Volunteers

Thank you for volunteering for this event. We could not do it without you!

Setup

If you are available to help set up for the event, we will be meeting at WPI on Friday, December 6th at 5pm. We will be setting up the fields, moving furniture, and getting everything into place. The more help the merrier.

Reset

If you are volunteering on Saturday, we need to reset everything for the next day. We would appreciate your help in doing this. We are typically done by 6pm.

Cleanup

After the event on Sunday we need to reset everything to how we found it on Friday. This usually takes a few hours and we would appreciate all the help we can get.

Parking and Arrival

Plan to arrive at WPI between 6:50 and 7:00 am on the day of the event. You can park in the main garage on Park Ave. and walk to the Rubin Campus Center. The majority of volunteers should meet us upstairs in the Campus Center. Judges should meet downstairs in the Chairmans’ Room.

Address: 100 Institute Rd, Worcester, MA
GPS Address directly to Parking Garage: 151 Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA

If you are running late please text Nick at 508-572-2760.

Attire

Wear comfortable, casual clothing. If you have a Green Reapers team t-shirt, please wear it. If you don’t have one, one will be provided.

Judges, we ask that you wear a polo or similar as you should look a little more professional.

Food

After you check-in, there will be a very light breakfast (think danish and juice) available at concessions. You can hang out in there for a little bit. Referees should head to the fields early as the Head Referee will be doing some training.

Lunch will be provided and will consist of cheese pizza and a drink. We will also have water and snacks available throughout the day. If you can’t leave your station please ask another volunteer to get it for you.

Venue

Training

Judges and Referees are highly encouraged to take the training courses. You can access training by logging into the FIRST Dashboard then going to the Volunteer Registration tab. In the top right it will have a link to Training/Certification. For simplicity, we have provided the direct links below which should work provided you are already logged into the FIRST Dashboard.

  • Judge Training
    • Judges Role (optional) – 2 minutes
    • Judge Training – 20 minutes
    • Judging Scenarios (optional) – 12 minutes
  • Referee Training
    • Field Setup – 8.5 minutes
    • Part 1: Robot Game Missions Referee Video – 6.5 minutes
    • Part 2: Robot Game Missions Referee Video – 6.5 minutes
    • If you want to see what the robots are designed to do you can watch this field setup video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5u-2q_K3O0 (7.5 minutes)

Note: All optional videos are not optional. The documents listed on the page are there for your benefit. We will have printouts of most of them available at the event.

Roles

Below are all the roles for the event. You should have received an email with your assigned role. Our goal as volunteers is to make sure each team has a fun time and make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.

Emcee

Location: Competition Fields

  • Serves as the public voice of the event.
  • Introduces teams at the competition table, ensures both teams are ready, and starts the match by announcing, “Three, Two, One, LEGO!”
  • Helps the audience visualize the action and excitement through commentary during the robot rounds.
  • Ensures the smooth flow of match play, maintains the event’s pace, and can significantly impact the competition’s quality.

Judge

Location: Judge Rooms

  • Interview and observe teams together with other judges in the same judging group using the FIRST LEGO League Challenge event rubrics.
  • Serve as a mentor and role model for the team members, motivating them with useful feedback.
  • Participates in deliberation process and as needed, in writing short awards scripts extolling merits
    of winning teams.
  • Assists with closing ceremony in recognition of and award presentations to the teams.

We ask that judges bring a laptop if they are able. All judging will be done electronically and we don’t have enough to go around.

Referee

Location: Competition Fields

  • Observes team robot game matches, identifies rule violations, assesses field for scoring of matches, and participates in deliberations regarding contested calls and official scores.
  • Position works under the direction of the Head Referee.
  • Plays a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of match play and maintaining the pace of the event.

Robot Game Queuer

Location: Pits & Queue

  • Manages team traffic to and from the playing field.
  • Plays a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of traffic and maintenance of overall event pace.
  • May need to restrict access to competition area from unauthorized individuals.

Judge Queuer

Location: Pits

  • Manages team traffic to and from the judging areas.
  • Queuers play a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of traffic and maintenance of overall event pace.
  • May need to restrict access to judging rooms from unauthorized individuals.
  • Helps keep teams in order and ready to be seen by judges.
  • This person should be very aware of the schedule and needs to be able to keep track of more
  • than one thing at a time

Practice Table Attendant

Location: Practice Table / Concessions

  • Provides direction, assistance, information, and support to teams at practice tables.
  • Manages the practice table schedule and oversight of field model pieces.
  • Assist with practice table sign-up answer questions from teams and guests maintain practice table area.

Exit Monitor

Location: Competition Field

  • As teams leave the field, verify they have not taken any mission models
  • When mission models go missing, help track them down.
  • Help with the flow of traffic.

Quiet Room Attendant

Location: Quiet Room

  • Maintains the Quiet Room and makes sure everyone is behaving
  • If someone looks like they are in need of support, report it to the event manager

Floater

Location: Concessions

  • Provide assistance in various areas as determined by the manager of event-day volunteers.
  • Often helps with last-minute tasks as identified by event staff and key volunteers.
  • Floaters often fill specific volunteer positions for ‘no show’ volunteers and serve to fill-in to allow volunteer breaks.
  • Floaters can be useful as messengers, problem solvers, and guides. They may also enjoy distributing pins, medals and trophies. They staff the practice field to help manage the flow of teams. They also might staff food stands and help with overall clean-up.
ngalottiVolunteers