’s for the PNW District, and is by far one of the best volunteers and RI’s I have ever interacted with, both as a student and a mentor. He does a fantastic job of making sure teams are fully inspected and will take the time to help sort out any and all issues, and the RI’s under him have never given us any issues seen in the other thread. Somewhere in 4513’s awards cabinet is a challenge coin from him, I think from 2019PNCMP(?), for being the first bot finished with inspection, roughly 20ish minutes after it opened. Honestly one of the coolest things the team has gotten over the years.
Theres a few other PNW Volunteers that come to mind (Head Ref’s Dale Garraway and Nathan Los (thanks ericH), but it has been a few years since I have interacted with them as a team member, and not as a fellow volunteer. I hold both of them in high regard though from my time as a student.
I could write a really long list. I will settle for one. The first time at champs locomotion year we used a non rule compliant version of the Fischer Price motor on the robot. Yes, it passed 2 inspections with it. The non compliant motor looks just like the legal one aside from a few numbers stamped on it. Andy Baker looked at our robot as sort of an preliminary inspection and noted the motor was not legal. He went and found us a legal replacement so no time was lost during the inspection. While I have unpleasant experiences far more have been an Andy Baker experience.
Also Connie Haynes. But she actually gets a paycheck so she is technically not a volunteer. She does a lot to make sure PCH is the best district to be in.
Rich Coe is one of the CSAs at the Wisconsin Regional. Beyond being a great technical resource and doing whatever he can to help teams through their issues, he goes above and beyond to include and inspire students on the teams he’s helping.
I also want to shout out Chris Paulik who on multiple occasions has looked at our robot after we’ve had comms issues and within minutes has given us a solution to get us back and running.
At Orange County Regional in 2019, the lead queuer (?), can’t remember name. He always had the mic with the beltloop speaker running. Never yelled at anyone, just spoke in a clear voice and got teams organized.
Same event (and others), Eric Husmann. Always takes the time to clearly explain to students why a call was made.
I know Cory well, he got his FRC start at IE events. I think we had a killer crew for IE, but also happy I don’t have that headache of running a regional anymore.
FIRST Mid-Atlantic Eastern Pennsylvania event volunteers in general. Y’all are MFD. Every time we have these threads where people are dropping horror stories and describing NMIR it dawns on me just how lucky we are to have the bunch of volunteers that we do. I can count on one hand (and it doesn’t even come close to filling up) the amount of negative volunteer experiences I’ve had at Pennsylvania events in the ten years (it’s already been a decade!?!) of FIRST Mid Atlantic district events.
There are too many individuals who all excel at putting teams first to write up long comments for each of them, but big shout outs to: Chris Lester, Carol Perrotto, Chris Troy, Joe Troy, Kevin Dieterle, Thom Galie, and a bunch more who aren’t in team-facing roles.
And yeah, you’re talking about Cory Hoover, the OG “a-spreadsheet-is-the-only-right-way-to-queue” lead queuer.
I’ll give a shoutout to a crew of volunteers that most teams in California probably know, even if they think they don’t. This consists of some combination of @Andrew_L, @Leap, @nfhammes, @Pauline_Tasci, Ryan Neal, Jeff Spragg, @FletcherS7, @Ruth_Nuttall, Emma Blenkinsop, @Robogirl18, and probably some others I’m forgetting (sorry!!). You give this group the keys to your venue and your event will run and run well. Always loving working with this group whether it’s at regionals or offseasons.
This group has a “whatever it takes” mentality to make the event happen for teams. Field setup starts at 11:00pm? Cool. Fire blocking the freeway? Alternate route. Back-to-back events for weeks at a time? Surrrre.
I suppose that’s not all transferable to Andrew’s original question, but the mentality of doing what it takes for the sake of the teams absolutely is.
In case you were wondering
Here’s many of us at Tidal Tumble – along with some others who made guest appearances
I think this is the nicest thing Jared has ever said about me and it makes me miss the spotlight feature. To the bookmarks it goes.
I think for people who have been competing in the Bay Area for a while, Meri Melani has been one of the best we’ve had in the area. She always makes sure to check in with the students, is constantly positive, and manages to take so much of the pressure off of teams in the high-pressure situations of getting to queue on time. Her sunny disposition and positive mental attitude is one that I think many of us volunteering in FIRST can always work to emulate.
I have to agree, the volunteer pool in First Mid Atlantic is great. I think I’ve had 2 negative interactions since the move to districts. Everyone gets it and seems to be in it for the right reasons.
