Last year, my team left championships with a lot of bad experiences with event staff and some volunteers (particularly the glasses table). Since I was more than happy to complain then, I wanted to make a point to say that this year the event staff and the volunteers were much better.
Speaking generally, everyone I encountered was very polite this year, and I didn’t hear a single complaint from the parents or the team.
I also wanted to specifically call out the safety glasses table, and its staffing.
Moving the table inside the door was a huge improvement in my mind, since it keeps the door from accumulating crowds. The relaxed approach to glasses for team members was also a much appreciated change.
The big one though, was the staffing, especially the awesome-glasses-lady with all the rhymes at the door; the shameless cheesiness was rather entertaining in my opinion, and if anyone knows this person, be sure to pass along a big pat on the back (I meant to thank her for her chipper personality, but I didn’t see her around Saturday).
Hopefully the majority of people had a similar experience, I simply wanted to give credit where credit was due, great job to those coordinating the event, and thanks to all the awesome volunteers who gave there time to keep the event running smoothly.
Here’s another bump. Cause girls make passes at guys who wear safety glasses!
Gosh I liked her too. I was smiling each time I walked by.
I saw huge improvements everywhere. The practice field folks were still very stressed. The volunteers there were polite and wonderful to be with, but you could tell they were harried. There’s got to be a way to lower the stress for them.
Idea - have a projector with a scrolling marquee of the teams coming up and the time to the next practice match. Then they won’t have to be so frustrated. No lines of teams getting ready. Come and show up a couple minutes prior to your match time, just like the competition field works. Just watch the screen. The only line necessary would be the filler line, and once the timer is up you can’t rush up and get onto the field even if you were scheduled to be there.
I’m glad you bumped it! I had a couple run-ins last year with some cranky volunteers, and I’m happy to report that this year was WAY TONS AMAZING BETTER.
I loved working with the FLL crew, and was so impressed with the amazing attitude that they had. I’ll definitely work that area again. It was a blast. :]
I spent a good amount of time on Curie, and the field crew there was awesome.
All of the volunteer coordinators were always smiling and looked completely unfrazzled, even though I know how difficult of a job that can be!
Another shoutout: the Dome staff was AWESOME. So friendly and smiley and helpful.
Over all i totally agree. The staff was great and i have no real complaints. There was a few times on the practice field that volunteers got a bit unnecessarily short with my team and others. I can’t really blame them though because the practice field was a highly stressful environment that, in my opinion, was a good idea that was poorly executed.
That “awesome-glasses-lady” was S.P.A.Ms own indefatigable Stacey Jones. She is the wife of our lead design mentor, James, and truly helps define the heart and soul of our team. When I heard her “girls make passes” line it totally cracked me up: just pure Stacey. S.P.A.M would not be S.P.A.M without the two of them. She is an irresistible force for Lego League in our county and in our team’s community outreach.
This was my first time volunteering at the championship, and I was very pleased with the experience. Everyone was super nice, and it was nice to meet people from outside of Michigan. The field crew and everyone else on Curie were awesome to work with as well. I would gladly volunteer again if I have the opportunity to do so.
I normally don’t notice the safety glasses much because I wear prescription glasses, but I lost my safety glasses and needed to borrow loaner safety glasses. The attendant was very low on over glasses models and was very helpful in finding me a set I could use. She even apologized for them being slightly scratched.
Considering the number of people coming in to the pits at the main entrance, it’s a huge job. I think they did very well.
Incidentally, I knew exactly how I lost my prescription glasses. I had them in a backpack and opened it for security screening. About a hundred feet down a hall, a bunch of stuff fell out because I didn’t close it completely. I picked up those things, but the glasses must have fallen out first. I went back and looked for them, but couldn’t find them.
So I wore the plastic ones for a day, no big deal. On a hunch, the next day, I went to pit admin and asked them to check the lost and found. Sure enough, someone had turned them in and I was happily reunited with my prescription safety glasses.
So thanks to pit admin as well and to whoever turned them in. The lost and found system works!
I was a practice field volunteer on the Newton/Galileo fields, the easiest way to make the stress level lower,
is for teams to show up on time (10minutes before the match) like explained.
The second way is to have more volunteers.
also the projector idea is not bad but because it is a practice field, we do not have enough room for a projector, we barley had enough room for a filler line.
So I want every team to know, the Newton/Galileo Practice Field was on time every day during the competition and if there was a team that missed its 10minute deadline they were allowed to jump in the filler line, but they would not be able to get in on that match because we had already filled their spots.
This is why when you sign up we tell you to be here 10minutes early, and we even had a sign saying to be there 10 minutes early.
Our team actually got shut out for showing up too late for the practice field at one point. It was our own fault (we showed up on-time, after a student asked a volunteer at the field if things were on schedule, and was supposedly told no, but it wasn’t the coordinator table), but it is still frustrating, and it seemed like it was pretty common.
It made me wonder though, why not sign up the time slots for 5 minutes earlier than they start, and tell teams to get there 5 minutes early on top of that? (essentially always be running behind 5 minutes), sign up the time-slots every 10 minutes, as they are now, but the time on your card is 5 minutes before match-start.
Just seems like it would improve things for everyone.
Stacey was definitely amazing!! But I think one time when she was on break there was a woman from the dome staff doing it - and she was equally as chipper!! I stopped to mention how much I appreciated the cheeriness!
My husband is an MC, and a new thing he has started doing is giving everyone “homework” to go thank ONE volunteer at the competition. FIRST has a general spiel about get up and clap for the volunteers, and “we couldn’t do it without you all!”, but I think it was a great addition to remind teams throughout the weekend to go thank just one person doing a great job. It helps the volunteers stay positive and keep those chipper attitudes!!
So beyond CD, at your next event, make sure you actually tell that person who really made your day, or went out of their way to be helpful, or just did really great at their jobs!
I just wanted to say that the Curie/Archimedes small practice fields were run incredibly well. Whenever I was there, the teams were all very polite and respectful of each other and the volunteers manning the fields did their jobs extremely well. My hat is off to you!! You certainly helped many teams get better and stay better during the event!!
The Spirit of FIRST program at Championships tries to get to every team coach, mentor and volunteer to thank them on behalf of FIRST HQ. We expanded the number of SoF people to include FIRST Senior Mentors this year, but as you can imagine, it’s nearly impossible to reach everyone! So if you didn’t see us come by with our red, white and blue tie-dyed shirts, please accept my Thank You now!
I used to work for a executive who kept the wall clock in his office 5 minutes fast. The idea was similar to yours; to make sure he (and people in his office) wrapped up meetings in time for the next one. The problem was that everyone knew his clock was 5 minutes fast (after all, we all had watches). So everyone just mentally subtracted 5 minutes & used that time. The people in FRC are as smart or smarter than the people there.
Keep thinking, but I don’t think that’s the solution. And while you’re thinking, just show up for your practice matches at next year’s CMP 10 minutes early.
Our biggest struggle with this is how crowded and difficult it is to queue to the practice field. This isn’t a volunteer issue. I think it’s a pure layout problem, but it’s difficult to be early when there’s no where to be. We went 10 minutes early every time and often ended up stationed in the middle of the aisle for part of it. More than once I saw teams in trouble for being “late” when in fact they were on the other side of the field or separated by lots of people weaving through them.
It’s almost like, in addition to more room, we need a practice field meeting to–explain queuing procedure for the real and wooden fields while actually standing on them. Explain why being early matters. I think it’d save a lot of “where are we supposed to be?” “but we’re not late, we were right there!” and “we tried to come earlier, but it was so crowded”.
